¿Say What?

The Barrio Spanish Dictionary of words Mrs. Nuñez never taught you in 5th period.

baboso - stupid person; drooling idiot
cabrón - asshole; badass
chichis - boobies; breasts; titties; hooters
chúntaro - Mexican redneck
cojones - if you're a guy, you have two hanging below your papalo unless you're Lance Armstrong
culo - ass, as in buttocks
jefe - chief; da boss at construction sites
jornalero - day laborer
gabacho - white person, especially American; what gringos call gringos Mexicans call gabachos
güey - dude. use it carefully
maricón - gay
papalo - penis; dick; willie; johnson
pendejo - asshole
pinche - short order cook or kitchen boy. an all purpose insult inhancer
popola - vagina; pussy
puto/puta - faggot/female whore. one of the most popular words in the barrio


Y Más

Big Mac - Big Mac
green card - it means you're in Los Estados Unidos legally, man, except the word is part of a U.S. government plot to confuse Mexicans trying to learn English because the card is actually pink.
Juárez Police Chief - polite term for someone whose days on Earth are numbered
Wal-Mart - Mexican for Shopping Mecca
dollar movie - Mexican for Friday night date
Chevy - pronounced just like it's spelled, gabacho; the greatest invention in transportation since the burro.
barbacoa - barbecue
chicklets - what 10-yr-old Mexican girls sell to American tourists
popola - whar 20-yr-old Mexican girls sell to American tourists
Jarritos - brand of fruit flavored bottled soda hecho en México
Jumex - brand of fruit flavored canned soda hecho en México
Bimbo - brand of packaged sweet pastries made in the U.S. but Mexicans think it's hecho en México


first name, father's surname, mother's surname


Hispanic - broad label coined by the U.S. government in the 1970's to describe people who were born in any Spanish-speaking country of the Americas, or those who can trace their lineage to Spain or Spanish territories.
Chicano - usually associated with the political movement of the 1960's. It's origin is unknown but one theory has it that the word "Mexicano" was once pronounced by foreign invaders as "Meschican."
Latino/Latina - m/f, a person of Latin American descent, but not of Spain.
Guatemalan - Americans tell Polish jokes, Mexicans tell Guatemalan jokes.
Q: Why aren't there any Guatemalans on Star Trek?
A: Because even in the future they don't work.


No vale madre - isn't worth shit
mojado - wetback


Q: Why do Mexican children receive tamales for Christmas?
A: So they'll have something to unwrap


Why don't Mexicans drop their Spanish and just speak English?
Think about this while eating your refried beans: Spanish has kept a constant presence in the United States since even before English. The oldest city in the U.S. is St. Augustine, FL, founded by Spaniards in 1565, twenty-one years before the English crown even bothered to explore the Americas. The oldest American capital is Santa Fe, founded in 1609, over 150 years before the United States was even born and almost 250 years before the United States eventually conquered what's now the Southwest from Mexico. Spanish is the native language to this Southwest region and has been continuously spoken all these centuries and now you want Mexicans to drop the language? Spanish is the most American language - English is just an intruder that Mexicans were gracious enough to allow to exist.
Texas abuts Mexico. So if you don't want to hear so much Spanish move someplace far, far away like Maine...which abuts French-speaking Québec.