Canutito was not just ‘cualquier pelão’
Era ya el month of October y grampo was sitting en la cocina reading los obituarios en el newspaper as Canutito worked en su homework y Grama Cuca lavaba los trastes en el kitchen sink. He read about uno de sus amigos that had just passed away. He called out to grama, “Oye Cuca, I was just reading aquí en los obituaries que Mano Jenreh just died.”
“What kind of a name is ‘Jenreh’ for a man?” Canutito asked as he put down su lápiz en la mesa while he waited por la answer.
“I think quesu real name era ‘Enrique’ in Spanish,” Grama Cuca said. “Pero tú sabes how people are. They would call him ‘Henry’ en inglés y luego they just gave it un acento en español and that’s how he ended up becoming Mano ‘Jenreh.’ ”
“Eso hace make un poco de sense, grama,” Canutito agreed.
“In any case,” Grampo Caralampio went on, “parece que Mano Jenreh died de un ataque de corazón.”
“Is that really cómo se dice un ‘heart attack’ en español?” Canutito asked.
“No, m’hijo,” Grama Cuca called desde el sink. “Un heart attack es ‘una crisis cardíaca’ in Spanish, pero aquí we just call it un ataque de corazón.”
“He was married to Mana Pula,” grampo continued. Then he turned to Canutito and he said, “Mana Pula era una no-nonsense kind of señora. Ella no tenía pelo en la lengua.”
“What do you mean, ‘she had no hair on her tongue,’ grampo?” Canutito wondered.
“When your grampo says que ‘no tenía pela en la lengua,’ ” Grama Cuca explained, “that means que she didn’t hold back de nada de lo que she was thinking.”
“I remember una vez,” Grampo Caralampio said as he took un sip de su cafecito ,“que Mano Jenreh y Mana Pula had been sitting en un banco del parque for a very long time. Mano Jenreh turned to Mana Pula and he said, ‘We have been sitting aquí on this park bench for so long que se me adurmieron la nalgas.’ Without haciendo miss un beat, Mana Pula replied ‘Sí, yo las podía oír roncando hasta aquí.’ ”
“What did Mano Jenreh mean cuando dijo que his butt fell asleep and Mana Pula said que she could hear his butt snoring all the way over, grampo?” Canutito asked all inocente.
“Never you mind, m’hijo,” Grama Cuca quickly jumped in. “Tu grampo is just being un silly-billy, m’hijo. Pero it was true que Mana Pula no era cualquier títere.”
Canutito threw up sus manos en exasperación. “Just when I think que I am starting to understand Spanish you and grampo say things que yo no entiendo! What does it mean cuando you say que una persona ‘no es cualquier’ títere,’ grama?”
“That means que somebody no es cualquier pelão,” grampo explained.
“I don’t understand la palabra ‘pelão,’ either grampo,” Canutito stammered.
“When you say que somebody ‘no es cualquier títere, m’hijo,” grama explained patiently, “it means que he is nobody’s puppet or nobody’s fool. And ‘un pelão,’ “she went on, “es una persona that is naive or innocent porque they still don’t have any hair on their chin; that is ‘un pelão.’ Does that make algún sentido?”
“I guess it does sort of make sense, grama,” Canutito replied. “It is como cuando I explain to you que algo es ‘groovy’ o ‘far-out’ o ‘outof-sight,’ it really means que es muy suave and that whenever I tell you que una persona es un ‘Joe-Blow’ oun ‘John Doe’ what I am really saying es que he is just ‘cualquier títere.’ Y cuando les digo que una persona no hace ‘mince words’ what I am really saying is that ‘no tiene pelo en la lengua.’ ”
Grampo Caralampio and Grama Cuca looked at each other, un poco surprised at just how esmarte Canutito was getting to be.
Grampo turned to grama and he said, “Cuca, I think que tenemos a un little genius aquí entre la familia.”
Canutito smiled and said, “See, I told you que I’m not just cualquier pelão .” …