A night of fandango in Tlacotalpan
At the Candelaria festival in Veracruz, people play, sing and stamp out rhythms on a wooden platform. An A2 reading with encantar, preferir and odiar plus the infinitive.
Una noche de fandango en Tlacotalpan
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A night of jarocho fandango in Tlacotalpan, Veracruz: who plays, who dances on the tarima, and why a fandango is not a concert.
En medio del patio hay una tarima: una plataforma de madera, no muy grande. No es un escenario para mirar desde abajo. Está ahí para sonar. Cuando alguien zapatea encima, la madera suena como un tambor.
Marisol tiene dieciséis años y vive en el pueblo. A ella le encanta zapatear, pero odia ser la primera en subir a la tarima. «Prefiero esperar dos o tres sones y subir cuando la madera ya suena fuerte», dice.
Su tío Chente prefiere tocar la jarana, una guitarra pequeña. Está tocando desde las nueve de la noche y no piensa parar. A los músicos de este fandango les encanta cambiar de son sin avisar, y los demás siguen tocando como pueden.
Un fandango no es un concierto. Casi todos participan: unos tocan, otros cantan, otros zapatean y otros miran de cerca. Muchos versos se inventan en el momento, así que casi nadie sabe qué va a cantar el siguiente cantador.
«La bamba» también es un son jarocho de Veracruz, y hoy se canta en muchos países. En un fandango puede durar veinte minutos, porque cada cantador añade sus propios versos.
A las dos de la mañana la fiesta sigue. Marisol lleva tres horas bailando y le duelen los pies. «Odio irme temprano», dice. «Prefiero dormir mañana».
¿Y tú? ¿Prefieres escuchar música o bailarla? ¿Te encanta cantar delante de otras personas, o prefieres quedarte atrás? ¿Hay música en tu país que solo se toca en las fiestas?
About this article
What you'll learn
Preference verbs (encantar, preferir, odiar) with the infinitive; the gerund with estar, seguir and llevar; son jarocho vocabulary.
A night of jarocho fandango in Tlacotalpan, Veracruz: who plays, who dances on the tarima, and why a fandango is not a concert.
After reading
Article learning block
Phrases, words, grammar, and quick practice from this text.
Phrases for training
Add useful phrases to SRS or mark them as already known.
debajo del brazo
newunder their arm
Debajo de means under. The phrase describes carrying something pressed against your side, the way people carry a small guitar or a folder.
A concrete way to describe how people carry things.
a la orilla del río
newby the river
Orilla is an edge, most often the edge of water: la orilla del río, la orilla del mar. A la orilla de places something right at that edge.
Useful for describing where a town or a house is.
en el momento
newthere and then
Here it means on the spot, with nothing prepared in advance. It is not at this moment, which is en este momento; on its own en el momento usually means right then or straight away, as in lo hacen en el momento.
A short phrase that changes meaning completely if you translate it word for word.
sin avisar
newwithout saying anything first
Before a verb, sin takes the infinitive: sin avisar, sin mirar, sin pensar. It describes an action that does not happen. (Before a noun, sin just takes the noun: sin dinero.)
A compact way to say without doing something, and it comes up constantly.
de cerca
newfrom close by
Cerca means near; de cerca describes doing something from a short distance: mirar de cerca, ver de cerca, seguir de cerca.
It pairs with de lejos and is common in descriptions.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
La tarima
tarima
wooden platform
In son jarocho the tarima is a small wooden platform that dancers stamp on. The wood amplifies their steps, so it works as a percussion instrument rather than as a stage.
It is the word you need in order to understand how this music sounds.
Zapatear
zapatea
to stamp out a rhythm with your feet
From zapato, shoe. It means beating a rhythm on the floor or on a wooden platform with your shoes. It is what dancers do in son jarocho and also in flamenco.
One verb that explains a whole dance tradition.
La jarana
la jarana
small guitar of Veracruz
A small guitar used in son jarocho. Musicians carry it under one arm and strum chords while others sing. In everyday Spanish jarana also means a noisy party, and the two meanings live side by side.
It names the instrument you hear on almost any son jarocho recording.
El cantador
cantador
the singer, in this tradition
In son jarocho the person who sings the verses is usually called a cantador or cantadora rather than a cantante. Several of them take turns inside the same piece.
Traditions often keep their own word for the singer, and this one belongs to Veracruz.
El son
sones
a piece of music, a song
Careful: son here is a noun, a piece of music, and sones is its plural. It is spelled exactly like son from the verb ser, so only the sentence tells you which one you are reading.
It is an easy word to misread, and this music is full of the noun.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
A ella le encanta zapatear
A ella le encanta zapatear
she loves stamping out the rhythm
With encantar the person is not the subject: the person appears as me, te, le, nos or les. You can add a ella, a Marisol or a los músicos in front to make it clear who you mean, but the pronoun stays. With an infinitive the verb is singular: le encanta zapatear.
It is the ordinary way to say that somebody loves doing something.
Odio irme temprano
Odio irme temprano
I hate leaving early
Odiar works like an ordinary verb: the person is the subject (yo odio, tú odias, ella odia) and an infinitive can follow. Here the infinitive is reflexive, irse, so the pronoun attaches to its end: irme, irte, irse.
It lets you say what you cannot stand doing, with any verb.
Prefiero esperar: infinitive, not gerund
Prefiero esperar dos o tres sones
I would rather wait two or three pieces
After verbs of liking and preferring (gustar, encantar, preferir, odiar, detestar, interesar) Spanish uses the infinitive: prefiero esperar, le encanta zapatear, odio irme. English says I prefer waiting with -ing, and that pattern does not carry over. The Spanish gerund is perfectly correct after other verbs, and this text uses it three times: está tocando, siguen tocando and lleva tres horas bailando.
It is a very common mistake for English speakers, and it appears the moment you talk about what you like.
Le duelen los pies
le duelen los pies
her feet hurt
Doler is built like gustar: the subject is the body part, not the person. With los pies in the plural the verb is plural too, le duelen los pies. With a single part it is singular, le duele la cabeza. It is the same mechanism as le encanta zapatear, where the subject is the infinitive and the verb therefore stays singular.
This is the usual way Spanish talks about pain, and you need it at the doctor.
Lleva tres horas bailando
lleva tres horas bailando
she has been dancing for three hours
Llevar plus a length of time plus a gerund says how long something that is still going on has lasted: lleva tres horas bailando, llevo dos años estudiando español. In this pattern the infinitive does not work: lleva tres horas bailar is not Spanish.
It is one of the most common ways of saying for how long in conversation.
Se canta en muchos países
se canta en muchos países
it is sung in many countries
In this pattern, with se plus a third person verb you do not say who does the action: se canta, se toca, se inventan. The verb agrees with the thing: se canta una canción, se inventan muchos versos.
Very frequent in descriptions and on signs: Se habla español, Aquí se vende pan.
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