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This article is about the song. For the comic, see La Cucaracha (comic).

A contemporary corrido song sheet of La cucaracha issued during the Mexican Revolution. Note the original lyrics and the reference to cartoncitos, which were a type of scrip issued as pay.

"La Cucaracha" ("The Cockroach") is a traditional Spanish language folk song of the genre known as a corrido, that became popular in Mexico during the Mexican revolution. One explanation of its origin as a traditional Mexican song claims that this song references the car of the famed revolutionary general Pancho Villa, which frequently broke down and earned the nickname la cucaracha from Villa's troops. Its actual origin may date from much earlier, it may have been composed following the expulsion of the Moors from Spain on January 2, 1492, and was certainly known and published prior to the Revolution.

The lyrics consist of independent verses, often improvised. It is similar to Yankee Doodle, The Burning of the School or On Top of Old Smoky. One typical verse is as follows:

La cucaracha, la cucaracha

Ya no puede caminar

Porque le falta, porque no tiene

Marijuana que fumar.

English

The cockroach, the cockroach

Can't walk anymore

Because it lacks, because it doesn't have,

Marijuana to smoke

--OR--

La cucaracha, la cucaracha

Ya no puede caminar

Porque no tiene, porque le falta

La patita principal.

English

The cockroach, the cockroach

Can't walk anymore

Because it doesn't have, because it lacks

The principal leg

Many lyrics are in fact just nonsense verses and others about love:

Cuando uno quiere a una (When a man loves a woman)

Y esta una no lo quiere, (but she doesn't love him back)

Es lo mismo como si un calvo (it's like a bald man)

En calle encuetre un peine. (finding a comb in the street)

Mi vecina de enfrente (my neighbor across the street)

Se llamaba Doña Clara, (was called Doña Clara)

Y si no había muerte (and if she hasn't died)

Es probable se llamara. (That's probably still her name)

During the Mexican Revolution, rebel and government forces alike invented political lyrics. In some versions, the cockroach is President Victoriano Huerta, who was a notorious drunk, and considered a villain and traitor due to his part in the death of revolutionary President Francisco Madero. They may include lines like:

En el norte viva Villa

En el sur viva Zapata

Lo que quiero es venganza

Por la muerte de Madero

(English)

In the north long live Villa,

In the south long live Zapata

What I want is revenge

For the death of Madero

In contexts where the mention of marijuana would be unsuitable, limonada que tomar ("lemonade to drink") or las patitas de atrás' ("its hind legs") are frequently substituted for the last line. This preserves both story and, in the Spanish version, meter.

In Francisco Rodríguez Marín's book "Cantos populares españoles", published in 1883, he records several verses that deal with the Reconquista wars against the Moors in Spain:

De la patillas de un moro

tengo que hacer una escoba,

para que barra el cuartel

la infantería española.

(English)

From the sideburns of a Moor

I must make a broom

to sweep the quarters

of the Spanish infantry

La Cucaracha, the literal translation "the cockroach", is a song about older times when the United States went to find Pancho Villa. A cockroach is another term for a vehicle or a train car without any wheels.

Story behind this: One is out driving one day when his or her car runs out of gas. He leaves the car in Mexico and starts walking along the road to find gas for it. While he is gone, other people come and grab the tires and other parts off of the vehicle thus making a cockroach without legs (immobile).

This dance is usually performed during social gatherings. The boy or the male wears "blousey" shirt, a low-cut vest, a jacket cut something like a long bolero, and long rather tightly fitting pants often decorated with silver buttons. On his head, he will wear a sombrero, and on his arm he carries his brightly colored zarape.

The music for this dance is divided into two parts: A and B with the counting of one, two, three to a measure. Couples are arranged informally around the room. The boy clasps his hands around his back, the girl holds her skirt gracefully at the side, or the participants may be arranged in any desired formation. Partners stand side by side with the girl on the right side of the boy.

• Louie Armstrong (1935)
• Bill Haley & His Comets (1966) - as "La Cucaracha a Go-Go"
• Doug Sahm
• James Last (1999)
• Les Negresses Vertes
• Zebda
• Charlie Parker
• Speedy Gonzales
• Los Lobos

• What are the words to "La Cucaracha"? on The Straight Dope
• Version with several references to the Mexican Revolution
• complete lyric
• Sheet Music for Wind Orchestra: Parts & Scores