h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Most of the entries that are preceded by (San Diego) are not slang. They are in the Spanish-Mexican Language. Nino and Chico are words for children as valid as Tio is for Uncle. Also, loco is literally crazy.
Now, if you want to talk Mexican slang try vresaro pronounced bresaro.
That means 'wetback' in English
Wetback is a VERY derogatory word for an illegal alien working in he states..usally picking farmgoods in the sun...hence the wet back.

The English/Spanish crosssover is very evident in the Southwest states like Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California.

A Spaniard wouldn't know the word Mestizo but most native Arizonans would. This is a "New" Central/North/Latin American word for a person who is of mixed Indian/Mexican background.

The first time Chicano came into popular use was during the farm labor strikes led by Cesar Chaves in the early-mid 70s.

Chica-- (Arizona) A pejorative way of referring to the kind of girl who wears way, way too much makeup, halter tops and short shorts in accordance with the current style.
Chico--the male counterpart of this, the Mexican-hip hop type boy who wears incredibly baggy pants that are falling off. Often a "player". Usually a chico will have at least three chicas hanging off him.
-Rivaine

Out here in the West, a few Mexican/Spanish expressions have made it into the slang. The only one I can think of right now is:

"Hasta" (from ¡Hasta luego! = Until later!) means the same thing as "Laters," which, of course both mean "see you later."

One digressionary word of advice:
If you travel to Mexico, "¿Donde está la casa de las putas?" does NOT mean "Where is the bathroom (WC)?"

What *does* it mean??

Here I am replying to my own posting...

By the way, "¿Dondé está la casa de las putas?" REALLY means "Where is the whorehouse?" It's an old local joke we like to play on Easterners.

Anyway, here's a partial list of Spanish words that have made it into the (mostly not slang) lexicon here in the Southwestern US:

(NB- "ll" is pronounced like the "y" in yes, Ñ makes the "NG" sound in ring and "J" is said like an "H" unless you want to be authentic, then it's more like the "CH" in the Scottish "LOCH." I hope this clarifies things for all you John and Jane Bulls out there)

Loco (crazy)- crazy

Mesa (table)- a flat-topped hill

Barrio (neighborhood)- a hispanic neighborhood

Arroyo (dry creek)- dry creek/intermittent stream

Rodeo- an event held in an arena where cowboys commit acts of cruelty on livestock

Amigo (friend)- friend

Chicano- someone descended from Mexicans who lived here back when our region was still part of Mexico

Taco- a cousin of the sandwich served in a hard tortilla shell

Taco Music- a slang term for mariachi, a lively form of Mexican music featuring accordions and trumpets

Taco Towers- a derogatory term for a run-down apartment complex (flats to you Brits) in the Barrio (see above) -- Hey, don't get offended, this is here for informative linguistic purposes!!!

Tortilla (little cake)- a soft, flat, round piece of unleavened fried dough, akin to bread and nothing like matzoh, which is more like a giant saltine cracker without the salt (stay tuned for my future post, entitled "Yiddishisms in American English," ya schmuck!)

Salsa (sauce)- 1. a hardy, chunky sauce made from vegetables and spices -- red salsa (salsa roja) is tomato-based and green salsa (salsa verde) is tomatillo-based (a tomatillo resembles a small green tomato and grows in a husk) 2. a sensual, high-energy type of music and dance prevalent in Latin America and parts of the US with high Latin American populations

Camino (highway)- Boulevard/Expressway

Rio (river)- a word in the names of some of the rivers, e.g. Rio Grande

Tequila- an alcoholic beverage fermented and distilled from the agave cactus

Canyon/Cañon (gorge)- a deep gorge cut by a river

Zorro (fox)- 1. a fictional character who wore a black mask and used his sabre to slash a "Z" as his calling card 2. the President of Mexico (this is a joke between myself and a friend of mine from Tlaxcala who is just beginning to learn English and, as a result, is teaching me more Spanish -- Props to you, Daníel!)

Mestizo (mixed)- a person of mixed Spanish/Mesoamerican descent, i.e. the majority ethnic group in Mexico

Telemundo (Tele-World) & Univision("one-o-vision" creative translation)- the two major Spanish-Language TV networks in the US

Pueblo (town)- 1. a communal type of settlement preferred by Native American tribes descended from the Anasazi who live mainly along the Rio Grande in New Mexico 2. a collective term for such tribes 3. a medium-sized city in southern Colorado

Colorado (a reddish tint)- 1. a state in the Western United States straddling the Rocky Mountains notorious for the "Make My Day Law" which allows homeowners to shoot trespassers without consequences 2. the river with its source in the state of the same name which flows through the Grand Canyon and used to flow to Mexico until all the water was diverted to Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles.

Deep (profundo)- an American slang term meaning "profound," derived from the English translation for "profundo" -- Ain't I clever?

Puta (whore)- slut/whore

Puto (man-whore)- the vulgar phrase that is often abbreviated to SOB

Rape (pronounced RAH-pay -- means "monkfish")- a type of seafood, nothing to do with a beyond-criminal violation of women which should be punishable by a slow, painful death

Gringo- honky, cracker, white person

Tejano (a.k.a. Tex-Mex)- low-quality, far-from-authentic, shoddily done "Mexican" fast food -- the only authentic thing about it is that it might involve tortillas and always has colorful Spanish-sounding names in order to appeal to Anglo urbanites in search for an ultra-cheap meal with a quasi-ethnic flair

Well, with this wealth of information I've supplied, perhaps this should be an article rather than a reply to my own posting, but anyway, here's some information, off the top of my head, about Spanglish, a unique linguistic phenomenon here in the Southwestern United States...

Spanglish, as the name suggests, is a patois between Spanish and English often used in conversations between speakers of the two languages and consequently quite prevalent in areas where Hispanics (Spanish-Speakers) and Anglos (English-Speakers) mingle on a day-to-day basis.

I don't have much more to say about Spanglish except that it's fun to speak and might as well be the official language of New Mexico where the slogan of the anti-litter campaign is "TOSS NO MÁS" (no más = no more). Speaking of New Mexico, English and Spanish are both official languages of that state (the US as a whole doesn't have one) and my birth certificate (certificado de nacimiento) is, indeed, in both languages.

Also, I often hear the word "Okey-dokey," a Minnesota/Wisconsin variation of OK/Okay on Telemundo (see above) and from Benito, the fella I used to work with who pretends not to understand a bit of English but devours the New York Times and used to race me on their Sunday crossword puzzle

Sunday New York Times Crossword: The absolutely most difficult US-published crossword puzzle in existence

For an interesting article about Spanglish that I just Googled, go here: http://www.spainview.com/spanglish.html

And, for a short, entertaining Spanglish glossary, go here: http://www.lcp.org/Spanglish_Glossary.htm


The author of this reply to his own posting was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, spent his early childhood in Denver, Colorado, his teenage years in the San Francisco Bay Area and currently resides in Durango, a quirky little town in Southwestern Colorado and hopes this has been quite informative and entertaining to you, dear reader.

Wetbacks are indeed illegal immigrants from Mexico, but the term wetback comes from them crossing the Rio Grande river

Yeah, but nowadays we should call them "trekkers" for the following reasons:

1. Since the Rio Grande is now heavily guarded by "la Migra (US Immigration and Naturalization Service)," many illegal immigrants, aided by "coyotes (coy-OH-tays)," or human smugglers, trek across the southern Arizona deserts in hopes of reaching the I-10 in order to hitch a ride to a nearby city. This is very dangerous because many have died from dehydration and the area is populated by ultra-conservative militia-type ranchers with arms caches large enough to provide for the military needs of several small countries.

2. It would really, really, really annoy hard-core Star Trek fans, who insist upon being referred to as "trekkers," and not "trekkies."

BTW You can't call it the "Rio Grande River," as "Rio Grande" meand "Big River," so yoy're really calling it the "Big River Big." Dear me, I seem to have run out of quotation marks.

Your self-proclaimed guide to Southwestern culture,
ThirdSection

Um, I believe calling it the "Rio Grand River" would actually mean "Big River River".

It's like the "Department of Redundancy Department".

I live in S.W. Florida and a local river for us (most of the foreign-language terms around here are Native American) is the Caloosahatchee, commonly called the Caloosahatchee River. But, since Caloosahatchee means the "Caloosa River", we're all unconsciously calling it the "Caloosa River River".

Ah well...


Mike

"¿Dondé está la casa de las putas?" really means "Where is the whore house?" It's an old joke-- you tell some gringo who's about to visit Mexico for the first time and doesn't speak any Spanish that it means "Where's the bathroom?"

Yeah Mike, you're right. I got into the "big" thing a bit too much and neglected the "river" thing.