La Cucaracha isn’t a guy. Its a chick, a prostitute who follows the Mexican combatants around.
A link to the column is appreciated. What are the words to “La Cucaracha”?
Cecil says
If you have you any substantiation for your claim that Cecil is mistaken, I’m sure we’d all like to hear it.
Please include a link to Cecil’s column if it’s on the straight dope web site.
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Cecil’s column can be found on-line at the link provided by bibliophage.
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Just a mild nitpick on translation:
My suggestion would be:
The cockroach, the cockraoch
He can’t walk any more
Because he doesn’t have, because he lacks
Marijuana to smoke
Spanish correction:
It should read as follows
Ya muriola cucaracha
Ya la llevan a enterrar
English translation suggestion:
The cockroach just died
And they carried him off to bury him
Among four buzzards
And a mouse as a sexton
I did not include accents in my post since I can’t seem to put them on with this program for the posting.
Excellent article, btw.
XicanoreX
XicanoreX Well done! That’s what makes this place great.
You said
This would indicate that the poor “cockroach” has a medical condition that required his smoking marijuana in order to be able to walk. He probably wishes he had moved to a more progressive place. 
It would be interesting to know who the 4 buzzards were. I guess we go looking for burial info for people such as Villa, Huerta, etc..
I had a sheltered childhood, apparently. The words I knew are:
La cucaracha, la cucaracha
Ya no puede caminar
Porque no tiene, porque le falta
Una pata par andar.
which I uderstood to mean:
The cockroach, the cockroach
He can no longer walk.
Because he doesn’t have, because he lacks
A leg for walking.
-TioGuillermo
Sure. That was right after the accident. But with a prosthesis, a little training, and a joint to ease the pain, hey! Not much is forever anymore. 
Except for the last line:
La patita para andar
(The little leg/paw for walking.)
I wonder where was the other version heared…
The version I’m familiar with has “gasolina”. It could be a censor-substitute for “marijuana”, but, on the other hand, one could reason a priori that “gasolina” was the original – well, not the original original, but an original, and “marijuana” a lampoon.
The version I heard, which is the most common version I’m sure, goes like this:
La cucaracha, La cucaracha,
La la la la la la la,
La la la la la, la la la la la
La la la la la la la.
Maybe it was just a public relations “fig leaf,” but I did read somewhere many years ago that the word “marihuana” (I think that was the spelling used) could also refer to a kind of low-grade tobacco.
What exactly does Cecil mean when he refers to Minneapolis as “the Kyoto of midwestern culture”?
I’ve lived there and I don’t have a clue. My friend who lived the majority of her life there doesn’t know what it means either.
“Marihuana para/pa fumar” sounds more correct in Spanish. Marijuana is marihuana and para or pa, instead of “que”. {que=that, what)
Just a shot in the dark. In Japan, when the subject is large cities/major centers of population and culture, the first two that come to mind are Tokyo and Kyoto, in that order.
Similarly, when the midwestern region of the United States of America is under consideration, the first two metropolises are Chicago and Minneapolis. Chicago, as the home of Unca Cece, is a given as number one. The second, on the other hand, could be a matter for debate, and contentious debate, at that. Cecil, however has spared us the carnage that would involve, by graciously anointing Minneapolis to the coveted spot.
“All Hail Cecil, for he has saved many lives”
There was a discussion of the song in this January GQ thread: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=54589
No definite conclusions, though.
Just thought I’d pipe in my knowledge. In highschool Spanish my teacher had us sing this song. But there were more lyrics than what Cecil had. The beginning went some “Uno cosa de medisa, Pancho Villa sin camisa?” I failed spanish so excuse my horrible f-up on the spanish.( I wonder if those are even words) But yeah, so anyways, the beginning of the song basically talked of Pancho Villa being very fat and shirtless and it was funny. Then the chorus came, ya know…la cucaracha…la cucaracha.And then the lyrics that Cecil had.
/X(…)/X\ ~arachnid
Here’s another version in Spanish that I learned as a child some 70 years ago:
La cucaracha, la cucaracha
Ya no queiro caminar
Porque no tiene, porque la falta
Dinero para gastar
The cockroach, the cocoroach
No longer likes to travel
Because he has not, because he lacks
Money to spend
The reference was specifically to Panco Villa, who scurried about like a cockroach–hard to catch. At that time we had never heard of Huerta or marijuana!
Thanks, blandart, for mentioning “Dinero para gastar”, as this was the version of that line I’d always heard… until fourth-year Spanish, that is, when we learned about the marijuana.
We also learned a verse dealing with women of various ages. I’ll warn you in advance that I’m working from memories nearly a quarter of a century old, so my brain may be feeding me false info.
Las muchachas son de oro,
Las casadas son de plata;
Las mujeres [not sure it’s “mujeres”, but refers to middle-aged women] son de cobre,
Las viejas – hoja de lata.
(The girls are of gold, / The married girls are of silver; The middle-aged women are of copper, / The old women – tin.)
We were told that the cucarachas were soldiers who smoked pot to dull the pain of a long march. But maybe they really were soldier groupies, as Jordi Pujol suggests. When you’re dealing with traditional folk songs, it’s hard to say. Maybe both explanations are correct; maybe neither.
Hey!! Where’s the translation?? ;D
The mentioned restaurant in Minneapolis is fully aware of the translation - the translation to the song is on their menu…
The original restaurant is in St. Paul by the way. There is one in Minneapolis now, and one in Woodbury. Considered by many to be the best Mexican restaurant in the cities.