# What does "changuito" mean when used as a racial slur by a spanish speaker ? (Re: recent LA City Council event)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-changuito-mean-when-used-as-a-racial-slur-by-a-spanish-speaker-re-recent-la-city-council-event/973346>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [October 16, 2022, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-changuito-mean-when-used-as-a-racial-slur-by-a-spanish-speaker-re-recent-la-city-council-event/973346 "2022-10-16T20:35:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-changuito-mean-when-used-as-a-racial-slur-by-a-spanish-speaker-re-recent-la-city-council-event/973346/21 "2022-10-20T12:13:05Z")

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> [@outlierrn](#):
>
> > [@JRDelirious](#):
> >
> > But as a _noun_ it can mean a boy, a joker, a kind of bird, depending on where you are… or in Mexico, ordinarily, “monkey”.
> 
> Well, I’ve certainly known white people to refer to their own children, affectionately as little monkey, (or monster), but looking at the larger conversation, she can’t claim misunderstanding, IMHO

Which is what we’ve been saying,

> [@JRDelirious](#):
>
> And nope, they can’t plead ignorance of how it could be received, they ARE from L.A.

> [@FlikTheBlue](#):
>
> She used the word “parece”, not the phrase “esta compartando como” or some other way of describing someones behavior. The former can only be used to describe someone’s physical appearance, not how they’re behaving.

Though in my experience, and at least in the mother-tongue Spanish I grew up with, it means _both_ “resemble” _and_ “seems” so it is not necessarily something that “can _only_ be used to describe someone’s physical appearance”. However to say that he acted up we would have said “está changuito” = “he is being a rascal”

Martínez, however, for reason of place and time did not have any excuse.

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