Mexico City Journal: Where the Swearing Is All About the Context

This article can be found here.

November 12, 2009

Recent studies on swearing in Mexico found several surprising facts about the prevalence of cursing in this nation. Apparently, Mexican people have a "reputation in Latin America for [their] ultrapoliteness and formality", though the article never explains why the audience should think that way, and I most certainly never knew that as a general fact. As in America, these terms have developed multiple meanings, sometimes implying endearment. The article did use a clever technique of integrating Spanish words into its format, first introducing the term "groserías", or curse words, to connect the American audience to their foreign counterparts. This allows the author to relate these notonriously bad-mouthed nations more easily. Lacey also draws on our own experience of cursing in our own culture to explain the use of such words in the Mexican culture. "Those swearing the most, not surprisingly, were the young people." Here, the author is relating American youth's practice of cursing as similar to its popularity among youth in Mexico. To further emphasize the point that geography -rather, proximity to the US- plays a major role in this trend, the author includes important data about Northern Mexico, the region closest to the US border, having the dirtiest of language in all the nation. The author also creativly ties the increasing use of profanities to the increasingly depressing economic state. The author ended well by questioning the significant of curse words at all when they are so commonly used.