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Features Spanish- Go An Encyclopedic and Irreverent Approach to Spanish AskMe Spanish you always wanted to knowOpinionado Libros Tv Cine Teatro Websites Cultura SociedadResource Central Interactive Radio Video Classes Links MediaRaul Guerrero Moderator
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The 2009 Literature Nobel Prize La escritora rumana-alemana Herta Müller gana el Premio Nóbel de literatura 2009. Excerpt form THE APPOINTMENT (1997): How often have I had to lie or keep my mouth shut to protect the people I love most — at the very times I could stand them least — to keep them from plunging headlong into some disaster. Whenever I wanted my hatred to last forever, a feeling of disgust would soften it up. With a hint of love on the one hand, and a heap of self-reproach on the other, I was already surrendering to the next hatred. I’ve always had just enough sense to spare others, but never enough to save myself from misfortune. Mi traducción de un fragmento de La cita (1997): Cuan a menudo tuve que mentir o cerrar la boca para proteger a la gente que más quería—cuando menos la soportaba—y evitar que se fuera de cabeza al desastre. Siempre que busqué guardar el odio para siempre, un sentimiento de desprecio lo ablandaría. Con una pisca de amor en una mano y un montón de auto reproche en la otra, ya me rendía al próximo odio. Siempre he tenido solo el sentido suficiente para salvar a otros, pero nunca lo suficiente para salvarme de la mala fortuna. Askme. Hispanic or Latin? Hispanic, from the Latin hispanus, ‘relating to Hispania’. Romans called Iberia (Spain) Hispania. Hispanic, as used in the U.S., implies an association to Spanish-speaking communities, irrespectively of race or national origin. Many reject the label Hispanic for its colonial implications, preferring Latino. The French coined the term Latin America in the 19th century to justify Napoleon’s pretensions in America. By Napoleon I mean a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon III. Victor Hugo referred to him with great sarcasm as Napoleon the Small, el Chiquito. Languages keep changing. Latino in American Spanish has come to symbolize culture. We don’t say, Hispanic food, but Latin food, and Latin Dance, and Latin art. Hispanic is used more for statistics. The term was coined by Nixon bureaucrats in the 70s to group immigrants from Latin America, their descendants, and those descendants of Spanish-speaking communities who have lived in what is today the United States since the United States was another territory discovered and conquered by Spain. Once upon a time North America was Spain. Then came the Mayflower and the rest, as they say, is history. Spanish-Go. Bad Words
Coño, from the Latin cunnus, “female pudenda.” 1. Noun, vulgar for female genitalia. 2. Adjective, in Ecuador and Chile, stingy, synonym of tacaño. 3. Interjection, very Caribbean, meaning hip, versatile and urban. Coño, mi amor, estás irresistible, is a compliment for both men and women. But with anger, stressing the second o, for example, after waiting for a spouse for two hours in a restaurant, if words could kill, coñó would do it. Coño also connotes surprise, astonishment: ¡Coño que grande!
Carajo, noun, archaic for ‘penis.’ In modern parlance carajo ranks top next to coño and puta as a prevalent and versatile interjection for anger: carajo, ¿qué es esto? For pleasure: ¡Ay, carajo, que rico! For surprise: ¿Qué carajo es esto? Threatening: ¡Mucho cuidado, carajo! The noun is used for a despicable person: Pedro es un verdadero carajo. In the dimutive form, carajito, in Santo Domingo is a young child. In Spain carajito is a espresso with brandy. Puta, noun, ‘whore.’ Since mothers are the object of deep sensitivities, hijo de puta, son of a whore, is quite ominous. A student asked me, considering mothers are so revered in Latin America, is hijo de puta the worst insult? The worst, I said, except for ¡hijo de la gran puta! Speaking of dissonant words, las malas palabras, here is a gem by 19th century Colombian writer Clímaco Soto Borda:Si pública es la mujer / que por puta es conocida, / república viene a ser Opinionado AMERICA LIBRE Es una novela en inglés de 353 páginas de Raúl Ramos y Sánchez. Anuncia la portada: A novel of family, country and revolution. Me quedé con la duda: ¿se trataba de ciencia ficción, literatura, una dramatización de historia especulativa? More Spanish-Go 10 Dangerous Cognates Some words in the course of history, while retaining a similar spelling, diverge in meaning from related languages. Deception, for example, has the Spanish counterpart decepción, both deriving from the Latin decipere, “to deceive,” but in Spanish it denotes disappointment. More Opinonado The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Diaz y Raul Guerrero, 2009 Junot Diaz obtuvo el premio Pulitzer de literatura. La breve y maravillosa vida de Óscar Wao, es el mejor libro de ficción del año según la revista Time. Lo conocí hace unos años en una conferencia sobre Identidad en Columbia Univeristy. Una amiga me recomendó esperar hasta la tarde pues participaría un joven escritor dominicano. Es explosivo, me dijo. Salvo Julia Álvarez y el poeta Pedro Mir poco sabía de escritores dominicanos. Santo Domingo evoca playas, los resorts, como dicen los dominicanos, y merengue. Es el primer escritor que ha producido Santo Domingo en Estados Unidos, me informó mi amiga con orgullo. More.
Mary Briclle |
