Del Rio News Herald

One of the most admirable qualities of the people along the border is their ability to laugh at each other’s ways, language, food etc.

We imitate each other’s dialectal deviations with no remorse or guilt whatsoever. My girl friends Velma and Judy Villegas are among the best of the rest!

At parties we spend hours after hours talking and imitating our teachers of long ago especially if they had difficulty pronouncing some of the most common words in the English language. We laugh until we cry.

Oscar Cardenas has this knack, too.

I suppose that this is one of the reasons that we bond with one another so well. I have a teacher friend that is “retarded” no, not retarded, RETIRED! One of her hobbies is the collection of jokes and from time to time she thinks of me and sends them electronically.

Some of you oldies will remember Cristobal Aldrete, our first Hispanic American City Councilman in Del Rio. Well, he was a well-known attorney who also was credited with having a filing cabinet filled with jokes that were filed and characterized by theme. He also was known to poke fun at his heritage, as well as, the Spanish language.

My teacher friend sent me these vocabulary words found in a Mexican Dictionary:

• BODYWASH: “I cant go to the cantina tonite cuz noBODYWASH my kidz!”

• SHOULDER: “My Tia wanted to become a citizen, but she didn’t know how to read so I SHOULDER!”

• COCKATOO: “My friend was in the bathroom & I tld him to hurry cuz I had to go COCKATOO”

• SODAS: “My vieja has a big butt and SODAS her sister.

For comments please

e-mail me at:

dszertuche(at)hotmail.com

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Serving Del Rio and Val Verde County since 1929

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