Monday, December 12, 2005In the late 1980s, while still living in Mexico, it was almost a ritual for all the kids in my neighborhood to sit in front of a black-and-white television on Monday evenings to watch a show called “Chespirito.” Suddenly, hide-n-seek took a backseat. We would hear the theme song play and we waited in suspense. We would wonder which skit Chespirito had prepared for us that night. Would it be “El Chavo del Ocho,” “Los Chiflados,” “El Chapulin Colorado,” or “Los Caquitos”? We never knew, but given Chespirito‘s amusing ways, we knew we were in for a treat. Chespirito’s actual name is Roberto Gomez Bolaños. Born in February of 1929, Bolaños was christened “Shakespearito” at the age of 41 when a movie producer recognized the quality of a manuscript Bolaños had prepared for him. Standing no taller than 5’3″, it only made sense to call him “Little Shakespeare,” but even with “ito” suffixed, “Shakespearito” did not sound Mexican enough by Bolaños’ standards, so he modified it and it became Chespirito. More than three decades later, Chespirito has amassed an audience that is as heterogeneous as the world itself. The very young have difficulty pronouncing his name, but they find humor in his jokes. The very old are given a chance to laugh at his jokes today just as wholeheartedly as they did when they saw his shows for the first time in the 1970s. A major reason for Chespirito‘s accomplishments would have to be his remarkable manipulation of the Spanish language. “El Chavo del Ocho” is perhaps Chespirito‘s most well-known skit. El Chavo is an eight year old orphan who lives in an impoverished neighborhood of Mexico. Two of his most frequently used phrases are “Se me chispoteó” and “Fue sin querer queriendo.” To someone who has never watched “El Chavo del Ocho,” those phrases carry no meaning at all. However, those who have seen the show would understand that “Se me chispoteó” is something that one would say after expressing a politically incorrect but true feelings about something or someone. For example, El Chavo would say “se me chispoteó” after inadvertently referring to his teacher as “maistro longaniza” (“Professor Sausage,” in reference to his height-width disproportion). Similarly, “Fue sin querer queriendo” would be El Chavo’s particular way of saying, “I’m sorry.” It can be translated as “It was without wanting to want.” The fact that Spanish speakers make sense of it is evidence of the popularity of “El Chavo del Ocho.” From the perspective of a linguist, a more interesting tendency of El Chavo would be his noun-pronoun inversion. The landlord of El Chavo‘s neighborhood is a man known as El Señor Barriga. One is to believe that it was only coincidental that a very fat man had “Barriga” as his surname. In English he would have been known as Mr. Belly. That is beside the point, though. In the many interactions between the two, El Chavo would say to El Señor Barriga things such as “proceda con barriga, Señor cautela.” Hearing this causes El Señor Barriga to feel like pulling the very few hairs still left on his head. How else could he react to being told, “proceed with Belly, mister caution”? Another popular character is La Chimoltrufia, a character in a skit called “Los Caquitos.” Portrayed by Chespirito’s offscreen wife, Florinda Meza, La Chimoltrufia is a 30-something year old housewife married to El Botija (“The Fat One”). Chimoltrufia’s age is actually anybody’s guess. Like the beautiful, sophisticated lady she considers herself to be, she goes far lengths to keep that bit of information to herself. The few times her date of birth is brought up, she says she was born in the year “mil novescientos [unintelligible] nueve.” She mumbles the tens place. Anyone who has ever heard La Chimoltrufia speak is probably familiar with one of her most famous phrases, “claro que por supuesto que desde luego que si!” Such a phrase is a good example of a tautology. Dictionary.com defines a tautology as a “needless repetition of the same sense in different words.” The phrase I just cited consists of four different ways to say “of course”: “claro”; “por supuesto”; “desde luego”; and the most obvious one, “sí.” One tautology used by La Chimoltrufia that can be nicely translated is, “y le repito nuevamente de nuevo otra vez lo que le dije anteriormente hace un rato.” It means, “and I reiterate once again another time what I told you earlier a little while ago.” La Chimoltrufia is also known for substituting words that don’t hold any relationship to each other. She might say “batalla campestre” when she in fact means to say “batalla campal.” A better example of this phenoemena is in regards to the word “diéresis.” After preparing a sign to use in a strike/boycott, La Chimoltrufia was explaining to her husband that she had placed diacritic marks over the “u” in (sic) “güelga” because she had learned that in certain syllabic structures (g-u-VOWEL) the letter “u” is silent unless a dieresis is placed over it. Of course, she used the word “varices” instead of “diéresis.” “Varices” is the Spanish term for varicose veins. Another Chimoltrufeic tendency is that of taking everything literally. During an argument she was holding with her boss, a third person tried to act as mediator and asked, “May I say two words?” After she agreed, the mediator went on to say “You see…” and before he could say anything else, she stopped him and said, “That’s two words. Anybody else has something to say before the ass-whooping begins?” If only one thing had to be said about La Chimoltrufia, it would have to be an explanation of her real name, for it reveals a lot about her and the society she is part of. Her parents named her Maria Expropiacion Petronila Torquemada de Botija. Given Mexico’s religious heritage, “Maria” is a very common name in Mexico. “Expropiacion Petronila,” however, calls for an explanation. On March 18, 1938, in a move that came to be known “La Expropiación Petrolera,” President Lazaro Cardenas expropriated oil in the hands of foreign investors. La Chimoltrufia was born in the anniversary of said event, and as a result “Expropiacion Petronila” became part of her name. (Chespirito chose “Petronila” over “Petrolera” because it is more euphonic, and because it gives the character more of an indigenous/provincial ancestry — which goes hand in hand with her personality in the skit.) In effect, Chespirito‘s affixation of “Expropiacion Petronila” in Chimoltrufia‘s birth name is a satirization of an old Mexican tradition of assigning babies a name that is somehow linked to their date of birth. “Torquemada” is in allusion to Tomás de Torquemada, “[whose name] has become a byword for cruelty and fanaticism in the service of religion” (Wikipedia). Finally, “de Botija” is the result of the patriarchal Mexican custom of leaving the wife’s paternal surname intact but affixing “de” (indicating possession) followed by her husband’s surname. So then, La Chimoltrufia is the Maria born on the eighteenth day of March, who suffers an economically cruel fate in the possession of her fat husband. La Chimoltrufia is only one of the many characters whose name is the result of Chespirito‘s wit. Also part of the “Los Caquitos” skit is Chompiras, played by Chespirito himself. Very few people know Chompiras‘ real name in the skit: Aquiles Esquivel Madrazo. It consists of three valid names; Aquiles exists as a first name, and both Esquivel and Madrazo exist as surnames. However, when said in a continuous stream of sounds, Chompira‘s real name can be heard as “Aquí les esquivé el madrazo” — “this is where I dodged a mother of a beating!” Speaking of dodging a mother of a beating, no other Chespirito character has to do as many of those as El Chapulin Colorado. El Chapulin Colorado is Chespirito‘s answer to Superman and other American superheroes. Unlike his American counterparts, El Chapulin Colorado does not possess any supernatural powers. In fact, a partial translation of his theme song would yield, “more agile than a turtle, and stronger than a mouse!” As if that did not make him unfit to play the role of superhero, he is also clumsy, dumb, and cowardly. Nonetheless, El Chapulin Colorado somehow manages to provide immediate help to those who call for it. Well, maybe not so immediate. In the process of helping others, El Chapulin Colorado gets into mishaps that sometimes cause his invokers to lose their patience and say aloud, “I should have called Superman!” Many phrases are attributed to El Chapulin Colorado, including: “Lo sospeche desde un principio”; “Siganme los buenos”; “Se aprovechan de mi nobleza”; and “Que no panda el cúnico.” The latter is Chapulin‘s butchering of “Que no cunda el pánico,” which means, “Let’s not allow fear to spread.” Notice the “pa” for “cu” syllabic inversion. El Chapulin Colorado would erroneously say cúnico instead of pánico. Because cúnico is not a word in Spanish, his audience would focus their attention on the inversed syllable — cú –, which is also present in the two-syllable Spanish word for buttocks. In Mexico — and possibly other parts of Latin America — airwave usage of that word is still considered taboo to this day, so El Chapulin Colorado‘s indirect reference is amusing, to say the least. Even if El Chapulin Colorado was to say his trademarked phrases in Chinese, he would still make more sense than he does when he attempts to cite a proverb. His audience knows he is about to say something nonsensical when he pauses to say, “Ya lo dice el viejo y conocido refrán” — “As the old saying goes…” At that point he might say something like, “El que ríe al último traga más pinole,” which is syntactically well-structured, but is actually a fusion of two popular phrases: “El que ríe al último ríe mejor” and “El que tiene más saliva traga más pinole.” It would be equivalent to someone saying, “He who laughs last catches the worm.” Not wanting to be thought a fool, El Chapulin Colorado would re-attempt citing the phrase and say, “The early bird laughs best.” Yet another well-structured sentence, but still not delivering the meaning that he wants to convey. Hoping that a third attempt would make up for the first two, he concludes, “The worm laughs because the early bird didn’t catch it. Given the number of cars on the streets these days, I suppose the bird was late because he got stuck in traffic. Or is it possible that his alarm clock malfunctioned? Well, you get the idea.” As bad as it is, El Chapulin Colorado‘s nonsense comes short when compared to that of Chaparron Bonaparte and Lucas Tañeda. Chaparron and Lucas are the main stars in a skit called “Los Chiflados” — “The Loony Ones.” Homonyms play a big role in their skits. An episode that aptly illustrates this is the one where the loony duo decides to plant flowers for sale. Chaparron turns to Lucas and asks, “Why don’t these flowers smell?” Lucas responds, “because they don’t have noses.” “Right you are,” says Chaparron, and the conversation goes on. A lady approaches them and says, “I saw the sign outside; I would like some flores.” Without missing a beat, Lucas gets closer to her, makes his best Romeo impression and delivers a pick-up line. Suffice to say, the word “flores” can be used to refer to both flowers as well as pick up lines. Nonetheless, Lucas‘ delivery seemed so genuine that the lady blushed and accepted it, forgetting completely about the other type of flores! Yet another example of homonyms found in the same episode involves the use of the word “plantar.” Lucas warns Chaparron that planting something that is not ready to be planted might yield undesirable results. As if about to share a secret with him, Chaparron gets closer to Lucas and says, “Pues yo ya lo planté. [Lo planté] en la esquina. Lo cité a las ocho y no fui,” to which they both react with a chuckle. It is commonly known that to plant something usually means to put it underground for it to grow. In Spanish, however, the word “plantar” also means “to stand someone up.” Chaparron had indeed “planted” the tree; “I told the tree to meet me at the corner at eight o’clock, but I never intended to show up.” Although it was mentioned earlier in this essay that people of all ages can appreciate Chespirito‘s humor, sometimes it takes a “cultured” person to understand his jokes. During an “El Chavo del Ocho” episode, Don Ramon is repeatedly heard saying “Sin piñata no hay posada.” Ron Damon — as El Chavo refers to him — was simply trying to remind the kids in the neighborhood that they must be careful handling the piñatas; “There can’t be a posada without a piñata.” One of the kids says to Don Ramon, “you’ve said that forty times already!” Don Ramon turns around and walks away, not without giving them yet another reminder, “Sin piñata no hay posada.” Before he gets far, however, El Chavo is heard saying “forty-one,” which causes Don Ramon to turn around and say, “What?!” An elaboration is in order. During the “Porfiriato” — the name given to the period when Porfirio Diaz was Mexico’s leader (1876 to 1911) — an event took place that attributed a sense of stigma to the number forty-one. This event was a police raid to a party where a great number of homosexuals were suspected to be in attendance. In fact, the next day a renown newspaper in Mexico City published that forty-one homosexuals were captured in the raid. However, one of the men captured was a close relative of Porfirio Diaz. Naturally, Porfirio Diaz ordered the newspaper editor to modify the story, changing the number to forty. Since that day, and for a long time, Mexican men would tease their friends by saying, “You’re number forty-one, aren’t you?!” Although he created them many years ago, Chespirito’s shows are still watched in many countries around the world, including Peru, Colombia, Argentina, and Spain. His sense of humor has transcended not only frontiers, but also languages. Shows like “El Chavo del Ocho” and “El Chapulin Colorado” have been dubbed into Portuguese, Russian, and even Japanese! Such reality almost makes of “lost in the translation” an excuse for a bad joke. Furthermore, Chespirito‘s long, successful journey has immortalized him and placed him among to the great ones, with the likes of Cantinflas (Mexico’s Charles Chaplin) and Pedro Infante (Mexico’s Elvis). Unlike them, however, Chespirito made the list while still alive. When his time comes to leave Earth, his death will be mourned in all corners of the world, by the young as well as the old, and the rich as well as the poor. And because of the amount of joy he brought to millions upon millions of people, his very last words would necessarily have to be “Siganme los buenos!” Addendum: What’s Next? Works Cited “Chespirito responde a los lectores.” “Hay cosas que ni qué: La Chimoltrufia.” “Chespirito y Florinda un romance chileno.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: Tomás de Torquemada Posted by at 7:37 pm [Permalink]
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