Tonight’s lesson: We didn’t speak bad Spanish. We spoke our Spanish.
Our parents gave us the words they knew. Some came from old Spanish, some from Mexico, some from Caló and Pachuco speech. When English gave us a word we needed, we sometimes changed it until it sounded right in our mouths.
And sometimes we just invented the damn thing.
Getting Dressed
Lisa — shirt
Tramos — pants
Calcos — shoes
Cincho — belt
Saco — coat or jacket
Some are Caló/Pachuco words. Saco is ordinary Mexican Spanish. They all lived together in the same neighborhood without anybody worrying about which dictionary they came from.
People
Carnal — brother; also a very close friend
Camarada — buddy, companion
Carnal comes from an old Spanish idea of a blood relative — hermano carnal. Mexican and Chicano speech shortened it.
Camarada is even older Spanish. Originally it referred to people who shared the same quarters. Eventually it became companion, buddy or comrade.
Going to the Store
Then came American money.
Centavo — penny
Nicle — nickel
Dimo / daime — dime
Quira / cuara — quarter
Peseta — quarter, an older Spanish-border term
Tostón / toleco — fifty-cent piece
Nobody held a meeting and decided to create nicle, dimo or quira. People heard nickel, dime and quarter, ran the words through Spanish-speaking ears and mouths, and produced something everybody around them understood.
Tonight’s Rule
If your high-school Spanish teacher didn’t know the word, that didn’t necessarily mean the word was wrong.
It might have been old Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Caló, Pachuco slang, border Spanish — or something our parents and grandparents created because they needed a word.
Meme’s Rule of Chuco
We spoke the Spanish our parents gave us. What they didn’t give us, we invented.
And if everybody knew what the hell we meant, the word worked.
— Professor Meme & Research Assistant Santiago
