Enduring Fools, By Rodolfo F. Acuña
Growing up, we used a plethora of words to dismiss fools. Fom two different worlds, my father was from Jalisco so his sayings were always blander my mother’s Sonorense expressions, which always seemed franker and more to the point. If you were ugly, they called you el feo. It was the cow culture that reveled in a no bull sh.. mentality. When I messed up badly, I was the pinche güero or the pinche buey, which depending on how it was said was generally a put down.
Words such as cabrón or chingado were rarely used unless in anger and mostly directed at someone outside the family. Even to this day they are words that are not taken lightly in Mexico, especially if used in the context of chinga tu madre.
(It was unlike today when an 85 year old lady will flip you off on the freeway.)
When you thought someone was stupid and just did not want anything to with them, it was estúpido,imbécil, baboso or pendejo. They had a shock value. My family was more passive and would just give you the señal de la cruz -- why call them names if they don’t exist for you.
In the past several years I have found myself giving most Tucson racists the sign of the cross – they are brain-dead.
Under normal circumstances, I would have given people like Arizona Attorney Tom Horne, Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal and the great majority of the board members of the Tucson Unified Schools the señal de la cruz. However, this was impossible because they do so much damage to an entire community. Reaching back into my consciousness I came up with the perfect descriptive word, idiota, a word that always had a poetic sound. Pinche güero was nice next to idiota!
