The incorporation of proverbs into oral performance and literary expression is a tradition deeply rooted in Spanish language and culture. Generally known as dichos (sayings) and refranes (refrains), they are small poems whose metaphors and measured turns lend cultural and moral authority to the conversations of ordinary speakers and writers. From time immemorial they have served teachers, prophets, parents, and peers. Since medieval times, people have been compelled to gather them up in collections known as refraneros, hoping to harvest their wisdom.
Like a bouquet of wild flowers, they are picked from the meadow, their natural oral context, and set aside so all may admire their beauty. But of course they soon wilt. The challenge for poets, scholars, and storytellers has always been how to recontextualize these minimalist masterpieces. In the community of listeners and readers the greatest prestige belongs not to collectors, but to those with the talent of deploying proverbs with skill and wit. They are the dichosos, literally the “fortunate ones” who have mastered this age-old repertory of sayings and who can compose new ones for special occasions. Don Quijote’s rustic pal Sancho Panza may be lazy, but he is a dichoso, a master of oral tradition. Amazingly enough, the dichos on his lips at every turn of the road are the very same ones we also use in our own equally complicated times.
“Language at the Heart of Place” is the poetic invocation that Don and Stella Chávez Usner use for their lifelong compilation of the globally dispersed, locally performed miniature poems known to Hispanos Nuevomexicanos as dichos or refranes. The collection of new and old sayings is interspersed with deep reflections on extended family and place through memoir and stunning photo portraits. Rather than salting away dusty lists of proverbs, Usner captures the cultural geography and oral genealogy of Chimayó in vibrant conversation with community elders.
For the Querencias Series
ENRIQUE R. LAMADRID