"La Cucaracha" (Spanish: "The Cockroach") is a traditional Spanish folk corrido that became popular in Mexico during the

Mexican Revolution. Structure The song consists of verse-and-refrain (strophe-antistrophe) pairs, with each half of each pair consisting of four lines featuring an ABCB rhyme scheme. Refrain The song's earliest lyrics, from which its name is derived, concern a cockroach that has lost one of its six legs and is struggling to walk with the remaining five. The cockroach's uneven, five-legged gait is imitated by the song's original 5/4 meter, formed by removing one upbeat (corresponding to the missing sixth leg) from the second half of a 6/4 measure: La cu-ca- | ra-cha, la cu-ca-ra-cha | ya no pue-de ca-mi-nar por-que no | tie-ne, por-que le fal-ta | u-na pa-ta de a-tras. [nb 1] ("The cockroach, the cockroach / can no longer walk / because he doesn't have, because he lacks / a hind leg"; these lyrics form the basis for the refrain of most later versions. Syllables having primary stress are in boldface; syllables having secondary stress are in roman type; unstressed syllables are in italics. Measure divisions are independent of text line breaks and are indicated by vertical barlines; note that the refrain begins with an anacrusis/"pickup.") Many later versions of the song, especially those whose lyrics do not mention the cockroach's missing leg(s), extend the last syllable of each line to fit the more familiar 6/4 meter. Verses The song's verses fit a traditional melody separate from that of the refrain but sharing the refrain's meter (either 5/4 or 6/4 as discussed above). In other respects, they are highly variable, usually providing satirical commentary on contemporary political or social problems or disputes. Historical evolution The origins of "La Cucaracha" are obscure; because the refrain's lyrics make no explicit reference to historical events, it is difficult if not impossible to date. Because verses are improvised according to the needs of the moment, however, they often enable a rough estimate of their age by mentioning contemporary social or political conditions (thus narrowing a version's possible time of origin to periods in which those conditions prevailed) and/or referring to specific current or past events (thus setting a maximum boundary for a version's age).

Pre-Revolution lyrics There exist several early (pre-Revolution) sets of lyrics referring to historical events. Francisco Rodrguez Marn records in his book Cantos Populares Espaoles several verses dealing with the Reconquista, which was completed in 1492 when the Moors surrendered the Alhambra to Spain: Spanish De las patillas de un moro tengo que hacer una escoba, para barrer el cuartel de la infantera espaola. English From the sideburns of a Moor I must make a broom, to sweep the quarters of the Spanish infantry.

Some early versions of the lyrics discuss events that took place during the conclusion of the Granada War in 1492.[2] One of the earliest written references to the song appears in Mexican writer and political journalist Jos Joaqun Fernndez de Lizardi's 1819 novel La Quijotita y su Prima, where it is suggested that: Spanish Un capitn de marina que vino en una fragata entre varios sonecitos trajo el de "La Cucaracha." English A naval captain who came in a frigate among various tunes brought the one about "La Cucaracha."

Whatever the song's origin, it was during the Mexican Revolution of the early 20th century that "La Cucaracha" saw the first major period of verse production as rebel and government forces alike invented political lyrics for the song. So many stanzas were added during this period that today it is associated mostly with Mexico. Other early stanzas detail such incidents as the Carlist Wars (18331876) and the French intervention in Mexico (1861).