Maculelê Maracatú
Song Lyrics
Quando meu filho nascer
Vou perguntar pra parteira
O que é que meu filho vai ser
Meu filho vai ser capoeira
Capoeira capú
Maculelé, maracatu
Não é karaté nem também kung-fu
Maculelé, maracatu
Fui na bahia comer carurú
Maculelé, maracatu
Vim comer caru e não como angu
Maculelé, maracatu
English Translation
When my son is born
I’ll ask the midwife
what my son is going to be
My son is going to be capoeira
Capoeira capú
Maculelé, maracatu
It is not kung-fu, nor karaté
Maculelé, maracatu
I was in Bahia to eat carurú
Maculelé, maracatu
I came to eat caruru and I don’t eat
angu
Maculelé, maracatu
History and sentiment behind song
Maracatú is a Brazilian dance of African origin. In Pernambuco (Recife) it means a group of street dancing merrymakers at Carnival time.
Carurú refers to a vegetable and shrimp patty especially common in Bahia.
Angu is a northeastern Brazilian dish that harks back to the days of slavery. Prints by the French explorer and travel writer, Jean Baptiste Debret, show Brazilian women cooking large pots of angu over wood fires. Similar to the coocoos of the West Indies and the cornmeal mush of the southern United States, this corn angu is prepared simply from cornmeal and water, with the addition of a bit of butter or animal fat.
