The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #167153 Message #4027920
Posted By: Joe Offer
12-Jan-20 - 11:38 PM
Thread Name: ADD: Down on Grandpa's Farm/Mi Chacra
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down on Grandpa's Farm
The earliest version of "Mi Chacra" that I can find is in the original (1946) edition of The Ditty Bag, a songbook that has been used widely by U.S. Girl Scouts. It's also in a book by Phyllis and Olcutt Sanders titled Amigos Cantando, published in 1948 by the Cooperative Education Service. The English translations from the 1940s are nothing like "Down on Grandpa's Farm."
My EWG (educated wild guess) is that "Mi Chacra" was written by a Spanish teacher in the United States, since I have seen no evidence of it being used in Spanish-speaking countries. And I think I'd venture another EWG that the English song was written by Raffi - because I can find no pre-Raffian reference to the song. Mind you, these are "educated wild guesses," so don't put too much faith in them.
Here's a terrific performance of "Mi Chacra":