El Coquí – The Coqui

Title: El Coquí

General Information about the item:

  • verbal lore
  • language: Spanish
  • Country of origin: Puerto Rico
  • Informant: Ramonita Jimenez
  • Date collected: 05/15/2020

Informant Data:

  • Ramonita Jimenez was born in April of 1969 in the United States into a Puerto Rican household. Her mother and father immigrated to the United States in the late ’60s and had five children. Ramonita was raised in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and frequently visited the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico in order to spend time with family and get away from the city during the summer as a child. Ramonita now has two lovely children who attend college and lives in Ridgewood, Queens.

Contextual Data:

  • Ramonita learned this nursery rhyme as a child from uncles and aunts in Puerto Rico. When she would be put to bed as a child, her older family members made sure to express love and appreciation for the coqui (national frog of Puerto Rico) making noise in the countryside. The iconic “coqui” clicking could be heard from their home while sleeping.

Original Text:

El coquí, el coquí siempre canta
es muy lindo el cantar del coquí
por las noches a veces me duermo
con el dulce cantar del coquí
coquí, coquí, coquí, qui, qui, qui
coquí, coquí, coquí, qui, qui, qui.

Word for word translation:

The coqui, the coqui’s always singing,
The coqui’s singing is very nice
And sometimes, I go to sleep at night
With the sweet singing of the coqui,
Coqui, coqui, coqui, qui, qui, qui
Coqui, coqui, coqui, qui, qui, qui.

Free translation:

The coqui, the coqui’s always singing,
The coqui’s singing is very nice
And sometimes, I go to sleep at night
With the sweet singing of the coqui,
Coqui, coqui, coqui, qui, qui, qui
Coqui, coqui, coqui, qui, qui, qui.

Informant’s comments:

  • Ramonita explained that the clicking sound of the coqui can be heard pretty much all over the island of Vieques. It is a sound that all Puerto Ricans should know and be familiar with as it is an important part of Puerto Rico’s national image.

Collector’s comments:

  • It makes sense that my mother would know the sound of the coqui from as early on as she did. It can be heard all day if you are silent enough and I remember my mother making the iconic clicking noise of the coqui when we were first introduced to the national frog that is the coqui.

Collector’s name: Julian Jimenez