Here a few Spanish words common in our region, which donβt exist or have different meanings in other parts of the Mexican world. Some are loan words from native languages, others simply have their own local meanings. Letβs start with the first category.
bichi β naked, dry. A loan word from Yaqui.
chΓΊcata β the black, sticky gum of the mesquite tree. It can be chewed like gum, and was also used for patching pottery vessels. A loan word from Yaqui.
equipatas β light winter rains, often lasting as long as three days. They contrast with the heavy, often localized cloudbursts of the summer rainy season. A loan word from Yaqui.
pΓ©chita β mesquite seed pods. When ground they can be mixed with water to form a gruel, or made into flour. Mesquite flour is becoming locally available and popular in Tucson. A loan word from Γpata.
Yorimuni β a Sonoran white bean, sold at Native Seeds/SEARCH, and in some Mexican markets. A loan word from Yaqui, literally βwhite beansβ.
The above words exist in everyday Sonoran Spanish and nowhere else. Now we come to the tricky part β the words that mean one thing here and something quite different everywhere else.
Cimarrona β a traditional word for βsnow cone.β Now to a great extent replaced here by raspado (literally, βscraped thing.β) Elsewhere, a βcimarronaβ is a female mountain sheep. The term βcimarrΓ³n is also applied to wild or untamed individuals
Pico de gallo - In Sonora, a fruit salad lightly dusted over with chile powder, salt, and lime juice. Elsewhere on the border, especially in Texas, a kind of uncooked salsa containing green chiles, tomatoes, and onions. Literally, βbirdβs beak.β
There are even a very few such expressions in local English in which the meaning and connotations differ from usage elsewhere β southern Arizona code words, if you will. One such is βBut itβs a dry heat.β Thatβs literally true here, of course, but the phrase has locally become tinged with a sort of wistful sarcastic humor. When the thermometer hits 110 degrees, it is indeed a relief that the air isnβt muggy and moist, but itβs still HOT.
We still hear about βthe ice breaking on the Santa Cruz River.β (Not βmelting,β mind you, but βbreaking.β) That, of course, is our local code indicating that the local temperature has hit 100 degrees. Itβs not as common as it was a few years ago, but itβs still heard.
Iβm sure I missed a few, but these are some of our strictly local words. It says a lot about our multicultural, multilingual region that the words are in four distinct languages: Yaqui, Γpata, Spanish, and English.