Pocho (pocha fem.) is a term used by native-born Mexicans to describe Chicanos who are perceived to have forgotten or rejected their Mexican heritage to some degree. Typically, pochos speak English and lack fluency in Spanish. Among some pochos, the term has been embraced to express pride in having both a Mexican and an American heritage[1] asserting their place in the diverse American culture. The word derives from the Spanish word pocho, used to describe fruit that has become rotten or discolored.
Pochos are usually identified by their use of poorly spoken Spanish. Code switching and the use of loanwords is common as is the use of phrases popular in American culture translated to Spanish, sometimes literally. Code switching often involves inserting English preposition or objective nouns, such as, "Voy a ir shopping ahora en el supermarket" (I am going shopping now at the supermarket). Modified loanwords are referred to as "pochismos." Examples include mopear for trapear (to mop), parquear for estacionar (to park), or chequear for mirar or verificar (to check, to inspect or to verify). A clear example of a popular American phrase that has been adopted by people familiar with both cultures would be Clint Eastwood's famous quote "Make my day.", which has been increasingly used in Spanish as "Hacer mi día.".
The term does, however, imply different meanings. In San Diego/Tijuana, "pocho" carries no negative connotations. The word simply refers to one who has both Mexican and American roots. By contrast, in Ciudad Juárez, the moniker is very much a term of abuse, referring in particular to (what residents of Cd. Juárez see as) "uncultured" Mexican-Americans living across the border in El Paso, though this is certainly not universal.
However, modern definition of "pocho/a" defines any Mexican blood (especially Mexican born) who take pride in being Mexican yet indulge and often prefer American culture. After 9/11, pocho/a is a Mexican with American taste. One can be born and raised in Mexico yet be a pocho/a because he/she rather takes part in American culture over Mexican culture. Mexico born American residents, for example, watch football rather than futbol. Or listen to American or British music rather than their Spanish counterparts.
In general, the word "pocho" can sometimes have these different meanings:
- A person of Mexican heritage who is assimilated and acts "American" (a "wannabe" American).
- A Mexican-American who can speak little or no Spanish.
- An American who speaks Spanish and acts "Mexican" (a "wannabe" Mexican).
- A person who frequently crosses the U.S.-Mexican border and feels at home on both sides of the border.
Pocho is also the title of an important 1959 Chicano novel by José Antonio Villarreal.
See also [link]
References [link]
External links [link]
- Definition of pocho
- "A Note on 'Pochismo'" by William E. Wilson, The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 30, No. 6 (Oct., 1946), pp. 345–346 (Available online at JSTOR - membership required)
https://wn.com/Pocho
José Antonio Villarreal
José Antonio Villarreal (30 July 1924 – 13 January 2010) was a Chicano novelist.
Villarreal was born in 1924 in Los Angeles, California, to migrant Mexican farmworkers. Like Juan Manuel Rubio in Pocho, Villarreal's father fought with Pancho Villa in the Mexican Revolution. He spent four years in the Navy before attending the University of California at Berkeley in 1950.
Pocho
Villarreal's novel Pocho (1959) is one of the first Chicano novels, and the first to gain widespread recognition. Pocho has been called the "pivotal transitional link between 'Mexican American' and 'Chicano' literature", both because of its strengths as a novel and because of its use in the rediscovery and recuperation of Latino literature in the 1970s. The novel details the childhood of Richard Rubio, whose father Juan Manuel left Mexico in the post-Revolution exodus of 1910. As a first-generation American, Richard struggles with the conflicting values of his parents: his father's Mexican sense of honor, tradition, pride and masculinity and the more Americanized view of family and women's roles that his mother and especially his sisters adopt. Richard's father harbors a dream to return his family to Mexico, but his circumstances and choices keep him in the United States. Similarly, Richard does well in school and wants to go to college to become a writer, but he must become the man of the house after his father leaves the family; yet Richard himself leaves the family to join the Navy after Pearl Harbor. According to scholar Francisco A. Lomelí, the novel argues "that people of Mexican descent have a rightful place they can claim their own that is both Mexican and Anglo American, which Chicanos synthesize in varying degrees [and] accentuates, for the first time in a mainstream American literary scene, Hispanic characters as complex and multidimensional who, despite their individual flaws, possess depth and credibility".
Pocho (crocodile)
Pocho (around 1991 in Reventazón River, Costa Rica – October 12, 2011 in Siquirres, Costa Rica) was an American crocodile who became world famous for his relationship with Gilberto "Chito" Shedden, a local area fisherman. Shedden had found Pocho dying on the banks of the Reventazón River, and took the crocodile in, nursing him back to health. The crocodile refused to return to the wild and chose to stay with Chito instead. The pair became famous after they began performing together.
Dying crocodile is rescued
Shedden, a fisherman, tour guide, and naturalist from Siquirres, Limón Province, Costa Rica, discovered a dying male crocodile in 1991, weighing only a skinny 150 pounds on the banks of the Reventazón River, close to death. Upon closer examination, Shedden discovered the crocodile, shot in the head through the left eye, was alone and helpless. The crocodile had been shot by a local cattle farmer while preying on a herd of cows. Shedden took the crocodile home in his boat. For six months, Shedden fed the crocodile chicken, fish and medicine, sleeping with it at night in his home. Shedden also simulated the chewing of food with his mouth to encourage the crocodile to eat, and gave it kisses and hugs while talking to it and petting it. "Food wasn't enough. The crocodile needed my love to regain the will to live," noted Shedden. He hid the crocodile in an obscured pond under trees deep in a nearby forest until he obtained the necessary wildlife permits from Costa Rican authorities to own and raise the gravely injured crocodile legally.
