A friend says that there is a whistle code among latinos in the service industry, and that workers and patrons in restaurants and bodegas use it to privately relay information. Now that he mentions it, I do seem to recall hearing whistles, but it could simply be a cultural way to get someone’s attention. Is there any truth to this?
Just for massage workers. You know how to whistle, don’t you?
Just how much information can be relayed by whistling unless they made it as complicated as Morse Code, MorrisCody.
You just put your lips together and exhale.
If they wanted a private conversation, they would just speak in spanish. My mother-in-law works in a factory, and they don’t need a complicated whistling code to communicate- they just speak in their native language.
This isnt always solely reserved for secrets/shit talking in spite of what some engish speakers may think. Often its just out of familiarity.
There are some whistle patterns that have specific (and likely regional) meaning, but the ones I can think of don’t go beyond “Hey!” or “fuck you!”
Do people from the Canary Islands count as “latinos”?
Not really… Latino is usually understood to mean someone from Latin America, a.k.a. Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries in the American continent, a.k.a Mexico and most central and south American countries (I’m pretty sure there’s a bunch of central and South American countries where they speak primarily English or French, which would count them out, but they’re still usually thrown into the same catch-all category…)
At least in Mexico I can bear witness to the fact that they do communicate with whistles in places like bodegas and markets when there’s a lot of noise around because of all the people and vehicles around- but I doubt its anything as complex as the whistling code of the Canary islands. I do think there are a couple indigenous tribes in modern day southern Mexico that do have more complex whistling languages.
And now I’m depressed because I just remembered I can´t even whistle properly.
Whistled languages exist. One of them is based on Spanish. I very much doubt that’s what is going on here, but there you go.
Let me guess: instead of a whistle, you’re getting more of a ‘whoosh’ sound?
Kind of like the ::sniff, sniff, grunt, fart:: code used by males of Latvian descent working in tech support.
Spanish is taught widely enough in US schools that that wouldn’t be particularly secure in most areas. Admittedly most non-latinos in the US are not fluent, but plenty understand enough that they might pick up the gist of a conversation.
Sometimes I overhear latinos talking on the street in Spanish when they think no one around understands what they are saying. It can be amusing to drop a remark in Spanish and see the startled looks on their faces. Not all gringos are monolingual. 
There a quite a few whistle languages around the world.
Yes, this can happen. In a famous store in NYC, I stood by as a pair of shopgirls behind the counter were chatting on and on cursing out customers and managers, one of whom I complained to about them. (Wow, that grammar was so bad it deserves looking into on its own merits.)
I was on a bus once and a guy shouted out “You’re fatter and you’re an asshole too” in English to an Israeli couple speaking Hebrew a few seats away.
Well, out here some of the Mexican gangs have a few signals they do via whistling.
Try whistling it.
Nah, I do get a whistle, just… not potent enough to call someone from the distance or anything.
Does the OP mean a language workers use to indicate that an attractive patron just walked in, or that bad tipper, dropzone, is at Table 3? Because I’m pretty sure service workers of all lands have used those since before there were service workers.
No. Not unless people working in a specific place made up their own code.
I’ve worked in restaurants for 10 years. Most of my co-workers from Latin America have been Mexican or Guatemalan (due to the areas I’ve lived at the time) but there have also been some from Peru, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Central America.
Many (but not all) whistle while they work. Usually as a warning when coming around a blind corner or up behind you carrying food or dishes, sometimes just to make noise. Whistling seems to just be a common thing men while they are working in many Latin American cultures. It’s also used to signal interest (sexual or otherwise) or grab attention. I’ve noticed plenty of Hispanic guys who work in construction, etc whistling while they work… or at me when I walk by wearing a dress.
I (gringo girl) also whistle a lot while working, often imitating the various sounds the guys make (one at my current job can do impressive imitations of various birds and insects, I’m trying to learn!). I’ve never noticed or taken part in any coded whistling.
“Based on Spanish” only inasmuch as that’s the language silbadores speak. Nowadays part of the use of silbo transliterates Spanish, but it already existed before Gomera became part of Spain and there’s whistles which stand for their own words/sentences. It could be used to transliterate any other language, with more whistles added for any phonemes that language has and Spanish doesn’t - if needed, others could be substituted so long as the message got across, same as words can be abbreviated. A cross between Morse and leetspeak, but older than either.