13 abr 2011

Anticlerical proverbs

In the Spanish tradition there are many anticlerical proverbs, like

Con putas y frailes, ni camines ni andes. (With whores and friars, neither walk nor walk.) There are also misogynist ones, or simply ones in which the woman is the indirect source of misfortune.

Eramos muchos y parió la suegra. / Eramos muchos y parió la suegra. (We were too many already, and grandma / mother-in-law gave birth.)

Mujer que sabe latín, no encuentra marido ni tiene buen fin. (The educated woman, a woman who knows Latin, won't find a husband or come to a good end.)

Proverbs, then, are the source of knowledge about popular ideology. I don't know any pro-clerical or feminist proverbs from the oral tradition.

1 comentario:

Clarissa dijo...

'La mujer casada, la pierna quebrada y en casa' is my favorite one.

It is especially significant because the feminist advances of the 1970s brought about many female literary characters who break their own legs, tie their own feet or constrict their own movement in a variety of ways.