OOOT Lyrics in Yiddish for Mexican song

[Jack Falk \(E-mail\) <jackfalk...>]

Nisht azoy OOOT.  A long, long time ago, I played an
Oktoberfest celebration in Nogales, Arizona, with the
Seattle-based Mazeltones.  How the heck we got this
gig is a mystery of its own, but I think it was the
bizarre byproduct of a Young Audiences residency.

Anyhoo, in preparation for this strange cross-cultural 
exercise, I worked with our son's Mexican-Jewish teacher
to produce a Yiddish version of "Cielito Lindo", which 
started something like this:

Zi shteyt in gortn, a meydl dortn, 
Di sheyne Cielito Lindo....

The fun part was transforming the chorus from
"Ay, ay, ay, ay!" to (of course) "Oy, oy, oy, oy!"

Wish I could find the rest of the lyrics but I think I'd
need to do a major excavation of my office.  

Coda: 
A couple of years later, I wound up back in Nogales with
my family, and we headed south to spend the final days of
Chanukah in a small Mexican beach town.  On our way back
home, we got off the Tres Estrellas bus at the border town
of Sonoyta and ran into a nearby cafe to wait out a fierce
rainstorm.  Eventually I wandered over to the jukebox, where
I was stunned to find something called "Shalom Israel."  
Spending my last few pesos, I heard the strangest version
ever of "Shalom Chaverim".  Thanks to the crummy speakers
it was impossible to tell whether the guy was singing Hebrew,
Spanish, or Klingon, but what a way to mark the 8th afternoon
of Chanukah with the young'uns....

Yankl (Joaquin) Falk

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