Title: Chapulin Colorado

General Information About Item:

• Customary Lore, Children Hand Games
• Language:
• Country of Origin: Chile
• Informant: Catalina Garcia
• Date Collected:

Informant Data:

I am the informant. I am 20 years old and I was 4 years old at the time I learned this hand game. I was born and raised in Santiago, Chile. My family is from Spaniard origin. And I have a younger brother and an older sister.

Text:

NATIVE

Chapulin. Colorado. Me hago pis. O me aguanto.

Chapulin, colorado, me hago pis, o me aguanto.

PHOENTICS

Chapooleen. Kohlohradoh. Meh agho pees. O meh ahghuantoh

Chapooleen, kohlohradoh, meh agho pees, o meh ahghuantoh.

TRANSLATION (WORD-FOR-WORD)

Chapulin. Colored. Me do piss. Or me holds.

Chapulin, colored, me do piss, or me holds.

TRANSLATION

Chapulin. Colored. I piss myself. Or I hold it.

Chapulin, colored, I piss myself, or I hold it.

Contextual Data:

I learned this hand game at school. Trewhela´s school is a private school in Santiago. It was played among kids during recess or when we were supposed to wait or stand in line, although this game required proper amounts of space as you need to jump. This game was funny in a somewhat “naughty” way since it talks about pissing your pants. Kids would always end up laughing when someone ended the game with their legs open, meaning they had “pissed themselves”. Many times kids would close their legs even if the had ended with open legs, somewhat “cheating” in order to avoid the embarrassment. Kids would challenge each other to see who would piss their pants and who wouldn´t. The game gets boring fairly quickly though, as kids realize that it is really easy to control how your legs end up (open or close) by just pacing your jumps to the song. Additionally, “Chapulín Colorado” is a character from a mexican television series. This is not a kids show, and kids in my school never watched the show. Nonetheless, everyone knew who the character was and his name was present in the game but people didn’t have the show on mind while playing the game. It seems that kids used his name for the game solely because of its sound and the unusualness of it. On a different variation of the game, when kids didn’t have enough space to close and open their legs, they would imitate the motion of legs with their index and middle finger, crossing them and opening them as they sang the song.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Collector’s Name:

Catalina Garcia ’21

Tags/Keywords:

• Customary Folklore
• Children Hand Games
• Chapulin Colorado