Grua

[london777]

My Collins Spanish Dictionary translates "grua" as "crane", "derrick", or "tow truck", but in the DR I have come to understand it to mean a village exclusively populated by Haitians.

Can anyone improve on my definition? In particular:

1) The three gruas I have visited have all been satellites of Dominican villages. Is this part of the definition or could a "grua" be a standalone settlement like a "batey"?

2) Is the word entirely neutral, or has it any demeaning implications (as, for example, the word "ghetto" has acquired)?

3) Does the word derive from "crane (etc)" or from elsewhere?

 

[bienamor]

Don';t know

My Collins Spanish Dictionary translates "grua" as "crane", "derrick", or "tow truck", but in the DR I have come to understand it to mean a village exclusively populated by Haitians.

Can anyone improve on my definition? In particular:

1) The three gruas I have visited have all been satellites of Dominican villages. Is this part of the definition or could a "grua" be a standalone settlement like a "batey"?

2) Is the word entirely neutral, or has it any demeaning implications (as, for example, the word "ghetto" has acquired)?

3) Does the word derive from "crane (etc)" or from elsewhere?

Only way I have ever heard this word, related to a tow truck?

 

[Norma Rosa]

My Collins Spanish Dictionary translates "grua" as "crane", "derrick", or "tow truck", but in the DR I have come to understand it to mean a village exclusively populated by Haitians.

Can anyone improve on my definition? In particular:

1) The three gruas I have visited have all been satellites of Dominican villages. Is this part of the definition or could a "grua" be a standalone settlement like a "batey"?

2) Is the word entirely neutral, or has it any demeaning implications (as, for example, the word "ghetto" has acquired)?

3) Does the word derive from "crane (etc)" or from elsewhere?

London, I grew up in a batey. A sugar cane plantation has cranes (gr?as) permanently placed in some areas because they only do specific jobs; so, people call the areas where those machines are found, "la gr?a". A sugar cane plantation is more than the batey (where most workers reside); it includes also all the cane fields.Throughout those cane fields there are clearings with housing (mostly shacks), there are rivers, large grazing areas, etc. But the entire plantation receives the name of the sugar mill (i.e.:Ingenio Col?n, Ingenio Consuelo, Catarey, La Romana). Therefore, people have the need to create names with which to identify other areas.
Hope this helps.
Norma

 

[london777]

gr?a

Norma

That explains how the word has acquired that further meaning. I would assume that a settlement would continue to be called La Gr?a (sorry I missed out the accent before!) long after the cranes may have disappeared as was the case in the three I have visited.

It still does not pin down the specifically Haitian connection, but I assume that being mostly migrant workers they would have lived in the "shacks" you mention rather than in the permanent village which would explain why Haitians are usually (exclusively?) the inhabitants of the various La Gr?as?

Thanks.That was interesting.

 

[El Tigre]

London777,

In the ghetto Grua is also known as the wife. Ahi viene la grua - here comes the wife.

Cheers.

 

[trina]

London777,

In the ghetto Grua is also known as the wife. Ahi viene la grua - here comes the wife.

Cheers.

I wonder if that's a shortened form of "sangrua". :tired:

 

[El Tigre]

I wonder if that's a shortened form of "sangrua". :tired:

I'm not sure. If I had to use my imagination I think it would have to deal with the motion the crane does. It pulls/yanks LOL.

"here comes the GRUA (wife) to yank me away from playing poker with my buddies"

"the GRUA (wife) called me fellas, I have to go"

LMAO

 

[LatinoRican]

Ahi viene la grua!

El Tigre is right. La grua (the wife) comes to pull you away from your buddies and take you home with her! I've also heard it used in baseball games when a manager comes in to take out a pitcher that has been doing poorly. The broadcaster may say, "Le aplicaron la grua al pitcher!" or "Ahi viene la grua," meaning the team manager is coming out on the field to relieve the pitcher.

 

[macocael]

La Gr?a

Kinito Mendez has a funny song about la gr?a. I didnt know about its other usage vis a vis the plantations. thanks norma rosa. if it is not getting too personal -- which batey did you grow up on?