Naranja Dulce, Limon Partido

I have to say I had the best childhood in the world and I have so many fond and happy memories. One of the fondest memory is of a game we used to play with all the cousins and tia's. I remember playing it most when we would all make a trip to the "campo santo", cemetery. We would take a car trip from Eloy to Florence and somewhere in the middle there was this huge tree and the tia's would all pull over (probably to give all us kids a break from being cooped up in a car). In those days there was no such thing as private property, fences or signs. You could hang out pretty much anywhere in Arizona and no one would run you off.


I remember this huge tree and the fondest memory is of Tia Nico who would gather all of us kids around in a circle, holding hands to play "Naranja Dulce, Limon Partido". Translated it's "Sweet Orange, Lemon Sliced". I'm not sure what the title of it means but I did a google search and there are a ton more lyrics to this song. I never knew that! The only thing we sang was,


"Naranja Dulce,
Limon Partido,
Dame un abrazo
que yo te pido".


Translated,

"Sweet Orange,
Lemon slices,
give me a hug
because I ask it of you".


I remember having a ton of cousins every time we played and we would hold hands and go around in a circle and at the end of the song, we each had to hug someone else. And as I remember it, that was it. There was no winner, no loser, we would just hug and then do it all over again, and again, and again. I don't ever remember getting bored of the game.


Each Easter we play this game in our family, this year I recorded it! I think most of the kids are getting too old for it, but I hope they look back at the game and remember their tia's, tio's and cousins and smile.