Word: pocho
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...plummet his voice from coloratura soprano to Chaliapin bass. But-it is not his voice that enthralls his fans, it is his lingo. For Tin Tan is a master of pocho, and pocho, a bilingual bastardy of anglicized Mexican,† is as funny to Mexican ears as the English of a stage Englishman is to Americans. Pocho, which literally means something that has lost its color, has come to stand for the thousands of Mexicans near or across the border who have ruined their Spanish without ever quite learning English. To aficionados Tin Tan is high satire...
...trousers which narrow at the ankles. He is forever fondling and fussing over his mike, always starts off by jabbering such gibberish as Viriviriviri-virividee, V por Victori. At intervals he tosses in his own crazy versions of mariachi tunes, Russian melodies, Italian arias; but mostly he just spouts pocho like so much fast doubletalk. His only complete gag is feeble: Roosevelt and Churchill in mud up to the waist and the neck, with Hitler in mud only to the ankles-because, comes the tag line, he is standing on Göring's shoulders. But spiked with pocho...
...Mexican for zoot-suiter. † Watermelon, doughnuts, shampoo (in Spanish, sandla, rosquitas, lavar la cabeza) become guaramelon, donas, champu, in pocho. Outside the Folies Bergbre hawkers sell a pocho glossary...