multicultural
does not describe me fully
it is where to start



Saturday, December 18, 2010

A Spanglish Christmas Eve Encore



I take a break from novel writing et al. to wish you a wonderful holiday. Here's a repeat of the Spanglish version of "Twas the Night Before Christmas."


Chihuahuas y La Noche Buena

Adapted by Río Lara-Bellon.

'Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the casa
Ni un ratón se movía. ¡Caramba! ¿Qué pasa?
Los niños were all tucked away en sus camas,
Some in long underwear, some in pijamas.
While Mamá worked late in her little cocina
El viejo was down at the corner cantina
Living it up with amigos, ¡carajo!
Muy contento y un poco borracho.
While hanging the stockings with mucho cuidado,
In hopes that old Santa would feel obligado
To bring a los niños both buenos y malos,
A nice batch of dulces y otros regalos.
Outside in the yard there arose such a grito
That I jumped to my feet like a frightened cabrito.
I ran to the window y miré afuera
And who in the world do you think that it era?
Santo Nikos in a sleigh and a big red sombrero
Came dashing along like a crazy bombero!
And pulling his sleigh, instead of venados,
Were eight little chihuahuas, approaching volados.
I watched as they came and this quaint little hombre
Was shouting and whistling and calling by nombre:
¡Ay Milo! ¡Ay Tobee! ¡Ay Frida y Sasha!
¡Ay Todo! ¡Ay Pepe! ¡Ay Paco y Nacho!
Then standing erect with hand en su pecho
He flew to the top of our very own techo
With his round little belly like a bowl of jalea
He struggled to squeeze down our old chimenea.
Then huffing and puffing, at last in our sala,
With soot smeared all over his traje de gala,
He filled all the stockings with bonitos regalos
For none of the niños had been muy malos.
Then chuckling aloud, seeming muy contento,
He turned like a flash y voló como el viento.
And I heard him exclaim (¡ay, es la verdad!)
“¡MERRY CHRISTMAS A TODOS! ¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!”


Adaptation Copyright © 1996 by Río Lara-Bellon All Rights Reserved.



I now bid you so long for the remainder of the holiday season. Have a Happy New Year!

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Glad to see you are back from your mini hiatus... Mery chritmas to you too!

Judy Croome | @judy_croome said...

Veels Geluk and a Merry Xmas, Judy.

Wishing you a blessed festive season and a wonderful 2011.

Judy (South Africa)

Nevine Sultan said...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, Judy!

Enjoy!!!

Nevine

melissashook said...

thank you..feliz navidad...or however that is spelled!

A Cuban In London said...

I had never come across this version. Beautiful and funny at the same time. Many thanks for your writing and your feedback on my blog.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Greetings from London.

Mayowa said...

Happy Holidays, Judith. I hope the writing is going well.

Judith Mercado said...

Thank you for your holiday wishes, Notes for Beauty, Judy, Nevine, Melissa, Cuban,and Mayowa. I keep working on my novel, just finished another chapter today though am still far from the finish line. Having fun though. I'll see you sometime in the new year. Have a wonderful holiday.
Judy

Khaled KEM said...

Hi Judith,

Thank you for stopping by my blog. I am delighted with your comment on my poem unseen. I've been following your posts and I do really enjoy reading your posts.

Happy Holidays!!

Khaled

Unknown said...

Merry Christmas and Happy 2011 to you too! Thanks for stopping by my blog and for all your wonderful comments!
Un abrazo,
Li
@LaLicenciada
@HerDeepThoughts

Sheila Deeth said...

Oh wow! This was cool!

Kathryn Magendie said...

*smiling* and :-D


Happy New Year to you!