R is for Rana, a frog.
Anytime a kid in the neighborhood (under age 5) fell or got a cut his/her mother would rub or tap the area and sing this:
Spanish:
“Sana, sana, colita de rana,
y si no se cura ahorita, se cura mañana.”
In English, it’s confusing and doesn’t make sense.
“Healthy, healthy, little tail of a frog,
and if not cured now, cured tomorrow.”
As a kid, I wondered why the little tail of a frog was involved in a healing rhyme.
The frog tail portion may allude to folklore or tales of healing, involving a curandera’s (healer) use of “tail of frog,” or “eye of newt.”
The rhyme is not to be confused with this frog:
I never thought to ask why my mom or aunts sang this song. I went with it and kept the song going with my own kids, puzzling another generation.
This rhyme is only for little kids. Once you hit five, if you fell, cut, or otherwise injured yourself you were expected to get up, dust yourself off, and keep going.
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