Qué es chilango?

Before I can explain what "chilango" is, there's something else I need to tell you first.  Let's take a walk back to an earlier time, a time when I was very, very happy, and extremely drunk.

I was in a bar in Mexico (Baja California) talking to someone who told me they were going to see a concert in Mexico.  If you're a long time follower of my blog, you already know the look I had on my face, the deer in headlights look.  While I didn't want to feel any dumber than I already did, I had to ask the question...

Aren't we in Mexico?

Luckily, my new friend didn't laugh at me, but instead explained to me what was going on.

If you don't know, the capital of Mexico is La Ciudad de México, or el Distrito Federal.  The people of Mexico sometimes refer to it as the "D.F."  Don't forget to use your Spanish pronunciation. 

Even more interesting, sometimes it's even refered to as México.   So when someone tells you they're from México, you may want to ask "¿El D.F?" to clear things up. 

Now we can talk about the word chilango.

Chilangos are people from México.  Or should I say La Ciudad de México to avoid confusion.  And of course my faithul readers already know sometimes the things I talk about in my blog aren't that straight forward.  This is one of those times.

Don't worry, it's not that bad.  It's no where near as complicated as asking for a banana.

You see, there's some confusion over who is a chilango and who is not.  Some people define a chilango as someone who moved from a another city and now resides in the D.F.  Others say a chilango is someone who was born in the D.F., whose parents were also born in the D.F. 

While everybody has their own opinion of who is a chilango and who is not, everyone agrees that a defeño is definitly someone born and raised in the D.F.and is a synonym of capitalino, another way of refering to a person born and raised native of the D.F.          

And let's not forget that it becomes chilanga, defeña and capitalina for women.  BTW,  chilangos live in Chilangolandia, yet another name for La Cuidad de México. 

Now pay attention (Fijense bien), this is import.

The term chilango can be offensive to some.  Don't ask me why, but some people really don't like chilangos and use the term in a pejorative fashion.  I guess it's kinda like how we refer to New Yorkers.  Sometimes we call them New Yorkers affectionately, and sometimes not. 

I don't think you need to be paranoid or scared to call someone a chilango, consider this more of an FYI than a warning. 

Despite the fact that I've given you the quick and dirty on what and who chilangos are, I think it's best if you hear it first hand from true chilangos.  Clean the wax out of your ears and get ready, because our chilango friends are speaking in Spanish. 

¿Qué es chilango?

That's it for today.  Take your new found knowledge and go impress your Mexican friends.

¡Hasta la próxima!

¿Así?

One simple word, comprised of just three letters.   It's amazing how something that seems so simple can be so deceptive.

To be honest, I really don't remember learning much at all about the word así in any of my Spanish books.  It's (yet another) one of those words that I picked up somewhere along the way.  With that said, let's take a closer look at the word así.

By itself, así can have several meanings:

¿Como lo hago?  ¿Así?
How do I do it?  Like this?

You could also just simply say: 

¿Así?
Like this?

Here's where things can get a little tricky.  ¿Así? Doesn't always mean "Like this".

It can also mean "Like that".

¿Como lo hago? ¿Así?
How do I do it? Like this?

Sí, así.
Yes, like that.

No me hablas así
Don't talk to me like that

No seas así
Don't be like that

No hablas así de mi novia
Don't talk like that about my girlfriend

If you're in the throws of passion, así will definitely come in handy.

Asi me gusta papi
That's how I like it baby

Así papi, así
Like that baby, like that

But  wait, there's more.

Manuel no puede ir al cine, está castigado
¿Asi?

Manuel can't go to the movies, he's grounded
Really?

Not surprisingly, you can pair up así with other words to make it take on whole new meaning.  What may actually come as a surprise  is that you can pair así with itself.

¿Cómo estás?
Así así.  Me duele la cabeza

How are you?
So-so. I've got a headache.

¿Cómo estuvo la comida?
Así así. 

How was the food
So-so

Así así isn't known by all Spanish speakers, but at some point you might hear it.  Mas o menos is universal and has the same meaning.

There's also así es.

Me dijieron que compraste una casa nueva
Así es

They told me you bought a new house
That's right

There's así de.

Estuvo así de cerca de comprar un iPhone
I was this close to buying a iPhone

Solo oprimes esta tecla. Así de fácil
You just press this key. It's that easy.

You could also say:

Asi de simple
It's just that simple

If you like to go fishing and you need to convince your friends of exactly how big that trout was, you can say:


Te lo juro, era así de grande
I swear it was this big

Let's not forget así que, which means "so".

No tengo dinero encima asi que necesito ir al banco
I don't have any money on me so I need to go the bank

Ya.  That's it.  There are probably even more ways to use así, but if you master these you'll have people thinking you were born speaking Spanish.

¡Hasta luego!

Favor de no tirar las canastillas

Once you start your Spanish studies, it doesn't take long to learn that "basura" means trash.   But that's where our Spanish book seems to stop.  But don't worry, I'm going to pick up where your Spanish book left off.

I'm going to translate this for you, on the off chance you don't already know what it means.  But you should know by now I'm go to take the scenic route to arrive at our translation.

Let's start with canastillas.

First of all, canastilla is a diminutive form of canasta.  And here's a picture of a canasta.

Yes, a canasta is a basket.  Although a search for pictures of canastas will bring up all kinds of baskets, not just the kind Yogi Bear likes.  And if you don't know who Yogi Bear is, the only thing I can say is enjoy your youth.

Getting back on track, now that we know a canasta is, here's a picture of a castanilla, or a little basket.

Technically, that's called a canastilla botanera. At some point you've probably been served food in one of these things. And if you have an overwhelming curiosity to know the names of restaurant supplies, take a look at this site:

http://www.bregosa.com/Hoteles-y-Restaurante.html

I actually found that site kind of interesting and bookmarked it.  But then again I'm a nerd with an unhealthy obession for Spanish. 

So now that we've covered that, let's move on to the verb tirar.  Among other things, tirar is used to talk about throwing out the trash.

Tira la basura
Throw out the trash

Now we can translate the message in our picture:

Favor de no tirar la canastillas
Please don't throw out the baskets

Pan comida right?  You probably figured out what the translation was once you saw the picture of the canastilla.  But this post is about more than canastillas, so let's keep going.

We've already learned that you can use tirar to ttalk about throwing out the trash.  But if you want to take out the trash, you need the verb sacar.

Tengo que sacar la basura
I have to take the trash out

There's also emptying the trash, using the verb vaciar.

Vacía la basura
Empty the trash

So now we have three options for getting rid of the trash, but guess what?  We're not done yet. 

No botes las bolsas plásticas de las compras, úsalas para botar la basura

Botes comes form botar, which is yet another way to talk about throwing out the trash.

Let's translate this.

No botes las bolsas plásticas de las compras, úsalas para botar la basura
Don't throw out the plastic shopping bags, use them to throw out the trash

There's one more thing we need to talk about.  Most of you have probably already guessed what the missing link is, now I just have to tell you what it's called.  Here's a picture:

We know this as a trash can, and in Spanish this is known as a bote de basura, or bote for short.  Just like trash cans come in all shapes and sizes in English, it's the same in Spanish.  If you search for pictures of "botes de basura", you'll find all kinds of great pictures.

Depending on what country you're in and who you're talking to, a trash can may also be known as a basurero, or cubo de basura.  I almost forgot papelera, which may be used to refer to your office trash can.  I can tell you that paperla is definitely what your deleted email folder will be called in Google Mail. 

There's one last thing I need to tell you about the word basura.  It works as an insult just like it's English counterpart.

Eres una basura
You're a piece of trash

Hey, you never know when you need to tell someone off.  And if you watch telenovelas, you're probably very familar with this insult.

That's it for today. Now you can go yell at your kids to take out the trash in two languages.  It probably won't help though.