Do celebrities ever think about how much we think about them? Does Jacob Elordi ever wonder, during Leg Day, how many teenagers are drawing heart eyes over a photo of him at that very moment? Does Sean Bean get an unexplained prickly sensation in his belly every time another “One Does Not Simply” meme is made? Did Grumpy Cat know that we loved him? Even if the answer to all of the above is “yes,” it still appears unlikely that Christina Applegate knows how much she has changed the world. In fact, she has changed an entire language! After spending a total of about two years in Peru, I’ve come to learn a few things, such as: which telenovelas are campiest, where to find the best ceviche, and how to hyperspecifically annoy my Peruvian partner. (Answer key: María la del Barrio, but specifically the “maldita lisiada” scene; literally anywhere; and saying too many good things about Chile.) However, one of the most fascinating things I’ve learned is the nickname “calabacita.” It’s what Peruvians sometimes call their friends when they’re being airheads. It works on anyone, no matter zthe gender, and it’s directly derived from Christina Applegate’s character in Married…with Children.
If you’ve seen Married…with Children or recently looked up its Wikipedia page, then you may recall that the show follows Al Bundy’s (Ed O’Neill) life of disappointments with his job and his ditzy daughter Kelly (Christina Applegate), among other things. Kelly’s ditziness often manifests in her incredible ability to immediately forget things on the spot. She also loves a good malapropism, such as her classic sick day adage, “Feet are cold, starved for pizza – no wait, or is it, ‘starve a pizza, eat cold feet?’” Meanwhile, Al loves to indulge her and call her “pumpkin.” “Pumpkin,” when used affectionately, loosely translates to “calabacita” in Latin American Spanish. Thus, viewers of dubbed episodes of Married… with Children came to associate the word “calabacita” with Kelly, and the word became the mild insult that it is today.
Example: “That ‘calabacita’ in my office told us that she thought electricity came from space.”
“Calabacita” can be heard throughout the rest of the Latin American world, but it rarely means what it does in Peru, making this a fascinating example of regionalism. Elsewhere in Latin America, Anglophone phrases from pop culture have taken on even greater significance, spreading beyond single countries and entering the official lexicon. There’s even a Diccionario de americanismos, or “dictionary of Americanisms,” that keeps track of them all.
One obvious example is the word “nerd,” which is often used in Spanish in its English form. (Example: “El nerd va a la biblioteca.”) Blame ’80s comedies. Meanwhile, in another instance of American high school movies warping the Spanish language, the English word “cheerleader” is now sometimes used throughout the Spanish speaking world instead of “animador” or “porrista.” Other times, English words heard in popular series, movies, and memes are given Spanish-friendly spellings, especially among the chronically-on-TikTok Zoomers of the Latin American world. In this way, “to hang out” becomes “janguear,” “to chill” becomes “chilear,” “to chat” becomes “chatear,” and “to friend zone” becomes “friendzonear.” “Jándiman” is also accepted to mean “handyman,” though it’s unclear if this came from Home Improvement or from a tourist asking their Airbnb host for a “handyman” in a Spanish accent after their toilet broke.
A less obvious Americanism is the Peruvian Spanish word “friki,” which comes from the English word “freak” – also a mainstay of American high school comedies. Interestingly, “friki” is not an adjective like the English “freaky”; it’s a noun that primarily means “oddball.” A logical transliteration. However, “friki” also means “a person who cultivates an inordinate fondness for something” or “a dazened, maddened” person. Those secondary definitions indicate that the word has taken on a life of its own in Spanish.
As more and more English language memes travel across social media, more and more Americanisms will take up residence alongside their Spanish equivalents. Of course, these will be distinct from the English words that have already infiltrated Spanish via international workplace culture. “Pitch,” “marketing digital,” “profit,” and “stock exchange” are immediately recognizable to anyone with a passing knowledge of businessy things. The word “shopping,” too, has found its rightful place in the world of Spanish language commerce. Just as the word “shopping” has evolved to bear an almost spiritual significance in the United States, “el shopping” has taken over parts of Latin America as a way to say “mall.” When you’re going to JCPenney for a new comforter, you say, “Voy al shopping.” As one cultural anthropologist wrote about malls in 2002, “no [Spanish] word seemed appropriate for such foreign entities.” In other words: #GringosBeShopping. Whether she has any interest in this sprawling saga of linguistic evolutionor not, Christina Applegate would surely get a kick out of knowing that people in Peru essentially quote her old TV show to each other every time someone says something dumb. “Calabacita” has been used to describe everyone from Paris Hilton in the early aughts to Sarah Palin in all her decades, and it’s all because of Applegate.
What’s next? Are Spanish speakers going to start calling their dates “pods” thanks to Love is Blind? Will Spanish-speaking Real Housewives fans start calling their most unhinged friends “Lisa Rinnas”? Will Americans, racked with guilt over this ongoing assault on the Spanish languge, finally complete a seven-day Duolingo streak to make amends?
Whatever fresh linguistic hell awaits us, we must at least find a way to tell Christina Applegate that her character, Kelly Bundy, has changed Spinach forever. And with that, I bid you Buenos Nachos.
~ Evan E. Lambert
