Puerto Rican Limber Dessert

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Yeah, hello. This is Stacey Amaral from Worcester, Mass.

Well, hi, Stacey. Welcome to the program.

Hi, Stacey. Hi, thanks. I’m really excited to be on the show. I’ve been enjoying listening to you.

Oh, super duper. What can we do for you?

Well, there’s a word that I know that I’ve known for a long time, and the word is limber.

We say in Spanish limber. It looks in English like you write it as limber.

But what it is, it’s a kind of dessert treat, an icy treat, kind of like Italian ices or gelato.

But it’s made often with coconut, and mostly it’s made by people in their houses, and they sell it on the street.

Where is this made?

In Puerto Rico.

Is that where you’re from?

No, I’m from here, but I have family and people back and forth from New York to Worcester to Puerto Rico to all over.

And the word is L-I-M-B-E-R.

Okay, very good.

It looks like Limber, but it’s pronounced Limber.

It’s Limber.

And nobody knows where that name came from.

I ask everybody.

I don’t know.

Some people say it came from Lindbergh, you know, the aviator.

Right.

It’s not a Spanish word.

And only in Puerto Rico do they use that word for this particular…

Well, you know, I have seen several different stories about it possibly being related to Charles Lindbergh.

And Stacey, you know that he went to Puerto Rico in 1928?

No, I didn’t know that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, if you go back and put yourself in that time, 1927, he flies across the Atlantic.

And this is huge.

I once read something by a female aviator from that time.

Who said, you know, nobody was paying attention to us.

We were trying to draw attention to aviation, and nobody was paying attention to us.

But then he flies across the Atlantic, and she said, at that time, it was bigger than the moon landing.

I mean, my grandparents, people talked about it to me.

I mean, I’m not that old, but, you know, they talked about when that happened.

Yeah, yeah, it was huge.

And the next year, he made this tour of the countries down there in the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, in 1928.

And I’ve seen several stories, one of which is that he hopped off the plane there in San Juan,

And people came up to him with this delicious dessert, and he said, what is it?

And they were so excited to meet him that they couldn’t think of a name for it.

So they called it the Limber after him.

But that’s just one story, Stacey.

There are several.

Another one is that, you know, he was of Swedish descent and kind of reserved.

And there was a saying that somebody was frio como Lindbergh.

Lindbergh, yeah.

I think he would be.

Also, he was very conservative.

Right.

I think people there would have seen him like that.

He was standoffish then is what you’re saying.

And so the warm reception that he received was in contrast to his own behavior.

Right.

Did he respond happily to the warm reception?

I think so, but in his own way.

There’s one story that he was expected to give out roses to everybody, which I guess is a practice at Carnival there.

But he wouldn’t do it, supposedly.

So that’s one story.

But the other story that, if it’s related to Lindbergh, makes sense to me is it was a huge event.

And I could just see people capitalizing on that, the people who were selling these things.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

Well, people would.

I mean, you know, because in Puerto Rico in that time, it was very poor.

So if you had a good market, people would have come out.

So Lindbergh was famous enough that they would take this icy treat,

Which already existed, and just rebrand it or rename it, right?

All right, that makes sense.

Is that what you’re saying?

That’s my hunch.

The other thing that I’m thinking about, Stacey, is you know the verb lamber?

Yeah, I like to lick, yeah?

Yeah, yeah.

I’m wondering if maybe there’s a can…

There’s some influence there between the two.

Maybe, but, you know, nobody, Spanish-speaking people, nobody has ever said that.

They only say either Limbert from Limbert or I don’t know.

Stacey, you’re making us hungry.

Yeah, well, you should try.

They’re very good.

Okay, well, we’ll keep enjoying the show.

Thank you for sharing with us today.

All right, thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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