De Ben Sutherland from Crystal Palace, London, UK - DSC02652, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38876898Is it ever O.K. to call someone ‘negro’ or ‘negrito’ in Spanish?
That’s the question which is currently causing all sorts of problems for the English Football Association as it reacts to a series of tweets by Manchester United’s Uruguayan striker, Edinson Cavani.
For those of you who live outside the U.K, or don’t like football (soccer), the facts of the dispute are fairly simple to understand:
Praise from a friend
After a great performance by Cavani for Man Utd, a friend of the striker took to Instagram and posted a photo of Cavani with the text:
Asi te quiero, Matador
Which translates roughly as ‘That’s how I want you, killer”.
Cavani’s ‘Uruguayan’ reply
No doubt happy to receive such praise, Cavini re-published the original post, adding a short line of thanks:
A £100,000 fine and banned for 3 matches
Unfortunately for Cavani, the post came to the attention of the English Football Association, who took great exception to the use of the word ‘negrito’.
The Uruguayan was slapped with a £100,000 fine and a 3-match ban for use of racist language. He was also forced to publicly apologise. Cavani’s club, Manchester United, also apologised on his behalf.
The Uruguayan FA get involved
The issue though, didn’t end there, and the Uruguayan Football Association have taken up Cavani’s cause, complaining that it’s all one big misunderstanding and that their star striker (alongside Luís Suárez) isn’t racist at all. So what’s the story behind Cavani’s use of the word ‘negrito’ and should we really be offended by it?
Uruguayan and Argentinian Spanish
As we’ve mentioned previously in our classes, Argentinian and Uruguayan Spanish is often quite different from the language which is spoken in other parts of Latin America, particularly when it comes to pronunciation and vocabulary. The culture in these two countries is also distinct. No other Latin American countries saw such large scale immigration from Europe. The mix of Spanish, and later Italian, immigrants formed a culture which often feels very European (the clothes, the architecture, the morning coffee), but is undeniably ‘new world’ in other aspects (the class structure, the political shenanigans, the partying…).
The not-so-affectionate affectionate nicknames
If you’ve ever spent time around Uruguayans or Argentinians, you’ll know that they absolutely love to talk. It’s a national pastime in both countries. They also love banter. A sly insult between friends might be a cause of friction in Spain or the U.S, but in this part of South America it’s seen as a sign of closeness. This attitude extends to nicknames too. However good-looking you are, if you’re a little overweight when young, you’ll forever be called ‘el gordo’ (the fatty), even as a pensioner. If your family are recent immigrants from Italy you’ll be ‘el tano’ (short for ‘Italiano’). And those are the nice ‘apodos’ (nicknames). An Argentinian friend of mine is always ‘el orco’ (the ork / gargoyle) to his friends. Even superstars can’t escape a less-than-flattering nickname. Diego Maradona had a god-like status amongst his fellow countrymen, but for all of his long career he was referred to as ‘el pelusa’, which literalmente means ‘the hairy one’ or ‘the big-haired one’.
Hey, little blackie…
And yes, as ghastly as it might sound to an American or Brit, nicknames often refer to the colour of the skin. If you’re slightly darker than the average, you might well end up being called ‘el negro’ o ‘el negrito’ (‘negra’ and ‘negrita’ in the feminine forms) for life.
Which leads us back to Cavani. Did he intend to offend? No. Was he intentionally racist? Almost certainly not. And that, as far as I’m concerned, should be the end of the story.
