Spanglish Restaurant

Yesterday, while out to lunch for a friends birthday, we noticed the sign at a local Mexican restaurant:
ACAPULCO'S - Mexican Restaurant y Cantina
I hadn't noticed the Spanglish before - it rolls off the tongue so easily. I guess I don't have much more to say about it though...

While on the theme of restaurants, I'll add my recent observation about Spanglish "dialects" from different parts of the country. I suppose that in each community where Spanish and English meet, different words from each of the languages win out in common usage. I noticed this when I was back in Colorado visiting my brother. We were at a Qdoba restaurant (very similar to Chipotle) and all of the employees were speaking Spanish for the most part, but I noticed that they used the word "steak" in English. "Un burrito de steak y dos de pollo," and the like. It caught my attention because here in LA that preparation of beef is generally referred to as "asada" - even by many English speakers. "I'll have an asada burrito," one might say.

I wonder what it is that leads to the adoption of one word over the other in any particular community?

XXtra Hot Cheetos - Si Pican!

I like the new XXtra Flamin' Hot Cheetos ad campaign...though I personally don't eat hot cheetos because they are a very scary, unnatural red color - and also because "si, pican," and "no me atrevo." I had hoped to post an image of the ads here, but I can't find them online anywhere. The ads show a single Cheeto that has been turned into something that "picas," such as a cactus or a scorpion, with simple black lines. The by-line reads: Si, pican. Te Atrevas? Which means: Yes, they're spicy. Do you dare?

This all got me to thinking about the translation from English to Spanish (and visa versa) for the words that mean spicy. In English we say "hot." (Though I started to doubt the validity of this whole reflection the other day when I though to myself...well, maybe everyone now-a-days just says "spicy." Fortunately, my little adventure into blogs, forums and YouTube just a moment ago while I was looking for the ad image eliminated my doubts. Most English speakers apparently just say "hot" - I guess it is mostly just us bilingual folk who might specify "spicy.")

So, on with the reflection..."Hot" in Spanish is "Caliente" - heat hot. It cracks me up when a Spanish learner says that something spicy is "caliente" - which, granted, doesn't happen very often, but it still amuses me. The interesting part of all this (to me...) is the literal translation from the Spanish - "Picante." This is from the verb "picar." Now, what does this word mean? How is it used? A cactus or a scorpion (apparently...) or a mosquito can "picar te." This use is probably most closely related to "sting" in English. So, if we wanted to be literal, we could say that our XXtra Flamin' Hot Cheetos (or our tacos from La Estrella that they put spicy chili salsa on even though we asked them not to) are "Stinggy."

I like it. It is more physically accurate - because your mouth does indeed sting - and somewhat more specific than "spicy." I say "stinggy" would be a beautiful addition to the Spanglish language! At the taco stand you could say, "I'll have the extra stinggy salsa, please." And, when you hesitate to try Ana's posole she could assure you, "It's OK, it's not stinggy."