De Colores

Where did De Colores come from?

There’s a little mythology that goes with this...

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Supposedly after a group of men had finished a Cursillo weekend in Spain, they were on a bus going back to their parish area.  They had had a tremendous experience.  The bus broke down by this farmyard.  They got out of the bus and noticed all the green grass, the flowers in the field, the blue sky and this banny rooster running around in the farmyard.  They said, “Well that’s kind of how God’s love comes to us.  It comes in all kinds of different colors and different ways.”  So they sat down and they wrote this song called “De Colores”.  The bus must have been broken down for quite some time because there are 99 verses to this song.  During the Great Banquet we don't learn them all.  We only learn 5 of them and we learn them in English instead of Spanish.  Supposedly all this happened and it is part of the mythology of where the song comes from.

So, when you see the statement "De Colores" somewhere, such as on someone's car, they are sharing all the colors of God's love with you and letting you know that they have experienced a similar 3-day weekend experience.

If you ever saw the movie “The Lone Ranger”, they sang “De Colores” in it.  It is kind of like the national anthem for the fruit pickers of California.  It has been around a long time.  They sing it on Sesame Street and now with Barney.

But the fame of  “De Colores” for us is that it is kind of like the national anthem of these weekends.

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