Chapter 1
Transcripción
Chapter 1
Chapter 1 MEXICO El alfabeto, los saludos y los números de 0 a 30 Letter Letter Name Pronunciation aaah bbebay ccesay chchechay ddeday eeay fefe effay ggehay hhache ach-ay iiee jjota hota kka kah lele el-lay llelle ay-yay meme eh-may nene eh-nay ñeñe en-yay oooh ppepay qcukoo rere er-ray sese eh-say tte tay uu ooh vve bay w doble vedobe-lay-bay xequis eh-kees y i griega ee gree-ay-gah zzeta say-ta Photo by Peter Menzel The Castillo Balderas family and all of their possessions. The Spanish consonants The Spanish alphabet is made up of consonants and vowels and is very similar to the English alphabet; it shares many of the same letters. However, there are some letters that English does not have. See if you can spot them in the list. For example: Spanish has the letters ch, ll and ñ. Although English does not have the letter ñ, there are English words that have the sound, like “canyon” and “onion.” The letters ch, ll and ñ are found in Spanish words like: llama cañón chaleco English and Spanish both have the letter “r,” but it is pronounced differently. If you roll your tongue you might be able to make the sound in Spanish. If you roll your tongue once, you can make the Spanish r sound. If you roll your tongue for a bit longer, you can make the Spanish rr sound. Try rolling your tongue to say: cara guitarra Like English, some Spanish consonants have hard and soft pronunciations. The letter c can be pronounced two ways: like the hard “c” in the English word “car,” as in carro, and like the soft “c” in the English word “city,” as in ciudad. The letter g also has two pronunciations. It can be a hard “g,” as in the English word “good,” as in gato. The Spanish g also has a soft pronunciation that sounds a lot like the English “h,” as in “hello.” The Spanish words álgebra, gente and generación all have the soft Spanish g. The letter j and the letter x in some words in Mexico are also Previous Page: Serena López celebrates Benito Juárez’s birthday. 2 The alphabet, Greetings and Numbers 0-30 Nhutalu weaves an intricate pattern. pronounced like the soft Spanish g, like the words Júpiter, junio and México. In Spanish, the letter h is not pronounced. The h is in words like hola and hotel. Remember that the h is silent. It is very tempting to say hotel the English way because the Spanish word for “hotel” is spelled the same! About Voces The Voces stories throughout this book are by real people in their own words. Many are just learning English, so you will notice some awkward sentences. When you do, it's a good idea to remember that we are all learning. Sometimes the b is referred to as be alta, and the v is referred to as ve corta. In many words the letters b and v are pronounced the same way. At the beginning of words, the v is pronounced like the English letter “b.” vaca burro The Spanish vowels Spanish has only five vowel sounds. Each vowel has only one sound: a, e, i, o and u. It makes Spanish spelling pretty easy! EXAMPLE: Each Spanish vowel is pronounced the same way. Practice pronouncing them: FUN STUFF! As you work your way through each chapter, click the buttons you see to hear the dialogues and vocabulary spoken by native Spanish-speakers and to watch movies filmed in each country. Like the “a” in the English word “father”: papá mamá pasta Like the “e” in the English word “eight”: Pepe bebé gente Like the “i” in the English word “kiwi”: mil minifalda Like the “o” in the English word “no,” but shorter: foto moto coco a i ¡Buen viaje! Like the “u” in the English word “fruit”: cucú Lulú tú u 3 e o El alfabeto, los saludos y los números de 0 a 30 Some Spanish words have accent marks. This means that you should stress the vowel when you pronounce it. An accent mark can make a difference in the meaning of the word. For example, the word sí with an accent mark means “yes,” and si without an accent mark means “if.” If you want to know how to spell a word, you can ask: Photo by Peter Menzel Two farmers harvest some edible caterpillars in Pueblo. ¿Cómo se escribe? (How is it written?) or ¿Cómo se deletrea? (How is it spelled?) Greetings / Saludos Hola. Buenos días. Buenas tardes. Buenas noches. ¿Cómo está usted? ¿Cómo estás? ¿Cómo andas? ¿Qué tal? ¿Qué hay de nuevo? No mucho. Estoy bien/muy bien. Estoy mal/muy mal. Así así. Regular. Más o menos. Yo también. ¿Y tú? ¿Y usted? Hi./Hello. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening./Good night. How are you? (formal) How are you? (informal) How’s it going? (informal) How are you? What’s new? Not much. I’m fine/very well. I’m bad (not well)/very bad. So-so. So-so. More or less. Me too. And you? (informal) And you? (formal) ¿Cómo te llamas? ¿Cómo se llama? ¿Cómo se llaman? Soy… Mi nombre es… Me llamo… Mucho gusto. Encantado./ Encantada. Un placer. Igualmente. Tengo que irme. Chao. Hasta luego. Hasta pronto. Nos vemos. Hasta mañana. What is your name? (informal) What is your name? (formal) What are your/their names? (formal) I’m… My name is… My name is... (I call myself...) It's a pleasure. Pleased to meet you. It's a pleasure (to meet you.) Likewise. I have to go. Bye. See you later. See you soon. See you. (We’ll see each other.) Until tomorrow. Adiós. Saludos a… Goodbye. Say hello to… 4 The alphabet, Greetings and Numbers 0-30 In Spanish, people greet each other either formally or informally. Friends, family members, relatives and people who are close in age can be addressed informally. Adults and people you do not know very well should be addressed formally. CULTURAL NOTE The Culture of Corn! Sra. Hortencia Loya Zaragoza makes homemade corn tortillas in her street-side stand. Tortillas–very thin, flat, corn pancakes—wrap up meat, veggies, fish or chicken to make tacos. You hold plain tortillas in your hand while eating – they are like the bread of Mexico. Tamales are made of steamed corn masa wrapped in corn husks. Enchiladas are tortillas swimming in chili sauce. Quesadillas are cheese tacos. Tostadas are flat, crunchy tortillas, piled with whatever. Sopes are… well, you get the idea. Tortilla factories are in every town, and the richest guy in the world is not Bill Gates, but Carlos Slim Helu, the tortilla magnate. Ancient Mexicans bred corn from native grasses over 10,000 years ago. • For example, to ask your sister how she is doing, you might say: ¿Cómo estás? (How are you?) • To your teacher or your parents’ friends you might say: ¿Cómo está? They both mean the same thing, but notice that you say estás with your sister and está with your teacher. The pronoun tú means “you” (informal). We can say ¿Cómo estás tú? (“How are you?”). Many times we leave out the tú when we are speaking because it is obvious from the word estás that the speaker is addressing a friend, a relative or someone younger. The pronoun usted means “you” (formal). We can say ¿Cómo está usted? (“How are you?”) We can also leave out the usted in conversation. Would you use tú or usted with the following people? • • • • • Your brother Your cousin Your teacher Your parents’ friend Your classmate Click the button to watch tortillas being made in Tizmin. Punctuation Spanish punctuation is mostly the same as English punctuation. Commas are used to separate items in a list and separate parts of a sentence in much the same way that English uses commas. Periods are also used at the end of sentences. In Spanish, the exclamation point follows an exclamation, but there is also an upside-down exclamation point at the beginning of the sentence: ¡Qué bonito! 5 COUNTRY INFO Flag Carlos cheers for the “El trí” fútbol team. The same is true of question marks. Spanish questions have an upside-down question mark at the beginning and then are followed by another question mark at the end: ¿Cómo te llamas? The upside-down question mark also comes at the beginning of a clause: Area: 761,600 square miles, about three times the size of Texas Capital: Mexico City Terrain: Coastal lowlands, central high plateaus and mountains up to 18,000 ft. Climate: Tropical/temperate/desert Population: 111.2 million Ethnic Groups: Mestizo (60%); indigenous (30%); Caucasian (9%); other (1%) Languages: Spanish Major Industries: Food and beverages; tobacco; chemicals; iron and steel; petroleum; mining; textiles; clothing; motor vehicles; consumer durables Agriculture: Corn; wheat; soybeans; rice; beans; cotton; coffee; fruit; tomatoes; beef; poultry; dairy products; wood products Eres de España, ¿verdad? “I” When talking about yourself, use the pronoun yo. Yo is the equivalent of “I” in English. For example: Map Yo soy María. Yo hablo inglés. Yo estoy bien. I am María. I speak English. I am well. In conversation, the context allows you to leave out the yo. Sometimes you can use yo to emphasize that you are talking about yourself. For example: Yo soy María is the same as saying, “Soy María.” Click the button to watch Mexican fútbol fans cheer on their team. 6 The alphabet, Greetings and Numbers 0-30 Photo by Peter Menzel The Casales family with a week’s worth of food. Numbers The numbers 0–30 are easy to remember in Spanish if you put them in groups. Cero is similar to the English word “zero.” For example: One way to remember the names for the numbers 11–15 is that they all end in –ce. 0 cero 1 uno 2 dos 3 tres 4 cuatro 5 cinco 6 seis 7 siete 8 ocho 9 nueve 10 diez 11 once 12 doce 13 trece 14 catorce 15 quince 16 dieciséis 17 diecisiete 18 dieciocho 19 diecinueve 20 veinte 21 veintiuno 22 veintidós 23 veintitrés 24 veinticuatro 25 veinticinco 26 veintiséis 27 veintisiete 28 veintiocho 29 veintinueve 30 treinta Numbers 16–29 are all made up of two numbers. For the number 16, we say dieciséis, or “ten and six.” For the number 28, we say veintiocho, or “twenty and eight.” Hay To say “there is” or “there are,” use the word hay. Hay una estudiante de México en mi clase. Hay un gato en el salón de clase. Hay veinte estudiantes en la clase. There is a student from Mexico in my class. There is a cat in the classroom. There are twenty students in the class. You’ll notice that when you want to say there is one of something, you use un or una. You’ll learn more later about how to know which one to use (Chapter 2, pg. 37). To ask someone for his/her telephone number, say: ¿Cuál es tu número de teléfono? (informal) ¿Cuál es su número de teléfono? (formal) Most of Mexico sits at a very high altitude, and it’s cold in winter! 7 El alfabeto, los saludos y los números de 0 a 30 EXAMPLE: It is the first day of school, and Liliana introduces herself to a new classmate. Liliana: Hola, soy Liliana Gonzales. ¿Cómo te llamas? Gustavo: Me llamo Gustavo. Liliana: Mucho gusto. ¿Cómo estás? Gustavo: Muy bien, gracias. ¿Cómo se deletrea Gonzales? Liliana: Ge, o, ene, zeta, a, ele, e, ese. EXAMPLE: Hernán is meeting his teacher for the first time. Sr. López: Buenos días. Hernán: Buenos días. ¿Cómo está usted? Sr. López: Muy bien, gracias. ¿Cómo te llamas? Hernán: Me llamo Hernán Coval. Sr. López: ¿Ce, o, be, a, ele? Hernán: No. Con ve corta. Ce, o, ve, a, ele. Sr. López: Ella se llama Srta. Olivares. Hernán: Con ve corta, ¿verdad? Sr. López: ¡Verdad! María and Luz celebrate el Día de la Independencia. EXAMPLE: Isabel and Julia are exchanging phone numbers. Julia: Hola Isabel, ¿qué tal? Isabel: Estoy mal, tengo que irme. Julia: Te llamo por teléfono. ¿Cuál es tu número de teléfono? Isabel: Seis, ocho, seis, cinco, nueve, seis, cuatro, uno. Julia: Perfecto. Hablamos. Me llamo Capitán Español. Earl Miller from Ohio. I’m going to learn Spanish, move to Guadalajara and become Mexico’s most famous lucha libre* fighter. ¿Cómo te llamas, for real? Buena suerte*, gringo. *Lucha libre is Mexico’s version of the WWE. Most wrestlers wear masks and are called los enmascarados. *Buena suerte means “good luck.” 8 The alphabet, Greetings and Numbers 0-30 VoLectura The Mayan archaeological site of Chichén Itzá Nombre Camila Serrano Mateo Hernández Antonio Vázquez Clara Rodríguez Mónica Quiñones Click the button to watch a video of Paulina telling her story. # 83598314 62178299 45267341 28825009 74102315 Read the list of the telephone numbers of some of the students in Graciela’s class. Write each student’s name next to his or her telephone number. 1. dos, ocho, ocho, dos, cinco, cero, cero, nueve _____________________________________ 2. cuatro, cinco, dos, seis, siete, tres, cuatro, uno _____________________________________ 3. siete, cuatro, uno, cero, dos, tres, uno, cinco _____________________________________ 4. ocho, tres, cinco, nueve, ocho, tres, uno, cuatro _____________________________________ 5. seis, dos, uno, siete, ocho, dos, nueve, nueve _____________________________________ Paulina Veracruz, Mexico Voces I remember vividly the first time I had to prepare for the Day of the Dead on my own. It was the last days of October. I started by setting up an altar in memory of my loved ones and decorating the house with all that is representative of the day. I am not talking about figures of ghosts and witches, but of the flowers called “cempasúchiles,” or marigold flowers, which only blossom during the last half of the year, and which I was lucky to find in my local supermarket. I took out the skeleton figurines made out of papier mâché my mother had given me as wedding gifts, a lady skeleton dressed in a long blue dress wearing a feather hat and a male skeleton dressed as a mariachi. I looked in my picture albums for photographs of my grandparents who had passed away in earlier years and of my beloved grandmother who’d died the previous month. I added the photographs to the altar and beside them I placed the sweets my grandmother loved to eat and a sample of my grandfather’s favorite meals. I arranged the flowers on the altar... Doing this for the first time on my own gave me a deep understanding of what the holiday truly represents. The Day of the Dead is a celebration that bridges the past to the present and life with death. And one that allowed me to do something for my loved ones once more, even if they were no longer physically with me. Mexico is a country built on various beliefs and superstitions passed on to us by our indigenous ancestors and on faith engraved on us by our conquerors. The celebrations of the Day of the Dead, also known as “All Souls Day,” are a compilation of these superstitions and religious traditions. The Day of the Dead is the day where those who have died come back to be among the living who haven’t forgotten them. My name is Paulina Shedid. I was born and raised in Mexico City. Since July 2008, I have been living in Veracruz, Mexico. 9 El alfabeto, los saludos y los números de 0 a 30 Vo- ¡VAMOS A CHARLAR! After your teacher has put the class into pairs, practice greeting your partner, spelling your name and saying your phone number with the following exercises: Una puerta antigua 1. Act like you are meeting your partner for the first time. Ask each other’s name, and say that you are pleased to meet each other. Ask your partner how (s)he is doing, and then say goodbye. 2. With your partner, act as if one of you is the teacher, and the other is new to the school. Greet each other, and ask each other’s names and how to spell each other’s last name. Remember the rules for formal and informal greetings. 3. Ask your partner for his/her telephone number. Write it down and have him/ her check to see if it is correct. Take turns asking and writing down. I got sick when I turned 10. My mom took me to the doctor. The lady doctor diagnosed me and vaccinated me, yet the next day I woke up with high fever and aversion to daylight, so they kept me in a dark room. Later that day, my grandmother Mama-Lena was asked to heal me. Mama-Lena started the healing by rubbing an egg on my face, then made me hold that egg on the palm of my hand and proceeded rubbing it on the rest of my body. Minutes later she cracked open the egg on a cup with water. Mama-Lena studied the floating egg and indicated: “It’s shaping like an eye.” Voces Octavio Mexico Mama-Lena continued my treatment by bringing paraffin wax candles and glass cups. She set my back on fire on six spots and encapsulated the fires so that I didn’t get burned. Then she collected melted wax off from my back and poured it on a plate with water and waited for the wax to harden. Mama-Lena studied the hardened wax and indicated: “It’s forming a face figure.” This was conclusive: I had mal de ojo. I asked what OJO was. Mom gave me this example: “When you hold a baby and say how much you like the baby. You are casting an OJO. Because your eyes, for lack of better word, desire the baby.” MamaLena brought leafy plants, specifically the ruda, which has the power to break the spell. Mama-Lena rubbed them on my body and asked me to rest. The next day I woke up fine. Mama-Lena is a healer, more important she is a trusted elderly leader. When you have a sick child and the doctors cannot find a cure fast enough, who do you resort to? Mama-Lena’s role on final analysis has a sound spiritual belief and fundamental know-how about medicine. When all else fails she is to be resorted to. People trust her absolute conviction and beliefs about medicinal healing powers. Growing up in Mexico I excelled at school and church. After graduating elementary school I pursued further education in the U.S. Coming to U.S. was crucial because I could study and work at the same time and get away from farm life. After college, I got a job as a project manager. I am presently in real estate sales management. 10 Yes, it is nice! Look, we can’t call you americano, because we are americanos, too! Mexico is part of North America, so norteamericano isn’t really accurate, either. So we usually just call you gringos. The word gringo is very informal, but friendly, fun and 100 percent politically correct. Get used to it. ¿OK, gringo? VoHey, don’t call me gringo. That’s not nice. Tourist souveniers in Mexico City OK! I met Eutimio Carrasco, a Tarascan Indian from the forested mountains of Michoacán, on the Toluca Rocket* headed for Mexico City. His lumberjack job had so he packed up his family and headed for Mexico City, the capital. Over as told by Skip ended, 1,000 people like him get off the bus in Mexico City every day, and stay forever. McWilliams At a population of 22 million people, it’s nearly the largest city in the world. I with them to the edge of town where they set up home for the night in an ¿Qué Piensas? went abandoned washing machine box. They lit a candle and slept in blankets on the ground. Unemployment in Mexico City is less than half that of the U.S., so he got a job carrying bricks the very next day. The kids were in school and Dolores, his wife, was cleaning a lady’s house by Friday. They ate fresh oranges sold by a man with a cart across from the school, and on Sunday, Eutimio bought two pieces of used plywood for a roof and six posts to hold it up. He dug holes for the posts with his machete. He worked six days a week, but on Sundays he began making big, adobe bricks from mud. By the month’s end, they had solid walls and a kerosene lamp on a little shelf. By the end of the rainy season, he had cast a cement roof and floor, and expanded the house to two rooms. A neighbor moved out of his cardboard house and the Carrascos took over his land and built another room. He was promoted to albañil*. His wage doubled to $25 a day. He had no rent or house payment so he began buying bright red bricks to re-do the little home, which now had windows and flowering margaritas* in little tin cans hanging from the walls. The boys shared a room. He bought a washing machine, which was the envy of the neighborhood, although there was no place to plug it in and no pipes to hook it to. Dolores brought water in 5-gallon cans early every morning, before work. When I visited three years later, I thought I was lost. The cardboard-box neighborhood had evolved into brick casitas*. The city had brought electricity, water and sewers. Eutimio had a second story with a big satellite dish on the roof. There was a flower garden in front and a nice small patio in back where a little palm tree was struggling to start. There was a grey Nissan pickup parked in front. He was a foreman now. Esteban and Máximo, his sons, were at the 130,000-student UNAM*. They invited me to a fútbol* game at the Estadio Azteca. His story is common. What tourists see as cardboard slums are really vibrant, exciting beginnings, constantly evolving from boxes to wood to adobe to pleasant middle-class brick neighborhoods—all in a few years. Were the Carrascos poor? What does “poor” mean? Does their story change your ideas of poverty? ¿Qué piensas? Eutimio’s Story * Toluca Rocket – Beat up, old buses that run straight pipe for more power as they cross over the mountains. * albañil – mason * margaritas – daisies 11 * casitas – little houses * UNAM – Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México * fútbol – soccer México Vo- Click the button to visit a Day of the Dead celebration in Oaxaca, Mexico. César, Miranda and Luisa enjoy a refresco after school. Click the button to watch a video of Rebeca telling her story. When I was a child, we spent the holidays with my grandparents, who lived in a small town nearby. Grandma, whose name is also Rebeca, knew lots of things, from assisting women in childbirth to preparing delicious cheeses. One of the things I learned from her was how to build piñatas in the traditional way. Voces Rebeca Monterrey, Mexico My cousins and I had decided to build a piñata by ourselves. Normally, piñatas were built from a reed armature of carrizo, but Granny suggested we build it like in the old times: using a jar of clay. I remember the jar stained my hands with tizne* when Grandma took it from the darkest corner of her kitchen and gave it to me. We used the hose in the patio to wash it clean. I then helped grandma prepare engrudo—homemade glue traditionally used in Mexican crafts— mixing water and flour in a pot and heating the mixture on the stove, stirring constantly to get it really sticky. Grandma put the engrudo on the table along with a bunch of old newspapers. We then pasted several layers of paper onto the jar to create a crust around it. When we were done, Grandma told us we had to wait until next morning to let it dry. I felt disappointed, but I soon forgot about it, because we had hot chocolate and spent the rest of the day playing outside. The next morning we were ready to continue. Granny made five paper cones and taped them to the jar. We then used fringed strips of paper of different colors to decorate it. We had to let it dry one more day, but it already looked like a piñata. On the third day grandma tied a string to the piñata. We stuffed it with peanuts, sugarcane, candies and also mandarins we cut from her garden. I don´t remember the moment when we broke it. But it must have been fun. My name is Rebeca. I was born in Monterrey, a city in northern Mexico. 12 *tizne - soot Mexico Click the button to watch Mayan women weave textiles in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. Dos cocineros Click the button to watch a video of Miguel telling his story. I used to think that I had to go to a different continent to learn new things and see different cultures, but in my first missionary field trip to Calabacillas while I was in college, I was proved wrong. It made me realize how much there is to learn from my own country. Miguel Mazatlán, Mexico Calabacillas is an “ejido,” an agriculture-centered little town in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas. The villagers own small pieces of land which were handed to their families after the 1910 Mexican Revolution. Agriculture in Mexico is currently very unproductive; there is very little financing, training and support from the government. People are very poor in this ejido. Despite the economic realities, I learned many things during the week I spent there, but one night in particular has been very valuable to me. Voces In Calabacillas, the electric supply was intermittent at times, so they often played “Lotería” (a.k.a. Mexican Bingo). Some neighboring families got together and started mini-tournaments. Instead of placing chips on top of the cards, they use raw beans; it was cheap and convenient (I call it efficient). One time a very poor family invited me to play with them; they also made dinner for me, they cooked massive amounts of the most delicious gorditas I have had in my life. Gorditas are a small, flat and thick corn tortilla cut open longitudinally and stuffed with the stew of choice (pork, beef, chicken, mole, veggies, etc.). I felt a little guilty at first, because I knew they were very poor. I ate slowly at first; they noticed that and they encouraged me to eat as much as I wanted, to feel at home. They said it was their gift to me and they gave it to me from their hearts. I was their guest; they made me feel at home, with their smiles and comforting words. I was able to forget my remorse and embrace their gift of hospitality, I enjoyed the night fully, without thinking of scarcity, ripped sweaters and worn-out shoes. I had the time of my life; I fully enjoyed the night. That is a lesson I still carry with me. Whenever I let the circumstances and worries distract me from embracing the moment, learning and having fun, I think of my Lotería teachers at Calabacillas and smile. My name is Miguel Lira. I am a mechanical engineer from Mazatlán, Mexico. I love pizza and mole. 13 México Voces Stereotype = Misinformation “All adolescents are troublemakers” is a stereotype. It’s simply not true. Frida, Lucía and Silvia celebrate El Día de la Independencia. It’s a stereotype to say “all,” “everyone,” “always” or “never” about a group of people. Think about it. “All Mexicans like spicy food” is a stereotype. It’s simply not true. A lot of Mexicans don’t like spicy food, and many can’t eat it. Most Mexican food has no chili at all. “All New Yorkers are in a hurry.” “Everyone from the Midwest is uncool.” “Californians never stop partying.” “Southerners always live in small towns.” These are all stereotypes. Think about it. How could these statements possibly be true?A common stereotype about Americans is that they are all rich. This is not true about most. Is it true about you? If you met someone from another country and they just assumed you were rich, and you couldn’t convince them otherwise, wouldn’t it be really annoying? You want people to know you, the individual you are, and not just see the misinformation of a stereotype. Prejudice = Misinformation in Action You and your friends are hanging out at the end of the hall, and a bunch of posters are lying on the floor. The new assistant principal sees you and gets all squinty-eyed and says you are all getting detention for knocking down the posters. You protest, “Why do you think we knocked them down?” He says, “Because I know adolescents. They are all troublemakers.” You have just become a victim of prejudice! He took his stereotyped idea of adolescents and applied it to you. He “pre-judged” you based on the misinformation of the stereotype in his head. He should have looked. He should have seen that the cheap tape the school bought just didn’t hold up the posters. Prejudice means to use the misinformation of a stereotype to judge someone before you have the real facts. It’s annoying, unjust and really, really unfair. What stereotypes are there about Mexicans? 14 Mexico Mexican pottery What Is Poverty? I was 18 and attending the University of the Americas in Mexico City. Long weekends took me on roaring buses over the mountains to every corner of the Republic. My gringo eyes were shocked by the poverty. As I learned more Spanish, my notion of poverty became confused. One bitter, cold, clear day in Toluca, an old, hunched-over man, dressed in so many layers of torn shirts that he looked like a heap of rags, tugged at my sleeve and mumbled something. Being a street-smart Detroit kid, I wasn’t fooled; I knew he wasn’t asking for money for food, but was really going to buy cheap alcohol. I finally knew enough Spanish to confront him. “¿Qué quiere?” I demanded abruptly. “Tengo hambre” (I'm hungry). Outsmarting him, I said, “Si tiene hambre le compro comida, nada más.” (If you are hungry, I will buy you food! Nothing more.) I grabbed one rag with two fingers and led him to a wall where a señora was huddled out of the wind by a little charcoal burner made of a 5-gallon tin, sellling tortas that were little more than bread spread with red-colored lard. I paid 50 centavos for one and shoved it in his hand, expecting that he would throw it down in anger. I was wrong. He got down on his knees and began kissing my hands. I have never been the same. Yes, poverty and hunger are both real. But it’s complicated... Skip Auburn Hills, Michigan The Ochoas live in a one-room mud house with a roof of flattened tin cans. They have no appliances, no TV, no running water or electricity. They walk everywhere. Sra. Ochoa sells her weavings on a straw mat on the ground in the market. She wears sandals and her feet are dirty. Sr. Ochoa uses a burro to open the earth and raise corn and beans on a steep, rocky hillside. He plants squash between the rows and raises plenty to eat, entertain guests and extra to sell. The señora sweeps the hard, dirt floor two times a day. They drink pure water that drips out of the mountainside. Their front door overlooks a green valley just below, wooded hillsides and snow-capped volcanoes in the distance. Voces They built their house with local material and owe money to no one. Their family lives within sight and gather often. Each guest brings a unique and special dish. “Estamos contentos y no tenemos jefes,” they told me. ("We are content and happy, and we have no bosses.”) Miguel is a Tarahumara Indian living in the Copper Canyon Sierra in the Chihuahua State of Northern Mexico. He wears a zapeta, a sort of diaper made from a large piece of white manta (cheap, white, muslin cloth). He lost one leg in his primitive crystal mine and gets along with a rough piece of wood, tied to his stump with strips of burlap sack. He nailed a little circle of tire to the end for traction on the steep mountain trails. He lives many miles from any sort of road. His house is under a rock overhang at the edge of a 1,000-ft. cliff. He looks down to see circling hawks. He stacked rocks about chin-high on the ledge and made beds behind it out of hand-sewn planks piled with thick blankets his wife made from wool from their sheep. He has about 300 goats under another overhang nearby. It really smells. He packs goat poo in 150-lb. sacks, puts a trump line over his forehead, hunches over, pulls the sack onto his back and hauls the sacks on a scary trail to fertilize his forty-five-degree-plus bean field, over two miles away! He owns seven big orange trees and several banana plants far below in the barranca (canyon). His family eats well. They drink from a cool spring. In winter, they travel for several months, mostly on foot. He and his neighbors help one another in times of emergency or shortage. Miguel has worked easy jobs for good wages in the city, but one day he came back and stayed. I asked, “Wouldn’t you like to have a house, a TV, a car and an easy job in the city?” He replied, “No, para nada.” (No, not for anything.) Many small farmers in the highlands of Latin America do suffer tuberculosis, hunger and worse in bad crop years. This is all too common. And many people live in city dumps gathering food. They say, “Somos pobres.” (We are poor people.) But are all people who have no TV, no showers, no cars, no stoves, no good shoes, who have to walk everywhere... are they miserable? Are they poor? I used to say they were. Now I just ask people and let them tell me how they rate their own lives, according to their own values. My name is Skip McWiliams, and I used to live in Mexico. 15 México I’m going to get one of those big sombreros and fit right in! ¡Ay! ¡Por favor, Capitán! Nobody except tourists and musicians have worn those those big sombreros since Pancho Villa’s revolution nearly 100 years ago. For the North, your cowboy hat fits in just fine, and a baseball cap will do fine anywhere else. Where do you get this stuff? Latin America is just like Mexico! I’m ready to check it out! No it isn’t, and no you aren’t, grandulón!* I’d better fix you up with some of my amigas to keep you out of trouble. . . and lose the Mexican lucha libre outfit. *grandulón - big guy Marifer is wearing a modern outfit with a traditional spin, combining European and native Mexican elements. Her silk top is reminiscent of the traditional Mayan huipil. The decorations on the blouse and pants were stitched by doña Ana María Fernández, at her home in Zacatecas. 16 El código Actividad 1 Use the numbers and letters to decode each message. Then, say each message out loud. (The accents are included for you!) 1. H O L A . a b c ch d e f 9 18 13 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2. . g h i j k l ll 2 24 6 16 1 22 16 18 4 6 22 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 3. ¿ ? 20 24 6 23 1 13 m n ñ o p q r 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 4. ¿ 3 18 15 18 23 6 s t u v w x y z 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 ? 14 1 15 1 22 Now it’s your turn! Make up a code in the box below. Then have a partner decode the message. 17 2 Actividad Busca el intruso Modelo: de jota ele doce Circle the word in each group of words and phrases that does not belong with the others. Then, write a word or phrase on the line that fits the group. Follow the model. igriega 1. siete cero ene diez 2. eñe zeta efe i 3. ele jota cero equis 4. a de i u 5. Buenos días. ¿Cómo te llamas? Buenas tardes. Hola. 18 18 Actividad Los números de teléfono 3 Complete the chart by writing out the number words or numerals of the phone numbers. Follow the model. Cinco, dos, nueve, uno, cero, dos, uno Telepizza 529-1021 Escuela 314-552-8199 Bicicletas San Luis 444-125-8977 Panadería Aranda ocho, uno, tres, cuatro, cero, siete, seis Café el draco seis, siete, cero, cuatro, ocho, cinco, cinco El dorado 612-239-5719 19 4 Actividad Saludo escondido Unscramble each of the following greetings and write them in the spaces provided. Then, find the hidden greeting in the shaded column. Follow the model. 1. HUOCM TOGUS 2. SNOUBE ADÍS 3. TEENLAGUMI 4. IDÓSA 1 M U C H O 2 3 4 20 G U S T O Actividad Saludos 5 Read each of the following situations. Then, fill in the missing parts of the dialogue to fit each situation. Be sure to use the formal and informal forms as needed, and make sure each dialogue makes sense. Follow the model. 1. Carlos runs into his friend Miguel at the movies. They say “hello” to each other. Carlos: ¡Hola, Miguel! Miguel: ¡Hola, Carlos! Carlos: ¿Cómo estás? Miguel: ___________________________________________________________ Bien, ¿y tú? Carlos: Muy bien. Nos vemos. Miguel: ___________________________________________________________ Nos vemos. 2. Irma doesn’t feel well. She is talking to Dra. Suárez. Dra. Suárez: Buenos días, Irma. Irma: ___________________________________________________________ Dra. Suárez: Yo estoy muy bien, gracias. ¿Cómo te sientes? Irma: ___________________________________________________________ Dra. Suárez: Bueno, pues, voy a examinarte. 3. Carolina has a new teacher and does not know his name. He introduces himself to her. Sr. Martínez: Buenos días. Soy el Sr. Martínez. Carolina: ____________________________________________________________ Sr. Martínez: Encantado, Carolina. ¿Cómo estás hoy? Carolina: ____________________________________________________________ Sr. Martínez: Estoy muy bien también. Pues, ¡nos vemos en clase! Carolina: ____________________________________________________________ 21