La Temenda Corte

– Luz Maria Nananina
– Aquííí como too los días
– Jose Candelario Tres Patines
– Aaaaa la reaaaaa!!!

La Tremenda Corte [The Great Court] was a Cuban radio show that began transmitting in the 1940's. The show was off the air for a little while and then began transmitting again from Miami, it was broadcast internationally. The show became very popular throughout Latin America. When I was a kid there was a radio station in Mexico City that aired the show. Many times we would be in the car going places and my mom would tune to the station so we listened to the show. It did not matter if it was an episode we had heard before, it was still funny. Nowadays there are many Latin American cities that still broadcast it. For a while they also did a TV show. I have not seen the show, nor do I want to. Listening to the radio show gave me the opportunity to imagine the characters and the scene. I have a very specific way the court looked and what the characters looked like and what they wore. I do not want to spoil it by watching the TV version.


The show was about different cases that came to court. The main characters were the great judge "El tremendo Juez"; the court clerk "el secreatrio"; the plaintiffs and/or witnesses Luz María Nananina and Rudecindo Caldeiro y Escobiña; and the defendant José Candelario better known as Tres Patines. There were some other actors that would come on the air and play secondary characters. Of course Tres Patines would rob or run a con on Nananina and Rudencindo who would get mad and bring charges against him.


A very peculiar thing about this show was that every show would be centered around a crime. If Tres Patines would have stolen a bicycle, then the crime would be a bikecide. If he had taken Nananina's wallet, then it would be a walletcide. Some of the crimes that took place included: a firefighercide, a goaticide, a bakericide, etc., you get the idea. The play on words was first class and entertaining. As far as I know, there are no English translations of the show. Comedy is difficult to translate, what is funny in one culture/language is not funny in a different culture/language.

The show is still very popular today. Besides the radio stations, one can listen to the show by visiting websites that have collected the show (links below). Esparta Palma in his blog wrote: ...either there are a lot of older people on line or people in general LOVE Tres Patines. [This page] gets sooo many hits...

If you would you like to listen to the radio shows visit:
La Tremenda Corte 1
La Tremenda Corte 2
La Tremenda Corte 3
La Tremenda Corte 4 (2o chapters available for download)