The Mexican Revolution, from 1910 to about 1920, was a period of great political upheaval during which the majority of the stanzas known today were written. Many stanzas were added during this period that today it is associated mostly with Mexico. ĭuring the Mexican Revolution of the early 20th century, "La Cucaracha" saw the first major period of verse production as rebel and government forces alike invented political lyrics for the song. Other early stanzas detail such incidents as the Carlist Wars (1833–1876) in Spain and the French intervention in Mexico (1861). There exist several early (pre-Revolution) sets of lyrics referring to historical events.įrancisco Rodríguez Marín records in his book Cantos Populares Españoles (1883) several verses dealing with the Reconquista, which was completed in 1492 when the Moors surrendered the Alhambra to Spain: Because verses are improvised according to the needs of the moment, however, they often enable a rough estimate of their age by mentioning contemporary social or political conditions (thus narrowing a version's possible time of origin to periods in which those conditions prevailed) or referring to specific current or past events (thus setting a maximum boundary for a version's age). The refrain's lyrics make no explicit reference to historical events it is difficult, if not impossible, therefore, to date. The origins of "La Cucaracha" are obscure.
In other respects, they are highly variable, usually providing satirical commentary on contemporary political or social problems or disputes. The song's verses fit a traditional melody separate from that of the refrain but sharing the refrain's meter (either 5/4, 6/4, or 4/4 clave as discussed above). Almost all modern versions, however, use a 4/4 meter instead with a clave rhythm to give the feeling of three pulses. Many later versions of the song, especially those whose lyrics do not mention the cockroach's missing leg(s), extend the last syllable of each line to fit the more familiar 6/4 meter. Measure divisions are independent of text line breaks and are indicated by vertical bar lines note that the refrain begins with an anacrusis/"pickup.") Syllables having primary stress are in boldface syllables having secondary stress are in roman type unstressed syllables are in italics. La cu -ca- | ra -cha, la cu -ca- ra -cha | ya no pue -de ca -mi- nar por-que no | tie -ne, por-que le fal -tan | las dos pa- titas "de" a- trás.- ("The cockroach, the cockroach / can no longer walk / because she doesn't have, because she lacks / the two hind legs to walk" these lyrics form the basis for the refrain of most later versions. The cockroach's uneven, five-legged gait is imitated by the song's original, The song's earliest lyrics, from which its name is derived, concern a cockroach that has lost one of its six legs and struggles to walk with the remaining five.
The song consists of verse-and-refrain (strophe-antistrophe) pairs, with each half of each pair consisting of four lines featuring an ABCB rhyme scheme.
0 kommentar(er)
