Who is the patron ‘de los secrets’?
Canutito came home una tarde con un big ol’ smile en su cara. Grama Cuca happened to notice this cuando entró por the puerta de la cocina. She said to him: “¿Qué traes entre uñas, m’hijo?”
Canutito looked at her un poco confused and he asked her: “Grama, why are you asking me if I have algo in between mis fingernails?”
That’s una de esas expresiones that we have in Spanish,” she replied. “It means ‘what secret are you hiding?’ — porque tú pareces como el gato que hizo swallow el canary.”
“Well,” Canutito began, “mi amigo Filimotas me dijo un juicy secret. He said que.”
Hold on there, m’hijo,” Grama Cuca interrupted him. “If Filimotas told you un secreto entonces that means que it was meant only for you. There used to be a saint named Teresa de Ávila, she used to say: ‘Secreto de dos, es de Dios; secreto de tres, del mundo es’.”
Canutito translated: “Secret for two, to God is due; secret for three, to the world is free.” Then he added: “I don’t think que yo sé lo que eso hace mean, grama.”
“That means,” grama explained, “que cuando dos personas hacen share un secreto, they are bound together in trust pero cuando three people share el mismo secreto, entonces the whole world is witness to it y ya no es un secreto.”
Oh, now I get it, grama,” Canutito said. “Un secreto turns into una responsibilidad put en la persona who hears it.”
“Sí, m’hijo,” Grama Cuca agreed, “and if you ever tell it, entonces you are gossiping y la persona puede venir en pos en ti.”
“Es como decir ‘cruising por un bruising’, right grama?” Canutito asked her. He was quiet por un momento and then he asked, “Grama, hay un patron saint of secrets?”
Grama Cuca sat down en una silleta to think. “Sí, m’hijo,” she said at length. “El santo patrón de los secretos es San Juan Nepomuceno.”
“Saint John Nepomucene,” Canutito said. “¿Quién era él, grama?”
“Él era un confesor en los olden days,” grama said. “Un día la reina de Bohemia came to him for confession. The king, who was a very jealous man, came to San Juan Nepomuceno and asked him to reveal what the queen had said to him en su confesión. He said he preferred to die antes de revelar el secreto del confesionario al rey. Por esa razón whenever you see pictures of Saint John Nepomucene, siempre tiene su forefinger placed over his lips para indicar que all secrets are safe con él.”
“So nobody can learn anyone else’s secretos, grama?” Canutito asked.
“Well, en las old supersticiones que teníamos aquí,” grama smiled, “there was a tradition that if you wanted to learn un secreto, you waited until the other person fell asleep y entonces you would go a esa persona dormida and put your hand on their chest. Once you had placed tu mano en su pecho you could ask them any question y ellos tenían que responder con la verdad.”
“Really, grama?” Canutito asked her. “Would esa persona who was asleep really have to reveal the truth if you did that?”
“Esa era la superstición, m’hijo,” grama said pero it could be dangerous porque you might find out something that maybe you really didn’t want to know. In Spanish we say, ‘no le busques porque le hallas’.” Canutito stayed un poco pensativo. Later on esa noche cuando Grama Cuca came into the bedroom to turn off the lights she caught Canutito putting his hand on his sleeping cat’s chest. El muchachito was whispering at el gatito dormido: “Tell me Fluffy, did you eat el pedazo de queso that I left by my bed anoche?”