¿HABLA USTED SPAMGLISH?
shriveled, it meant que el horno estaba listo.
and toss the wet corn into the beehive oven. Rapidamente sellaba el horno in order to keep the steam from escaping from the sealed oven.
La familia se sentaba next to the oven toda la noche while the wet corn turned into chicos, or chacales, como le llamaban al dehydrated corn in southern New Mexico. Mientras que Grampo and Canutito were sitting, Grama Cuca went pa’la casa and brought 7up para todos in order to keep them awake.
She put un poquito de cherry juice en el 7up. En el vaso del Canutito le puso un cherry at the top of the glass and she called it un Roy Rogers. En su propio vaso she put the cherry at the bottom y le llamo un Shirley Temple. En el 7up del grampo she dropped dos olivos negros at the bottom of the glass y le llamó un Darth Vader.
Toda la noche as Grampo and Canutito listened, Grama Cuca would sing canciones en español y ellos tenían que hacerlas translate en inglés. First she sang: “Paloma, paloma, que siempre andas volando, acércate a mis puertas, suplícame llorando. Tú me enseñates a robar pollitos, quitarles las plumas, y hacerlos caldito. Tú me enseñates, a robar gallinas, quitarles las plumas, y hacerlas cesinas.”
El grampo y el Canutito were used to Grama’s challenges de manera que pronto respondieron: “Sweet doveling, sweet doveling, forever you are flying. Swoop down upon my doorstep, and you will find me crying. You taught me habits, like stealing so hasty, and to pluck baby chickens, to eat them so tasty. You taught me habits, like stealing grown chickens, to pluck them and jerk them, so easy the pickin’s.”
Grama Cuca thought that she would give them una canción que era poco más challenging de manera que she cleared her throat y canto: “Soy el ranchero afamado, que de la sierra he bajado. Vengo a gastar mi dinero; no les vengo a pedir fiado. Ensíllenme mi caballo, también mi yegua alazana. Si no me llevo a Teresa, siempre me llevo a su hermana. Cuando llegué a la placita, agarré la callecita, preguntándole a la gente, ‘¿Dónde vive Teresita?’ La gente me contestaba, ‘Teresita no está aquí. Se la llevaron sus padres, para San Luis Potosí.’”
Despues de un minuto, Grampo and Canutito translated: “I’ve left my ranch in the mountains, and I’ve have come to spend my money. I haven’t come down to barter, but I came to seek my honey. So saddle up my old pony, and my sorrel mare so nice, for if I can’t find Teresa, then her sister will suffice. When I got down to the village, going all along the highway, I stopped and asked all the people, for Tere’s house in the byway. They answered me all together: ‘Teresita’s here no more, but in San Luis with her parents, gone from here forever more.’”
Eran las seis de la mañana when the family began to get sleepy, pero en ese tiempo Grampo Caralampio threw open la puerta del horno and the aroma de los chicos frescos came gushing out. Grama and Canutito were bien alertos and they began to munch chicos con mucho apetito.
This is Episode #767 in the weekly Spamglish column created by Taos historian and linguist Larry Torres to explore the unique combination of Spanish and English heard in the Taos Valley and Northern New Mexico.