- Logtar's Blog -

I am very proud of my Latin heritage even though I am not Mexican. However I have to laugh at some of the misconceptions or misuses of the Spanish language to try to make me feel “welcome.”

The term “habla” or speak is probably the funniest one that I have ever heard. I was actually one of those “habla” people. I acted confused because I wanted to see where the person was coming from. I assumed two things, one that the person felt comfortable enough to use a Spanish term by either having worked with a lot of Hispanics or actually related to one via extended family. I also assumed that the person had little to no knowledge of the actual language.

I made my best confused face and asked, what do you mean. I wanted to see where the person took what obviously became an uncomfortable encounter with one of the “habla” people.

You see, I am almost immune to people’s ignorace about my country. I blame mostly the schools, but the interwebs have taught me that people all over the world are very clueless about other countries. Even Europeans that claim to be wordly people often make huge assumptions about Americans that also crack me up. Most people assume that just because you get a label stuck on you like “Colombian” your individuality is completely removed and topics from drug trafficin to coffee trade should be part of your repertoire. See exibit A. A recently made comment on my Arroz con Pollo post.

I made this for my Columbian neice Julie and she said it was just like they make it in Columbia. Very delicious, it reminded her of when she grew up as a child. She used to work for a Drug Lord whose mamacita made it all the time. Thanks for the help!

Written By Beverly Grady

At first glance you would be like, awesome, you are being thanked for a recepy. What Beverly seems to miss is first that Colombia the country is actually spelled with a “O” but common mistake, I will let that slide. Then we move onto the crown jewel of Colombian missinformation. Just because I am Colombian it is not O.K. for you to relate to me meaningless information while trying to compliment me for providing you with a recepy. I don care if Julie used to work for Pablo Escobar himself, I don’t know him any more so than Juan Valdez.

Now the funny thing about the rest of the sentence is the use of the word “Mamacita” and now I am really confused. Colombians are easy to identify when they are speaking Spanish. We use “ito” and “ita” a lot. That colorful stroke of language happens in our every day speech quite often. When we ask you to move over, we don’t just say, “excuse me” we say “could you please move over just a little bit.” Its a funny thing that most people can easily pick up if they speak Spanish and are not good at picking up actual accents.

Confused? good. So the lady uses the word “Mamacita” and it could mean two things. The slang trying to convey a “girlfriend” type relationship, or the actual mother of the drug lord. Not sure why drug lord was capitalized. Its irritating, I have no clue who used to make the Arroz con Pollo.

Going back to the other story, the person I was having the “habla” conversation with started to get embarrassed and apologetic. I can hide my accent in Chicago even more so, the person did not know me, so in my very proper dictation I said I’m sorry are you referring to a word in Spanish? trying to insinuate that I did not speak the language.

The person was turning colors now and I had enough fun. I explained that what she was asking me was if I spoke, and sure enough I can speak but what she meant was to say if I was someone that actually speaks Spanish… “Habla Español.”

Once the embarrassment wore off the person was actually cool and happens to be married to one of the “habla” people but does not know any of the language besides slang. From experience I know how tough it can be to be a non-speaker in a family of fluent people. I would caution you to not use a language you don’t know or understand, but in reality I have tons of fun with people misusing Spanish, and thank every single day that my wife can understand me in two out of the three languages that she speaks.

Having a long drive has some good side effects besides losing your hope that there are competent drivers out there. You do get to listen to some radio shows. The first week I reacquainted myself with the vast variety of choices in FM. Chicago has more Spanish radio stations than even XM had at one point and that was enjoyable. My MP3 collection needs refreshing from the computer so I started to listen to some good radio programs. Today I listened to an author being interviewed about a recent book she wrote about her mother.

The interesting part of the interview to me was that her Mom eventually came to the realization that happiness comes from within and that most people waste their lives trying to please others to make themselves happy. Another interesting part of the interview and the reason I wanted to write about this subject is that the author’s mother scaled back her contact with her kids once she realized that they did not see her for what she was now, but for what she had been before. I actually experienced some of that with my own family.

The word mentor has been important in my life since I first heard it. To me the word mentor is not to be taken lightly and the people in your life that you allow to be called that should be carefully considered. We all have good and bad qualities, and sometimes bad qualities can have good outcome. An insomniac could finish up a miniature model in half the time that someone that sleeps at night does. Qualities and traits are not what most people admire, most people admire accomplishments, but how they are achieved is also important. Someone that I consider a mentor has to value family above career for example.

Someone that has a strong personality or influence in our lives can become a mentor but also a shadow. The tricky part is being able to recognize not only the type of person we want them to be, but also what part we want to admire or follow. That covers mentors, at least in general, but what about shadows.

Shadows are a lot trickier, people that affect us sometimes not just without our consent but even without our consciousness. On top of that, I know many people that have been motivated by their shadows, meaning someone telling them they could not do something fueled them to actually accomplish those things. In that case is a shadow actually a mentor?

In my life I have had to cut or temporarily stop relationships. I have realized and life has reaffirmed that being around certain behaviors will affect you whether you want it or not. I think friends and family are the main mentors and shadows of your life, and how you manage those relationships dictates your well being… not your happiness, but for sure your overall world outlook.