In 1863, however, Mexican explorers Alejandro Garcia & Miguel Cortez were visiting relatives in Spain, and happened to befriend a local minstrel, who shared with them a traditional Latin folk song called "Scaphium Quod Tracto". They couldn't understand a word of it, but implored the minstrel to write down the lyrics so he could share it with his friends back home, which he did. 2 years later, Ortega was discussing culture and beet recipes with a university professor, Pablo Marin, when the subject of dead tongues and folk songs came up. Ortega asked Marin to translate the folk song, and the translation reads, roughly: