Talk:Duerme Negrito

The song was compiled by Atahualpa Yupanqui as mentioned but he was also one of the main popularizers. The song has since been attributed Cuban composers and linked to versions from Afro-Cuban culture that are older than Yupanqui's version. Ernesto Grenet Sánchez wrote a version in the 1920's in Cuba. See, e.g. Balmaseda-Maestu, E. (Enrique). (2008). La huella africana en el español caribeño a través de Mojana Drume Negrita y Saludo Changó. Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Navarra. Retrieved from http://dadun.unav.edu/handle/10171/21074 (page 57). Mentioned also in Sublette, N. (2004). Cuba and its music: From the first drums to the mambo. Chicago, Ill: Chicago Review Press. This version has been wrongly attributed to his brother Eliseo Grenet Sánchez for decades. Another, older variant is Drumi, Mobila by the Afro-Cuban singer and composer Bola de Nieve. His version was published in 1938 in an anthology of Afro-Cuban poetry . Drumi, Mobila's text is as follows:

No yora, Mobila,

que tu mamá ta la campo,

y horita ta bení pa cá.

Si nene drumi

cuando mamá sale,

e trae regalito pa ti,

e trae to lo nunie pa ti.

Y si nene no drumi,

¡Chimbilicó!,

Cheche Calunga

lo ranca lo pitico

y lo come.

Drumi, drumi,

Mobila.

Tu mamá fue la campo,

Mobila.

Caya y caya,

Mobila.

Tu mamá fue la campo,

Mobila.

E ba trae pajarito

pa ti;

e ba trae coronice

pa ti.

Drumi, drumi,

Mobila.

Tu mamá fue la campo,

Mobila.

E fue a buca lo duse,

Mobila;

pa que tú mañana come,

Mobila;

Caya, Mobila..

Drumi, Mobila...

Drumi, Mobila...

˜˜˜˜

negrito

While it is painfully literal to translate negrito as "little black one", it is unidiomatic and somewhat insensitive. The term is hypocoristic -- in this case somewhat along the lines of "little sweetheart". In many parts of Latin America to this day wives use this term for their husbands … and husbands, in turn, call their wives negrita. In Mayan-speaking areas one will encounter boxito or bojito for the same reason. The terms do not have anything to do with skin color in spite of their lexical meaning. 2806:290:8814:BC4A:EC42:4D77:B7B4:B08F (talk) 05:41, 30 August 2024 (UTC)