While Lesley’s studying at an ashram in India, her husband Crayton is guest-posting. Please be kind to him.
Image from Esmas.com
Today my cab driver mentioned a concept I had heard before but hadn’t really had the Spanish expertise to pay much attention to. So now I pass it on to you!
An “albur” is a Mexican form of wordplay through the use of sexual double-entendres, often used as a putdown like the dozens in the U.S. There are some common albures that everybody knows (see a great overview here), but the quick-witted people who are really good at it get to make a career out of it.
One of these is Victor Trujillo, better known as “Brozo the Creepy Clown,” a green-haired wisecracker (pictured above) who, behind the makeup, has become one of Mexico’s sharpest political critics, to the point where the big names in government have to kowtow to him. Here’s President Felipe Calderon on Brozo’s show, back when he was running for the office. (In this sense, Brozo seems to me to be kind of like a Mexican Jon Stewart.)
My Spanish comprehension and Mexican cultural sophistication aren’t nearly good enough to get most of the jokes, but the ones I have managed to digest are pretty great. Brozo, for instance, used to have a show called “El Mañanero,” which can be translated simply as “The Morning Show,” but can also refer to a morning roll in the hay. That crazy Brozo!
(Also, according to this, Brozo did the voice of Lion-O for the Spanish-language version of Thundercats. Hooooooo!)
Although I can’t imagine what prompted the conversation with your taxista albures are indeed an important part of Mexican culture. And they are hard to explain and even more difficult to translate.
The post you linked to has the albur nearly dead on.
In Reforma.com (subscription required) they have a small news cartoon called “La Marioneta del Reforma” (a pun with puppet= marioneta and Mario = name, Neta = slang for truth), the cartoon I think is free and you can watch it online. It has a recurring bit where every episode starts with an albur.
The other day Mr.Netas (the creator’s twitter handle) also tweeted one (paraphrasing from memory): “My neighbor came and asked for a cucumber and I asked back if she was looking for form or functionality”. He he he.
I think the biggest difference with another forms of sexual innuendos, for example from what I’ve seen in movies and TV in English is that after an albur you never say “If you know what I mean”, because as subtle as they are they are also quite direct so it is assumed that everyone got it.
Wow! So awesome that the “own-goal” version is called a “French albur”
I ♥ Brozo! I also love one of his other characters, La Beba Galvan! I’m looking forward to watching him on Primero Noticias (Televisa) during World Cup Soccer!
Now about the albur, I’ve been fluent in Spanish for 30 years, but it wasn’t until I moved to Mexico that learned to actually understand them. I overhear at least 20 albures a day from the men hanging out in Hubby’s shop. Some are just too funny, that I can’t help but laugh out loud, even if I’m in my kitchen!
I don’t know whether the restaurant owners’ here in the U.S. are in on the joke, but I know for sure that many U.S. patrons are not in on the joke. Two “Mexican” restaurants in the U.S. have or had dirty Spanish names:
Chi-Chis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi-Chi's
Besa Mi Taco! http://www.fernandezfoods.com/besamitaco/
Other than the name, I don’t think anything about the restaurants themselves were/are sexually suggestive (e.g. tight shirts/shorts). I wonder if there are other naive double entendres from the miscegenation of cultures.
Its good to see the comment from Alice because sometimes I wonder if my husband just doesnt want to explain them. Hes better about trying now but before would just say, “its a word play” and would pass it on. Maybe now he tries because I understand more Spanish. Who knows. But I didnt know they were called albur.