# La Cucaracha lyrics

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-cucaracha-lyrics/721117>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [May 29, 2015, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-cucaracha-lyrics/721117 "2015-05-29T14:42:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![GRobLewis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5e925/32.png) [@GRobLewis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GRobLewis)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-cucaracha-lyrics/721117/1 "2015-05-29T14:42:33Z")

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Ages ago I read somewhere that the Mexican word “marihuana” (I believe that was the spelling) could also refer to a low-grade tobacco.

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**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-cucaracha-lyrics/721117/2 "2015-05-31T19:48:01Z")

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I doubt that marihuana was also a term for cheap tobacco. In Mexico, the term \* tabaco\* is used. After all, that’s what the native Americans called it. The Spanish term _mariguana_ is used for hemp. The Spanish brought Mariguana/Marihuana to Mexico to cultivate for hemp.

I’ve talked to long time residents of Mexico, and they said they would smoked marijuana because it was cheaper than a six pack of beer. Marihuana/Mariguana was always associated with the cannabis plant. The change from an _h_ or _g_ to a _j_ was an Americanism.

In the U.S., the term for the plant was cannabis until the 1930s when marijuana and Mary-Jane became associated with the plant. Some claim that the adoption of the Spanish term was [a plot by anti-cannabis forces to make the drug seem more _Mexican_](http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/07/14/201981025/the-mysterious-history-of-marijuana) and painted the drug with implicit racism.

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**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-cucaracha-lyrics/721117/3 "2015-06-01T02:49:02Z")

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Nah… The racist campaign associated it with “darkies”.

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**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-cucaracha-lyrics/721117/4 "2015-06-01T05:48:24Z")

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> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#):
>
> Nah… The racist campaign associated it with “darkies”.

And jazz musicians. Okay, they were often black too.

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**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-cucaracha-lyrics/721117/5 "2015-06-01T07:45:28Z")

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Since no one else can be bothered to link to the column,

[What are the words to “La Cucaracha”?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2315/what-are-the-words-to-la-cucaracha)