I am remembering back in the late '90s when I made all these trips to Peru. I sent mixed tapes to Peru, to Roland the Peruvian rainforest guide. I was just learning Spanish so I was grasping around for some references, and I thought of some songs by The Pixies. But maybe I didn't realize how tongue-in-cheek some of the lyrics were, or notice the sounds of jail bars slamming in the background on Vamos. Nicknames were big in Peru, and he had a lot of them, including "Chino." So in English, that roughly translates to "Chinese man." Fujimori was the president of that country and they used to call him "Chinito" (little Chinese man). But he was part Japanese, not Chinese. I thought, in English that probably wouldn't sound very good. "Why?" he (Roland the rainforest guide) said to me. "They are not insulting me. The Americans must not be really carinosa. When they call me 'Chino,' its because they like me."
Vamos
Isla de Encanta
No comments:
Post a Comment