“Como se dice Muffín?” – Reverse Acculturation

This is more of a funny story than anything else.  Although, the lesson here is about how acculturation is a two way street and can apply to other ethnic groups.

 

 So growing up in the 80’s and being Latino in the Suburbs was an experience unto itself.  Those of us who lived that life, were “THE” diversity in most cases at school or church or any other social group for teens.  But our parents always showed/reminded us where we came from and never to lose the “Latin” in us! For me, my older brothers and sister always reminded me “how easy I had it,” or something to that nature.

 

Those of us Latinos who knew each other in the suburbs had similar backgrounds…Parents were foreign born, been here since the 60’s or 70’s, had older siblings who were more aware of the last neighborhood we lived in than we were and we spoke Spanish but lived in English. But when many of us went to college and started our careers, those reminders were not around us. But funny how you gravitate to people who have/had similar life experiences/situations as your own.

 

These situations are different than those of native Spanish speakers, even within your own family, because we had the luxury of using English when we did not know the correct Spanish words.  So only imagine if a native Spanish speaker doesn’t know the word and has no point of reference because it did not exist, in the American form, back home.

 

So to the title of this blog – “Como se dice Muffín?”

 

One day, speaking Spanish to these friends and reminiscing about the crazy things our Latin parents (Spanish, Colombian, Cuban, Argentine, Mexican, Peruvian) used to do, I got up and asked the group if “¿querian unos muffíns?”  With simultaneous pause, we all looked at each other with puzzled faces and began to ask, how do you say “muffin” in Spanish?

 

So each of us (there were five), called our parents.  And all of our conversations pretty much went like this:

 

Ring

 

MAMA: “Alo” (Some form of Hello and Hola combined)

ME: “Hey Mama! What’s up?

MAMA: “Hola Mijito…how are you?”

ME: “Great..you got a minute?”

MAMA: “Por su puesto…of course!”

ME: “So some of us are sitting around trying to figure out a word in Spanish.  What do you call a

pastry that you would eat in the morning.  Some are Bran, some are blueberry. Do you know what I am

talking about?”

MAMA: “Un bagel?”

ME: “No think sweet.”

MAMA: “Un Muffin?”

ME: “Yes.  How do you say Muffin in Spanish?”

 LONG PAUSE

MAMA: "Muffín?"  (note the accent mark)

ME: "Seriously?"

MAMA: " I think so.  I did not grow up with anything like a muffin.  You might want to ask your father

growing up in Colombia your Abuela owned a bakery for many years.  I will check with my sisters."

ME: "OK Mama, thanks!  Ciao!

MAMA: "Ciao baby lindo!"

 

So I did call my dad, same conversation.  Actually each of us called our parents, and 10 similar conversations.  There was no word for muffin in Spanish.  That was 15 years ago.

And I still have yet to find a word in Spanish for Muffin. 

 

So as we see words like salsa, taco, pico (de gallo) get engrained in the English vernacular, there are words like muffin, and even bagel, that get put into the Spanish vernacular here in the US. 

 

So for you bi-lingual/bi-cultural folks, keep an ear out and let us know of some other words/phrases out there.

 

Email us @ matador@thebullfight.com

 

¡Saludos!