DEAR MEXICAN: The word "cholo" means "mixed race" or "mestizo." So isn't using cholo to refer to gangbangers or other delinquents racist? I'm Cuban, but please don't group me with idiots such as Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio.
DEAR CUBAN POCHA: There are multiple meanings of "cholo." The word derives from the Nahautl xolo, and its first documented definition was in Alonso de Molina's epic 1571 Nahuatl-English dictionary, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana; there, he said the Aztecs took it as "paje, moço, criado o eƒclavo" ("page, waiter, servant or slave"). Spaniards being Spaniards, they applied the term to refer to the offspring of an Indian and a mestizo. Mexico being Mexico, it then became a palabra to apply to lower-class people, which spread across Latin America and into the United States. Gabachos being gabachos, they took cholo and made it into a derogatory slur applicable to all undesirable Mexicans. And pochos being pochos, they reappropriated cholo, then dumped it on gang members, not realizing that they were essentially calling the homies "dirty Mexicans." Don't you just love how we don't know our history?
(OCWeekly.com)
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