Caló (also known as Pachuco) is an

argot A cant is the jargon or language of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead people outside the group.McArthur, T. (ed.) ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (1992) Oxford University Press It may also be called a cryptolect, argot ...

or slang of

Mexican Spanish Mexican Spanish ( es, español mexicano) is the variety of Dialect, dialects and Sociolect, sociolects of the Spanish language spoken in Mexican territory. Mexico has the largest number of Spanish speakers, with more than twice as many as in a ...

that originated during the first half of the 20th century in the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

. It is the product of zoot-suit

pachuco Pachucos are male members of a counterculture associated with zoot suit fashion, jazz and swing music, a distinct dialect known as '' caló'', and self-empowerment in rejecting assimilation into Anglo-American society that emerged in El Paso, ...

culture that developed in the 1930s and '40s in cities along the US/Mexico border.

Origin

According to Chicano artist and writer

José Antonio Burciaga José Antonio "Tony" Burciaga (1940 – October 7, 1996) was an American Chicano artist, poet, and writer who explored issues of Chicano identity and American society. Early career In 1960 Burciaga joined the United States Air Force. After sp ...

: He goes on to describe the speech of his father, a native of

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

: The Caló of El Paso was probably influenced by the wordplay common to the speech of residents of the

Tepito Tepito is a barrio located in Colonia Morelos in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City bordered by Avenida del Trabajo, Paseo de la Reforma, Eje 1 and Eje 2. Most of the neighborhood is taken up by the colorful tianguis, a traditional open-a ...

barrio ''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city, usually delimited by functional (e.g. residenti ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

. One such resident was the comic film actor

Germán Valdés Germán Genaro Cipriano Gómez Valdés y Castillo (19 September 1915 – 29 June 1973), known professionally as Tin-Tan, was a Mexican actor, singer and comedian who was born in Mexico City but was raised and began his career in Ciudad Juarez, ...

, a native of Mexico City who grew up in Ciudad Juárez (just across the US-Mexico border from El Paso). His films did much to popularize the language in Mexico and the United States.

Development

Caló has evolved in every decade since the 1940-1950s. It underwent much change during the

Chicano Movement The Chicano Movement, also referred to as El Movimiento, was a social and political movement in the United States inspired by prior acts of resistance among people of Mexican descent, especially of Pachucos in the 1940s and 1950s, and the Black ...

of the 1960s as Chicanos began to enter US universities and become exposed to counterculture and psychedelia. Caló words and expressions became cultural symbols of the Chicano Movement during the 1960s and 1970s, when they were used frequently in literature and poetry. That language was sometimes known as Floricanto. Caló enjoyed mainstream exposure when the character "Cheech", played by Cheech Marin, used Caló in the

Cheech and Chong Cheech & Chong are a comedy duo consisting of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong. The duo found commercial and cultural success in the 1970s and 1980s with their stand-up routines, studio recordings, and feature films, which were based on the hippie a ...

movies of the 1970s. By the 1970s, the term Pachuco was frequently shortened to Chuco. The Pachuco originated from El Paso, which was the root of the city's nickname, "Chuco Town". Pachucos usually dressed in zoot suits with wallet chains, round hats with feathers and were Chicanos. Caló is not to be confused with

Spanglish Spanglish (a portmanteau of the words "Spanish" and "English") is any language variety (such as a contact dialect, hybrid language, pidgin, or creole language) that results from conversationally combining Spanish and English. The term is mos ...

, which is not limited to Mexican Spanish. It is similar to

Lunfardo Lunfardo (; from the Italian ''lombardo'' or inhabitant of Lombardy in the local dialect) is an argot originated and developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the lower classes in Buenos Aires and from there spread to other urban are ...

in that it has an eclectic and multilingual vocabulary.

Features

Caló makes heavy use of

code-switching In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. Code-switching is different from plurilingualis ...

. Caló uses

rhyming A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...

and, in some cases, a type of rhyming slang similar to

Cockney rhyming slang Rhyming slang is a form of slang word construction in the English language. It is especially prevalent among Cockneys in England, and was first used in the early 19th century in the East End of London; hence its alternative name, Cockney rhymin ...

African American Vernacular English African-American Vernacular English (AAVE, ), also referred to as Black (Vernacular) English, Black English Vernacular, or occasionally Ebonics (a colloquial, controversial term), is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urba ...

jive.

Examples

Since Caló is primarily spoken by individuals with varying formal knowledge of Spanish or English, variations occur in words, especially of

phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...

s pronounced similarly in Spanish: ''c''/''s'', ''w''/''hu''/''gu'', ''r''/''d'', and ''b''/''v''. It is common to see the word ''barrio'' ("neighborhood") spelled as ''varrio'', ''vato'' ("dude") spelled as ''bato'' or ''güero'' ("blond/white man") spelled as ''huero'' or even ''weddo''.

Usage

The translations should not be taken literally; they are idioms like the English "See you later alligator". ;''¿Qué Pasiones?'' : (literally "What Passions") ''¿Qué Pasa?'' meaning "What is going on?" ;''¿Si ya sábanas, paquetes hilo?'' or ''Si ya Sabanas, pa' que cobijas'' : (literally, "If already sheets, packages thread?/covers what for") ''¿Si ya sabes, pa(ra) qué te digo?'' meaning, "If you already know, why am I telling you?" Occasionally, English is spoken with Mexican features. Speaking to a sibling or family member about parents, for example, a Caló speaker will refer to them as "My Mother" (''Mi Mamá'') instead of "Mom" or "Our mother". Rhyming is sometimes used by itself and for emphasis. Common phrases include: ;''¿Me comprendes, Méndez?'' : "Do you understand, Méndez?" ;''¿O te explico, Federico?'' : "Or do I explain it to you, Federico?" ;''Nel, pastel'' : "No way" (lit. "Nay, Cake") ;''Al rato, vato'' : "Later, dude" (lit. "al rato" means "later"; "vato" means friend or guy) ;''¿Me esperas, a comer peras?'' : "Will you wait for me?" (lit. "will you wait for me to eat pears?") ;''¿Qué te pasa, calabaza?'' : "Whats going on?" (lit. "What is happening to you, squash/pumpkin?") ;''Nada Nada, Limonada'' : "Not much" (lit. "Nothing, nothing, lemonade". Spoken as a response to the above, "¿Qué te pasa, calabaza?").

In popular culture

* ''

American Me ''American Me'' is a 1992 American crime drama film produced and directed by Edward James Olmos, his first film as a director, and written by Floyd Mutrux and Desmond Nakano. Olmos also stars as the film's protagonist, Montoya Santana, loose ...

'' *

Akwid Akwid is a Mexican-American hip hop group combining hip hop-style vocals with regional Mexican music. An earlier incarnation of the group was known as Juvenile Style . Rappers Francisco "AK" Gómez and Sergio "Wikid" Gómez, who make up Akwid, ...

* ''

Blood In Blood Out ''Blood In Blood Out'' (also known as ''Bound by Honor'' and ''Blood In Blood Out: Bound By Honor'') is a 1993 American epic crime drama film directed by Taylor Hackford that has become a cult-classic film with a cult following among the Mexi ...

'' *

* La Chilanga Banda, a song by

Café Tacuba Café Tacvba (Pronounced ''kaˈfe taˈkuβa'') is a band from Ciudad Satélite, Mexico. The group gained popularity in the early 1990s. They were founded in 1989, before they had the current lineup of Rubén Isaac Albarrán Ortega (lead vocals, ...

Culture Clash Cultural conflict is a type of conflict that occurs when different cultural values and beliefs clash. Broad and narrow definitions exist for the concept, both of which have been used to explain violence (including war) and crime, on either a mic ...

Don Tosti Don Tosti (given name: Edmundo Martínez Tostado) (March 27, 1923 – August 2, 2004) was an American musician and composer. Tosti forged a career spanning several decades and styles, from classical to jazz and rhythm and blues. He was best rem ...

Edward James Olmos Edward James Olmos (born February 24, 1947) is an American actor, director, producer, and activist. He is best known for his roles as Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo in ''Miami Vice'' (1984–1989), ''American Me'' (1992) (which he also dir ...

George Lopez (TV series) ''George Lopez'', commonly referred to as ''The George Lopez Show'', is an American sitcom created by George Lopez, Bruce Helford and Robert Borden, which originally aired for six seasons, consisting of 120 episodes, on ABC from March 27, 2002, ...

* ''

Harsh Times ''Harsh Times'' is a 2005 American action crime film written and directed by David Ayer in his directorial debut. Set in South Central Los Angeles, the film stars Christian Bale and Freddy Rodriguez. The film was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Ma ...

'' * Homies *

Frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a gas) ...

- Chicano rap artist whose song "La Raza" uses Caló *

Lalo Guerrero Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero (December 24, 1916 – March 17, 2005) was an American guitarist, singer and farm labor activist best known for his strong influence on later Latin musical artists. Early life Guerrero was born in Tucson, Arizona, one o ...

- Pachuco swing musician * ''

Lowrider Magazine ''Lowrider'' was an American automobile magazine, focusing almost exclusively on the style known as a lowrider. It first appeared in 1977, produced out of San Jose, California, by a trio of San Jose State students. In 2007, it was published out of ...

'' * Gilbert "Magú" Luján * '' La Mission'' (2009 movie) *

Mi Vida Loca ''Mi Vida Loca'' (also known as ''My Crazy Life'') is a 1993 American drama film directed and written by Allison Anders. It centers on the plight of cholas (the female counterparts to cholos) growing up in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles, w ...

Robert Rodriguez Robert Anthony Rodriguez (; born June 20, 1968) is an American filmmaker, composer, and visual effects supervisor. He shoots, edits, produces, and scores many of his films in Mexico and in his home state of Texas. Rodriguez directed the 1992 ac ...

* Sublime *

Tin Tan Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, ...

- actor from the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema who popularized Pachuco dress and talk *

Zoot Suit (film) ''Zoot Suit'' is a 1981 drama musical film of the Broadway play '' Zoot Suit''. Both the play and film were written and directed by Luis Valdez. The film stars Daniel Valdez, Edward James Olmos — both reprising their roles from the stage product ...

Zoot Suit (play) ''Zoot Suit'' is a play written by Luis Valdez, featuring incidental music by Daniel Valdez and Lalo Guerrero. ''Zoot Suit'' is based on the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial and the Zoot Suit Riots. Debuting in 1979, ''Zoot Suit'' was the first Chic ...

* El Mero Perro - Chicano Rap Artist and Music Producer who uses many Caló lyrics with Tejano/Chicano Pachuco themes in his songs

Sources

*Aguilar Melantzón, Ricardo. ''Glosario del caló de Cd. Juárez''. (translated by Federico Ferro Gay ; edited by María Telles-McGeagh, Patricia A. Sullivan. Las Cruces, N.M.: Joint Border Research Institute, New Mexico State University, c1989. *Burciaga, José Antonio. ''Drink Cultura: Chicanismo''. Santa Barbara: Joshua Odell Editions, Capra Press, 1993. *Cummings, Laura. "The Pachuco Language Variety in Tucson." In ''Pachucas and Pachucos in Tucson: Situated Border Lives.'' University of Arizona Press, 2009. pp 95–131 *Fuentes, Dagoberto. ''Barrio language dictionary: first dictionary of Caló yDagoberto Fuentes ndJosé A. López''. La Puente, California: El Barrio Publications, 1974. *Galindo, D. Letticia. "Dispelling the Male-Only Myth: Chicanas and Calo." Bilingual Review 16: 1. 1992. *Galindo, D. Letticia and María Dolores Gonzales, editors. ''Speaking Chicana : voice, power, and identity''. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, c1999. and (paperback) *Hallcom, Francine, Ph.D
"An Urban Ethnography of Latino Street Gangs in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties"
*Metcalf, Allan A. "The Study of California Chicano English". ''International Journal of the Sociology of Language''. Volume 1974, Issue 2, Pages 53–58 *JL Orenstein-Galicia. "Totacho a Todo Dar: communicative functions of Chicano Caló along the US-Mexico border." La Linguistique (Paris. 1965) *Ortega, Adolfo. ''Caló Orbis: semiotic aspects of a Chicano language variety'' New York: P. Lang, c1991. *Ortega, Adolfo. ''Caló tapestry''. Berkeley: Editorial Justa Publications, 1977. *Polkinhorn, Harry, Alfredo Velasco, and Malcom Lambert. ''El Libro De Caló: The Dictionary of Chicano Slang''. Mountain View, California: Floricanto Press, 1988.

*Webb, John Terrance. ''A lexical study of Caló and non-standard Spanish in the Southwest''. (dissertation), 1976. *Manuel Cantú - Pachuco Dictionary {{DEFAULTSORT:Calo (Chicano) Cant languages Spanish language in the United States Chicano

Origin

Development

Features

Examples

Usage

In popular culture

See also

Sources