Do you have a relative que el lo sabe todo? Do you know someone who thinks that they’re an expert on everything? Now, I know that you probably do.  I certainly do.  For me, he is the man that I call Dad.  I’ll tell you—sometimes, the stuff that flies out of his mouth is just classic.  Let me provide an example.

My tío was visiting from Mexico.  I was hanging out at my parents’ house, as everybody was telling me about what they did, what they say—pretty much what went on in their day.  All of a sudden, my dad decides to give my tío a history lesson on Dearborn.  Nothing too in-depth.  I still can vividly remember that he told him, “Dearborn is English for ‘well-born.’” Now, I thought to myself, “Oh, hell no.  He can’t confuse this poor man.”  Normally, I don’t chime in when my dad says something because Dad is just dad.”  However, I didn’t want my pobre tío to return home believing what my dad said.  After all, the man has been in this country over 50 years.  He must know what he’s talking about, except that Mr. Sabelotodo didn’t know everything.

So after I responded to my dad, he asked me, “Well, if it doesn’t mean well-born, then what does it.”  I answered back, “I don’t know.  I sure know that it’s not well-born.”  What the hell was he thinking?

I laughed to myself as I heard this discussed on an episode of SiTV’s Latino 101. If you’ve never seen it, you need to do yourself a favor a check it out.  All that I could do was shake my head at acknowledging my family’s Sabelotodo.  He is just “being Dad.”  He still has a lot of life in him so I know that there’s still plenty for him to say that will just make me shake my head.  So for a little bit longer, I’ll help him maintain the illusion que el lo sabe todo.

Author: Nicolás Ayala