Mexicans furious about being subtitled in Spanish
One of the surprise hit films from 2018 was Roma,
a Mexican film showing on Netflix written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón.
Set
in 1970 and 1971, the film is a semi-autobiographical take on Cuarón's
upbringing in Mexico City and follows the life of a live-in housekeeper to a
middle-class family. The title refers to Colonia Roma, a neighborhood in the city.
It has sparked a lot of controversy in the
Spanish-speaking world because the film is recorded in Mexican Spanish and
Netflix decided that, for the European Spanish market, it would put subtitles
in Castellano.
I often talk about the differences between Spanish
spoken in different parts of the world. It seems Netflix now believes that
Mexican Spanish and Spanish Spanish is so different that one cannot understand
the other.
This is what Ana from Butterfly Spanish had to say:
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Hola a todas
y a todos:
Espero que
estén muy bien. Muchas disculpas por no haber escrito pero aquí estoy.
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I would like to talk about a topic that has recently been in the
Mexican news, the movie Roma from
Alfonso Cuarón. Roma was
subtitled in Spanish for Spain on Netflix. This caused an immediate backlash,
to the extent that Netflix soon proceeded to remove the peninsular Spanish
subtitles. In the director’s words, the subtitles were a wrong move:
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“Me parece
muy ofensivo para el público español el que ‘Roma’ la hayan subtitulado con
español castellano.” “El color, la empatía, funciona sin los subtítulos. Me
parece muy muy ridículo, parroquial e ignorante”.
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“In my opinion/it seems to me/to me this is very offensive for
the Spanish public, the fact that Roma has been subtitled in Castilian
Spanish.
“The vividness, the empathy, work without subtitles. To me, it is
very, but very, ridiculous, parochial, and ignorant”.
The director went further. He said how bad it would be to have
the films of Almodóvar subtitled to Spanish for Mexico:
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“A mí me
encanta ver, como mexicano, el cine de Almodóvar y yo no necesito subtítulos
al mexicano para entenderlo”.
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“I love to watch, as a Mexican, the movies from Almodóvar, and I
do not need subtitles to Mexican Spanish in order for me to understand them.”
Not only do we not need subtitles to understand, watching movies
from other countries increases our knowledge, vocabulary, and culture.
Throughout the years I have learned many Spanish words used in Spain such as:
Spaniards say “ostia” to express surprise,
disbelief, and shock. The ostia is the host, wafer, the
sacramental bread that the priest gives you.
Spaniards say “vale” all the time. The
word “vale” is an ambulance, a
firefighter truck, an angel. It always helps you say everything, and nothing.
You can say “vale” if you want to say yes,
ok, it is fine, good, very good, I see, I get it, yes, aha, alright, great,
sure, and I do not even know how many more. I do not say “vale”. I
say “ajá”, “muy bien”, “sí”. I know “vale”and
learned it through movies, as have many other Spanish speakers.
Spaniards say “estar enfadado”, “estar enfadada” pronounced
more as enfadao, ehn-fah-dah-oh or
ehn-fah-daaah, to be upset. Whereas Mexican dicen “estar enojado” “estar
anojada”.
I did not need subtitles to comprehend these words. It is common
sense. I find that Netflix’s decision on the Castilian Spanish has more to do
with the false idea of correct Spanish, the false belief that only Castilian
Spanish is correct, and that the rest of the Spanish world speaks vulgar, low
register, incorrect Spanish. This is woefully incorrect. The Spanish of every
country of Latin America and Spain can be as correct or incorrect as the
speaker wants it to be. Each version shows the folklore and the culture of
its respective society and people.
I do not want to be the Spanish police. This is why I would like
to tell you more about some curious words in the Spanish spoken in México,
and used in Roma. These are important words linguistically and culturally
that I thought you may be interested in learning:
Gansito. Little
goose. Translated in the movie as “twinkie”. The children in the movie did
not have a twinkie. They had the most popular Mexican snack for children. It
is a little cake with strawberry jam, creamy filling, covered in chocolate,
and sprinkled with milk chocolate chips. If you go to a Mexican supermarket,
you will see the gansitos. I was not a fan
of gansitos; I liked pingüinos, the
snack and the animal.
Tepache. This
is a fermented Mexican beverage made from the peel and the rind of
pineapples, sweetened either with piloncillo or brown sugar, with powdered
cinnamon, and served cold. This beverage used to be sold everywhere. These
days I have only seen it in the Oaxaca city and Tepoztlán, Morelos.
Que sueñes con los angelitos. This is the Mexican way to say to children
who go to sleep: “I hope you dream with the angels”.
El
chaparrón. It sounds like “chaparro” short
man, but it is not. “Chaparrón” is a sudden,
heavy downpour that lasts for a very short period of time. Remember, “chaparro” is
a short male while “chaparrón” is a short heavy
rain. In the movie, the song you sing as child when you want it to rain:
Que llueva, que llueva,
la virgen de la cueva, los pajarillos cantan, la luna se levanta que sí, que no, que caiga el chaparrón
Let it rain, let it rain,
the virgin of the cave, the birds sing, the moon rises yes, no, yes, no, let the downpour fall
Neza
de Netzahualcoyotl. Neza or Netzahualcoyotl is
a neighborhood in the State of Mexico. Nezahualcoyotl,
“Coyote who fasts” was a philosopher, warrior, architect, poet, and ruler of
the city-state of Texcoco in pre-Columbian era Mexico. Neza, the
neighborhood, is ugly, grey, dirty, but I do not think this is a slum, as
they translate it in the movie. Yes, it follows the definition of slum: “a
poor and crowded area of a city where the buildings are in a very bad
condition.” Yet if we follow this definition, most of Mexico is a slum. And
yet, Neza is a low, middle-, and upper-class neighborhood. Your house might
have five floors, and your neighbor’s house is made of cardboard. Welcome to
Mexico! In Neza, there are people with good jobs, very good jobs, terrible
jobs, miserable jobs, no jobs. Welcome to Mexico! It would seem poor to you,
but I am not sure it could just be refereed to as a slum. Every person has an
idea of a slum, given the circumstances.
Ándale.
Ándale, ándale. If you are having a conversation,
and want to agree in a Mexican way, say “ándale”, “ándale”, “andale” as
many times as you wish. For Spaniards this might mean “keep walking”. For
Mexicans, however, this is a “yes”, “you are right”, “I agree”, “there you
go”, and probably more meanings I am not even thinking of. We are not saying
keep walking. That would be sigue caminando, keep
walking.
Tantito or tantita are
Mexican ways to say “a little”. A little bit of milk, tantita leche. A little bit of coffee, tantito café.
¿Qué te trae por estos rumbos? A Mexican way to say “What brings you
here?” Why are you here? The literal translation is what brings you to these
paths?
Estar pesado, está pesado, está pesada, to be heavy. In Mexico, you can say
something is heavy in different ways. A
box is heavy, la caja está pesada. The package is heavy, el paquete está pesado. But another meaning, the meaning used in
the dialogue in Roma, is that someone has a lot of knowledge, money, or
success. Or that some place is dangerous.
La
muchacha, the woman that helps me in the house. A classic, the coat of
arms of the middle- and upper-class Mexican household. La muchacha, la muchacha. In the past, she was called “la criada”, “la sirvienta”. La criada, quite a derogatory
word in this context, from de verb “criar”, “to
bring up”, “to nurture”, “a person who has received education, and has been
raised”. In Mexico, people who have a domestic worker use the word muchacha, la muchacha, or
call them by their name, as it is in Roma with Cleo.
Facts about la muchacha, o la señora: It
is very important to say “la muchacha” if
she is a young woman. If the helper is older, she is called “señora” o “la señora”
In the Mexican middle-class, having a cleaning woman in the
house is not a luxury. En serio, no es un lujo. It
is common, very common. The woman who cleans houses becomes part of the
average Mexican household. Some only clean the house. Some clean the house
and cook. Some clean the house, cook, and do the laundry. Some clean the
house, cook, and do laundry, and iron clothes. But there are two things
they must do:
clean the house, and iron mister’s clothes. I had informants to write this
paragraph since I do not have a muchacha o señora. My
informants had cleaning ladies, and they all said: “Yes, of course. They have
to iron the clothes of the mister”. One of my informants said “I can go to
work with my wrinkly clothes but Jorge (the husband)’s clothes have to be
ironed. When the house is very dirty, and I know Cielo (la muchacha) has
a lot to do, I have to call her and say, don’t do this or that… whatever, but
iron at least 6 dress shirts for the mister. The ironing is a golden rule. Of
course”.
An upper Mexican household has a cook, a woman who does the
house cleaning, and a nanny. A fancy household has a cook and a woman who does
the cleaning. They usually work from Monday to Saturday. But many have a
cleaning lady once, a couple, or a few days a week. The income for a helper
goes from $150 pesos to $300 pesos. The average goes from $200 to $250. They
work at least 8 hours a day.
But, let’s not be so pessimistic for the moment. Instead, I
invite you to listen to some good tunes, classic tunes of the Spanish 70s
played in Roma:
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Grupo: Los
Terrícolas
Canción: Vamos a platicar País: Venezuela https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8hyqomH6Gk
Cantante:
Juan Gabriel
Canción: No tengo dinero País: México https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHscurs7CzQ
Grupo:
Elbert Moguel y Los Strwck
Canción: La canción de la suegra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSkXZ2SEiJY
Soundtrack
de la película Roma: (Tiene canciones en inglés)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci_E7d6djbs |
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Watch or listen an interview to Yalitza, who acts as Cleo in Roma,
and who is not an actress but a teacher:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ANgWmwg1Hw
Watch an interview done by a Mexican anchor with Alfonso Cuarón.
I am suggesting this because they talk about the Roma neighborhood, and his
biography:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EY8zDBxIHg
Also, Cuarón’s Spanish accent is very strawberry, fresa, snobby,
classic from Mexico City educated, upper class. Get the flavor of it.
The anchor says “eres chilango”. “Chilango” is used to describe people from Mexico City.
Muchas gracias a todos por leer este
boletín,
Ana |
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