Excelsior ran an article today with the title, "Cholos shoot a pregnant woman." "Cholos" is a derogatory slang term used to refer to poor kids who dress with a hip-hop style. It's milder and more common than any American racial slur, but it's clearly derogatory, and it's not a word I've ever seen before in such a context here.
On a related note, I've also noticed that Mexican soap operas have begun sprinkling mildly offensive words into the dialogues. Gancho al Corazón (no relation to this blog) has used the words "naco" and "wey" a handful of times in the last two or three weeks, and I don't remember ever hearing them before, either in this telenovela or any other.
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2 comments:
"Guey" isn't really offensive, is it? It's made the same traverse into the mainstream that "man" and "dude" did in American English. Similarly, the hipsters started leeching "naco" of most of its significance a few years ago. The telenovelas seem to be following society, not leading it.
I'd say the same thing with "cholo." Sort of like an American paper using the word "gangbanger." Informal, a little freighted, but following changes in common usage rather than leading them.
Hi Noel,
I think "wey" or "guey" is truly offensive only to people who are really easily offended, but I'd says it's far more likely to be inappropriate than "man." That might be more a reflection of the strictures of formality here than the offensiveness of the word. But yeah it's kind of weird that novelas don't use that one too often.
With "naco" I think it depends who you are with. I'd say you can toss it around among the middle class without anyone being offended, but if people from markedly different economic classes start using with each other, it becomes a lot more barbed. In general, you don't hear it as much (if it all) with lower-income people.
Your point about "cholo" is well taken, and actually someone told me that they'd seen it before in other crime reports. I think that's more an argument for American papers to not use "gangbanger" though; in addition to the racial or classist tinge, it's also imprecise.
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