Here’s an excerpt from Abbey’s Road, where he makes an unfortunate choice of words in a bar:
*“His slap made me spill part of my drink. I muttered three Spanish words, five little syllables that one should never utter, aloud, in the border states, unless one is prepared to die. I could see the words floating on the smoke before us.
The chatter came to a stop. The cowboys looked at me with pity. But not much pity. Drunken hippie they were thinking. A dog’s death. Kicked to pieces in a dusty ditch. And I was thinking (I think), well, what the hell. This is it. Never apologize, never explain.” *
Not being conversant in Spanish, I was wondering what the hell it was that Ed said??
Good one, but this being in the border, the most likely words are the ones were you tell the other guy to F their mother like in the way the **Captain ** mentioned.
Yes, but location is important, “puta” is typical from Spain, and Latin America. In Mexico and the US Border, though they will understand if you use “puta”, “la chingada” is preferred.
And very important to keep in mind: the advice to not say it in those places “unless one is prepared to die” or fight is sound.
OK, but I was addressing the specific point that “hijo de puta” was not a maternal insult. You’re not insulting the “hijo” so much as the alleged “puta”.
my vote goes for “hijo de puta”. Only a mexican would use “chinga tu madre” and they would know not to use it, of course!. “hijo de puta” is very very common in all spanish speaking countries and means the same all over. It is also something that foreigners (specially americans) seem to lear very quickly as it is a “concept” that exists in their native tongues (son of a bitch) as opposed to “fuck your mother” which is not that common to hear in any language I know.
Chinga tu/su madre is pretty well known among my fellow gringo buddies. My understanding is that it means “I am fucking your mother” as opposed to “fuck your mother”.
The context clearly notes that the narrator knows about the insults of the area, and since the area is the border states and with cowboys, all that points to a place next to Mexico. Really, natives from this area do learn about how to insult “properly”.
