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One final note on our chat with Arturo Vega. While he's talking about his realizations, he says:
Pero a mí... yo me di cuenta que no era nada más... cuestión de que yo estaba absorbiendo o que me gustaba...
But for me... I realized that it was not just... [a] question of me capturing or of me liking...
Captions 19-20, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 2
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Here is an additional example from some mushroom hunters in Aracena, Spain:
Yo afición. Yo soy profesor de cocina, y... y no es sólo cuestión de cocinar alimentos, sino ver origen.
Me, [as a] hobby. I am a cooking teacher, and... and it's not only a question of cooking food, but to see the origin.
Captions 77-78, 75 minutos - Del campo a la mesa - Part 11
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Early in your Spanish careers, you probably learned that a question to your Spanish teacher was "una pregunta." Meanwhile, the related, sound-alike word, "una cuestión," is better defined as "a matter, issue or question to be debated or resolved." So, "a question" or "matter" -- as in "a question/matter of taste" -- is translated as una cuestión when it's referring to an issue at stake. Meanwhile, "a question" that takes a question mark (?) is "una pregunta."
Any other questions? ¿Hay más preguntas?
Asked about his influences in the arts, Arturo Vega gives a long, thoughtful answer that includes one particular verb phrase over and over. Here are the excerpts:
Después de la actuación... me di cuenta que... mi talento o mi vocación... era mejor... lo visual.
After acting... I realized that... my gift or my vocation... was really good at... the visual.
Captions 10-13, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 2
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Me he dado cuenta que mi manera de percibir y de valorizar...
I have found that my way of perceiving and appreciating...
Captions 14-15, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 2
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Pero a mí... yo me di cuenta que no era nada más... cuestión de que yo estaba absorbiendo o que me gustaba...
But for me... I realized that it was not just... [a] question of me capturing or of me liking...
Captions 19-20, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 2
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...sino que me di cuenta que podía hacer algo con la información visual.
...but that I realized that I could do something with visual information.
Caption 22, Arturo Vega -Entrevista - Part 2
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Y... y me da... me di cuenta del gusto...
And... and it gives me... I became aware of the pleasure...
Caption 24, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 2
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Me di cuenta que no tienes que por qué [sic] saber dibujar ni pintar para...
I realized that you don't need to know how to draw or paint in order to...
Caption 31, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 2
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Through repetition, you learn. Here our lesson is clear: Darse cuenta = "to realize". Yes, it's used often, you must realize.
In Part 2 of our chat with Arturo Vega, artistic director of The Ramones, the interviewer asks:
¿Entonces tú estudiastes [sic] esto? ¿Estudiastes este arte o eso ya fue algo que tú...?
Then did you study this? Did you study this art or was it something that you...?
Captions 45-47, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 2
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If you've studied basic Spanish grammar, you've probably learned that the correct second-person preterite of estudiar (a regular, -ar verb) is (tú) estudiaste without a final 's.' So what was the interviewer saying -- not once but twice? Was she so tongue-tied in the presence of Vega that she couldn't speak her own language without adding stray s's? Or was it simply a manner of speaking that you don't come across in textbooks?
Elsewhere in the interview, we heard the same -astes ending on another -ar verb:
Que otros artistas que... quizás nos están viendo hoy pueden a... aprender algo más de cómo tú desarrollastes tu... tu... tu trabajo.
That other artists who... may be watching us today can be... can learn something more about how you developed your... your... your work.
Captions 6-8, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 2
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(Use the "slow" button on the Yabla player and you'll hear that there's no mistaking that there is a final 's' there.)
After asking around (and browsing online), we found that some Spanish speakers in many countries (Spain included) do indeed say (tú) estudiastes, even though it's considered improper. People also say things like "(tú) comistes" and "(tú) dijistes," equally frowned upon by grammarians.
Among professional translators and other highly educated multi-lingual folks, we found heated debates on message boards about -astes/ -istes. Some say the endings came from the Spanish vosotros (-asteis/ -isteis) form. Some note that all other endings for "tú" verbs end with an "s," so it comes as a natural extension of Spanish grammatical rules ("pattern pressure"). Some argue it is acceptably "casual" in some settings while others insist it is dead wrong and painful to hear.
As you yourself navigate la habla hispana (the Spanish-speaking world), there is a good chance you will continue to encounter this usage. You may have even already danced salsa to such tunes as Cuando Llegastes Tú (Louie Ramirez) or Llegastes Tú (Ray Sepúlveda). Unless your spoken Spanish is of such an extremely high level that you can easily slip in and out of "dialect" depending on what community you are socializing in (and you really feel compelled to "fit in"), you probably don't want to adopt this style yourself. And when writing, it's definitely best to refrain altogether.
Even native speakers have no end of trouble with the distinction between aun and aún. In fact, this newsletter was instigated when our chief proofreader removed the accents she found on the u's in Belanova's title refrain Y aun así te vas. The band's own CD shows an accent on the u, so we were dubious. Ultimately, she convinced us that there should be no accent on the u in the phrase aun así. Hopefully the following will convince you too!
Revolvimos los planetas
We stirred the planets
Y aun así te vas
And even so you leave
Captions 16-17, Belanova - Y aun así te vas
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Aun así is a Spanish idiom, or usage expression, meaning "even so", "still" or "yet." We could have equally well translated the line as "And still you leave," or "And yet you leave."
Hace frío afuera, aun así ella no se pone un abrigo.
It's cold outside, yet she won't wear a coat.
No tengo mucho dinero, pero aun así voy a comprar la computadora.
I don't have much money, but still I'm going to buy the computer.
Habíamos pagado por la habitación y aun así tuvimos que buscar otro hotel.
We had paid for the room and yet we had to look for another hotel.
Aun así, creo que deberías disculparte.
Even so, I think you should apologize.
The word aun, by itself, and with no accent over the u, and not followed by así, can often be translated as "even."
No como torta, aun en mi cumpleaños.
I don't eat cake, even for my birthday.
Aun cuando lo leyera, no lo entendería.
I wouldn't understand it, even if I read it.
Ni aun sabiendo la dirección llegarías a su casa.
Not even knowing the address would you find his house.
Can you see how when we put aun together with así ("like this" / "this way"), we get something along the lines of "even like this" / "even this way"? Or, more concisely, "even so"? Diccionario de Uso del Español, by María Moliner, a favorite of professional translators, goes deeper:
"AUN ASÍ" Expresión adverbial de significado adversativo, ya que expresa oposición entre el resultado real de la circunstancia expresada por "así" y el que podría esperarse de ella. "Aun así no llegaís a tiempo"
"AUN ASÍ" Adverbial phrase with adversative meaning since there is a contrast between the actual outcome of that circumstance expressed by "así" and the expected result. "And still / yet you are not on time"
If that's a bit too deep, ¡no importa! (don't worry), just remember the basic meaning and you'll be fine!
Aún, with the accent on the ú, means "up until the present moment" and is basically synonymous with todavía. Confusingly enough, aún is also defined as "yet," "still," but in the temporal sense (as opposed to when they mean "even so" / aun así).
¿Aún estás aquí?
¿Todavía estás aquí?
Are you still here?
Aún no ha llamado.
Todavía no ha llamado.
She hasn’t called yet.
Ya son las once y aún no ha llamado.
Ya son las once y todavía no ha llamado.
It’s already eleven o’clock and she still hasn’t called.
¿Has tenido noticias? —Aún no
¿Has tenido noticias? —Todavía no
Have you had any news? — Not yet.
Let's continue with Arturo Vega's tentative arrival in New York:
Y vine primeramente en el sesenta y nueve para ver qué onda, a ver qué tal estaba Nueva York.
And I first came in sixty-nine to see what was going on, to see how New York was.
Captions 70-71, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 1
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"¿Qué onda?" It's a common question in Mexico and elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world. It's even a common greeting. If you took it literally, the question sounds like "What wave?" -since "qué" (with an accented é) means "what" and "onda" means "wave," technically speaking. While "de onda corta" is "shortwave," as in shortwave radio, note that "onda" can also mean "vibe" informally. And so "qué onda" can mean, basically, "what's up" or "what's going on," as our translators have it. ("What vibe" sounds silly in English.)
Onda in this informal sense seems to have originated in Mexican colloquial speech and is used in a wide variety of ways. This usage has spread throughout Latin America but, by most accounts, continues to be most common in the place it originated.
Note that ola is also a word for "wave," and this is the word used to describe the things that slap the beach. If you talk about an onda when describing a body of water, most native Spanish speakers will take it that you mean a "ripple." So, next time you visit Puerto Escondido, note that a surfista is certainly riding las olas, but might be staying at Cabañas la Buena Onda (The Good Vibe Cabanas) -- which are still so pure that they don't appear to have a website, but we guarantee you they exist (find them at La Punta, "The Point").
Chatting with Arturo Vega, the artistic director of the seminal New York rockers The Ramones, we learn he's from Chihuahua, Mexico (yes, the namesake of those tiny Taco Bell / Paris Hilton dogs). We also learn that he came to the U.S. in "los sesentas" ["the sixties"] -- as in, "los años sesenta." In fact, in just over six minutes of chatting in front of the camera, Vega mentions "los sesentas" four times (in captions 29, 30, 40 and 50, to be precise).
En los sesentas empecé a viajar y por supuesto en los sesentas era más atractivo ir a lugares como San Francisco, California
In the sixties I started to travel and of course in the sixties it was more attractive to go to places like San Francisco, California
Captions 29-30, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 1
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But the grammar police say that Vega gets it wrong four times: In proper Spanish, the decades are supposed to be singular, so it's los sesenta (short for los años sesenta).
Well, let's give Vega the benefit of the doubt. You see, Anglicisms in Spanish are increasingly popular. By "Anglicism" here we are referring to the application of a rule of English grammar to Spanish. Besides making decades plural, as an Anglicism, you may hear some family names pluralized in Spanish as the are in English. For example: Los Ramones (as uttered by our interviewer in caption 37) is technically the incorrect way to refer to the members of the fictional Ramone family.
Y... aquí fue donde... conociste a Los Ramones
And... it was here where... you came to know the Ramones
Captions 36-37, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 1
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(Granted, "los Ramone" does not echo the name of the legendary band....) Note: the band members each took the last name "Ramone" as stage names, but these neighborhood pals from Queens were not, in fact, related, nor born with this surname.
Tip: If you want to hear a more traditional translation of a famous U.S. family into Spanish, tune into Los Simpson. (Yup: it's singular: "Simpson.")
Pero al desear siempre un poco más... por allá ya vas
But by wanting always a little more... you're already going there
Captions 7-8, SiZu Yantra - Bienvenido
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References (such as this one) would suggest that al desear here could be translated as "when wanting" or "in wishing," but we went with "by wanting." The idea here is that one action leads to the other, the desire in itself makes you move forward. An equally acceptable translation here would be "in wanting always..."
Al cambiar de actitud, la mayoría de la gente puede cambiar el modo en que otros los tratan.
By changing their attitude, most people can change the way others treat them.
Al confesarle la verdad, le dio la posibilidad de evaluar la situación.
By telling the truth, he gave her the opportunity to assess the situation.
Al dejar a aquella mujer, pudo comenzar una nueva vida.
By leaving that woman, he could start a new life.
Final note about Sizu's Bienvenido: You will probably find captions 10 and 12, in particular, rather unusual in terms of sentence structure. These lines can have even native speakers scratching their heads and are not typical Spanish.
From the clarity of the diction and the pacing of the music, you might think Sizu Yantra's tune Bienvenido would be easy to translate. But you'd be wrong. Some lyrics drove us to semantic delirium! Here is the opening:
Y si tú ya estás aquí, yo quisiera preguntarte
And if you're already here, I would like to ask you
si al mundo lo encuentras enfermizo, delirante y brutal
if you find the world sickly, delirious and brutal
Tú ya estás aquí y deseando que tú goces...
You're already here and [I am] desiring that you enjoy [it]...
Captions 1-3, SiZu Yantra - Bienvenido
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The very first line of lyrics is clearly enunciated and seemingly unambiguous -- with personal pronouns tú and yo included to set the listener off on the right foot. OK: it's sort of trippy, but we have every reason to believe we are hearing what the songwriter wanted us to hear.
But we get to the second sentence (caption 3) and native English speakers may find themselves at a bit of a loss. "Deseando" -- the gerund of the verb desear ("to desire, to wish, to look forward to") -- has no immediately apparent subject. So, how would we know to translate "deseando" as if it were the first person, progressive, "estoy deseando"? There are a few clues to solve this mystery. Let's investigate:
If this detective work seems complicated, remember that in English we have a similar situation with "Wish you were here." Taken on its own, this seemingly simple sentiment has an implied subject (Could it be "I wish"? Or: "We wish"?) and then a subordinate clause using the subjunctive. At the end of the day, the subject is left to context -- or the listener's own interpretation.
Back to our slippery song. "Deseando que tú goces" was finally translated as "I am desiring that you enjoy it..." because it matches best with the first line of the song (where "yo" is introduced) -- and doesn't break any grammar rules. Whew. Keep listening, for more constructive confusion!
Do you ever wonder why "por qué" has an accent in certain instances and not others? In a similar vein: Do you know the reason "porque" is sometimes one word and sometimes two? Tune in to the latest new content at Yabla Spanish and read the captions to see "por qué" and "porque" in action.
Our team of translators took special pains to put all the accents in their proper places in the captions of this week's installment of the documentary ¡Tierra Sí, Aviones No! You'll see evidence of their hard work in the short excerpt below.
¿Por qué? Porque él es el único responsable.
Why? Because he's the only one responsible.
Caption 9, ¡Tierra, Sí! - Atenco - Part 4
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Why does the first "por qué" take an accent mark over the é? Because it is used to ask a question, that's why. Remember: "Who, what, when, where and why" (those famous Five Ws of journalism) all take accents in Spanish -- as in "Quién, qué, cuándo, dónde y por qué."
Now that you've got the "questioning word = accent mark" rule in mind, let's look at some trickier cases. One pops up just a sentence later.
Pero a nivel ejidal no tiene por qué meterse en nuestro ejido.
But at the cooperative level, he doesn't have reason to meddle in our cooperative.
Caption 13, ¡Tierra, Sí! - Atenco - Part 4
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No tener por qué + infinitive ("to have no reason to...") is one of those auxiliary (modal) verb phrases that you simply have to memorize -- or figure it out from context. Listen for it; we think you'll find it's surprisingly common in spoken and written Spanish. In these cases por qué means "reason" or "cause." For example:
No tengo por qué juzgar el comportamiento de otros.
I have no reason to judge the behavior of others.
Sometimes it's best translated in the sense of necessity.
Amor no tiene por qué doler.
Love doesn't have to hurt.
Listening to the lyrics of Belanova's ballad featured this week, we encounter another "por qué":
Me pregunto por qué
I ask myself why
no te puedo encontrar
I can't find you
Captions 9-10, Belanova - Me Pregunto
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In the song's refrain, above, Belanova lead singer Denise is asking herself a question. We don't need to use question marks to get the idea across; the "por qué" here expresses an indirect inquiry.
We left you to figure out that "porque" -- one word, no accent mark -- means "because." It begins the answer to many a "por qué" question. Why? Just because!
That is, expressed in Spanish:
¿Por qué? ¡Porque sí!
Why? Just because! (or: Because I said so!)
In the second installment of the documentary Tierra Envenenada -- "The Poisoned Land" -- we open with instructions given to children. The instructions are meant to teach them to look out for signs of danger. Do you know the internationally recognized icon of danger?
¿Qué figura es esa?
What figure is that?
Una calavera, una calavera, una calavera...
It's a skull, a skull, a skull...
Captions 8-9, Tierra Envenenada - Desminando - Part 2
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The spooky image of the skull, spoken by the young boy in the documentary is repeated above for effect. Aside from being an icon of danger, many of us also know the skull as a ubiquitous symbol of Mexico's Día de los Muertos, as well as rock & rollers everywhere.
If you want to be medically technical, you might use cráneo to say "skull" in Spanish, but that's more like saying "cranium" in English. Yes, it's the bone structure of the head, but it's not as symbolically evocative.
Slang lovers will note that calavera can also mean "daredevil" or "madcap" -- as in "un hombre calavera." However, that is far from the lesson this serious documentary about the danger of land mines seeks to impart.
The lyrics to Javier García's song Tranquila describe climbing up a mountain... and then climbing back down. Meanwhile, the video depicts passengers on a bus. But, guess what?: In Spanish, "to climb up or down a mountain" and "to get on or off a bus" use the same two verbs: subir y bajar.
Let's take a closer look at the lyrics:
Súbete a una montaña
Climb up a mountain
Quédate un ratito
Stay for a while
Y después te bajas
And then you get down
Captions 6-8, Javier García - Tranquila
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The lyrics here would still make linguistic sense if García sang about a bus ride:
Súbete a un autobús
Quédate un ratito
Y después te bajas
In Spanish, you also use subir and bajar to describe getting in and out of a car, climbing up or down stairs, taking an escalator up or down, getting on or off a train or subway or horse.... In other words, subir and bajar are an essential pair of verbs to know to get around town.
(As an aside: Whether or not you use the reflexive form of subir and/or bajar in this context is a matter of emphasis and formality. Note that it's less formal -- and less technically correct, according to the Real Academía Española -- to use the "te" pronouns in this song. Saying súbete... above is somewhat akin to saying, say, "get yourself..." in English. Call it creative license.)
Here's a haunting description of what it's like to be out in a field, wounded by a land mine:
Y bueno, yo aguanté hasta cierta parte, y de ahí ya no pude, el dolor me dominó.
And well, I could take it until a certain point, and from there on I couldn't anymore, the pain dominated me.
Captions 83-84, Tierra Envenenada - Desminando
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The verb aguantar is a synonym for soportar in this context. It means "to be able to endure," "to stand" or "to bear." You'll often see aguantar followed by hasta ("until") to set a limit for how much can be stood or endured. For example:
Hay que aguantar hasta mañana.
You [in an impersonal sense] have to put up with it until tomorrow.
You'll probably hear the verb aguantar used by students with heavy work loads and tough teachers, but the verb can describe truly horrific pain as well.
If you go back into the archives, you'll hear this verb used in the Disputas theme song, Me llamas, by José Luis Perales.
Me llamas... para decirme que te marchas que ya no aguantas más... que ya estás harta...
You call me... to tell me that you're leaving that you can't take it anymore... that you're fed up...
Captions 15-18, Disputas - La Extraña Dama
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This week, we've uploaded and subtitled the first installment of "Tierra Envenenada" ("Poisoned Land") -- a documentary describing the horrors of land mines in Central America.
Check out this short exchange between an unseen interviewer and a pedestrian (known in the business as an MOS, for "man on the street"):
Cuénteme, ¿usted sabe lo que es una mina?
Tell me, do you know what a mine is?
No, no sé... ¿Quién es?
No, I don't know... who is it?
Captions 30-31, Tierra Envenenada - Desminando
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"¿Quién es?" ("Who is it?")...
That off-the-cuff reply is kind of funny if you note that in some Latin American countries una mina is slang for "a girl" or "a woman," often with negative connotations. Regular subscribers to this service may remember that we wrote about the slang meaning of minas in Argentina back in this newsletter.
According to la Real Academia Española, the definitive Spanish-language authority, mina has many definitions. For one thing, it is a mine, as in a site where minerals are excavated. In a more military sense, it's a mine, as in an encased explosive set to detonate when disturbed. (The latter is the subject of our documentary today.) And the dictionary also acknowledges that mina is an informal synonym for una mujer in Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay. Some explosively bad puns could be made with this minefield of a word. (Sorry.)
But keep in mind that this video is introducing the very serious topic of minas antipersonales ("antipersonnel mines") and the process of desminando ("removing the mines") -- that la Organización de los Estados Americanos ("the Organization of American States") is undertaking. Listen and learn.
The Mexican trio Belanova use the haber + de + infinitive construction repeatedly in the chorus of Por Ti:
Si mi vida ha de continuar
If my life should continue
Si otro día llegará
If another day will come
Si he de volver a comenzar
If I should start all over again
Será por ti
It will be for you
Captions 7-10, Belanova - Por ti
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As it turns out, the haber+de+infinitive construction, often found in music and literature, is deceivingly difficult to translate with precision. A native speaker staff member tells us that, in the context of this song, she gets the sense that ha de continuar expresses possibility ("if my life is to continue / is going to continue") more than obligation ("if my life must continue"). However, generally speaking, haber+de+infinitive, does convey a sense of obligation or necessity, though often milder than the tener+que+infinitive construction (tiene que continuar -`"has to continue") or hay que+infinitive construction (hay que continuar -"has to / must continue").
For this reason, in the end, we chose to use "should" in our English translations as it is nicely ambigious, conveying a sense of possibility but also having the alternate meaning of mild obligation.
Note that haber+de+infinitive and hay [also from the verb haber] + que + infinitive are completely distinct, and used in distinct contexts. So, how should you decide de vs que? You see, hay que continuar, loosely translated as "one has to continue," would always express a generalization. Meanwhile, the first-, second- and third-person conjugations of haber -- that is, he, hemos, has, han, ha and han -- plus 'de' yields a more specific, though milder sense of obligation, or of possibility, as in our featured song.
Check out these discussions on the topic:
ThoughtCo. > How is Haber de used?
WordReference.com > haber de, haber que, tener que
A final note regarding the verbs in Belanova's provocative refrain: 'Volver a comenzar' could be translated bit by bit as "to return ['volver'] to begin ['comenzar']. But in English, we tend to say "to start again" or, with more emphasis, "to start all over again."
Say you're going to a Christmas party -- that is, una fiesta de Navidad. What are you going to bring? (¿Que vas a llevar?) Well, your host might suggest:
Tráiganos una botella de vino, nada más.
Bring us a bottle of wine, that's all.
And then you might respond:
Bueno. Voy a llevar vino tinto.
Ok. I'll bring red wine.
Did you notice we switched verbs there? Both llevar and traer can mean "to bring," but with a crucial difference in perspective. If you're the one doing the bringing to someone else, you use 'llevar' -which also means "to carry." If you're the one asking someone to bring something to you, you use 'traer.' Got that?
There are many definitions of the common verb 'llevar,' which is why we keep returning to it again and again in our weekly missives.
In this week's videos, you'll hear llevar used in a couple of different contexts -- in a song and in a classroom. First, let's look at the heartstring-tugging lyrics sung by Axel Fernando:
Muchas veces me pregunto por qué pasa todo esto,
Many times I wonder why all this happens
por qué tus mil "Te quiero" siempre se los lleva el viento
why your thousand "I love yous" are always carried away by the wind
Captions 1-2, Axel Fernando - ¿Qué estás buscando?
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Here, the reflexive llevarse means "to carry away" or "to take away." The online dictionary site, WordReference.com provides some examples along the same lines:
¡Llévatelo de aquí!
Take it away [from here]!
Se lo llevó la corriente
The current carried it away
Remember: At a restaurant, they might ask you '¿Para llevar?' ("To take out [with you]?"). In our next video -- in Spanish school room -- we get a handy lesson in verb forms to use to offer advice. At the same time, we see our featured verb take on another shade of its meaning. Sit in the back of the classroom and listen:
"Te aconsejo que lleves una chaqueta".
"I recommend that you bring a jacket."
Caption 28, Escuela Don Quijote - En el aula
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Llevaría una chaqueta. -Muy bien. Yo, que tú.
I would bring a jacket. -Very good. If I were you.
Caption 31, Escuela Don Quijote - En el aula
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Note that llevar could also mean "to wear," and that the phrases above could possibly be talking about the "wearing" of a jacket as well. One must distinguish the proper meaning from the greater context.
Bernardo, traeme otra caja de pastillas. ¿Bernardo?
Bernardo, bring me another box of pills. Bernardo?
Caption 57, Muñeca Brava - 7 El poema
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Hazme un favor: Tráeme mi chaqueta.
Do me a favor: Bring me my jacket.
¿Para qué?
Why?
Quiero llevarla a la fiesta de Navidad.
I want to wear it [or possibly: to bring it] to the Christmas party.
Among Polbo's song lyrics that are entirely in Spanish in this video, we see the diminutive of todos ("everyone" or "all") repeated in the refrain:
Ahora toditos se fueron... al sur
Now everyone's gone... south
Caption 10, Polbo - Yo era tan cool
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Why use the diminutive of todos here? Well, adding the suffix -ito to make it toditos doesn't change the meaning of the word. It simply renders it more colloquial.
You see, in Spanish adding a diminutive suffix -- namely, -ito or -ita -- is often used in informal speech -- in its extreme, in baby talk or other affectionate banter. So, a gatito (gato / "cat" + -ito) can be a little cat (or "kitty") but it can also be a big cat that you're discussing with a small person. For example:
Mira el gatito, mi amorcito
Look at the kitty, my little love
This could be said at the zoo in front of a lion's cage if we're talking baby talk. Another example:
Besitos grandes
Big affectionate kisses
Back to our song. Toditos is "everyone" said in a friendly, familiar way. Toditos is not meant to shrink the size of "everyone," just to make it more casual.
Spanish is the official language of Puerto Rico, yet a large portion of the population knows English, so bilingual puns play to a wide audience. Case in point, the lyrics to this cynical song by the band Polbo:
Yo era el as de las nenas Cuando tenía dinero
I was the ace of the girls When I had money
Ahora sigo siendo el as/ass En otro idioma, tú sabrás
Now I'm still the ace/ass [bilingual pun] In another language, you know
Captions 13-16, Polbo - Yo era tan cool
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Like its English equivalent "ace," the Spanish as is both a good poker card and "a whiz" at something. The pun on as / ass works in this song because the two words are pronounced essentially the same way, with a soft "s" (unlike the word "as" in English, which is pronounced "az").
One more note regarding the bilingual audience for Yo era tan cool. The word "cool" is obviously borrowed from English. But one could argue that cool is going the way of "OK" / "okay" or "ciao" / "chau" / "chao" as a word that crosses linguistic barriers. We googled "es cool" (in Spanish) and more than 1,000,000 web pages came up. Cool, ¿no?
In the song's refrain, there's another example of a common verb used in a secondary sense.
Si dos ya no se llevan bien
If two don't get along [well]
Caption 11, Jeremías - Uno y uno igual a tres
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The first definition you'll probably learn for the common verb llevar is "to carry." Learn the nuances of this versatile verb and you'll find this construction:
Llevarse bien/mal con alguien
"To get on well/badly with somebody"
For more examples -- and more nuances of llevar -- you could check out:
ThoughtCo. > Spanish language > Using llevar
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