Dichos: Mexican Proverbs and Sayings #1
by Elizabeth "Bjay" Woolley on Nov. 03, 2009, under dichos, Life, mexican culture
Did you grow up hearing Mexican dichos or saying/proverbs?
This is my first post featuring a Mexican dicho – or proverb/saying. Many of my fellow Mexican-Americans have fond memories (maybe not so fond then), of family elders sharing these little nuggets of wisdom or humor.
Many dichos are getting forgotten or their original meanings are lost and hard to interpret in modern times. For instance, many refer to the act of spinning or parts of a spinning wheel. Also, nowadays, having good character isn’t valued as highly as having a pretty face or lots of “stuff.” So, it’s very important to remember and preserve them and hopefully learn something.
Don’t get me wrong some dichos would make feminists and PETA members pretty mad. In those cases, it’s nice to see how far we have come.
Dicho in Spanish:
Para que buscarle tres pies al gato.
Dicho in English:
No sense in looking for three feet on a cat.
This was shared by my dad, and he did not share the context. He did say it means, “Don’t go looking for trouble, looking for three feet on a cat, you know they have four – or don’t get into a useless pursuit.”
My father may seem to wear a halo, but he is not as innocent as he looks! I can totally understand why someone might say this to him. Sorry dad!
I never heard this one myself, but I think there have been a few times in my life it may have been helpful to hear it. For instance, I’m sure we all have things we would like to “change” in our significant other or we get into relationships hoping they will change. We would like them to be something they aren’t – like looking for three feet on a cat.
Have you ever wished you could have put this dicho in a bridal shower card?
See a list of all my dicho posts here.
Do you have dichos to share? If so, email them to comments@bjaysplace.com.
Would you like to be alerted to new posts? Sign up for the RSS feed for this page (to the right), sign up for my personal Twitter feed (this includes all my internet doings), or sign up for the blog’s Facebook page.
