We have heard or blurted it out on multiple occasions in the form of a warning. “We are muleteers, and on the road we will meet”. Almost everyone uses this expression in the proper context, but surely there are many fewer who have ever noticed the very words that make up the saying. What does muleteers mean? Let’s see the meaning of the saying and where it comes from.
“We are muleteers, and we will meet on the road” is a threat. As explained in the Instituto Cervantes proverb, it is used as a reaction to a grievance received or to someone’s contrary attitude. It is the response that is given when someone denies us his help and we warn him that, when he is the one who needs us, we will be the ones who will make the rudeness of not doing him the favor. It’s a kind of revenge.
But what does muleteer mean? Arriero comes from arre, an interjection used to stimulate horses and other animals, and defines a profession that does not exist today (or barely testimonial), specifically that of people who transported merchandise with the help of beasts of burden such as donkeys or mules.
The muleteers, who became very important in the past, were dedicated to carrying merchandise and trading from town to town. Sometimes disagreements could arise between two muleteers in a town, but the parties preferred to resolve the conflict at another time without clients in between, at some point along the way where sooner or later they would surely coincide.
According to Alberto Buitrago in his Dictionary of sayings and phrases, “we are muleteers and we will meet on the road” is a phrase that originated in the MaragaterÃa region of Leon, where the muleteers tried to do business in the towns that were between Leon and Madrid. “These traveling merchants used to feel cheated by the Madrid merchants, to whom they dedicated the phrase in question as a warning,” says the Hispanic philologist and writer.
The truth is that the origin of the phrase comes from afar, from several centuries ago, taking into account that it is estimated that the muleteer trade developed in the Iberian Peninsula for 10 centuries. Gonzalo Correas already introduced this threat in the form of a locution in his Vocabulario de refranes y frases proverbiales (1627) with two sayings that present slight variations with respect to the current form: “We are muleteers, and we will run into each other alone” and “We are muleteers, and we we will find”.
The truth is that in Correas’ vocabulary he includes other phrases with the profession of muleteer, which demonstrates the importance that these carriers came to have. The most curious of all is “the muleteers always throw the donkeys in front”, which is the precursor of the current joke “the donkey in front so that it does not get scared”. “Donkeys are in trouble when the muleteer gives thanks to God” or “Don’t ask the muleteer if he wins, but if he comes back and loads” are other proverbs that appear in this 17th century work.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project