Day 72 of 160

Day 72: Great-Grandma on the Ofrenda

At home in San Juan del Río, Querétaro, Marisela (A) and Héctor (B) are setting up the family's Día de Muertos altar, the ofrenda, with their young daughter Lucía (C); café de olla is coffee brewed in a clay pot with cinnamon.

How to study this lesson 3 steps
  1. Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
  2. Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a Spanish word to see what it means.
  3. Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native Spanish, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.

Dialogue

Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.

Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning

  1. A

    Lucía, pásame la foto de tu bisabuela Elodia: va hasta arriba, junto a las veladoras.

    LucĂ­a, pass me the photo of your great-grandma Elodia: it goes right at the top, next to the candles.

  2. B

    Y a un lado, su café de olla: decía que sin café no había escuela que funcionara.

    And next to it, her café de olla: she used to say no school could run without coffee.

  3. C

    ÂżEra maestra? Sale tan seria en la foto que me da miedito.

    Was she a teacher? She looks so stern in the photo that she scares me a bit.

  4. A

    Maestra rural, mi vida: iba a caballo a una escuelita de la sierra, en la cual enseñaba a leer hasta a los papás.

    A country teacher, sweetheart: she rode a horse to a little school in the mountains, where she taught even the parents to read.

  5. B

    Según tu abuela, iba en burro. Cuanto más lo cuenta tu mamá, más alta se pone la sierra.

    According to your grandma, she went by donkey. The more your mom tells it, the higher the mountains get.

  6. A

    ¡Ay, qué exagerado! Burro o caballo, el mérito es que nunca faltó a clases.

    Oh, don't exaggerate! Donkey or horse, what's to her credit is that she never missed a day of school.

  7. C

    ¡Miren, atrás tiene algo escrito! “Escuela de la sierra, 1938, con mi mula Canela”.

    Look, there's something written on the back! “Mountain school, 1938, with my mule Canela.”

  8. B

    ¿Una mula? Ni tú ni yo, Marisela: Canela, la heroína olvidada, también se merece su veladora.

    A mule? Neither of us was right, Marisela: Canela, the forgotten heroine, deserves a candle too.

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