FROM "TEN LITTLE NIGGERS” TO “TEN LITTLE PUPPIES”: FROM POPULAR SONG TO CHILDREN'S SONG

Abstract

This article approaches the origin of the children's song "Los diez perritos”. The matter has appeared in diverse studies that establish the song in the Hispanic tradition, from which ¡t spreads to numerous countries in which it appears. Our hypothesis connects with a series of musical xenophobic compositions that circulated successfully since middle of 19th century in the English and German field. They have his origin in a composition of Septimus Winner, who makes fun of American natives —replaced for "little niggers” in other versions. The context in which they were written explains its excellent diffusion, although its impolite contents, and the disappearance of this context justifies the change of the natives for inoffensive elements, generally animals, approaching in form and contents to our song "Los diez perritos”.