Folklore: Talking & Keeping silence

Genre: Proverb, Portuguese, Azores 

Urbano, Prereirada da Silva, male, 19
English student, electrician
Azores-born, Portuguese-speaking
Terciera, Azores
Oct. 2, 2001 

"Quem tem boca vai a Roma."
(kejm tem ‘bo:ka va; a Roma)
Whoever has a mouth goes to Rome


“My father said to me when I was a little boy, I was talking too much. I was three,” said Urbano, my flatmate on Terciera Island in the Azores, Portugal. Urbano is studying English, and also studying to be an electrician, he is from one of the distant outer islands, Flores.

The Azores, in the mid-Atlantic Ocean are very isolated, the islands spread over a 400-mile radius. They are warmed by the African gulf current, and are actively volcanic. There is an isolation that modern technology has done little to erase as there are only two satellite channels. However many are connected by a cell phone, a program subsidized by the government. As a result of isolated island living, the people are gregarious and helpful, if conservative. And many old customs are well preserved, some dating back as much as 500 years, when the Portuguese settled these islands. 

For example, while we were there, the islanders were readying for the ancient annual festival of the running of the bulls, where bulls are literally let lose in nearby Praia da Vittoria, to run the streets. Everybody chips in to spruce up the town. They paint their houses, board up windows and doors, and most important, they move their cars out of town at the last minute, and the festival begins.

When I asked Urbano what he thought the proverb meant, he answered with: “because the Pope lives in Rome.” This explanation didn’t help me to understand it, so I asked again and he elaborated, “Because we believe in the Pope.” 

Could it be related to Silence is next to holiness/Godliness? 

It's similar to Alberto Santo Amaro's proverb that I also collected:

"Boca calada diz tudo."
(boka kaw’lada, di:z tudo)
[A] mouth shut says everything.

And to an Irish proverb: 

“A mouth is sweet in its silence”
“Is binn béal ina thost”
(iss binn beyal eena host)
it’s (a) melodious mouth in its silence/lull 

(From “Seanfhocail,” M.F. Ó Conchuír, Cló Iar-Chonnachta, 1997, Ireland; p 35, #615). 

Someone else thought that those who talked too much were sent to Rome to be executed, which gives this proverb a medieval twist. Rome was the center of power. This proverb could represent sedition agains the state or authority (parental). 

There is a Russian saying: To keep silence—that runs along that same vein—to stay under the radar of the authorities, the Soviet police. I don't have the Russian aphorism, as it was always translated to me. But this saying is similar: "In the company of strangers silence is safe."

It was interesting trying to collect folklore from Urbano as he was just learning English, and wanted a chance to practice. That's how we met, in the hotel lobby. We used a lot of intermediary methods of communicating, as I speak a passable Spanish, and can say a few phrases in Portuguese. But I am not fluent in either language. We often spoke an admixture of Spanish & Portuguese peppered with English—including pantomime and pictures. So it took three languages, and then some, to collect Urbano's folklore.

UC Berkeley Folklore Collections
Kroeber Hall, Dr. Alan Dundes