July 13, 2000

5:34 PM

Funny how the 'Net works... I got an email from Sonrisa Vertical but couldn't read it, so I went to The Babelfish and found out they were asking me to add a song called "El Cazador" that they made to my Internatonal MP3 Station. Cool. Nice song. I like it. But The Babelfish wouldn't tell me what "El Cazador" meant. So I did a search on the 'Net. Ever heard of The Wreck That Changed The World? [more]
posted by ZachsMind (6 comments total)

The year was 1783. The King of Spain had a foothold in the New World as far north as what we now call Louisiana. However, economically it was falling apart. So he sent one of his most prized ships, El Cazador aka "the hunter" to New Orleans. On the way there the ship hit a freak storm and sank. Filled to the brim was nothing but coinage. LOTS of it. El Cazador was missing for 210 years. Because of this, the king's hopes to redeem his position in North America was lost forever. Napoleon took over all the territory west of the mississippi, and later sold it to the United States for a song.

In 1983, some commercial fishermen happened across the wreck while trawling the seas for fish. People are now selling coins as jewelry and keepsakes from the wreck. So now I know what El Cozador means. Pretty cool, I thought.

I still don't know what this has to do with the song though. Sonrisa Vertical says at their website that the song is about "La Pasión Animal entre Hombre y Mujer" or "The Animal Passion between man and woman." Go figure.

posted by ZachsMind at 5:40 PM on July 13, 2000

Stuff like this is the primary reason I absolutely love the Internet.

the song is about "La Pasión Animal entre Hombre y Mujer" or "The Animal Passion between man and woman."

remember this part:

El Cazador aka "the hunter"

I'm guessing that either the man or the woman, in their song, is the hunter. Considering the historical role of men, and the fast that spanish is a gendered language, I'm going to assume - without hearing the song or visiting any of the sites you linked - they mean the man.
posted by cCranium at 5:56 PM on July 13, 2000

No, I think it's really about the ship.

Remember, ZachsMind, do not be needlessly multiplying the entities! Oy!
posted by EngineBeak at 6:12 PM on July 13, 2000

cCranium sex:
I'm guessing that either the man or the woman, in their song, is the hunter.
...so it's the Spanish Version of Hungry Like The Wolf?
posted by dogwelder at 10:25 PM on July 13, 2000

wow, sex! geez dogwelder, how exactly are you welding those dogs? :-)
posted by cCranium at 4:59 AM on July 14, 2000

I love the fact that the ship who discovered the wreck was named the Mistake. (Sailors are understandably superstitious.)

If it hadn't been discovered, though ... wouldn't you always be thinking the Captain said to his men, "We've got 400,000 pesos on board ... who wants to be presumed lost?"
posted by dhartung at 9:00 PM on July 15, 2000