Con dinero baila el perro y sin dinero bailas como perro

With money the dog will dance and without money you'll dance like a dog.

I nearly fell out my chair laughing when I heard this one.  I love refranes (sayings).  This one equates to our "Money makes the world go round".  Or at least the first half of it does -- "Con dinero baila el perro".

The second half our refrán "sin dinero bailas como perro" doesn't directly translate to any expression in English that I know of, but I think you get it.  If you don't have any money, you're the one taking the orders!  Although I find the reference to a dancing dog much more fun and colorful.

There are a montón of refranes in Spanish, a lot which are hard to interpret, because we simply don't have corresponding sayings in English, and because you need a deep cultural understanding in  addition to the language aspect. 

I will be posting more refranes, but they will be the ones that have a corresponding saying in English, because those will be the ones we can understand and put to use right away.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Ya vienen esos gorrones

I found this bit of Spanish to be humorous and will make you sound muy Mexicano. But to explain this one we need to start off with the verb gorrear.

In Mexico, gorrear basically means to "comer de gratis en casa de alguien conocido o no" - to eat for free at someones house whether you know them or not. This is more in the sense of crashing a party or tagging along as an uninvited guest and freeloading, as we like to say in English.

People who gorrear are called gorrones, or gorrón for just one.

Here's a couple of sample sentences...

Ayer fuimos a gorrear a los XV años de Lupita.

Vamos a gorrear a los XV años de Lupita.

Les encanta ir de gorra.

Apparently it's very common for more guests than you anticipated to show up (los gorrones) so you may hear someone say "Tengo que cocinar para todos esos gorrones".

There's also a nifty expression...

"A la gorra, ni quien le corra". This basically means if it's free, who's going to turn it down? Or if it's free, why not. You get the picture.

To gorrear or not to gorrear is the question, pero si es gratis, ¿por qué no? Why not? Well, because in 2007 a town in Mexico (Actopan) passed a law against gorrones, called the "ley contra los gorrones". Interesting, if you ask me. The article is in Spanish, but it's a good read if you're up to the challenge.

If you do decide to ir de gorra/gorrear, ¡Buen provecho!