3,000 Spanish Words and Phrases They Won't Teach You in School by Eleanor Hamer

Author:Eleanor Hamer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2017-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

C. The Mexican Albur

In most languages, words are so versatile that they can often be invested with double meanings that can be subtle and very witty. The humorist uses them to weave a play on words or an amusing phrase that spices the conversation. The greatest writer in the English language, Shakespeare, was not embarrassed to resort to “the lowest form of wit” (the pun) throughout his numerous masterpieces.

In Mexico, the double meaning achieved by hiding naughty words and phrases in a seemingly innocent sentence is an art form requiring great cleverness. It is known as the albur. It invariably involves an attack on someone’s masculinity or sexual sensitivity, and that someone usually replies with another albur, which is likely to elicit still another, and so on, until the loser fails to think up an appropriate reply and is forced to swallow his pride and accept defeat in silence, since one or more of those present (i.e., a female) may have witnessed the entire exchange without catching any of the double meanings so cunningly lurking just under the surface.

The word albur is thought to be a corruption of calambur, from the French calembour, which means pun or play on words. The albur is always mischievous and always sexually offensive. It is a game normally played between or among men (any woman engaging in this type of verbal ping pong would be considered far too vulgar to be treated as a lady … the double standard is still alive and well in Latin America), and is prompted by the same instinct that incites the males of a species to have it out with each other in their irresistible need to establish dominance; however, in the case of the Mexican Homo sapiens, the sparring often takes the form of this refined but vicious cleverness rather than a brutish frontal attack (often among friends, like a verbal game of tennis).

There are many standard albures, which are no longer particularly original, but continue to be used because they are so effective. A typical albur would be Te invito al Bar del Coyote Cojo, which translates as Let’s have a drink at the Lame Coyote Bar. However, any Mexican boy over the age of ten will immediately catch the Yo te cojo hidden in the sentence, by means of which the speaker is offering to make the listener the object of his baser instincts. The spirit is playful, but the effect is nevertheless humiliating (Some Special Cases warns against using the verb coger in Mexico, as it can no longer be uttered free of its very rude sexual connotation).

The albur is a truly enticing challenge, which ends with one of the fencers being defeated when he can’t come up with a suitable answer. Often the tables are turned, and the challenger becomes the victim. The “coyote cojo” albur is only one of hundreds of possible ways of shooting off a poison-tipped sexual barb. The albur is so all-pervasive that most men can’t get through a conversation without them, and that applies to the vast majority of the male population of Mexico.

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