STREET FOOD IN LATIN AMERICA: AREPA, PUPUSA, GORDITA (Chubby)

Today, we are talking about those delicacies that are cheap and you can enjoy in the Street in our Latin America. Comida Callejera (Street Food) so delicious. So, let’s start with that delightful white dough we know as “Arepa” in Colombia and in Venezuela. It’s also called “Pupusa” in Guatemala, Salvador and Honduras. And “La gordita” (Chubby) from Mexico. I will also talk about some uses  of these terms and slang.

I hope you enjoy this document and I hope It will be useful!! 💖

THE AREPA, THE PUPUSA AND THE GORDITA (Chubby)

These snacks are cousins, not only because of their shape, but of the ingredients and its cooking. The countries where these snacks are part of their diet are: Colombia and Venezuela with “Arepa”. The same in Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, although these are known as “Pupusa”, and we have “Gorditas” (Chubby) in Mexico. This is soft, round shaped and flattened dough, and after it is pre-cooked or cooked you can add some filling.  They can also be baked, or fried according to what you want.

 All are incredibly delicious!! 😊 

These delicacies have a common origin: pre-Columbian origins.  they are made of corn. Corn was a very important ingredient for indigenous groups. Aboriginal myths were around corn (maíz), corn on the cob (mazorca) or elote (in Mexico) and they refer to corn as “the gift the Gods made to humankind” because it’s a belief God made the first man and women from corn grains or corn dough”. This preparation was an honor given to women of each community. “La Arepa” comes from the term “AREPE” that means corn (maiz). This is how some natives from Cumanagotos (an ethnic group from the Tribe Caribe that lived in Central America and then they migrated to Colombian-Venezuelan territory). Now, with the “Pupusawa”, it is a Nahuatl term from the Pipiles (ancestors of the Tolteca tribes who emigrated to Mexico). Pupusawa turned into “pupusa” by Spanish conquerors. “Pupusawa” means big, stuffed and swollen. Now, with “Las Gorditas de Mexico”, we can say it is a modern version of the “Memelas Oaxaqueñas” that are still being prepared nowadays and it is original language they mean hot spices (chile – ají) for Chichimecas people.  

The Arepa is made mainly of corn. Whole kernel corn dried and powdered.  Or pre-cooked dough. In Colombia we have more than 72 types of arepas, some with filling, some others not. The filling may be cheese most of the time, or egg in the Caribbean zone, with shredded beef in some regions. Arepas can also be sweet if they are made of choclo (or Chócolo) (sweet yellow corn). Venezuelan arepas are filled with beef, chicken, greens, making them more generous in flavor. About the “pupusas” from Honduras, Salvador and Guatemala, the dough can be both: corn or rice. The most common fillings are cheese, kidney beans, pork rind, loroco (and edible flower from Salvador) and chipilin (a plant from Salvador and Central America), spinach, ayote (pumpkin), chicken, beef, ham and a lot more. The “Las gorditas” from Mexico are made with corn and wheat, and some of its fillings are kidney beans, pork rinds and cheese. Of course, the récipe and cooking changes in every región. 

Statistics: In the Colombian market, 73% of the people eat arepas for breakfast, instead of bread. In Venezuela, 90% of the people eat arepas not only at breakfast, but also for dinner. In Colombia the arepas are fried or roasted. In Venezuela they bake them or boil them. Arepa is part of their cultural heritage and is a symbol of National Gastronomic Union. Meanwhile in Colombia´s coffee áreas, they have the tradition to decorate someone important with a very special “necklace of arepas”. 

In Colombia arepas or dough for arepas is sold everwhere: In corner stores, supermarkets, market places and in the Street. In Venezuela the arepas are sold in special places called areperas and in restaurants. In Colombia is a tradition to celebrate “El festival de la arepa colombiana” (The Colombian arepa Festival) in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla and Bucaramanga, usually in August and December. 

In Salvador it’s a 93% of the people who eat “Pupusas”, and they are very popular in Salvador. In Honduras and Guatemala this dish is known but it isn’t as popular as in Salvador. Salvadoran have also “El día internacional de las pupusas” (International Pupusa Day) and they have participated in the Guinness Records with the biggest “pupusa” ever made. It measured 5,5 meters. The “pupusas” are sold in “pupuserías” and stores all over the country. 

Mexican “gordita” is very popular among the locals, but neither the récipe nor the preparation changes in every region.  There aren’t statistics about it, but they are definitely less popular or popular as tacos or fajitas, that compose the Mexican gastronomy.   

AREPA, PUPUSA AND GORDITA: USES IN LOCAL SLANG 

Different meanings for “Arepa” in Colombia: Coloquial Use.

Meaning # 1: A dough made of corn or corn flour, precooked and roastedon the stove, it can also be fried with fillings. It usually is salty. 

Meaning # 2: It means sudden luck. 

Example:  

Ganaron el juego de arepa!  Estaban jugando muy mal.

(they won by  arepa (luck)! They were playing terribly).

Meaning # 3: Is Having luck ( terner suerte).

 Example:

De arepa encontré la dirección rápido, pensé que llegaría tarde. 

By arepa (Luckily) I found the address quickly, I thought I would be late. 

In lower clases or in slang, “Arepa” gets a tasteless or sexual connotación, with these meanings:

Meaning # 4:  Arepa is both tasteless and psycho ways to call the vagina. Other tasteles terms to talk about “arepa” instead of vagina, are:

Arepera: Its a comptemptuous way to talk about women who are attracted by other women, in a romantic or sexual. It’s a pejorative way to talk about lesbianism. 

Arepear/ make arepas: This is insult to genital sex of a lesbian couple.  

MEANINGS OF AREPA IN VENEZUELA: COLOQUIAL USE.

Meaning # 1: A dough made of corn or corn flour, precooked and roastedon the stove, it can also be fried with fillings.

Meaning # 2: Talks about a game marker. 

Example:

Los Leones del Caracas le metió sus nueve AREPAS al Magallanes. 

The Caracas Lions golaed 9  to the Magellan.

Meaning # 3:  When you sweat terribly in your armpit zone, its called “Arepa”, because of the shape it shows in your clothes. This term is scornful.

Example:

¡ Que par de arepas tenía Juan en su camisa! Se veía nervioso. 

Juan had some sweat stains in his shirt. He looked so nervous.

MEANINGS DE PUPUSA IN SALVADOR: COLOQUIAL USE.

Meaning # 1: It’s a gross dough made of corn or rice, used in creole kitchen, filled with one ore two ingredients.

Meaning# 2: Same as in Colombia, they use the term “pupusa” to refer to the “vagina”. It has the same meaning.

MEXICAN GORDITA MEANINGS: COLOQUIAL USE

Meaning #1: A dough than may be filled with cheese, beef or other ingredients.

Meaning #2: A fat person, but with the diminutive “ita” it gets a positive direction to call someone chubby, instead of calling someone fat. It’s pejorative.  

Meaning #3: A nickname to call your boyfriend (or girlfriend) or spouse. It doesnt´s matter how they look.

To finish, we can say that the arepa, the pupusa and the Gordita (chubby) are part of the “typical street food” of these regions. Where the taste, autochthonous and economic stand out among the gastronomy of "Diario vivir".  (everyday life). 

Written by Adriana Martinez Castro.
Literary Studies Proffesional.
Especialized in Pedagogy.
Master in Writing.
Spanish as a Second Language Teacher

TOP 40: CURIOSITIES OF THE SPANISH LANGUAGE ( PART 2)

Today I’ll continue with more of the Top 40: Curiosities of the Spanish Language that I started on April 23rd, remembering Spanish Language day.

Enjoy Reading!

No. 20: The letters “E – A -  O -  L -  S” are the most used by Spanish Speakers every day. The leader is letter E with "A" (16,78%), next is letter "O" (11,96%), "L" (8, 69%) and “S” (7,88%). The less used is W (0,01%).

No. 21: The letter “ñ” belongs to Spanish Language and other Languages as  Aragonese, Galician, Basque (Between Spain and France), Aymara (Indigenous Language spoken in Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile). 

No. 22: The virguilla (~) the “ñ” has comes from another “n” and it was use on top of the biggest one, like an abbreviation. After some time, it flattens and ~ is and it becomes one of the biggest distinctive of Spanish Language.  

No. 23: “CH” (che) and “LL” (elle) were eliminated from the abecedary since 1994 by the Real Academy of Spanish Language. 

No. 24: Numbers in Spanish have either “O” or “E”, except for  "MIL" (thousand)   is the only one that doesn´t.

No. 25: There are four words with four consonants in line: Transplant ( Transplantar) , subtract ( Sustraer) , abstract ( abstracto), abstraction ( abstracción).

No. 26: The only Word with 5 “R” is: ferrocarrilero (railroader).

No. 27: The longest words in Spanish are: sternocleidomastoid (esternocleidomastoideo) an electroencephalography ( electroencefalografía)

No. 28: Spanish Language was official in many regions in all five continents. Many people think it is only spoken in the Americas (North, Central and South) and Europe.  It is also spoken in African Equatorial Guinea. In Philippines was the official Languages until 1950s. (Philippines was Spanish island territory from 1565 to 1898). Besides, in Easter Island Spanish is the official Language as it is in Oceania.

No. 29: Spanish Language has more than 350.000 words or terms, although the Real Academy of Language only accepts 88.000.

No. 30: A Spanish speaker usually employs an average of 300 words daily. A well-educated person knows more terms and employs 500 words daily. A journalist or a writer, may employ 3000 words. 

No. 31: Cervantes called Father of the Spanish Language, allegedly used 8000 different words in his Books.

No. 32: People in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile usually call someone "vos" (instead of you). This is also used in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, St. Salvador, Honduras and in some Colombian regions such as Antioquia, Risaralda and Valle del Cauca.  

No. 33: These are some verbs with little use in Spanish: “Aupar”, it means to lift something, “Amustiar” is the same as “be sad, wither, languish” and “ralentizar” means go slower. 

No. 34: Translation to Spanish Language have 20% more words tan translations to English Language. 

No. 35: The term “HAIGA” does exist, but it doesn’t replace "HAYA" (from the verb Haber in english " to have"). According to Real Academy of Spanish Language it’s an ironic name for a big flamboyant car (you don’t hear it in daily language). 

No. 36: The word “AYA” exists. It doesn´t replace “ALLÁ” (there). "Aya" means slave or nursemaid. It is best known as Nanny or governess.

No. 37: The term ceviche/ cebiche/ sebiche (dish made with marinated fish meat or seafood): According to the Real Academy of spanish Language, they are all correct, but its preferable to use “Cebiche” because it comes from the persian “Sirk” that means vinegar, then the medieval Arabic ﺳكباج (sikbāǧ) that means “acid meat”. Although there is another origin that comes from quechua (Incan Language) and it os called “siwichi” that means “fresh and tender fish”. And another posible origin comes from the Muisca Civilization where “Viche” means “Tender Fish”. 

No. 38: Spoken Spanish Language is the fastest because the number of syllables a person can pronounce per second.

No. 39: An anagram is a word, phrase, or name formed by rearranging the letters of another, such as spar, formed from rasp. Spanish examples: Ecuatorianos and Aeronáuticos;  Irónicamente and Renacimiento;  Cleopatra and  Aceptarlo (same letters in different order). 

No. 40: Palindromes are words or phrases that can be read from left to right as in right to left. One  examplesin english:  Madam, Im Adam. Now  Some examples in Spanish:

Reconocer (to recognize) , acurruca (snuggles), somos ( we are), arenera (vessel for sand) o sometemos (we submit) . Also, some palindrome phrases: “la ruta natural” (the natural route) , “Anita lava la tina (Anita washes the tub) ”, “Yo hago yoga hoy” (I do yoga today).

   

Written by Adriana Martinez

TOP 40: CURIOSITIES OF THE SPANISH LANGUAGE (PART 1)

April 23 is around the corner and it is one of the happiest days of the year for me as a Spanish as a Foreign Language Teacher. Any guesses about this date? Is the Spanish Language Day! This year will be the anniversary #402.

Today we celebrate Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra who contributed to the Spanish Language with his masterpiece: “The Ingenious Nobleman Sir Quixote of la Mancha”. This novel was Published in two volumes, in 1605 and 1615, and consolidated our Language. The author is well known around the world Literature, sharing honors with Homer (Greek writer who wrote The Iliad and the Odyssey), Dante (in Italy) and Shakespeare (England). Cervantes died in Madrid, on April 23^rd, 1616. Every year and every Spanish Speaking country on this date celebrate “Language Day”.

To celebrate this important day, for Spanish as a Foreign Language students, I have written this article with the 40 curiosities of the Spanish Language. This publication is the first part of 19 curiosities, the others will come in a second part.

Enjoy the reading, as much as I have writing it!!

ONE: Have You noticed this language is called both Spanish and Castilian? Are both names correct? Well, according to the Royal Spanish Academy, the most commonly used is SPANISH, the reason is because this name was attributed to the unification with the SPANISH Crown and by this name the term it was established in Hispano-America, and the term “Castilian” is only used for the language used in the Realm of Castile. On the other hand, we have the synonyms. Sometimes, when you have used all demonstrative pronouns in a paragraph, you might appeal to use Castilian as a synonym for “Spanish”, and vice-versa, avoiding repeating the same words.   

TWO: Spanish is the modern sequel of vulgar Latin and other ancient languages, but only after the third century and after the fall of the Roman Empire, vulgar Latin and some of its extended variants from all the territory, the Romance Languages. For this reason, Spanish belongs to the same linguistic family as Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, French, Occitan and last, but not least, Romanian. Actually, there are some Romance Languages as Sardinian, Friulan and Retroromance, and some other. 

THREE: The Spanish, in its beginnings had two accents: Acute that we use nowadays, and the Circumflex accent that remains in other Romance Languages like French (for more details, please read the article form  April 20^th of this blog).

FOUR: In relation with Castilian, in former days it was known as “Christian” because the Moor (an Arabic and Muslim community that invaded Spain from the eighth century to the fifteenth century) used this word to establish a difference between those who spoke Castilian, and those who spoke Arabic Language. 

FIVE: It is believed that the first written Spanish document was written between 974 and 978 in an abbey in Leon, Spain, where a monk wrote a kitchen list of expenses. The text was named “Nodicia de Kesos” and listed mainly the use of cheese used by the monks. 

SIX: Spanish language has about 70% words in Latin, although more than the 85% everyday language has a Latin origin.

SEVEN: Spanish lexical originated from Vulgar Latin, and it has some influences from other languages such as Greek (used mostly in scientific and mathematic and prefixes for medicine and jurisprudence) Arabic, Gothic, Romance Languages, Náhuatl (language the Aztecs ),  Quechua (language of the Incas) English and others.

 EIGHT: More than 4000 words in Spanish come from Arabic domination. Approximately this would be an eight percent of the actual vocabulary.

NINE: In the History of our Language, from Proto-Romance to Proto-Castilian, most of the word “loans” for the Pseudo-Spanish came from Germanic Languages mostly from a variation of the Goth Language called Visigoth (a branch of Germans who came to Spain between 200 and 700 A.D) This “loans” included verbs, names (Ricardo, Alberto, Rodrigo, Guzmán, Alvarado, Guerra o Guerrero, Estrada, some became Last Names), colors white  (blanco), war terms (such as spurs, guard, helmet).

TEN: When most medieval texts appear, it was easy to see a huge influence of the Arabic Language and related with new technologies (Algorithm, logarithm, Zenith, Nadir, Azimuth), government terms (Governor, bailiff, executor, almojarife). Commercial terms (store, carat, at weight, hundredweight), and at the same time the last names ending in “EZ” mean “son of” Like Martínez that means “Son of Martin”.

ELEVEN: With America’s Discovery, appeared new terms coming from Indian tribes. These are: Tomato, cocoa, tobacco, maize (or corn), ceiba trees, rubber, canoe, hammock, hurricane. After the black slaves from Congo (Africa) to Latin America. other words appeared like: banana, marimba (musical percussion instrument), fatmouth (Bemba), guineo (a kind of plantain), guaro (alcohol obtained from sugar cane), motete (a bundle).

TWELVE: Spanish Language acquired some terms from Italian. During the Golden Age we get a lot of words related with music (sonnet, piano, baton). 

THIRTEEN: At the end of the Medieval Ages (1700) and the Illustration (1800), Spanish Language takes from French Language terms related to fashion: (Tisu, corset, toupee), gastronomy (bonbon, restaurant and Foie gras (liver spread) …), and management (desk, ID card).

FOURTEEN: "Satisfy” comes from Latin “Satis” that means quite or enough.  

FIFTEEN: Most words that start with H, in Latin, were written with "F". Is the case :filius (son/ hijo) o filu (/ thread/hilo) ferro (iron/hierro).

SIXTEEN: Many word in Spanish that have the “MBR” particle, come from Latin words with -MIN-, like hunger (faminem), female (feminam), hombre (hominem), light (luminem), wire (amarinem) or hill (culminem).

SEVENTEEN: Huge Tome (“Mamotreto”) is something very heavy or thick. This term comes from Greek “μαμμοθρεπτος” (mammothreptos) and Late Latin “mammothreptus”.

EIGHTEEN: “Miss you” comes from the Portuguese expression “achar menos” where “Achar” means “look for”.

NINETEEN: Those who have suffered with the “subjunctive mode” are very familiar with this two words: Maybe ( quizas/quiza) and Hopefully ( ójala). The adverb maybe (quizás/quizá) comes from the Latin expression “qui sapit” and it means “who knows”. On the other hand, “hopefully” comes from the Arabic Word لو شاء الله (law sha'a Allah) and it means “God may”.

Written By Adriana Martinez