The name of that horse with a light gold coat, the palomino, derives from Spanish for young dove, because these animals share similar coloring. In the same way, a sorrel horse has the same color as a certain kind of sorrel plant. The names for the...
In Spanish, taco de ojo literally means “taco of the eye,” but in Mexican slang, it’s the equivalent of English eye candy, or someone who’s very nice to look at. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Mexican Spanish “Taco de Ojo”...
The Spanish term for rollercoaster, montaña rusa, or “Russian mountain,” refers to the earliest versions of rollercoasters, which were sledding Russian slopes built from wood and covered with ice. Oddly enough, the Russian for roller...
William from Fort Worth, Texas, remembers dabbing monkey blood on cuts and scrapes and wonders why anyone would call a medicine that. The nickname refers most often to the bright red antiseptic Mercurochrome, and it has also been applied to iodine...
Our conversation about Spanish idioms involving food prompted a tweet from Tijuana, Mexico: del plato a la boca, se cae la sopa, or between the dish and the mouth, the soup spills, or don’t count your chickens before they hatch. A similar idea is...
Martha shares a poem by Mexican-American poet Sandra Cisneros, “Peaches—Six in a Tin Bowl, Sarajevo.” It’s from My Wicked, Wicked Ways. (The poem is copyright 1987 by Sandra Cisneros. By special arrangement with Third Woman Press...
