Caló is the latest addition to Marfa Public Radio's programming. Created by Oscar Rodriguez, who sometimes goes by the name "El Marfa," the series honors the Texas borderlands patois commonly called Caló.
Oscar grew up speaking this language in Ojinaga and Odessa. He remembers the unique dialect filling the barrios and countryside of his childhood in West Texas. Each week on Caló, Oscar will feature words and phrases from Caló then explore their meaning with a personal anecdote.
Oscar was born and raised in Ojinaga, West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico. He has lived in and out of Texas since he graduated from Ector High School in Odessa in the late-1970s, including a couple of years in the 1990s when he lived in Marfa and taught at Sul Ross State University. Oscar is also an enrolled member of the Lipan Apache Tribe and an avid researcher of Native history in Texas and New Mexico — specifically in the La Junta region.
He hopes by sharing his knowledge of this colorful language, he can help keep it alive.
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Today’s word is chavalo. The closest thing in modern Spanish is chavar, to be pesky or bothersome. A chavo in the Caribbean, where Spanish first arrived… -
Órale, today’s Caló word is jura, police. It comes from the Spanish word juramento, pledge or promise. Individuals sworn to uphold the law are jurados…
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Today's word of the day is Apañar. It comes from the old Castilian, meaning to cover or hold in your hand. It was brought to the borderlands by Spanish…
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The feature for today’s episode is a key means of communicating in Caló. It's not a word or term, but rather: whistling. It’s relied on almost as much as…
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Today’s feature is about ‘el’ and ‘ese.’ Since they come from Spanish, there are feminine versions of these articles ‘la’ and ‘esa.’ Like many languages,…
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Today’s Caló word is lisa. It means a crisply ironed shirt. It comes from the Spanish word for shirt, camisa. While it’s a contraction of that term, it’s…
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Today’s word is vato. This ubiquitous and metaphysical Caló word comes from the Spanish word chivato, billy goat. The premier definition of vato, even…
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The feature today is the word coco. It means wound, bruise, or skin cut. It’s used either as baby talk — what a young child tells a parent, or as empathetic acknowledgement of a friend or relative’s hurt. Outsiders suffer wounds and bumps. Close friends and kin have cocos.
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This episode is about the word ‘trola.’ It means matchstick, wooden out of a box or cardboard from a book of matches. Trola is rooted solely in Caló.…
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Órale, the feature today is the word ponchado. It means to get a flat tire. Ponchado also means deflated or depressed. It comes from the English word…