LATINO

USA
1519 PALABRAS
>>MARIA HINOJOSA, HOST: From NPR and The Futuro Media Group, it's Latino USA. I'm Maria Hinojosa.
>>ILAN STAVANS: There are words that sound archaic and words that sound new and words that
constantly change meanings.
>>HINOJOSA: And those words or palabras affect how we understand each other. So today, we talk
about how we talk and how some very popular movie characters got their language.
>>PIERRE COFFIN: Well, what's super cool about the Spanish language is that it ends with either -AO --
and all these words, for some reason in my head, that's the Minion language.
>>HINOJOSA: Plus deaf Latinos facing questions of identity. All this and more coming up on Latino USA
as we talk about palabras. I'm Maria Hinojosa. Stay with us. No se vayan.
(SOUNDBITE OF UNIDENTIFIED SONG)
>>UNIDENTIFIED ARTIST: (Singing in Spanish).
>>HINOJOSA: Welcome to Latino USA. I'm Maria Hinojosa. And today, on our program, we're talking
about palabras. Palabras means words. You know, those things that we string together to make
sentences and hopefully express ideas. Now, here in our Latino USA newsroom, we mostly speak English
with each other during our workday, but most of our staff is also bilingual so we end up mixing in a
bunch of Spanish, too. And sometimes the words that we use actually aren't just English or Spanish, but
a mix between the two -- you know, Spanglish.
>>JULIO VARELA: Oh that's -- that's great...
>>HINOJOSA: So we start today's show in our conference room, where we gathered the entire Latino
USA staff to talk a little bit more about how we talk.
>>ANTONIA CEREIJIDO: Maria, you've been obsessed with doing this palabras show. Like, what's up?
Why are you so obsessed with it?
>>HINOJOSA: Well, first of all, as a writer and as a journalist, I love words. But when you grow up
bilingually, there's something that happens where words can be really funny. So I knew I wanted to do
an entire show about palabras. But the thing that kind of cemented it for me was actually a story
because I love the stories that come with the words. So one day I was coming here to the office and the
gentleman who does some of the cleaning -- in Spanish, he said when I have to clean something, he's
like (speaking Spanish) -- when I have the clean something, I just use the purpo. And I was, like, the
purpo, what's that? And he pulled out a spray can, and it said all purpose cleaner. And I was like yeah,
it's all purpose that has now become purpo. And that's just one of many, many, many very funny stories.
>>CEREIJIDO: So in even talking about this show, we've made up a word to talk about, like, fusing of
words in different languages, right Camilo?
>>CAMILO VARGAS: Yeah, transwording. It's basically...

(LAUGHTER)
>>HINOJOSA: Which -- we love that word.
>>VARGAS: It's basically when you're talking in one language and you take the word from the other
language and you use it in the language that you're actually talking in. So in Bogota, for example, we'll
usually take a word from English like oh, manes, something for example.
>>VARELA: Manes.
>>HINOJOSA: Manes?
>>VARGAS: So, like, the word for dude in Bogota is mane.
>>HINOJOSA: Une mane. Une mane is une dude.
>>VARGAS: Une mane so one man is for several manes.
>>MARLON BISHOP: And that kind of brings us to what we were talking about a little bit earlier where
it's not just about bringing Spanish words into an English context. But, for example, back in Argentina,
there's all these English words that people use, right Antonia?
>>CEREIJIDO: Yeah, words that they would never use in that way here, like (speaking Spanish) like, you
were doing something to the most of your ability. Like -- you'd never be like I was too full yesterday or
like (speaking Spanish), which is like that's super top, but as something, like, cool or awesome, you
know?
>>HINOJOSA: So the other one that I remember, like, my mom, you know, we would really laugh at her
when she said something like nios, be quience. You know, shut upence and we just thought that was
hilarious. And, I mean, to me, that actually is like a transwordeo. And, Nancy, what about you? In your
family, are there transwordeos?
>>NANCY TRUJILLO: You know, actually no. We grew up very purist. It was English in school, Spanish at
home. And if we ever mixed both of those up, she'd say are you speaking English or Spanish?
>>CEREIJIDO: How do you feel about Spanglish?
>>TRUJILLO: I honestly hate it.
(LAUGHTER)
>>AC VALDEZ: What?
>>BISHOP: How can you work in this office and believe that?
>>TRUJILLO: Hear me out. So...
(LAUGHTER)
>>TRUJILLO: My godson is going to be 8 years old, right? But when you communicate with him, he can't
communicate with you in a solid language. So he can't dominate the Spanish; he can't dominate the
English. So it's like...

>>HINOJOSA: It worries you.

>>TRUJILLO: It worries me a lot because I just think about him like, you know, being older and like,
interviewing for a job or something.
>>HINOJOSA: I'm kind of like -- I totally get your concern. But I'm going to flip it on you, which is what if
in 20 years from now when he's going on job interviews actually this flipping of language is chevere for
your job interview?
>>TRUJILLO: No totally...
>>HINOJOSA: I mean, maybe, right? I don't know.
>>BISHOP: So we actually did a call out to our listeners and asked them to send their own favorite
examples of transwording.
>>UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: Aqui vamos!
>>ARTURO GARCIA SIERRA: Hi my name is Arturo Garcia Sierra, and I am from the Tijuana-San Diego
region. My friends and I often use the terms chileando or hangotiar to say that we want to, well, hang
out.
>>BISHOP: This one kind of is fascinating to me because that was your example, Camilo. We got several
submissions about hangotiar and hangiar.
>>VARGAS: Well, every country or little region has its own word for hangout, right?
>>BISHOP: Yeah.
>>VARGAS: So in Bogota, for example, it's parchar. But if you say parchar to someone from Peru, they'll
be like what the hell is that?
>>HINOJOSA: That sounds really weird. That sounds boring, frankly.
(LAUGHTER)
>>CEREIJIDO: Let's move on. Let's move on to...
>>HINOJOSA: OK.
>>ANTONIA CEREIJIDO: ...To the next one.
>>ELIZA COLLISON: My name is Eliza Collison. Currently, I'm living abroad in Managua, Nicaragua. Like
many countries in Latin America, Nicaragua uses a lot of Spanglish. However, my favorite word is rie as
an ride, giving someone a ride in your car. It's used on many occasions, such as -- (speaking Spanish).
Hey, can you give me a ride to the supermarket? So wherever I go in Nicaragua, I will be sure to ask for a
rie.
(LAUGHTER)
>>BISHOP: The fact that she turned that into a 45-second radio piece is really amazing.
(LAUGHTER)

>>CEREIJIDO: OK, we have one last example.

>>KATHERINE PEREZ: Hello, my name is Katherine Perez. And two Spanglish words that we use a Miami
a lot are chancs and chis. Chancs, as you could probably imagine, is just short for chancletas or flip-flops.
And then chis is short for chisme or gossip. You know, it's really common to say hey, come over here. I
have some chis for you.
>>HINOJOSA: Those two were, like, amazing.
(LAUGHTER)
>>BISHOP: Yeah, really amazing.
>>HINOJOSA: So chancs...
>>CEREIJIDO: Chancs is really...
>>HINOJOSA: No, no, no. Chancs and then chis. Oh, my God. (Speaking Spanish). I love that.
>>CEREIJIDO: I know, we got to use it.
>>MARIA HINOJOSA, HOST:
So hangiar shut up and say, manes, chancs, chis -- look, there's no doubt that the Latino experience
makes for some pretty colorful linguistic creations. But what does all of this transwording mean, and
where is it taking us? Well, to find out, we dialed up Ilan Stavans, who's a professor at Amherst
University and the author of a Spanglish dictionary. It's titled "Spanglish: The Making Of A New American
Language." Welcome back to Latino USA, Ilan.
>>ILAN STAVANS: Hola.
>>HINOJOSA: I have to tell you, Ilan, the first thing that I'm confused about is -- is there, in fact, a purist
definition of Spanglish?
>>STAVANS: Well, the question is already provocative. A purist definition assumes that languages are
static, but the truth is, Maria, that no such languages exist unless they are dead. But a language that is
alive and well needs to be borrowing and needs to be lending all the time. The truth is every language --
every standardized language -- Spanish, Portuguese, Italian -- has gone through a process very similar to
Spanglish in which it was looked down at as unworthy. And eventually it acquired this level of reputation
and an embrace, and it became standard. Well, maybe Spanglish will become standard one day. I don't
know -- in 50 years, in a hundred years. I'm hoping that it will never have a Royal Academy of the
Spanglish language that legislates what is accepted and rejected because the beauty of Spanglish for me
is that precisely it benefits from the improvisational movements that we are all doing as we use it. And
Spanglish is the best manifestation that we have of what Latino culture, Latino civilization is all about
that is borrowing from Anglo United States cultures and borrowing from our Latin-American heritage
and doing it in a way that's truly mestizo.
>>HINOJOSA: I love the fact that you talk about if there ever was a Royal Academy of Spanglish
(laughter).
>>STAVANS: Please, no, no, no.

>>HINOJOSA: But (speaking Spanish) because, like, right there, you and I (speaking Spanish).
>>STAVANS: (Speaking Spanish).
>>HINOJOSA: Now we can switch and we're speaking English, but that is not the definition of Spanglish,
right?
>>STAVANS: I would say, Maria, that in order to be in the Spanglish state of mind, three things need to
happen. One is you probably will be engaging in code switching. Exactly what you described as this
(speaking Spanish) to switch in English and be comfortable in this other language (speaking Spanish) and
back constantemente. The second thing you need is also to think in one language and to communicate
in the other. I can tell you things only in Spanish (speaking Spanish). It actually means I'll call you back,
but you're translating from the English. You were thinking in the one langue and the words come out in
the other. And the third thing, Maria, would be to really come up with new terms. For instance, likiar
instead of esta goteando or...
>>HINOJOSA: OK, so people who may not speak Spanish likiar, which mean that there is a leak, but there
is no word likiar in Spanish.
>>STAVANS: No.
>>HINOJOSA: It is gotear.
>>STAVANS: Gotear.
>>HINOJOSA: Right.
>>STAVANS: There are words that by sheer usage eventually make it into a standardized, recognized
form and displace other words. And that is the normal pattern of all languages. There are words that
sound archaic and words that sound new and words that constantly change meanings.
>>HINOJOSA: So if somebody's last name is Jimenez, when somebody says my last name name is
Gimenez, what goes on for you then? Is that Spanglish or is that destroying a Spanish language word
forever?
>>STAVANS: I don't believe that words are destroyed. I believe that words mutate, get transformed. In
the United States...
>>HINOJOSA: But how do you feel about that? I'm asking you how you feel.
>>STAVANS: I'll tell you how I feel. My reaction is not of displeasure and of allergy. My reaction is this is
what assimilation is, and that is what this type of linguistic territory is all about. We have -- at the end of
the 19th century, in -- the biggest poet in Latin America, Ruben Dario from Nicaragua, wrote a beautiful
poem called "Los Cisnes" -- "The Swans" -- in which he asks if in the future the vast majority of Latin
Americans would switch to English. This can tell you, Maria, already the kind of anxiety that was existing
at that time. Today, we have the largest concentration of Latinos in the -- Hispanics in the United States.
I would say we have another republic of the many republics that exist in Latin America. And we have our
own language, which is this mestizo tongue that is Spanglish that defines us and it gives us an identity.
>>HINOJOSA: Ilan Stavans, thank you so much for joining us. Muchisimas gracias, Ilan.

>>STAVANS: Muchisimas gracias a ti. And thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RHYTHM OF THE NIGHT")
>>UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing) It's the rhythm of the night.
>>HINOJOSA: Coming up on Latino USA...
>>UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: St. George saved the princess. He killed the dragon.
>>HINOJOSA: We learn about a Catalan tradition. Stay with us. No se vayan.
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>>MARIA HINOJOSA, HOST:
Welcome back to Latino USA. I'm Maria Hinojosa. And today, we're talking about words, palabras. Well,
did you know that in American Sign Language, the sign for deaf is almost the same as the sign for home?
In fact, many deaf people consider the deaf community their real home. But for some deaf Latinos,
becoming part of the deaf community can sometimes mean losing the Latino part of themselves leaving
them to search for ways to claim both. Renee Gross reports now from Ann Arbor, Mich.
>>ANGELA LAGUARDIA: Can you try rolling your R (rolls R)?
>>JAVIER: (Rolls R).
>>LAGUARDIA: It's hard when you don't have four front teeth.
>>RENEE GROSS, BYLINE: Angela Laguardia is practicing Spanish with her six-year old son, Javier.
>>LAGUARDIA: How do we say rooster?
>>JAVIER: El gallo
>>LAGUARDIA: Remember the double L is the "Ya" sound.
>>GROSS: She says the word in Spanish and then signs it in ASL, American Sign Language, so that Javier
can learn it in both languages.
>>LAGUARDIA: El.
>>JAVIER: El gallo.
>>LAGUARDIA: Gah.
>>JAVIER: Gah.
>>LAGUARDIA: Yo.

>>JAVIER: Yo. El gallo.

>>LAGUARDIA: El gallo.
>>GROSS: Angela learned to speak as a kid at a school for the deaf and at a mainstream school. She
wears hearing aids. She's fluent in ASL and English, but she knows Spanish pretty well. And it's important
to her that her son knows it, too.
>>LAGUARDIA: That's my hope. That's my one wish for the future that he'll be much more fluent, and he
could enjoy the extended family that we have that I wasn't able to enjoy, but that he can when he wants
to.
>>GROSS: Angela's parents are immigrants from Cuba. Growing up, they spoke Spanish inside the home
and English elsewhere. When Angela had trouble learning to talk, they thought maybe it was because
they were trying to teach their kids two languages.
>>LAGUARDIA: They thought maybe we were becoming language confused, that we weren't crystal-
clear on this is Spanish and this is English, and this is how you say it in English, and this is how you say it
in Spanish.
>>GROSS: When Angela's parents found out she was deaf, they stopped speaking Spanish with her. They
hoped that would make things clearer. But what happened instead was that Angela felt isolated in both
places -- the hearing world and her family's Spanish world. She remembers going to parties with her
relatives and not talking with anyone.
>>LAGUARDIA: And most of the time, you know, to avoid getting bored, I would, like, go and do the
dishes. I would, like, go do the physical part of the party like setting up plates and just, you know, pretty
much keeping to myself.
>>GROSS: It wasn't until college that Angela found her footing. She went to Gallaudet University, an all-
deaf school where everybody signed. Angela says she fell in love with the deaf culture and never looked
back. She isn't alone.
>>CARLA GARCIA-FERNANDEZ: (Through interpreter) Deaf Latinos, because of the ability to
communicate within the deaf community, are often drawn to that community rather than the hearing
Latino community.
>>GROSS: That's an interpreter speaking for Dr. Carla Garcia Fernandez. She's a Texas educator who's
deaf and Latina. Carla conducted a small study and found that her students identified more strongly
with the deaf culture than with being Latino.
>>GARCIA-FERNANDEZ: (Through interpreter) The deaf identity is important for students; an ability to
feel like they do belong, yet it is still important to recognize the multiple identities that people within
the deaf community hold.
>>GROSS: Carla says that the deaf form strong bonds with each other based on their isolation from the
hearing world. But that means it can be hard to talk about differences within the deaf community.
>>GARCIA-FERNANDEZ: (Through interpreter) Often, white deaf people are in denial, and they say that
all deaf people are the same, but that's not so.

>>GROSS: Carla says there's a natural overlap between Latino and deaf cultures.
>>GARCIA-FERNANDEZ: (Through interpreter) The deaf community often has a strong emphasis on
storytelling, and the Latino community has their cuentos as well, folk tales that are passed down
through the generations. And I think that's a beautiful opportunity for those things to merge.
>>GROSS: Still, having a dual identity doesn't resonate with everyone.
>>TONY GALOFRE: (Through interpreter) I would say the deaf community is more important.
>>GROSS: That's Tony Galofre speaking through his interpreter. Tony is in his early 40s. His dad is
Colombian, and his mother is from the Netherlands. He had never felt at home within his family, and
eventually he was adopted by his interpreter. For now, he isn't concerned with feeling Latino. Instead,
he longs to find more deaf friends.
>>GALOFRE: (Through interpreter) I grew up as a deaf person. I did not grow up as a Latino.
>>GROSS: That's a perspective that Angela understands. Still, her deaf personality has a Cuban tinge.
>>LAGUARDIA: What is the same? The facial expression, the emotion, the lively chatter. Even though
we're not making a lot of noise, we're not quiet.
>>GROSS: Angela's son Javier isn't quite either. In sign language, English and Spanish, he makes himself
heard.
>>JAVIER: Eagle.
>>LAGUARDIA: How do you say eagle in Spanish?
>>JAVIER: El ago
>>LAGUARDIA: El aguila.
>>JAVIER: El aguila.
>>GROSS: For Latino USA, I'm Renee Gross in Ann Arbor, Mich.
>>HINOJOSA: Thanks to Audrey Ulloa and Joe Rice for providing interpretation for Carla Garcia-
Fernandez and Tony Galofre.
>>MARIA HINOJOSA, HOST:
Heather Hutcheson spends a lot of her time thinking about words. That's because she's an English
professor at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, Calif. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, she teaches
advanced composition and creative writing. But on Wednesdays, she actually leaves the classroom and
heads five miles down the road and a world away. Tina Rubio has our story.
>>HEATHER HUTCHESON: We are in the Home Depot parking lot out on Florin Road in Sacramento.
>>TINA RUBIO, BYLINE: Heather Hutcheson comes here for an hour every Wednesday afternoon for
something called intercambios.

>>HUTCHESON: Where English and Spanish exchanges between the guys waiting for work out here on a
regular basis and my community college students.
>>RUBIO: Out here, she is called la maestra, the teacher. Her estudaentes are the day laborers who
stand side-by-side in a loose half circle listening. One of the workers is 77 years old. He's writing down
the English words and phrases he's learning on a notepad Heather brings.
You said to us that we need to ask how are you to a new person.
>>UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Para el ingles. How are you doing?
>>HUTCHESON: Good.
>>RUBIO: So just how did Heather start doing this?
>>HUTCHESON: I had the fantastic, amazing opportunity to be on sabbatical for my teaching position, go
to Oaxaca, Mexico. It was fantastic. And every Saturday, I would have this intercambio at a local library
where I would speak with strangers one hour in English and one hour in Spanish.
>>RUBIO: When she came home, she didn't want the exchanges to end. And that drove her straight to
this parking lot.
>>HUTCHESON: I pulled up here and said I am recently returning from Mexico, and I want to continue to
learn Spanish. And I'm an English teacher, and I can help you learn English. What do you guys think? And
they really thought I was insane and said where's the classroom? And I said, this is the classroom. And
they were like, but no, where are we going to have classes? And I was like, no, we'll stand out here.
>>RUBIO: And why not? Most every day, the parking lot is filled with dozens of Spanish-speaking day
laborers -- young and old, standing in groups, drinking coffee, chatting, smoking and waiting for the
opportunity to work.
>>UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Speaking Spanish).
>>HUTCHESON: Yeah, we're going to learn a little bit of English and get some information about each
other.
>>RUBIO: What better topic to start with than love?
>>HUTCHESON: (Speaking Spanish).
>>UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Speaking Spanish).
>>HUTCHESON: He's not married.
>>RUBIO: How about in love?
>>HUTCHESON: (Speaking Spanish).
>>UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: No (Laughter).
>>RUBIO: The conversation is not always easy for anyone.

>>HUTCHESON: I think a lot of what happens in the language exchange is that we feel stupid or
uncomfortable or even ugly in a language that isn't our native language. And it's an uncomfortable
feeling, but we all experience it. And we have to really get over that.
(Speaking Spanish). How many years have you been here?
>>UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Seis anos.
>>HUTCHESON: Six years.
>>RUBIO: The students stumble over pronunciations and trip on conjugations, but no one seems to
mind. They're having fun trying.
>>NOEL BAKER: I think it's pretty cool 'cause it's like, you know, you can learn something, you can only
learn it firsthand.
>>JOEL BAKER: I also like the idea 'cause I like the cultural bridge. You kind of get to step over that
bridge.
>>RUBIO: That's Joel Baker, one of Heather's college students and her sister Noel (ph).
>>N. BAKER: It's like, as much as I sit in a classroom, until you immerse yourself in, like, a different type
of environment or language, you're not really going to learn.
>>J. BAKER: You break down those boundaries that separates everybody from one another because
there's already so much separation based on cultural differences, countries, languages and so on.
>>RUBIO: One of the workers, Pedro Florez, is breaking down boundaries, too. He says it's thanks to
Heather.
>>PEDRO FLOREZ: It's like, she's friendly, and she helped a lot of people to speak in better English
because sometimes when we speak any new word, like in English or in Spanish, it's nice to write and
remember maybe another day to put them in your mind, use it for your life. She gave that to me. It's
nice.
>>RUBIO: And now, language is no longer a barrier but a link.
>>HUTCHESON: There are no strangers, just people we haven't met yet. And we need to meet those
people because they have a have a whole lot to offer, whether it's a little bit of Spanish or polite
exchanges or news about the world.
>>RUBIO: For Latino USA, I'm Tina Rubio in Sacramento.
>>HUTCHESON: What do you have in mind? What would you like to eat?
>>FLOREZ: You know what I like?
>>HUTCHESON: What do you like?
>>FLOREZ: (Speaking Spanish) The company people. Yeah.
>>HUTCHESON: That's very nice. We can't eat that.

(LAUGHTER)
>>MARIA HINOJOSA, HOST:
Now, mis queridos listeners, sometimes you know that it's tricky to find just the right word. And in those
moments, well, you might choose to replace words with flowers. In the Mediterranean region called
Catalonia, they have actually formalized this act of expressing love in the Feast of Sant Jordi, which
includes roses and words in the form of books. Our intern, Laura Calcada, is from Catalonia, and she
wanted to explain this special tradition to us.
>>LAURA CALCADA, BYLINE: What's your name?
>>JESUS SAMANIEGO: My name is Jesus Samaniego.
>>CALCADA: What is Sant Jordi?
>>SAMANIEGO: It's Catalonia's national fest. People usually gather in the street, and men give roses to
women. And women give books to men. This has changed through the years. Now, anyone can give a
book, and anyone can receive a rose.
>>CALCADA: That's right. Sant Jordi is Catalan's lover's day. I remember the excitement at school every
April 23 waiting to find out if I was going to receive a rose from the boy I had a crush on. And afterwards,
in a sort of competition, my girlfriends and I would count the number of roses we'd gotten. But
regardless of the number, at night, I could always count on getting a rose from Dad. He brought me one
along with one for my mom and sister. The story of Sant Jordi comes from a legend, and that story is
very linked to my childhood. So I went to a celebration of the Feast of Sant Jordi in New York City and
found some kids to help me explain it.
>>UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #1: Sant Jordi saved the princess.
>>UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #2: He killed the dragon.
>>CALCADA: And then what happened?
>>UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #2: A giant rosebush came out, and he gave one to the princess.
>>UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #3: The prince saved the princess.
>>UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #4: So the knight gives a rose to the princess and then says by and goes, like,
bring peace to other places.
>>CALCADA: I also spoke to Gulley Velasco from Barcelona.
>>GULLEY VELASCO: It was St. George, actually, who went to free a princess from the dragon. So he had
to kill the dragon. And from the blood of the dragon, the legend says, that it grew a rosebush. So he
picked a rose, and gave it to the princess. So that's the origin, I think.
>>CALCADA: The legend gave way to tradition. It became so popular that Irish writer Colm Toibin
learned about it years ago.
>>TOIBIN: I remember someone telling me about it in the early '70s that in Catalonia, on the day,
instead of waving flags or going on demonstrations, everyone gets either a book or a rose. I thought it

was the most beautiful thing. And when I saw it first and watching old couples in Barcelona - him with a
big art book, new, and her with be a bunch of roses, beautiful. And I thought this is a society that
understands something fundamental about beauty and culture.
>>CALCADA: Writer Jordi Punti will probably agree. I ask him when the lovely tradition of giving a rose
got linked to trading a book. He said that as he understands it, we have to go back to the 1920s to the
streets of Barcelona.
>>PUNTI: There was this moment where Catalon publishers wanted to promote their books, and they
thought that because of the Cervantes and Shakespeare death anniversary, it was a good occasion to do
it. And they started, and I think at the beginning, it was just one small publisher. But then little by little,
everyone was joining it.
>>CALCADA: Translator, Mary Ann Newman, said that it might have started commercial, but it has
grown to something bigger.
>>NEWMAN: The fact that this was a mythical holiday for lovers that then was sort of commercialized in
a beautiful way by booksellers who decided, OK, people should give each other a rose in a book. It's a
wonderful thing because I'm sure that their intentions are not were not, you know, were commercial.
But in fact, the effect has been to create this extraordinary festival.
>>TOIBIN: And so the 23 of April has now become World Book Day. But what happens is in the Catalon
towns and villages on that day is a special thing. It's something that you have to go to Catalonia to see.
>>CALCADA: New York City born poet Rowan Ricardo Phillips said this year was a special Sant Jordi for
him and his wife.
>>PHILLIPS: Nouria and I have two small daughters now. And what I do is I bring a rose in a book for
each of them. I not only bought a rose for Nouria and the two girls, but a book. Book shopping for a 3 -
year-old and a 5-month-old is a lot of fun. So this, I think, was my most memorable Sant Jordi.
>>CALCADA: For philosopher Jordi Graupera, flowers of the most basic form of beauty. And, he says,
giving them says something about where he and I are from.
>>GRAUPERA: The fact that in Catalonia we have this tradition of giving both books and roses to our
loved ones gives us the perfect excuse to think of the other as the destiny of our will to beauty.
>>CALCADA: He also says that books and roses have more in common than we think.
>>GRAUPERA: I think books die too. Sometimes you read a book, and at that moment it seems to be
very important to you. And it makes an impact in your life. Sometimes that impact lasts, but sometimes
it doesn't. You outgrow the book, and you look back at the moment in which you felt thrilled by the
book, and you don't understand why you were so enthralled by it. Whereas sometimes a flower - a
flower that disappears by nature - it dies. It leaves a lasting impression in your mind to the extent that
sometimes we need to preserve that flower, maybe within the pages of a book.
>>CALCADA: For Latino USA, I'm Laura Calcada.
>>HINOJOSA: Coming up on Latino USA...
(SOUNDBITE OF MINIONS)

>>HINOJOSA: ...The surprising story about how those little yellow minions got their language. Stay with
us, no se vayan.
>>SPONSORSHIP: Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and from Jane and Michael
Horvitz, supporting NPR and 90.3 WCPN ideastream in Cleveland - dedicated to building a more
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efforts to improve women's economic opportunities around the world. More information is available at
hewlett.org.
>>MARIA HINOJOSA, HOST:
Welcome back to your Latino USA, everyone. I'm Maria Hinojosa. And earlier in our show, we talked
about people who speak more than one language, like most of us at the Latino USA newsroom. But what
about someone -- or maybe something -- that speak a made-up language? Producer Antonia Cereijido
has our story.
>>ANTONIA CEREIJIDO, BYLINE: If you are a dedicated Latino USA listener and you make it through all
the credits, you know that Nancy Trujillo makes it all happen.
>>HINOJOSA: Nancy Trujillo makes it all happen.
>>CEREIJIDO: Nancy is our office manager, and Maria is 100 percent right. Nothing would work in this
office without her. But Nancy is known for more things in the office than just her amazing organizational
skills.
Hey, Michael, what's Nancy's favorite thing in the world?
>>MICHAEL SIMON JOHNSON: Considering that there's a giant Minion piata staring me in the face right
now, I'm going to go with Minions.
>>CEREIJIDO: Hey, Marlon, you know Nancy Trujillo, she makes everything happen in this office? Can
you tell me what -- like something she really loves?
>>MARLON BISHOP: All I know is that there's more Minions per capita in this office than any place I've
ever been in my entire life.
(LAUGHTER)
>>BISHOP: So...
>>MINION: hello.
>>CEREIJIDO: Nancy is obsessed with the Minions. And if you can't recognize their crazy maniacal
laughter, they are these little, yellow, pill-shaped animated characters from the "Despicable Me"
movies.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DESPICABLE ME")
>>STEVE CARELL: (As Gru) We are going to steal...
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNS)

>>CARELL: (As Gru) Wait, wait. I haven't told you what it is yet.
>>CEREIJIDO: They're the helpers of Gru, a super villain voiced by Steve Carell.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DESPICABLE ME")
>>CARELL: (As Gru) Hey, Dave. Listen up please.
>>CEREIJIDO: But this summer, they will become the stars in their own movie appropriately titled
"Minions."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MINIONS")
>>SANDRA BULLOCK: (As Scarlett Overkill) Respect, power...
>>COFFIN: (As Bob the Minion) Banana.
>>BULLOCK: (As Scarlett Overkill) Banana.
>>CEREIJIDO: Explain to us what we see on your desk that's Minion-related.
>>NANCY TRUJILLO: About a bajillion things. So right now, just looking at my computer, I see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Minions.
>>CEREIJIDO: On Nancy's desk, there are Minion drawings, a Minion bucket, a Minion stuffed animal, a
Minion sleep mask, and that minion pinata Michael was talking about, it comes with a stick that has a
small Minion on the end so you have to hit the big Minion with the little Minion in like some sad, murder
Minion situation.
(SOUNDBITE OF MINIONS)
>>TRUJILLO: When I see them, I get extremely happy. I feel like a child. I become a child. I let the child
come out.
>>CEREIJIDO: So was it when you first saw the first "Despicable Me" movie that you started getting this
interest?
>>TRUJILLO: So I thought about it, and where this love and passion and sort of excitement for these
came. And they actually came, not from watching the movies, but watching how my godson reacted to
them. And he was watching the movie once, and he was so excited. So whenever I saw him, he was like,
oh, my God, oh, my God, the Minions, the Minions. And he would always say these words -- para tu,
para tu, para tu.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DESPICABLE ME")
>>COFFIN: (As Minion) Yes, para tu ba boi.
>>CEREIJIDO: Obviously this is in Spanish. Does your godson speak Spanish at home?
>>TRUJILLO: Yes, he does.
>>CEREIJIDO: When I first met Nancy a year ago, I thought the Minions craze was a phenomenon specific
to children and Nancy. But then I started to notice that more and more Minions GIFs were crowding my

Facebook feed. Friends were sending me tons of minion images on Facebook chat. And guess which
friends were posting minions -- my Latino friends.
You recently went on a trip to Guatemala.
>>DAISY ROSARIO: I did.
>>CEREIJIDO: This is Daisy Rosario, a fellow producer. She went to Guatemala and came back with a
small knitted Minion for Nancy. Daisy was surprised to even find it.
>>ROSARIO: They're selling scarves, they're selling coin purses, they're selling little bits of jewelry.
There's no real semblance of popular culture, except for Minions. What is it about these Minions that,
like, even in this, you know, kind of very rural, like, very remote part of Central America, like, people are,
like, yeah, Minions?
>>CEREIJIDO: In the trailer for the new movie, the Minions say things like...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MINIONS")
>>COFFIN: (As Minion) Ai yai yai.
>>CEREIJIDO: And...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MINIONS")
>>COFFIN: (As Minion) Tres bella con la papaya.
>>CEREIJIDO: So I went directly to the man who would know better than anyone to ask a question that
was killing me. Are the Minions Latino?
>>PIERRE COFFIN: Well, I don't want to be rude or anything, but not not at all (laughter).
>>CEREIJIDO: This is Pierre Coffin. He was a co-director on the "Despicable Me" movies and is currently
co-directing the upcoming "Minions" one. And on top of that, he is the voice of all the minions.
>>COFFIN: Every time there was a crowd scene, I would like -- oh, God, I got to do, like, all these
different tracks of, like, all the Minions yelling and stuff.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MINIONS")
>>COFFIN: (As Minions, yelling).
There was no information in the script as to whether they should speak or not.
>>CEREIJIDO: In the first "Despicable Me" movie, the Minions really only say a couple words here and
there. But Pierre was already starting to experiment.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DESPICABLE ME")
>>COFFIN: (As Minion, making sounds).
I could actually express, like, anger or happiness, laughter or sadness, whatever with ridiculous words
put together.

>>CEREIJIDO: But for "Despicable Me 2," the Minions had to speak more. And so their language had to
get a bit more sophisticated.
>>COFFIN: Do you know that movie with Sean Connery called "The Name Of The Rose"?
>>CEREIJIDO: No, I haven't seen it.
>>COFFIN: It's a movie with monks. And one of the monks is actually play by Ron Perlman, I think. And
he speaks all the languages of the world.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE NAME OF THE ROSE")
>>RON PERLMAN: (As Salvatore) Watch out for the... (speaking foreign languages).
>>COFFIN: When I saw it, at first, I thought it was like really magic just because I could understand
everything because of the nature of all the words.
>>CEREIJIDO: Pierre didn't set out to create a whole new language like "Star Trek" did with Klingon or
"Lord Of The Rings" did with Elvish. He wanted recognizable words.
>>COFFIN: To actually stick those words, you know, coming from all over the world or made up words
just with that melody that makes it sound like it's someone speaking with a natural flow and stick that
into the visual of, like, a yellow guy with one eye speaking to another one. Then you've got something
that's really weird.
(LAUGHTER)
>>CEREIJIDO: When Pierre first started voicing the Minions, he just improvised.
>>COFFIN: Then I realized, like, hearing it back that I was -- I could hear myself thinking about the next
word I was going to say. I have this book in front of me right now where I sort of wrote every sentence
that I wrote for the movie.
>>CEREIJIDO: He read me some of the dialogue that didn't make it into the movie.
>>COFFIN: (Speaking Minion language).
Let me read you another one, like, (speaking Minion language).
>>CEREIJIDO: What's up with all of the food references?
>>COFFIN: Well, all the Minion stuff is just all about food actually. Like, they crave for bananas. They
express themselves like in food terms. I have this whole collection of food menus here from restaurants
around here.
(LAUGHTER)
>>COFFIN: It's just like -- and Indian food being obviously the most nice-sounding things, like, chicken
biryani or chicken tikka masala. The choice of the words are mostly about their melodic values and how
natural the words can be in a sentence.
>>CEREIJIDO: And Pierre finds that Spanish words can sound natural.

>>COFFIN: Well, what's super cool about the Spanish language is that it ends with either A, O -- and all
these words, I -- for some reason in my head, that's the Minion language.
>>CEREIJIDO: But on top of that, there's a sort of functional reason for the Spanish words. I don't want
to get too complicated, but part of the Minions' back story is that they have been around since the
beginning of time. And because of that, their language is an accumulation of all the languages they've
heard throughout all of history.
>>COFFIN: Since, you know, Spanish is the fourth language that -- the most spoken in the world...
>>CEREIJIDO: He's close. It's the second most spoken language.
>>COFFIN: ...It makes total sense that it pops out, like, as much as it does.
>>CEREIJIDO: At this point, I had to return to my original question. I haven't seen the final "Minions"
movie, obviously it's not out. But I have seen...
>>COFFIN: Almost done, almost done.
(LAUGHTER)
>>CEREIJIDO: I have seen all of the trailers, and, you know, they arrived to New York City in a boat. And I
have to tell you, I work in an office where we deal with Latino issues so I think about immigration a lot.
But are the Minions immigrants?
>>COFFIN: (Laughter) Well, you -- man, I've never thought of that.
>>CEREIJIDO: (Laughter) I don't know -- I was -- it's so funny because I was watching the trailers under
this hole -- this thinking of like, why is it such a, like, Latino phenomenon? And I was, like, I don't know,
they're coming to the U.S. They don't speak English. They're looking to, like, service someone in their
home.
>>COFFIN: Oh, man.
>>CEREIJIDO: It's like...
>>COFFIN: Now, that you're saying it, yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
>>COFFIN: But I never -- yeah, it's all about Latinos, yeah (laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
>>CEREIJIDO: Maybe I was looking at this Minions thing all wrong. Maybe it's not so much that the
Minions are popular with Latinos, but rather that Latinos have helped make the Minions hugely popular.
One in four movie tickets sold in the U.S. is bought by a Latino. And if we go even deeper, Latina women
above 25 are the most frequent moviegoers. So there's a good chance that these are moms looking for a
good movie to take their kids to.
>>COFFIN: I have the feeling that everyone is expecting this movie to be for small children. And it totally
isn't, actually. Since I became a father, I bring my kids often to see, like, movies and stuff. And I just can't

stand, like, movies that are just for kids because, like, the poor adults that are there to -- just to
accompany their kids, man, I feel for them. And I just hate it when it's just for one audience, when if it's
cleverly written, it's for everyone.
>>CEREIJIDO: Ticket sales even tripled in Latin America between the first "Despicable Me" movie and the
second. But beyond that, the movie has made hundreds of millions of dollars internationally. I figured
part of the popularity was that the Minions don't speak one language so they don't have to be dubbed
for foreign markets.
>>COFFIN: Yeah, that's what I thought naively. But then I spent, like, maybe two weeks and a half,
maybe soon three, just replacing words here and there. But I sometimes make up words that means,
like, offensive stuff or describe, like, male anatomy a little bit too much.
(LAUGHTER)
>>CEREIJIDO: Why do you think that the minions have struck this cord with so many people?
>>COFFIN: It almost feels like you can feel the character behind the character. You can feel like a real life
behind the characters. It's not just characters that are wacky and funny. They also have a soul. And I
think people feel that.
>>CEREIJIDO: Well, I know at least one person who certainly feels that way -- Nancy. So when Pierre
offered to show me how he records the dialogue for the Minions, I had one final request.
Just 'cause I have to ask, do you think there's any chance that you could include Nancy's name in
anything you say?
>>TRUJILLO: Oh, Nancy? Oh, yeah, sure. OK.
>>CEREIJIDO: He records slow.
>>COFFIN: (As Minion #1) Hello, hello. Hey, Stuart. Por y no Nancy Trujillo.
(As Stuart the Minion) Nancy? Nancy que?
(As Minion #1) Trujillo.
>>CEREIJIDO: Then speeds it up to normal.
>>COFFIN: (As Minion #1) Trujillo. Trujillo stupido.
(As Stuart the Minion) No comprendo. Ciao.
(LAUGHTER)
>>TRUJILLO: That is the best. Oh, my God. I love Antonia.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HAPPY")
>>PHARRELL: (Singing) Because I'm happy. Clap along if you feel like a room without a room. Because
I'm happy. Clap along if you feel like happiness is...
>>CEREIJIDO: Making Latino USA dreams come true, I'm Antonia Cereijido.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HAPPY")

>>PHARRELL: (Singing) Because I'm happy. Clap along if you feel like that's what you want to do.
>>MARIA HINOJOSA, HOST:
All of us here at the Latino USA newsroom have a constant challenge, which is that we frequently have
to translate Spanish into English. We know that not everyone, certainly not all Latinos, hablan en
Espanol, but our system of translation is not perfect. It doesn't always capture the integrity or the
emotion of what the speaker is saying. So we reached out to Antena Los Angeles, which is a group that
helps create bilingual spaces where no one single language dominates. They told us about their method
of interpretation. Here's Miguel Morales and Ana Paula Noguez Mercado as interpreted by Jen Hoffer.
>>MIGUEL MORALES: At it's very core and most simplest terms, language justice is basically the right
everyone has to speak in the language in which they feel most comfortable.
>>JEN HOFFER: (Interpreting to Spanish).
>>ANA PAULA NOGUEZ MERADO: (Speaking Spanish).
>>HOFFER: (Interpreting to English) The majority of residents of Los Angeles County speak a language
other other than English at home.
>>HINOJOSA: OK, if you're bilingual like me, you may have found that a little jarring it. It is difficult to
create fully bilingual and accessible radio. But Antena Los Angeles seems to have figured out how to
create successful multilingual live events. For this week's Sabiduria, we hear from Miguel, Paula and Jen
about how justice through language is about more than just interpretation.
>>MERADO: When I am interpreting, I, you know, like, you get the emotion of the person who's
speaking, and you emphasize what the person who's speaking is emphasizing. And you try to simulate a
little bit the tone of the person. So that's the way that we do it so it doesn't sound flat and boring.
>>HOFFER: When there's an interpreter there doing simultaneous interpretation, this magic moment
can occur when I am having a deeply meaningful, dynamic, fast real-time conversation with someone,
and I don't speak their language. And that is because both of the tools and techniques of interpretation,
but also because the space was created where both of those languages could stand on equal footing and
both people are able to speak for themselves.
>>MORALES: My experience in that kind of situation where the magic happens is usually when the
monolingual English speaker is asked to put the headset on and they're interacting with a non-English
speaker. That's aha-moment, that magic moment, I've mostly seen with monolingual English-speaking
folks that are able to see the Spanish speaker, the Cantonese speaker, the Tagalog speaker in more than
just that, oh, they don't speak English and therefore what they have to say might not be as interesting,
might not be as deep, might not be as important as a developed as what I have to say in English.
>>HOFFER: If we think about the kinds of situations that are happening right now in all of our cities -- I'm
thinking of Baltimore, I'm thinking of Ferguson, I'm thinking of Los Angeles, I'm thinking of New York --
the kinds of voices that we don't listen to, even in English. Our work is about cross-language work. But I
think it's also really we're thinking about the ways that there are many Englishes within English or many
Spanishes within Spanish. And the ways that certain voices are privileged and certain voices dominate

and certain voices are marginalized even within English. And language justice can provide us the
conceptual tools to think about those questions and those issues and how to create spaces where
everyone can participate fully even within one language.
>>HINOJOSA: (Speaking Spanish). Oh, OK, sorry about that. To learn more about Antena Los Angeles,
check out our website latinousa.org.
And mis queridos, that's it for this week. Latino USA is produced by A.C. Valdez, Leda Hartman, Daisy
Rosario, Marlon Bishop, Michael Simon Johnson, Camilo Vargas and Antonia Cereijido. Our engineer is
Cornelius McMoyler. Nadia Reiman is our musical consultant. Nancy Trujillo makes it all happen. Our
intern Laura Calcada. And Laura, thank you so much for your energy, for your passion, for your ideas and
enthusiasm and muchas gracias. Special thanks this week to Sarah Elzas. Our show was founded at the
University of Texas at Austin. I'm your host and executive producer, Maria Hinojosa. Join us again next
week. And in the meantime, you can find us on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. And I'll see you on
Instagram. Hasta la proxima everyone.
>>SPONSORSHIP: Latino USA is made possible in part by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation, and by the Marguerite Casey Foundation; dedicated to achieving a more just and equitable
society for all. The Ford Foundation; dedicated to working with visionaries on the frontlines of social
change worldwide. And the Carnegie Corporation of New York; supporting innovations in education,
democratic engagement and the strengthening of international peace and security, at carnegie.org.
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