What it's about

The singer presents his family as a family tree growing toward the sun: his parents and siblings are the roots, his grandparents give him affection and wisdom, his aunts, uncles, and cousins arrive for a big meal, and at the end his nieces, nephews, and wife appear. The central idea is that family unites us and is part of our identity.

Useful vocabulary

  • La familia: madre, padre, hermana, hermano, abuela, abuelo, tío, tía, primos, sobrinos, sobrinas.
  • mi mujer: in the song, it means mi esposa. Mi bella mujer is an affectionate way of referring to her.
  • el árbol genealógico: the chart that shows all the relatives in a family.
  • la raíz, las ramas: parts of the tree, used here as an image of the family.
  • un techo, un hogar: a house, a place to live together.
  • pelo de plata: white or gray hair, a poetic way of talking about older people.
  • De tal palo, tal astilla: a very common proverb. It means that children resemble their parents.
  • por siempre, por la eternidad: forever.
  • alzar la voz: to speak louder.
  • la complicidad: a special, close understanding between people.

Grammar

  • Possessives: mi with a singular noun (mi madre, mi tío) and mis with a plural one (mis primos).
  • Present indicative to describe family life: me dan, me cuenta, me enseña, crece, tenemos, hablamos, reímos.
  • Indirect object pronouns before the verb: me dan su calor, me entregan su amor, me cuenta de su juventud.
  • ir a + infinitive for the near future: ya van a llegar.
  • querer + infinitive: ya quieren jugar.
  • enseñar a + infinitive: me enseña a tener gratitud.
  • Verbs with a pronoun: se ríen, me guardo sus besos (I keep for myself).
  • Gerund for an action happening at the same time: alzando la voz.
  • Hacer + infinitive: la gran familia me hace crecer.

Poetic license for the rhyme

  • «charlamos los dos»: there are many relatives in the scene, so los dos doesn't make much sense. It is there to rhyme with voz. Normally, it would be charlamos todos.
  • «De toda mi vida son la gran raíz»: the word order is inverted for the rhyme. In normal speech, you would say son la gran raíz de toda mi vida.
  • «Con pelo de plata y gran vocación»: vocación (the desire to dedicate oneself to a profession) is an unusual choice to describe grandparents. It is used for the rhyme with corazón.
  • «un gran creador» and «un lazo de amor en cada canción» are poetic and vague images. They shouldn't be taken as fixed expressions.