Chicano Caló: Description and Review of a Border Variety

Abstract

This article surveys briefly both the development and present status of U.S.-Mexico Border Caló or, as it is increasingly called, Chicano Caló (ChC). Despite a former highly stigmatized status, this variety has been upwardly mobile, serving as a source for much of the lexicon of the informal registers of Mexican and Southwest Spanish, adding dimensions of chic, daring, and boldness. ChC developed from a Romany (Gypsy) base, reflected, by the 15th century, in the speech of this Indo-Iranian group who settled in Spain (and elsewhere in Europe). Additional elements come from Spanish (the major source), particularly those employed in the discourse of "underworld" speakers in the Spanish and Spanish American world, from American English slang, and from the creation or coining of new lexemes or loan translations making maximum use of simile and particularly metaphor and playing upon exaggeration, minimization, irony, sarcasm, ridicule, and humor. The ChC lexicon is eagerly "adopted" by younger males to reflect at least mild rebellion, but it is used also by most sociocultural strata of Southwest (and Mexican) Spanish speakers. The intra-language borrowing is thus affective in nature.