Carlos in Miami, Florida, is fond of the Spanish proverb El que no llora, no mama, which might be translated as “The baby who doesn’t cry doesn’t get any milk,” or literally, “The one who doesn’t cry, doesn’t suckle.” Its sense is similar to the English The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Another Spanish dicho regarding the idea of failing to speak up for oneself is no decir esta boca es mía, or literally, “To not say that this mouth is mine.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “El Que No Llora, No Mama”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Yeah, yes, this is Carlos from Miami.
Hey, Carlos, welcome to the show. What’s on your mind?
I had actually called before because they were talking about different phrases from different cultures, different countries.
And one of the ones that I submitted was, it’s in Spanish, but particularly Cuban Spanish.
And it’s, el que no llora, no mama, which is basically a direct translation.
The baby that doesn’t cry doesn’t get any milk.
Right.
And it usually applies to when someone’s asking, wants to ask for a raise or something in a relationship that somebody wants to get done.
You know, I guess the equivalent would be the squeaky wheel gets the oil, something like that.
Yeah, squeaky wheel gets the grease. That’s right.
Yeah, so that’s all I got for you guys.
Oh, but it’s a good one. Say it again for us.
El que no llora, no mama.
The baby that doesn’t cry doesn’t get to suckle.
It’s true.
Let me ask you if you’ve heard another Spanish one.
No de cierre esta boca es mía.
What would that mean exactly?
Well, according to what I learned, it’s to not say that this mouth is mine.
So it’s a way to not speak up for yourself.
So an English translation might say, he didn’t say this mouth is mine, so his business partners cut him out of the deal.
Oh, okay. I get it.
Yeah, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard that one.
No, no, but thank you. I know it now.
I looked up your expression, no llora, no mama, in my proverb books, and I’ve got a zillion of them.
And it looks like it’s widespread throughout the Spanish-speaking world.
In Chile, in Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Mexico, and some more countries.
So maybe I was being selfish with my Cuban upbringing.
No, no.
It just means that you’re part of this larger Spanish-speaking culture.
So you belong to this large history of proverbs and sayings.
Dichos.
Yeah.
And being bilingual in Miami, it’s almost like it’s extra fun because you get kind of the best of both worlds.
Right.
You get proverbs from everywhere, as many as you can.
Well, Carlos, thank you so much for sharing.
And call us again sometime with some more of these, all right?
You know, thank you for having me.
It was a pleasure.
All right.
Thanks, Carlos.
Have a good one, guys.
Okay.
Bye-bye.
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