While children’s songs may be fun to sing along to and help kids acquire new language skills, they don’t always send the best messages. Take the classic “Arroz con Leche.” In the song, little children sing about finding a wife “que sepa coser / que sepa bordar / que sepa abrir la puerta para ir a jugar.” Basically, the song’s lyrics are about a young boy finding a subservient wife. But thankfully, thanks to one viral video, we now have a feminist re-write that needs to become the official “Arroz con leche.”
In the video that has now made the rounds on social media, a young boy introduces the song as “the new version of arroz con leche.” “Arroz con leche / yo quiero encontrar / a una compañera que quiera soñar / que crea en sí misma / y que vaya a luchar / a conquistar sus sueños de mas libertad / valiente sí / sumisa no / feliz, alegre y fuerte/ la quiero yo.” With just a few tweaks, the song becomes a song about a female partner with her own hopes, dreams, and ambitions.
The video, originally shared by Nilia Robaldi, has recently gone viral, but the song has actually been around for a few years. It went viral earlier this month when young boys posed next to a lime green poster, where the lyrics were printed in large handwritten letters. But it’s believed that the song came to be in 2015, in the midst of the Ni Una Menos protests – which drew attention to gender-based violence – in Argentina. It was reported at the time that schools in Cordoba were showing solidarity with the movement by posting the lyrics to this new and improved version of the song on the walls of classrooms.
While it’s not clear who wrote the song, we do know that this version needs to be heard by everyone.