Mexican dictionary of slang cuts to basics
By Jose de la Isla
MEXICO CITY ― Remember the Northwestern University championship women's lacrosse team that visited President George W. Bush in July 2005 wearing flip-flops?
Admittedly, they wore dresses and skirts, but a controversy broke out about what was proper attire. Didn't they know better? Flip-flop sandals aren't proper, are they?
A front-page story in the Chicago Tribune exclaimed, "You wore flip-flops to the White House?!” Some team members' families were dismayed. That footwear is still generally considered too informal for a meeting with the president and a visit to the White House.
The women defended themselves, explaining they wore dressy flip-flops. Aly Josephs said she wore a brown, $16 pair with rhinestones.
The women's main considerations, according to USA Today, were casual versus formal, looking smart and being comfortable.
Actually, this is a perfect example of what Jorge Garcia-Robles' "Diccionario de Modismos Mexicanos," or "Dictionary of Mexican Idiomatic Expressions," is all about.
Garcia-Robles, at this city's august National Palace of Fine Arts, explained the importance of the new reference, especially as a guide to colorful expressions coming from Mexico.
Modismos can be phrasings that deviate from the rules of grammar or manners. They can take the form of "street talk," but they're much more than key words in throwaway lines. This phraseology can set a tone, even provide a hard-to-reach context. The champion women lacrosse player in $16 rhinestone sandals did just that by reframing upscale casual in the context of a White House photo-op.
That's what Garcia-Robles is getting at. He gave a discourse about his reference book in the palace where the finest in music, dance, sculpture and historically significant paintings are presented.
His book, published by the Editorial Porrua, has 11,000 entries.
Garcia-Robles says language can be divided into two types: technical and cultural.
The technical involves the world of grammar, with rules of proper use and expression. It is clear, precise, logical and mechanistic.
The cultural features modismos, which Garcia-Robles and assistants searched for in television, novels, movies, underground lit and histories. Modismos are organic, like an Amazon rainforest that evolves daily and grows new variations. They are human expressions that give voice to basic feelings. Modismos can express the simple and the flamboyant, comfortable and sensual, just as fashion does. Proper speech doesn't.
During the book presentation, renowned writer Guillermo Samperio read a story about going to a market looking for a good luck charm. The search includes experiences with Apocalypse and Final Judgment. His colorful words transported the audience.
Popular writer Alberto Vargas Iturbe specializes in erotica, especially the kind originating in farming communities and in the city neighborhoods where their inhabitants migrate. He talked about the origin of "guey," a term literally meaning "ox." In the Calo dialect, it refers to the ox's huge horns and implies how stupid the average man is when he is deceived. (Perhaps this too is the origin of the English term "horny.")
Garcia-Robles observes that, as soon as politicians and executives shift from their desks and public view to popular watering holes, their speech relaxes into modismos. They easily call each other and adversaries "guey." Modismos like this break down power brokers to who they are and what they do. It is mostly good-humored and often ironically true.
Language like that can strip existence down to a common reality. Modismos expose basic truths, just as the lacrosse players did. We all have toes ― except some people cover up their hairy digits with socks while others wear flip-flops, just like proper grammar and modismos.
Jose de la Isla, a nationally syndicated columnist for Hispanic Link and Scripps Howard News Service, is the author of the forthcoming "Our Man on the Ground." Reach him at joseisla3@yahoo.com.