(Ed.'s Note: We have been asked by our Spanish-challenged monolingual friends where the name of our blog came from. Is El Rrun-Rrun a kind of slang or colloquial word made up in the innards of the local fire department station where the guys have nothing else to do but gab and gossip about everyone else?
Or is it a made-up word specific to South Texas, El Vallusco, or just Browntown?
No. It's really a take off on the intransitive Spanish verb ronronear, to make a sound like the purring of a cat, a motor idling, or the murmur of people talking. It's something akin to the pulse of the social body. What are people talking about? Que dice el rrun-rrun?
We were talking to some folks over at the City of Brownsville Finance Dept. yesterday and the subject came up. Do you pronounce it rrun-rrun, as in the verb different from walking, skipping, or hip-hopping down the street? Or is it (as we take it) pronounced rrun-rrun as in sand "dune" or (like our logo), a "cartoon?" We admit it. Instead of two "rrs" the word should have only one, but that is our compromise to the local readers who probably don't know the rules of the language. But we'd rather be understood than smug and grammatically correct, anyway.
We first heard the term years ago when we ran into our friend, the retired firefighter Pete Avila, who was one of the major purveyors of gossip and hearsay emanating from the Central Fire Station. Pete would sidle up to us (Jerry McHale, Rey Guevara, me and other Herald ink rats) and ask: "A que no saben que dice el rrun-rrun?,"meaning, "Do you know the latest gossip?"
In other words, it is a widely used term in our community and is immediately understood if one has any connection to the local lingo. If not, well, you got a ways to go...)