17. CADA MACACO NO SEU GALHO

Have you ever had that person who always wants to tell you how to do a certain thing, telling you how they would do that thing, even if you know what you’re doing and didn’t ask for opinions/ suggestions/ comments?

Around here, when Mr. Fiancé is cooking, I don’t stick my nose in it, my only responsibility is to do the dishes afterwards. Same way when I’m cooking. Don’t come with “what if you put a little bit of this?” or “you’re going to fry this right away, right?” Back off, Mr! Not your turn.

Same thing goes to driving – his driving, since I don’t participate in this activity. I say nothing, I give no tips or pointers. He knows what he’s doing, he’s the expert in that.

Now, if I were to meddle in how he does things, he’d say to me: “cada macaco no seu galho”. Literal thing? “Each monkey on its branch”. How does it really go? Each one to their trade.

Rumour has it that the expression was first used by the Duke of Caxias, in a war, and he had instructed the soldiers, whom he called monkeys due to most of them be black, to climb the trees to surprise the enemy, so it became each monkey to its branch.

The use got wider than that, of course, and the expression is used both to explain that everyone should mind their own business, or to tell someone to stop sticking their nose in other people’s matters.

A more recent version of it is “cada um no seu quadrado”, which means “each one to their own square”. And that became an expression, a catchy song – over here they’re called chewing gum songs – and a viral wave of videos of people dancing, making squares on the floor with their feet.

Meddling people continued meddling, though.

Now, dear foreign, you may meddle around here as much as you like. Just give me a shout on the comments or get in touch on the contact section. Consider this your branch too.

Till tomorrow,

expressionada.