Chile Forum

While our hydro system was kaput and we were living through the winter with candles to read by and see to cook at night, one of our neighbors asked why we didn't get a generator (which we did eventually) I explained that my husband decided it cost too much. She said, "mano de wawa". Meaning a baby's fist, as in clenched. Cheap! She's right!

My twisted gringo mind is already thinking of combos like

mano de wawa culeao (I sometimes resemble that remark)

A personal favourite of mine is this one, in answer to a rhetorical question as to when something will get done by someone: cuando le frunce el poto! Apparently, this is when spasm occurs while defecating.

Last night when I posted the system glitched which is why there is triple post.

My wife left Chile when she was about 7 (during the Allende administration - a story within in itself). Of course they continued to speak spanish in the home. I learned to speak spanish in Argentina but we have been married for 25 years so our vocabularies are all mixed up. Some of my favorite dichos that I have picked up are:

fome - boring lame
paco - police
pun - fart (my kids use this in english "whew, who punned?"

Pun is a lot more common than you think! Almost every Condorito book has "TOME PIN, HAGA PUN!"