The Spanish phrase “Donde lloran, esta el muerto” literally translates as “Where there’s crying, there’s a dead person.” In everyday use, however, the meaning is somewhat different. You might use it, for example, to describe someone who claims not to have money when in fact he does. A bilingual caller wonders if there’s an analogous expression that refers to someone who’s miserly despite being wealthy. Grant recommends he check out A Dictionary of Mexican-American Proverbs by Mark Glazer. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Mexican-American Proverbs”
Hi, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Felipe.
Hi, Felipe. Where are you calling from?
I’m calling from Kennedale, Texas, next to Fort Worth.
Okay. What’s the name of the place?
Kennedale.
Kennedale. Okay.
It’s a small little community.
Okay. All right. Well, welcome to the program. What can we help you with?
Well, I have a quick question for you.
My grandmother used to say a saying in Spanish that my mother then used, and currently I use as well.
And in Spanish, you say, donde lloran está el muerto, which translates to where there’s crying, there’s a dead person or a dead body.
And they always used it when referring to someone that would tell them, I don’t have money to do that.
And what they’re trying to say, essentially, is that they do have money.
They’re just crying about it, essentially, that they’re just telling you they don’t have money.
And I wanted to see if there was a translation to that into an English phrase or a saying, which I’ve never been able to find other than where there is smoke, there must be fire kind of thing.
So the idea there is that they’re protesting too much.
Is that right?
Right.
Exactly.
Yeah.
There’s kind of a self-published book by a fellow named Mark Laser called The Dictionary of Mexican-American Proverbs.
And he has this, if you want a little more information about that, I think you can find it on Google Books.
And he has it exactly, almost exactly as you’ve given it.
He writes it as, donde lloran, allí está la muerte.
And he says, you use this about a penny pincher or a money nagger who is wealthy.
So it’s somebody who’s complaining about being poor and not having money.
And he writes, my mom says an old woman complained about a cent at a grocery store, something costing one cent more than it should, and then jumped into a brand new Cadillac and drove off.
My mom felt the proverb was appropriate to describe the situation.
So I think he’s kind of nailed it there.
And he gives a couple other attributions for the expression.
So that book, again, is A Dictionary of Mexican-American Proverbs, and it’s by Mark Glazer.
It looks like this is going to be a place to get your answer.
Thank you for taking my call.
Yeah, I’m putting that book on my wish list.
Thanks for…
Yeah, the best thing about it is it looks to be self-published,
which means it’s probably more interesting than something that’s gone through a strict editorial process.
It’s probably got more personality and character and more stories.
Cool.
Thank you for the information again.
Sure, no problem.
Thanks for calling, Felipe.
Bye-bye.
Okay, bye.
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