Elenamary

(Thank you to Irasali’s husband who tipped me off).

SHEETROCK® Brand drywall is currently hosting a contest in Chicago: El Mero Mero Drywalero.

El Mero Mero: The one, The Magnificent, the very best and only; a pure Mexican idiom.

Drywalero: One may argue a “pochismo” — a water downed Mexican-Americanism, but I wouldn’t call it a pochismo. I would call it a Mexicanism made by the immigrant because there is no word for el drywalero. It is a term of necessity and acquisition, rather than a pochoizing of an English word for one that already exists in Spanish.

This all reminds me of a translation of a document I did. The document was for housing code violations and what needed to be fixed. The problem was that the words I was translating were words that the “Spanish reader” knew in English not in Spanish. For example wafer board, dry wall, oriented strand board, and plywood while some of the words may exist in Spanish (though for the most part not) they are words that are generally not encountered until el imigrante gets to the United States and works in construction. Anyway, I love the idea of a competition of El Mero Mero Drywalero almost has much as I love the title of it.