Maculelê Maracatú

Lyrics, Translations, Video and Song Meaning

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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.