The other day I received a greeting card from my sister. I had been feeling un poco enferma with a cold and cough. The greeting card had a cute sad frog titled Sana Sana Colita de Rana. It brought a smile to my face and brought back lindas memorias of our childhood.
When my sister and I were growing up my grandmother took care of us while my parents worked. Every morning when we arrived mi abuelita would be making fresh flour tortillas. Her tortillas were so soft and delicious. My sister and I ate them con mantequilla. We loved going to abuelita’s house. We played escuelita, colored, watched cartoons and played outside. One day we were playing tag in the front yard near a pile of piedritas. My sister tagged me and I fell on my knees on top of the piedritas. I was in so much pain and a piedrita had gone through the skin on my knee. I was crying hysterically and mi abuelita came out to see what happened. She was trying to calm me down, but I couldn’t stop crying. Mi abuelita sent my sister to get something from the house. My sister came back with a small circular container, some napkins, and un curita. Mi abuelita gently pulled out the piedrita from my knee, she wiped it off with a napkin and then rubbed the pomada, that was in the circular container, gently on my knee.
As she rubbed it in a circular motion she sang, “Sana Sana colita de rana. Si no sana hoy, sanara mañana.”
I looked at her with tears in my eyes. I thought it was a silly little rhyme and it brought a smile to my face. In English, it translates to, heal, heal little frog tail, if you don’t heal today, you will heal tomorrow. Later, I learned that this rhyme was told to mi abuelita by her mother. It was a Mexican tradition to sing this rhyme to kids when they get hurt, or sick.
Today, I am a mother. My kids never met mi abuelita because she passed away before my children were born. One night my son had a tummy ache, I rubbed his tummy and I sang, “Sana Sana Colita de rana. Si no sanas hoy, sanaras mañana.” It brought a smile to his face. I began to tell my son how mi abuelita would sing this song to me when I was his age. It allowed me to share part of mi abuelita with my son. Just like the greeting card my sister gave me when I was feeling sick, it made me smile. It reminded me that soon I will feel better.
I looked in the back of the greeting card to see who designed this card and it read Paper Tacos.