Last updated on
Friday, March 5, 2010 12:09 PM EDT
Ignore the letter H, but just in spoken form !
It is very common that people who have been studying Spanish for several years, still stumble when they have to read aloud a word containing an H. They keep trying to pronounce the H, they pause and think about it for a second, then they go back, and then, hopefully, they'll pronounce it correctly (that means, not pronouncing the letter H, just like in French, or like in the words honor or hour in English).
For some reason, some H words cause more trouble than others. Just ignore the H when saying them.
alcohol (m.) , alcohólico
/alkól/ or /alko-ól/
alcohol. From Arabic. Unconsciously, students tend to pronounce it like in English. Their mouth muscles betray them.
almohada (f.)
sounds like /almoada/ or /almuada/
bed pillow. From Arabic.
hospital (m.)
sounds like /ospital/
you might go first for the English pronunciation, hesitation may ensue.
hotel (m.)
Sounds like /otel/
hotel, you may go for the English pronunciation first, so you may hesitate.
huele
sounds like /uele/ or /wele/
it smells (from oler)
hueso (m.)
sounds like /ueso/ or /weso/
bone
hache (f.)
/ache/
The name of the letter H
húmedo
/úmedo/
humid. Students usually pronounce it correctly the first time they see it, until they realize it means humid, thereafter their brains get their wires crossed, and they start pronouncing it like in English. Like /jiúmedo/ (wrong, wrong)
rehusar
/reusar/
to refuse
zanahoria (f.)
/sanaória/
carrot. From Arabic and Greek.
Don't get frustrated with the letter H ! You can ignore it in spoken form, but you cannot get rid of it in written form!
There you go !!
The name of the letter aitch in Spanish is hache (f.)
Images by Gonzalo Rocha. 20100302 (spanishNY.com) top
CNN México
About a week ago, CNN launched a new Spanish language site called CNN México. It's one of their only four editions, the others are the U.S., the International (English), and the Arabic language ones.
Listen to the audio several times. Try to understand it on your own. Then you can follow the video (audio) along with the transcription below to fill in the blanks, the accent is 95% clear (95% because at times is a little fast), so I anticipate that if you don't understand something, it's because you don't know the word:
Hola. Yo soy Gabriela Frías y te invito a conocer una gran manera de estar en línea con México y el mundo. A partir de hoy los mexicanos, y desde luego todos los que hablamos español, podemos tener acceso a las noticias del momento de una forma mucho más novedosa, profunda, amplia e interesante. Acompáñame en esta nueva experiencia virtual. Con una barra de navegación clara y sencilla, y gran riqueza virsual, CNN (ce-ene-ene) México punto com facilita la búsqueda de tus noticias. Su diseño moderno te permite descubrir fácilmente tus temas. Síguenos: el mundo, la nación, los deportes, la tecnología, la salud, la economía y el entretenimiento. Personaliza tu página con lo que más te interesa. Conoce el fascinante mundo digital, con comentarios ágiles y versátiles, y sigue las crónicas más buscadas. Asómbrate con las imágenes de En Primer Plano. Profundiza, descubre. Sé tú mismo el reportero, cuenta tu historia, sube tus videos y fotografías a iReport. Forma parte de la red CNN. Interactúa, contesta las encuestas, vota, siente el pulso, opina, únete a las redes sociales, síguenos en Twitter. No te detengas a simplemente leer las noticias, míralas: te ofrecemos la selección de videos noticiosos más grande del país. Pero si no tienes tiempo de navegar por el sitio, ve a CNN México recomienda; nuestro equipo de periodistas ha seleccionado para ti las fotos y videos del día. CNN México punto com tiene toda la cobertura de los sucesos de México y del mundo que buscas, con el respaldo de CNN y del grupo editorial Expansión. Visita CNN México punto com, navega por el sitio, siente el pulso de la nación, sube tus iReports. Sé parte de la historia presente y futura de nuestro México.
51-year-old Hubertus von Hohenlohe is competing in his fifth Olympics and is the oldest athlete at the Vancouver games. He will ski for Mexico in the slalom and giant slalom. (Feb. 21) .
They don't mention it in the news report, but also, one of his grandmothers was Mexican. By no means Ubertus is old, even if he is the oldest athlete in the winter Olympics, but here are many examples of words that mean old and their uses:
ancestral
ancestral
anciano
elderly person
you don't usually use this word for things
añejo
mature, aged
used for tequila, cheese, etc (año= year)
antaño
of yesteryear, in the old days
antes = before, in the past
antediluviano
antediluvian
anticuado
old-fashioned
antiguo
antique, old, ancient
not for people, only when it means long standing or former, as in un antiguo amigo, and old friend; or mi antiguo jefe, my former boss
centenario
centenary, centennial
used also for people (cien=one hundred)
chocho, chochito
old (and more meanings)
this is used for people who is old, and with not so good memory; it could be used playfully
decano
dean, senior member
for people
decrépito
decrepit
for people. derogatory
grande
older, adult, grown up (other meanings)
una persona ya muy grande, a very old person
mayor
older (other meanings)
for people. Persona mayor, older person
reliquia
relic
not for people
ruco, ruquito
old
MX, CA. For people. Playful.
tercera edad
golden years
for people (lit: the third age)
vejestorio
relic, piece of junk
derogatory when used for people
vejete
old man
for people but not so nice to say
veterano
veteran
vetusto
ancient
could be derogatory when used for people
viejito, viejita
little old man, little old lady
the diminutive supposes an endearment effect
viejo
old
this is the most general term that applies to almost any person, animal, situation, or object. If a wife says mi viejo, she really means her husband, regardless of his age, kind of my old lady, mi vieja
Many terms that are used for things or situations sound derogatory when used for people, so you need to be careful when choosing the word.
The gentleman in the father's role in this movie trailer, Greg, is my student. I have been tutoring him for 5 or 6 or more years. The young actor playing his son, Harry, is his son in real life.
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010. Greg keeps telling me that he is not Harry's father in the movie. He plays the role of a corrupted movie director who is using Harry's character for his own benefit.
Gana is a noun that most students tend to confuse with a conjugated form of the verb ganar, to win, to earn, to gain; but gana is a femenine noun that is no kin of that verb, and could mean wish, desire, will. If we are talking about food, it could mean appetite. There are many expressions that contain this word; here are some of them:
¡ Qué ganas de + <infinitivo> !
I'm really looking forward to...!
¡ni ganas!
how boring!, I don't feel like doing it
hacer algo de buena gana
to do something willingly
hacer algo de mala gana
to do someting unwillingly, to do something in a bad mood
me dieron ganas (de), me entraron ganas (de)
to feel the urgency of, to crave (sudden impulse)
no aguanto las ganas (de), me muero de ganas (de)
I'm dying for, I really need to (I can't hold it)
no tener ganas (de)
not to feel like, not to have the wish of
porque no se me pega la gana, porque no se me pega la regalada gana, porque no me da la gana, porque no me viene en gana
(rude) because I don't want to (implying, "do you have any problem with it?") ***
porque se me pega la regalada gana, porque me da la gana, porque se me da la gana, porque me viene en gana
(this could be a rude expression) because I want to, just because I want to (it's like implying "do you have any problem with it?") ***
quedarse con la ganas (de)
to be deprived of something right when you just had taken it for granted (lit: to remain with the wish of doing something)
tener ganas (de)
to feel like doing something, to have the wish of, to have the desire of
*** See what I mean? (image found on the internet)
(It says, today there is no photo because I don't feel like doing anything)
Since almost a hundred years ago, this train traveled from San Diego to Arizona and beyond, but part of the journey required that the train cross to Mexico and ride a few miles in Baja California (Mexico) before crossing again to the U.S. on its way to Arizona.
This trip is recreated at this time of the year by the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum. This video was taken somewhere by the border between the U.S. and Mexico, I am not sure on which side of the border, but many people gather to see the train pass by. As you can see, the train's engine is flying both, the United States and the Mexican flags. 20100221. Based on the map below, the video was taken on the Mexican side about 4 miles south of the border.
This is the video caption from YouTube: Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Garcia Adventure 3/29/2008. Photo runby near Redondo. This is taken at the same grade crossing shown in the photo at the top of page 128 of "San Diego & Arizona - The Impossible Railroad" by Hanft. The foundation of the old wig-wag signal seen in the photograph is still at the crossing, but the signal itself is long gone. At this time none of the grade crossings in Mexico have ANY kind of active protection!
"..Built by the San Diego and Arizona Railway Company in 1906, the rail line was a dream project for noted San Diego sugar magnate, John D. Spreckels, and his brother Adolph. The brothers’ persistence during bouts with Mother Nature and a global war (World War I) paid off when the rail line was opened ten years later in October, 1916. From 1916 to the late 1950s, passengers used the cross-border train to connect to such far-flung destinations as Chicago. The train route was unique in that it was and is is the only known service in the world that had to use a second country because of the difficult terrain.."
On board of this train there are U.S. and Mexican Tourism Officials that answer the passenger's questions.
The trip covers most of the Mexican side route, but it's clearly avoiding the city of Tijuana. This trip's route runs between the two arrows, from Campo to Garcia and back. It covers all the interesting loops and most tunnels.
The two last images belong to El Cajon Yacht Club.
20100212 Last update: 20100221 (spanishNY.com) top
Zapote or Sapote
I couldn't believe the price of this fruit. Exotic fruit, ha ha ha ha. This is what you pay when you are forced to buy California produce. The sign reads: Organic exotic fruit. Product of U.S.A. Sweet black zapote (aka sapote) fruit. $4.99 EACH. These look really stunted. Notice also the cactus fruit, which in Mexico are very common and are called tunas.
Until recently, the same thing happened with avocados. Mexican avocados were prohibited in the continental U.S. because "they had diseases", that was the argument. Only people from Hawaii and Alaska were allowed to receive them, but as of this week, WholeFoods is selling them at 1 dollar each, which was unthinkable 5 years ago. Maybe it is just a Super Bowl thing. Maybe they'll allow Mexican zapotes soon.
These ones look quite hard and small, so they are shipping them long before they get ripe, if that ever happens. The pulp color might be in deed exotic, because it is black, but in Mexico you can buy black zapote popsicles almost at any family owned ice cream store. Popsicles in Mexico are called paleta de hielo (ice lollipop)
If the fruit is $4.99, how much would a zapote popsicle cost? $5 each? $10 each? Hmmm.
they sell avocado popsicles too, BTW
There are many kinds of zapote fruit, and most of them are native to Mexico, just like avocados. For more information about Mexican exotic fruit popsicles visit www.manhattan.com.mx, they are available at Costco and Walmart, at least in Mexico. I know, what a name for a popsicle brand.
I have had several students so far who refuse to study the subjunctive mood. They say they don't need it.
But I was just thinking. If they don't want to, the don't even need to learn how to conjugate verbs. No, there is no need for it. In many old Spanish speaking movies, neither Tarzan, nor the Apaches, nor the natives from the South Pacific Islands conjugate verbs. You don't believe it, right? Let's see:
Yo Tarzan. Tú Jane. Me Tarzan. You Jane. In this case Tarzan doesn't even use the verb to be, just like in Russian (there is no verb to be in Russian). So if you don't want to, you don't even need to study the terribly confusing ser and estar verbs. Yo dormir bien anoche. I slept well last night. Yo acompañar Jane a aldea. I'm going with Jane to the village. Yo nadar en lago mañana. I will swim in the lake tomorrow. ¿Por qué tú no decir nada? Why don't you say anything? Ella no querer comer. She doesn't want to eat. Tal vez llover esta noche. Maybe it will rain tonight. Vaqueros pensar atacarnos. The cowboys are planning to attack us. Si llover mañana, yo no salir de casa. If it rains tomorrow, I'm not leaving home. Vaqueros parecer cansados. The cowboys seem tired.
Do you see? They are right! They don't need to learn the subjunctive or any verb conjugation. Who knows, maybe they will get a job in one of these movies.
Actually, Johnny Weissmuller, the most famous Tarzan actor, very likely spoke Spanish well. One of his five wives was Mexican. He made Tarzan movies in Acapulco, Mexico, the place where he lived the later years of his life. He is even buried there. He was born in Romania, and his parents were German-Romanians, if they spoke a little Romanian at home, at least a little bit when he was a baby, that would be another reason to pick up Spanish quickly. Spanish is relatively easy to learn for Romanians and the other way around: Stiu puţin limba româna datorită să fie (eu sunt) un vorbitor nativ de limba spaniolă. (bine, bine...more or less... well, I just hope my Romanian isn't Tarzan Romanian!).
World pop culture, everywhere except in the United States!
A few weeks ago I was browsing YouTube with one of my students and we ran into a Heidi video. "Who is Heidi?", he asked me. "Don't you know?" This is a Japanese cartoon (anime) for children about a Swiss girl that was very popular in Mexico and the rest of Latin America (there are reruns still), Spain, Brazil and Portugal, Italy, China (Cantonese, Mandarin), Taiwan, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, France, Holland, Canada, Greece, Iceland and the rest of Scandinavia (I saw this cartoon in Sweden once), India, South Africa, Albania, Turkey, The Phillipines, in all Arab countries, everywhere! Except in the United States! This cartoon is in YouTube in many languages except English! When I told my American student, "oh, look!, Heidi, do you remember Heidi?" He was like, "what?". I said, "Heidi, the cartoon." Incredible, despite Heidi's big hype and merchandise around the world in the 80's and 90's, he had never seen her image before! He had no idea what I was talking about!! (I recommend that you not watch all these videos at once, or you will have nightmares in multiple languages with this song).
Just check this:
Heidi in Spanish, this video has 3,600,000++ views. For a non-English video that's a lot. There are two versions of Heidi in Spanish, the Mexican and the Spanish. When singing this song, the accent is so close that I have no idea which one is this. Lyrics correction: porqué should be por qué.
A note from wikipedia: The only incarnation of the Heidi series to reach the United States was an English dubbed version of the 1979 feature-length movie adaptation of the TV series, released on video in 1985. Most fans of the series in North America saw it first in other countries.
This is similar to the telenovelas, which are very popular in many countries around the world, this time including Rusia and Eastern Europe, but I've never seen one dubbed in English.
So that your Spanish doesn't sound like plastic Spanish:
recibir = llegarle algo a alguien
Here is one more tip so that your Spanish doesn't sound like plastic Spanish. I don't know about Spain, but in most other countries we don't always say recibí una carta, we say me llegó una carta, Lit: a letter arrived for me. I really get the jitters when students keep going the easy way and say recibí el libro ayer, todavía no he recibido el libro, and the like.
OK, stop using recibir 95% of the time and give some variety to your speech. Here are some examples:
recibí una carta ayer = me llegó una carta ayer (a letter arrived for me yesterday)
¿recibí algo en el correo hoy? = ¿me llegó algo en el correo hoy? (did something arrived for me in the mail today)
todavía no he recibido el paquete = todavía no me ha llegado el paquete (the package hasn't arrived for me yet)
recibiste un sobre = te llegó un sobre (an evelope arrived for you)
ya recibí mi pasaporte = ya me llegó el pasaporte (my passport arrived for me already)
recibí un premio = me llegó un premio. Hold on, this doesn't work in this example. You only say me llegó when something literarily arrives for you, maybe by mail, by email, but not when you receive an award or a good note in school. In this case we would say: me dieron un premio, they gave me an award.
Sometimes you could say in English: a letter arrived for me today. That's how we say it in Spanish, and it's perfectly correct. Remember, you are using the indirect object pronoun in this structure.
I have had some students like them, and it is very difficult to teach them. I mean, the "seed" is there, but the grammar terms are boring to them, and they just want to learn faster than that, and they can. Their advantage is that they don't have to work hard on their pronuntiation because they already pronounce Spanish like natives, but they still need to work on their intonation sometimes. These are recent stories from three different websites:
ALBA GETS SERIOUS ABOUT SPANISH
JESSICA ALBA is taking Spanish lessons, so she can sign up for Latin movies and feel more confident when talking about her Mexican heritage.
The actress admits she confused a lot of journalists when she first became a star - because she looked Latino but couldn't speak the language.
Her lack of Spanish led to criticism and suggestions she wasn't a true Latina - something that really upset the Fantastic Four star.
She tells Siempre Mujer magazine, "I didn't want to misrepresent Latinos and I didn't know how to defend myself. But I went to my room and I cried all night. Since then, I've preferred not to comment on the subject.
"I tried to explain to them that, in this country (America), I'm considered Latina and, thus, I consider myself Latina as well. I grew up eating enchiladas... I identify with Mexicans. It's in my blood whether or not I speak Spanish."
And now she's a mum, she has decided to sign up for Spanish lessons, so she and her daughter Honor can become fluent.
She adds, "I know the basics, but I just hired a professor that specialises in Hispanic studies to teach me and Honor. God knows that I wish I was raised bilingual. But it wasn't to be.
"I want to make movies in Spanish... There are so many interesting themes and stories that are worth sharing, like the lives of immigrants, for example.
"There's a whole world that hasn't been sufficiently explored and I want to be part of it - the violence on the Mexican borders, the political upheaval in Venezuela and Bolivia and the drug trafficking in Colombia."
SO IS SANCHEZ
Mark Sánchez Age: 22 Birthplace: Long Beach, CA High School: Mission Viejo High School, Mission Viejo, CA College: University of Southern California Football position: quarterback
Sánchez is a third-generation Mexican American. His great-grandfather was born in Zacatecas, Mexico and was one of the displaced Hispanics who lived in Los Angeles’ Chávez Ravine – a hardscrabble place where Mexican immigrant families were cleared out to make way for Dodgers Stadium. Sánchez hails from a family of football players. Older brother Nick Sánchez Jr. was a Yale University quarterback, and his other older brother, Brandon Sánchez, played on DePauw University’s offensive line. Dad Nick Sánchez Sr. was a quarterback at East Los Angeles College. Sánchez’s growing Los Angeles fan base includes legions of Latinos, and his fame in the Mexican-American community has already been likened to that of now-retired boxer Oscar de la Hoya and retired Los Angeles Dodgers pitching legend Fernando Valenzuela. Sánchez began taking Spanish lessons in his junior year at USC so he could conduct interviews with Spanish-language media without the need of a translator. Interest in Sánchez from Mexico-based media in addition to U.S.-based networks prompted the decision.
SO IS LONGORIA
21 August 2009, 10:57 AM. ByCindy Casares
Eva Longoria is currently in Mexico City shooting the film Dias De Gracia which focuses on a kidnapping that takes place during the World Cup. And is completely in Spanish. Eva, who was born and raised in Texas, began taking Spanish lessons in Mexico in March because, as she told the Mexican press, she grew up speaking English. Her character, Xochitl, is not the protagonist, but according to the film’s director, Xochitl’s role is key to the movie. (Translation: It allows them to use Eva’s name on the marquee.) With her last film–Over Her Dead Body–being such a flop, Eva’s lucky she has her Mexican heritage to fall back on because, while the producer of Dias De Gracia says Eva was drawn to the project because of its characters, we’d guess she was drawn to the fact that someone–anyone–wanted her to be in their movie. Dias De Gracia is scheduled to be released June of 2010 during the next World Cup.
The truth is that I have heard the three of them speaking Spanish, and I think their Spanish is great.
from: www.contactmusic.com, Hispanic SportBusiness, and guanabee.com
This is a sample list of fruit tree names in Spanish. If you pay attention, very often, the tree name of a fruit with a femenine noun, is the masculine version of its fruit's name:
Sótano de las Golondrinas (Cave of Swallows) San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
Continuing with the series, I have another cave for you. This is the deepest cave in the world. It's even deeper than the 300 meters of the Cave of Crystals below. This is 400 meters. BBC narrator (none other than) Sir David Attenboroug says that the Empire State Buiding would fit in there.
You could call it also Cave of Parrots:
Sótano really means basement, but it's called sótano because it is the basement of the world.
Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico. La Cueva de los Cristales
This is what you encounter if you dig deep down in the Earth. The largest crystals discovered so far in this planet. In fact, before finding this in year 2000, nobody thought something like this could exist. Many expert scientists initialy thought that it was fake.
If you live in the UK, you can watch this BBC program tonight, January 19th, 2010.
Here it is, somebody uploaded it to Youtube a few days ago. I was confident that someone would do it for us. I did some research and found out that the narrator's accent is Scottish. (removed for now, let's see if it gets uploaded again).
To get there they need to travel in a vehicle for 30 minutes down the Earth using a mine tunnel. Everything in there is high tech since this is within a world class mine. They need a special outfit containing ice pack layers in the cloths and an ice container that cools the air they breath through a mask. The temperatures reach 150 F and the humidity is 100%. They can stay in there 30 minutes max at a time wearing the outfit. The caves may be open to the public soon. Currently, only scientists and media have access to it.
It is true, Ciudad Juarez, which is sadly a very unsafe city for locals and tourists alike since this guy Calderón took office, is located in the State of Chihuahua, the same state where these caves are located. Just take into account that the State of Chihuahua is a little bigger in size than the United Kingdom, for example, or half the size of Spain, so you can always avoid the dangerous U.S. border area, and travel to another of its great locations like the Copper Canyon, Ciudad Cuauhtemoc (the largest Mennonite community in the world), or Naica (when the caves are open to the public).
20100119. Last modified on 20100129 (spanishNY.com) top
Aerial view of Cancun
One of my students is going to the Mayan Riviera in a few weeks and I wanted to show him these videos. The water is so clean you can see the bottom of the Caribbean sea from the plane. These flights took an unusual route since jetliners don't usually include an extra free tour above the hotel zone.
The pilot was in a tourist guide mood. At 2:18 he said ".???????..podrán observar Isla Mujeres" (?????? you will be able to observe Isla Mujeres).
I saw the film Amores Perros together with one of my students. Below is one of the main soundtrack songs. Its name is Lucha de Gigantes, by the Spanish band Nacha Pop. The actual movie scene is too strong to embed it on this website. It's not for kids and it's not for many people. I decided to embed this other video, which contains the same exact soundtrack.
This is a link to the Amores Perros actual scene with Gael García Bernal. It's strong, but if you watch the movie, these two overlapped stories within the scene are very meaningful. At that point of the movie you just can't believe what's happening. The synchronization is perfect and it makes the scene more dramatic. In this single scene there is violence, blood, betrayal, pleasure, cheating, revenge, sex, beatings, love, kidnapping, nudity, brutality, smiles, guilt, fear, all wrapped in a beautiful song. I was reading an article made at a British university about this movie indicating that they needed a lot of mathematics to make all the scenes match, they needed time graphics and geometry.
My translation: I had two options for the title, Fight of Giants or Wrestling of Giants. I decided for the second one. Mexicans and Americans associate the word Lucha with Lucha Libre, you know, the guys wrestling with masks on. I tried to make the translation as literary as possible and I tried to match all the structures for learning purposes, and it came out very good. Thanks Spencer for your important suggestions.
Lucha de Gigantes
convierte
el aire en gas natural
un duelo salvaje
advierte
lo cerca que ando de entrar
En un mundo descomunal
siento mi fragilidad
Vaya pesadilla
corriendo
con una bestia detrás
dime que es mentira
todo
un sueño tonto y no más
me da miedo la enormidad
donde nadie oye mi voz
Deja de engañar
no quieras ocultar
que has pasado sin tropezar
monstruo de papel
no sé contra quién voy
¿o es que acaso hay alguien más aquí?
Creo en los fantasmas
terribles
de algun extraño lugar
y en mis tonterías
para
hacer tu risa estallar
En un mundo descomunal
siento tu fragilidad
Deja de engañar
no quieras ocultar
que has pasado sin tropezar
no
monstruo de papel
no sé contra quien voy
¿o es que acaso hay alguien más aquí?
Deja que pasemos
sin miedo....
Wrestling of Giants
turns
the air
into natural gas
a wild duel
warns
how close I am of entering
a massive world
I feel my fragility
What a nightmare
running
along with a beast behind
tell me that it's a lie
all of it
a silly dream and no more
I’m afraid of the enormity
where nobody hears my voice
Stop deceiving
don’t try to hide
that you’ve entered without stumbling
monster of paper
I don’t know whom I’m going against
or is there perhaps somebody else here?
I believe in ghosts
terrible ones
from some strange place
and in my foolishness
to
make
your laughter burst
In a massive world
I feel your fragility
Stop deceiving
don’t try to hide
that you’ve entered without stumbling
no
monster of paper
I don’t know whom I’m going against
or is there perhaps somebody else here?
Let us enter
with no fear....
"Let us enter with no fear", sings Antonio Vega in Lucha de Gigantes, and so he did on May 12, 2009 at only 51.
After doing shopping, some people leave the carts right in the supermarket, some people take them out and leave them at the parking lot, but some others go to the extremes of abandoning the shopping carts only right before getting out of the United States!
The end of Main Street in San Luis, Arizona., is a border crossing station that connects the city to San Luis Rio Colorado in Mexico. Photo: Jesse Shapins.
So this is the current AT&T commercial for the Spanish television in the United States; it's been around for about a month already.
And this is Paulina Rubio's video singing Causa y Efecto, the song on the AT&T commercial. The clip has more than 2 million 300 thousand visits, which is unusual for a video in Spanish that's been up less than 6 months. It cannot be embedded so this is the link:
Here are the lyrics with an attempt at a literal translation:
Quieres gobernar mi corazón
mi silencio y mi respiración
piensas que ni en sueños
lograré vivir sin ti
te lo aviso no funciona así
Mientes y te crees tan especial
sueñas que me vuelves de cristal
corre más deprisa a kilometros de aquí
hoy decir adiós me toca a mí.
Sabes que aunque te creías perfecto
por la ley de causa y efecto
hoy pagas por cada error
mira que mi amor te enciende y te enfría
como una ilusión que te espía
y te enreda por diversión
Cambia la estrategia por favor
que no me llevo bien con el dolor
creo en la energía que se mueve en espiral
y vivir en guerra me hace mal
Sabes que aunque te creías perfecto
por la ley de causa y efecto
hoy pagas por cada error
mira que mi amor te enciende y te enfría
como una ilusión que te espía
y te enreda por diversión
En este duelo de piel contra piel
giro la suerte y te toca perder
...que aunque te creías perfecto
por la ley de causa y efecto
hoy pagas por cada error
mira que mi amor te enciende y te enfría
como una ilusión que te espía
y te enreda por diversión
Sabes que aunque te creías perfecto
por la ley de causa y efecto
hoy pagas, hoy pagas, hoy pagas por cada error
You want to rule my heart
my silence and my breathing
you think that not even in dreams
I will manage to live without you
I warn you it doesn't work this way
You lie and you believe you are so special
you dream that you turn me into glass
run faster kilometers away from here
today it's my turn to say good bye
Do you know that although you believed you were perfect
because of the law of cause and effect
today you pay for each mistake
look that my love turns you up and chills you
like an illusion that spies on you
and tangles you up for fun
Change the strategy please
because I don't get along with pain
I believe in energy that moves in spiral
and living in war makes me sick
Do you know that although you believed you were perfect
because of the law of cause and effect
today you pay for each mistake
look that my love turns you up and chills you
like an illusion that spies on you
and tangles you up for fun
In this duel of skin against skin
I turn the luck around and it's your turn to lose
...that although you believed you were perfect
because of the law of cause and effect
today you pay for each mistake
look that my love turns you up and chills you
like an illusion that spies on you
and tangles you up for fun
Do you know that although you believed you were perfect
because of the law of cause and effect
today you pay, today you pay, today you pay for each mistake
Key vocabulary and expressions:
ni = nor, not even
lograr + infinitive = to manage to + intinitive
así = like this, like that, this way
más deprisa = faster, (more in a hurry)
me toca = it's my turn; te toca = it's your turn
llevarse bien con = to get along with
hacer mal = to make sick
por = because of, for
girar = to turn around, to spin, to rotate
In the early 80's, my family and I went to Acapulco, a beach resort in Mexico. For a whole week every time my cousins and I went to the swimming pool at the Fiesta Americana Condesa hotel, Paulina was there also. We looked just like the children on the second video. LOL. We were all playing ball or just jumping or splashing about. Every time a new kid joined us, she used to tell him or her, "You don't know who is my mother!, my mother is Susana Dosamantes!." The first day we met her at the pool or at breakfast, she told us the same thing. At that time Susana Dosamantes, Paulina's mother, was more famous than her daughter, now everyone in Latin America and Spain knows who is the great Pau.
If you think about the law of cause and effect, the sphere device they use throughout the video makes perfect sense.
