Asturian-American Migration Forum

My last surviving relative of the older generation, Manuel Martinez Fernandez, died Sunday, October 25, 2009, at 10:42 am in Lakeland Florida. He was one of six children who lived past infancy, all boys. He was born in Spelter WV in 1927, lived in Mexico, Argentina and the Caribbean most of his life, finally settling in Florida, first Miramar and then Lakeland. When my father and I visited him there three years ago, I could barely keep up with his walking speed.

He took me fishing, quite illegally, when I was a little boy. We had to hide in the bushes along the little lake. I visited him in Mexico City when I was 17, and we went from there to Acapulco. At 17, the idea of beer for breakfast was quite enchanting. I still remember the ride there, with all the little crosses along the highway marking places where people had died, and his friend Paco sitting next to me, with a pistol the size of a small jamon in his pocket. "Banditos" he said.

He was a loving and colorful man, "full of piss and vinegar."

I find it a little unsettling to now be the oldest person in the family, sort of paterfamilias.

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Trans. Is

L'ultimo pariente que inda tenia de la xeneracion anterior, Manuel Martinez Fernandez, morreu el domingo, 25 d'outubre, 2009, a las 10:42 en Lakeland, estau de Florida.

Yera un de seis nenos na sua familia. Nacio en Spelter, Virxinia Oucidental, en 1927 ya tuvo pa Mexico, Arxentina ya'l Caribe la mayor parte de sua vida. Por fin echo raigones en Florida, primeiro en Miramar ya despueis en Lakeland. De la que tuvieramos you ya miou pai visitandolo hai 3 anos, you malpenas podia seguilo pola velocida.

De rapacin, l.levarame a pescar a lo intruso. Habia qu'escondese nos matos a la veira'l l.lagu pa que non nos vieran. Mas tarde visitaralu p'Acapulco cuando tenia you 17 anos. A esa eda, la idea de chumar cerveza pa l'almuerzu encantabame.

Inda m'alcuerdo d'esi viaxe a Acapulco conas cruces a la veira la carretera ou la xente morriera n'acidentes de trafico. Ya alcuerdome tamen de sou amigo Paco sentao xunto a min con una pistola del tamanu d'un xamon no sou bolsu. 'Bandidos', decia.

Foi un paisanu carinosu ya peculiar, "l.len d'orin ya vinagre" [where is this quote from Bob?]

Ya agora abultame un pouco raro eso de ser el mas vieyu de la mia familia, seique un paterfamilias.

I'm sorry to hear that Bob. Weren't you planning to visit him soon?

Did Manuel have a family of his own? Hearing that he lived in so many places, I wondered if he was single.

(By the way, in his translation, Is has a question for you about the "Full of piss and vinegar" quote.)

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Lo siento, Bob. Estabas planeando a visitarle pronto, ¿no?

Tuvo Manuel una familia propia? Al oír de que vivía en tantos lugares, me preguntaba si era soltero.

(Por cierto, en su traducción, Is escribió una pregunta para ti acerca del origen de la cita "de pis y vinagre".)

I had to look up the expression because it's so colorful and wondered if it was Bob's. At answersbag.com, it looks like it comes from John Steinbeck's 'The Grapes of Wrath':

"The earliest citation we've found is from 1938 in John Steinbeck's, The Grapes of Wrath:

Grampa walked up and slapped Tom on the chest, and his eyes grinned with affection and pride. "How are ya, Tommy?"
"O.K.," said Tom. "How ya keepin' yaself?"
"Full a piss an' vinegar," said Grampa.

There are other similar phrases that came long before that which may be the source though. In 1922 Joyce has this in Ulysses - "All wind and piss like a tanyard cat."

As far back as 1602, in Return from Parnassas - "They are pestilent fellowes, they speake nothing but bodkins, and pisse vinegar."

Those earlier citations appear to indicate a more negative meaning to the phrase. 'Wind and piss', or as it is more often given 'piss and wind' is usually taken to mean empty talk, full of bombast. Vinegar is associated with sourness and acidity in many other citations.

Vinegar has been in the language as the name of the familiar liquid since the 12th century. During the 1920s vinegar was used to mean vitality and energy..."