Country: Cuba
Original language: Spanish
This is a Cuban kids’ song All Around This World jazzed up with a merengue arrangement. A
cachumbabmè is a seesaw.
The original version of this song has the Old Lady Ines, a beloved archetype of the super-strong Cuban
“little old lady,” smoking tobacco but refusing to drink coffee. After much deliberation, All Around
This World chose to bring Ines to the U.S. and put her on a health kick, keeping the reference to Cuban
coffee but changing the lyrics to suggest she’ll drink guarapo, which is a drink of raw sugar cane juice.
How dare we do such a thing?? Not as a slight to the tradition of the hardy Cuban woman! We decided
to bring Ines to the U.S. in song in a way that American kids may be more inclined to relate to her, and
nowadays cigar-smoking grannies in the U.S. are few an far between. Though, in retrospect, we
certainly could have kept a little kick in her and had her eschew the guarapo in favor of a thick cup of
coffee.
*Cachumbambé, la vieja Ines, que
bebe guarapo
y no toma cafe.
Cachumbambé, la vieja Ines, que
bebe guarapo
y no toma cafe.
Cachumbambé, old lady Ines
she will drink guarapo
but she won't drink cafe.
Cachumbambé, old lady Ines she
will drink guarapo
but she won't drink cafe.
*"Cachumbambé" = see saw
"
*"La vieja Ines" = Aunt/"old lady" Ines
*"que bebe guarapo" = she will drink
guarapo, a sugar cane drink
*"y no toma cafe" = and she won't
drink coffee.
Book suggestions for this song:
Many thanks to Jay Sand for permission to display these lyrics.
©All Around This World. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
