Canciones hispanas 3: Tus besos (de Juan Luís Guerra)

¡Hola! I have recently found this new song from Juan Luís Guerra, who is a very famous singer from Hispanic America. He plays mostly bachata and other related music styles. This song talks about love and about how much a person loves the kisses from his beloved one. Note: There is a nice intro scene and the song itself begins at 0:50. 

Hope you enjoy it! You can read the lyrics below while listening to it. ¡Hasta pronto! :)

Letra de la canción:

Para mi corazón

A ti te canto, solo a ti (Gua, guarara)
Bachata con inspiración (Gua, guarara)
A ti princesa linda de mi corazón
Oooh de mi corazón

Amada tu eres para mi (Gua, guarara)
Como ramito de azahar (Gua, guarara)
Manzana y palomita de mi palomar
Ooh de mi palomar
Amor intenso, más ancho que el mar

Tus besos se han quedado en mi cara mujer
Son como sellitos de amor en mi piel
Tus besos procurándome en esta canción
Viven en la esquina de mi corazón

Tus besos me enamoran, me colman de bien
Besos de ternura, besitos de miel
Tus besos que me arrullan, me dan la ilusión
Bálsamo y perfume para mi corazón
Oooh, oooh, para mi corazón

Hermosa luces para mi (Gua, guarara)
Tus ojos mi revelación (Gua, guarara)
No hay nada como el dulce que tiene tu voz
No como el dulce que tiene tu voz

Perfecta tu eres para mi (Gua, guarara)
Tu cuello y tus cabellos son (Gua, guarara)
Columna de palacio y orquídeas de sol
Ooh orquídeas de sol
Incienso y mirra pa mi corazón

Porque tus besos
Se han quedado en mi cara mujer
Son como sellitos de amor en mi piel
Tus besos procurándome en esta canción
Viven en la esquina de mi corazón

Tus besos me enamoran, me cubren de bien
Besos de ternura, besitos de miel
Y tus besos que me arrullan, me dan la ilusión
Bálsamo y perfume pa mi corazón

Vístete de amanecer, cubreme con tu esplendor
Muéstrame cuan alto y profundo es tu amor
Ooh cuan alto y profundo es tu amor

Tus besos se han quedado en mi cara mujer
Son como sellitos de amor en mi piel
Tus besos procurándome en esta canción
Viven en la esquina de mi corazón

Tus besos me arrullan, me colman de bien
Besos de ternura, besitos de miel
Tus besos me enamoran, me dan la ilusión
Bálsamo y perfume para mi corazón
Oooh, oooh, pa mi corazón
Oooh, oooh, pa mi corazón

Canciones hispanas 2: "Torero" (de Chayanne)

¡Hola! Today I want to share with you a song in Spanish that I personally like. Actually I would say that it is a very well-known song from the 00s. :) The singer's name is Chayanne, he is from Puerto Rico, as many other great Spanish-speaker singers out there. Listen to this song and read its lyrics here, just below!

Letra de la canción "Torero", de Chayanne (lyrics):

De lunes a domingo voy desesperado El corazón prendido en el calendario Buscándote y buscando como un mercenario Tu dime donde estás que yo no te he encontrado Tus manecillas giran yo voy al contrario Comiendome la vida a sorbos y a tragos Me viste así de frente que tremendo impacto Para unirme a tu mirada dime si hay que ser.... Torero, poner el alma en el ruedo No importa lo que se venga Pa'que sepas que te quiero Como un buen torero Me juego la vida por tí.... Si hay que ser, torero Poner el alma enel ruedo No importa lo que se venga Pa'que sepas que te quiero Como un buen torero Me juego la vida por tí....

Hope you enjoy, let me know in comments section down below! Have a nice day, buenos días! :)

Additional note: More details about this song here. Thanks!

Malqui-Machay, the last resting place of the Inca

¡Hola!

Today I read an interesting article on Miami Herald, talking about the 'lost' treasure of the Inca Empire before the Spanish Conquest. It is said that the Inca had stashed a huge treasure of gold in the mountains. It was a ransom to get back their Emperor, Mr Atahualpa, from the Spaniards. But the ransom was not delivered, because the Emperor died before being able to do the exchange.

This is what has been said so far. However, Ms Estupiñán (a historian who has been studying about the Incas for 30 years) recently suggested another version, after doing some discoveries by reading a 4,000-pages book.

Amazingly, that book is written in Spanish. :O You should check it out and try to understand at least one letter. Honestly, I have not been able to get a word of it. =) And it took Ms Estupiñán almost a year to transcribe the 7-pages Testament of Atahualpa's son, also written in Spanish like this.

Hope you enjoy the article, thanks for checking it and have a nice day! :)

The Sephardic Spanish, a part of Spain

Sephardic Spanish were Jewish people who lived in Spain for centuries before 1492. They held important position in the Government and other important institutions in the country. Moreover, it is said that most of the counselors of Alfonso X El Sabio (The Wise) were Sephardi.

For them, Spain is Sepharad, a promised land in the Bible (Obad. 1:20). When they arrived to Spain, the country was really in a golden period of its time, being a source of culture and a bridge to new knowledges coming from the Arab world, thanks to the Spanish translator monks.

              

In 1492, Spain was in a period of time when it was still building itself as a country unified under only one kingdom. Before that, more than 2 had been ruling different parts of the territory. At around that time, the Catholic Kings became the Kingdom of Spain, and therefore they needed to reorganize some aspects of the Kingdom. Moreover, they were concerned about Sephardic people, because of their economic and social power, while not being Catholic... Therefore, they let them choose to convert to Catholicism, or leave the country. Although many people (really or just admittedly) converted and remained in Spain, some of them decided to leave the country... However, they left it full of sadness, because of their deep roots with Spanish culture and people.

                      

It needs to be said that these event is not exclusive of Spain. It is the only one that happened in Spain and, actually, it is one of the last ones that happened in Europe. Before this one, England and France, among other countries, had done it in a forceful way to Jewish people for the same or similar reasons.

After hundreds of years, these amazing people kept their Spanish roots and carried Spanish language with them. However, it was separated from Spain before it made huge changes and became the current Spanish.
For that reason, "Judeoespañol", or Sephardic Spanish, is more similar to the Middle Age Spanish than the current one. In the next post, I will talk about this language. I am amazed to listen to it, it is a language treasure and, in my opinion, its people is very creditable.

Some references to learn more (please be aware these are long articles):

- Sephardic Jews
- Sephardic laws and customs
- History of the Jews in Spain


¡Gracias y hasta pronto!

Let's talk about wine!

As you probably know, Spain is a wine producer country. It is an important tradition that has been inherited by descendants of wine producer families. Wine is produced everywhere in the country, and we call it 'Vino'.

We have 'Vino blanco' (White wine), 'Vino tinto' (Red wine) y 'Vino rosado' (Rose Wine). We also produced our own kind of Sparkling wine, called 'Cava'. It is produced in Catalonia and it is delicious! Enjoy Spanish wine!




And if you want to learn something else about wines, check this documentary. ¡Tiene muy buena pinta! (it looks very interesting!) =)

Espero que os guste (hope you like it). ¡Hasta pronto! :)

Spanish Guitar, Popular Songs

¡Hola! I couldn't help sharing this video with you. There are some Spanish Guitar popular songs, all of them very beautiful. I hope you like it.

¡Hasta pronto! ;)

 P.D.: Thanks to the author of the video!

Spanish Sayings 2

SPANISH SAYINGS 2

¡Hola! :) Here I am, to share with you two Spanish sayings that you can use in a daily conversation.

-> ¡Se lo merecía! (because of being a nice person)
It couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke/person!

Ejemplo:
-> Ganó 150000€ en la lotería. ¡Se lo merecía! :)
He won 150000€ on the lottery. Couldn't have happened to a nicer person! 

As in English, it can be used to express just the opposite, i.e., that someone really deserves a bad thing that has happened to him/her.

Ejemplo:
-> Siempre se reía de nosotros y hoy un chico se ha reído de él y lo ha hecho llorar. ¡Se lo merecía! 
He always laugh at us and today a boy laugh at him and he started to cry. Couldn't have happened to a nicer person!

We can translate that sentence into English as 'He/she deserved it!"

-> Ser de buen corazón
-> Ser buena persona
(one's) heart's in the right place

Ejemplo:
-> Pedro siempre ayuda a sus vecinos y escucha a sus amigos cuando tienen problemas. ¡Es buena persona! / ¡Es de buen corazón!
Pedro always help his neighbours and listen to his friends when they have some problems. His heart is in the right place!

I hope you like it ;) If it is, let us know it  by clicking on an advertisement :)))

¡Buenas noches!
(Have a good night!)

Beautiful flamenco for you!

¡Hola a todos! Recently I have watched a beautiful flamenco video on youtube that I want to share with you. You just need to listen to the music and how she dances with it. It's energic, passionate and emotional.

I hope you like it. ¡Disfrutadlo! :)

 

¡Nos vemos! ;)

(See you soon)

Arabic Iberia, a fascinating Spanish history (Part II)

¡Hola a todos! :) The second part of Arabic Iberia is here, so let's go for it!

As I was saying... Later, the kings that had done that huge war and won it were Fernando of Aragón and Isabel of Castilla, who married each other and became the Catholic Kings. Their marriage was the official beginning of our current (Kingdom of) Spain :).

 

There were 4 kingdoms during the Reconquest: Portugal, Castilla, Navarra and Aragón. As I have said, during that time and after that time, Castilla continued growing and absorbed the other kingdoms, until it was the only kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula in 1492.

Maybe we could say that Spain was born and was build on the basis of a religious and militar expansion project against the Islamic kingdom of that time in order to recover the Iberian Peninsula for the christian kingdoms.

 

And that's already a lot of History for today! :) Now I recommend you to take a nap to refresh all this information in your mind (I will need it as well haha).

¡Qué tengáis un buen día! :)
(Have a nice day!)

Arabic Iberia, a fascinating Spanish history (Part I)

¡Hola! :) As I said in my last post, here I am again, now on time :D
Today I want to tell you about the Arabic Iberian Peninsula, i.e. what the Iberian Peninsula was before really being what we know today as Spain.
Actually, a friend of mine asked me about this part of the Spanish History, so I thought that's a fantastic idea and I decided to prepare a post about that ;)

Before the Spanish people (as we know them at present), there were arabic people in the Iberian Peninsula. They were in the Iberian Peninsula for eight centuries (yes! not a lot... really? haha). There also were some christian visigoth kingdoms that loose their territories (not a lot in that moment) against them in 711.

The best period of time of that 'Islamic Iberian' people was when the huge and important arabic Caliphate of Córdoba appeared after an arabic emir autoproclamates himself as a 'prince of the believers'.

That caliphate was one of the most important and prosperous urban centers of Europe, compared to the christian kingdoms that were going through a period of absolute decadency.

But all this history changed from 711, when the remains of the christian kingdoms began to be stronger and stronger, and began the Reconquest.
The Reconquest needed as much time as the arabic people were in the Iberian Peninsula: 781 years.  So it didn't finish until 1492.

The Reconquest began in the Batlle of Covadonga, which a noble visigoth called Pelayo won, and then he established the first christian non-visigoth (anymore) kingdom called Kingdom of Asturias.

And that's already a lot of History for today! :) Now I recommend you to take a nap to refresh all this information in your mind (I will need it as well haha) and wait expectantly for the second part (huhu).

¡Qué tengáis un buen día! :)
(Have a nice day!)

Alegría! - Spanish Expressions 2

¡Alegría! 

¡Hola! :) Sorry for the delay to post again, I have been busy this week. But I
guess that I come here with an interesting post for you :)
¡Alegría! What's that? You can translate it as happiness, however it's different from the Spanish word for happiness, that is 'felicidad'.
Alegría could probably translated as a mix of joy and fun hehe.
And here you have some useful expresssions about it :)

(estar) loco de alegría - (to be) blown away

       Ejemplo: Hoy Pedro está loco de alegría porque ha aprobado el exámen.

                      Today Pedro is blown away because he passed the exam.

(estar) encantado de la vida - thrilled to bits

       Ejemplo: ¿Cómo estás, Juan? Tengo un buen trabajo y tiempo libre,
                      ¡estoy encantado de la vida!

                      ¿How are you, Juan? I have a good job and free time,
                      ¡I'm thrilled to bits!

más contento que unas pascuas - happy as a cloud

       Ejemplo: Terminó su carrera y está más contento que unas pascuas.

                      He finished his degree and he's happy as a cloud.

más feliz que una perdiz - happy as a cloud (2)

       Ejemplo: Terminó su carrera y está más feliz que una perdiz.

                      He finished his degree and he's happy as a cloud.


I hope this has been useful for you all, and hope to see you around here soon enough! :)

Expresiones sobre el pajar - Expressions about the haystack

¡Hola! :) Today I will show you two Spanish expressions more, both of them related to the haystacks hehe. Here you have them!

¡Es como buscar una aguja en un pajar!

Example:
A: ¿Has encontrado el papel amarillo?
B: Todavía no, ¡es como buscar una aguja en un pajar!

Translation:
A: Have you found the yellow paper?
B: Not yet, ¡it's (as difficult) as looking for a needle in a haystack!

Explanation: When you're looking for something, and it is mixed with a lot of other similar things, and it's very very difficult to be found because of that, you could use this expression.

 

Separar el grano de la paja

Example:

Ese libro explica muchas cosas inútiles, así que tenemos que separar el grano de la paja y quedarnos con lo útil.

Translation:

That book explains lots of unuseful things, so we have to separate the grain from the hay and keep the useful things.

Explanation: 

When you obtain a new information about something, but a lot of the contents in that information doesn't really talk about the main thing that you are looking for, then you need to "separar el grano de la paja" to have just what you wanted from that information.

 

And that's all for today! Visit the blog frequently to read new posts :)

¡Buenas noches! :)

Have a good night!

A caballo regalado, no le mires el dentado!

¡Hola! :) Today I have a Spanish common expression for you.

"A caballo regalado, no le mires el dentado"

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

So when someone gives you a present, it's better to accept it without checking its quality or complaining about it. Just take it and say thanks to that friend, because it's free! :)

¡Hasta pronto! :)

The languages of Spain: there's not only Spanish! :)

¡Hola! :) Today I want to let you know something about Spain that a lot of people from other countries don't know, as I have seen.

Most of the people think that in Spain there is one language: the Spanish language. It looks evident and of course it is. But that is not the only language we have. Actually there are 4 languages in Spain! :)

You need to know that Spanish is the main language, the language which all Spanish people know and speak as a native language. But appart from it, there are big zones in Spain, groups of cities, that also have another official language, spoken by a lot of people of that places.

For instance, myself hehe. I'm Spanish but I come from Menorca, a little island where people also speak Menorcan, a dialect of the Catalan language which is spoken in the Balearic Islands, in Cataluña, and even in some little cities in France and Italy.

Here you have an example of each other first language that Spanish people could have depending on their birth places :)

English: 

Hello! How are you? I'm fine thanks, and you?

Spanish: 

¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás? Estoy bien, gracias. ¿Y tú?

Catalan: 

Hola! Com estàs? Estic bé, gràcies. I tu?

Galician: 

Ola! Como está? Estou ben, grazas. Vostede?

Basque: 

 Kaixo! Nola zaude? Fina naiz, mila esker. Egin duzu?

I guess you are now newly surprised about Spanish culture if you didn't know this, and I hope that you like it! :D

¡Hasta pronto!
Fins aviat!
Vexo vostedes en breve!
Laster arte!
See you soon! 

Carnaval de Canarias, probably the best Spanish carnival celebrations!

¡Hola! :) Today I want to share talk to you about this very famous celebration that takes place in las Islas Canarias every year. Actually I have never been there, but as I have heard it's a huge celebration, maybe near the well-known Brazilian Carnival celebration.

Moreover, there is a well-known kind of competition in which there are girls that wear really big and decorated costumes and show it to the people. As far as I know, there is a team behind each of that costumes, and it tooks months for them to prepare the costumes. It would be really interesting to go there in Carnival to see it! :)

Here you have some images and a little video, as I like to do.
Enjoy it! :)

 

 

¡Hasta pasado mañana! :)
See you the day after tomorrow!

Las castañuelas, a Spanish traditional musical instrument

¡Hola! :) Today I want to talk about the Spanish castañuelas. There is a different between the ones made of wood (called castañuelas) and the ones made of metal (cróstalos), but Spanish people in general know them all as castañuelas :).

Spanish castañuelas comes from an ancient kind of castañuelas called iberian "crusmata".

As you probably know, the castañuelas are a very famous instrument used in the flamenco dances as the Spanish sevillanas (a topic for another post ;) ) and also in some well-known orquestas like Carmen de Bizet, The Rapsody España of Chabier, and the ballet El Cid of Massenet, to give them a 'Spanish feeling'. Even Wagner used castañuelas for his song 'Venusberg'.

Actually, the origin of the castañuelas dates back to the Phoenicians, in the year 1000 b.C. Also Egypt, Chinese and Greek people used castañuelas even before Spanish people. There are evidences about their existence even in the Paleolithic! So probably it's one of the first musical instruments that human being have created. 

But Spanish people have conserved, used them, and castañuelas have evolved since the first ones. In the other countries they didn't evolved as Spanish castañuelas did. And they are still being used! :)

Now I leave you with a beautiful video of flamenco dance with castañuelas. Enjoy it! :)

I hope you like my post about Spanish castañuelas.
¡Hasta pronto! :)

La paella española

What is the Paella?

Paella is a typical Spanish food. The main ingredient is rice coloured with species. Moreover, it use to contain chicken meat, prawns, seafood, green peas, etc. We have different kinds of paella, so there are paellas that has meat more than fish, and there are other paellas that has fish more than meat, etc. Anyway, the biggest paellas are made in Valencia. 

Those paellas are so huge that they need several people to prepare them!

Origins of Paella

Linguists believe that the word paella comes from the name of the pan it is made in - the Latin term patella, a flat plate on which offerings were made to the Gods.

It was in the mid-nineteenth century that modern paella was created in an area around Albufera (a fresh water lagoon near the city of Valencia). At lunch time, workers in the fields would make the rice dish in a flat pan over a fire,, mixing in whatever they could find.

Source: about.com

Curious origin, without any doubt! And now it's so delicious :D

 

¡Que tengas un buen día!

Have a good day!

El Mío Cid

¡Hola! :) Taking advantage from the last post, I would like to share with you this video of the beginning of the Cantar del Mío Cid.
El Mío Cid was a legendary man that conquers a lot of territories to the arabic people that were in Spain centuries ago, when the Spanish Kingdom was still being developed and was trying to conquer all the Iberian Peninsula.
The amazing thing in this video is the fact that the boy who recorded it tried to speak in old castilian spanish, and it's amazing to hear it because it has changed a lot :D
Enjoy it! :)

¡Que vaya bien!
Everything goes well with you!

Don Quijote de la Mancha

Don Quijote (Don Quixote) is a novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. It's full title is 'El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha' (The ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha).

When the Spanish teenagers go to the high-school, they have to read part or all this book in their Spanish classes. It's an important book of the Spanish culture and literature. Anyway, its way of writting is actually old, only used centuries ago, but in spite of that I was impressed by that book.

It's also a beautiful Spanish, and I thing that is good to feel respect and admiration for all that changes that languages make during their lifes.
I have also read some thing about the Old English and its way of being written in the past, and I was impressed by that too :) Really curious!

¡Hasta más ver, osado caballero! :)
Till the next time, brave knight!

Canción del Pirata - José de Espronceda

¡Hola piratas! :D Today I want to show you a poem written in the 19th century by one of my favourite Spanish poets, José de Espronceda.

The poem talks about the freedom of the pirates from the authorities and the governors, and all the responsabilities that this freedom implies for them.

José de Espronceda - La canción del pirata
 

Con diez cañones por banda,

viento en popa a toda vela,

no corta el mar, sino vuela,

un velero bergantín;

bajel pirata que llaman

por su bravura el Temido

en todo el mar conocido

del uno al otro confín. 

...

You can find the whole lyric here :)

You can find its translation here :)

A beautiful recitation of the poem :)

And here you can watch a video of this poem put in a song by the rock group Tierra Santa, a really good song (yeah! haha :) ). Enjoy it! :)

¡Nos vemos! 

See you!