I'm in the middle of a bit where I'm using some words I don't know if I'm using right. A girl is addressed by a young latin man as follows: "You look lost, chula." (I promise it gets better...) A little bit further on another latin man realises she's a little naive about the purchase of cocaine and is overly nice to her saying: "And here's your change, novia." Now, Google translate tells me that 'chula' is pretty or pretty girl. Which is exactly what I want him to say, but other sources insist that it is usally accompanied by 'mami', which is not a word I want to be using right now. So, is that instance of 'chula' used correctly? Then, that same Google translates 'sweetheart' as novia. While 'sweetheart' is exactly the word I want to use, 'novia' looks wrong and it rings no bells, whereas I figure I should have heard it at least once somewhere in a show or movie somewhere if it's commonly used like this. Also, while I have your attention. Mexican drug dealers. I'm pretty sure I'm stereotyping here, but is it a steroetype I could get away with? My other option was Russian, I ended up on Mexican because I just got done with Narcos. And Queen Of The South. And Better Call Saul.
Mexican here. The context for "chula" is technically correct but I don't know anyone who would use it like that, maybe in the north (I've lived in the center and south my entire life), we tend to use chula to describe someone, something like "Esa niña está muy chula ≈ That girl is quite pretty". The other sources are kinda right, you are more likely to hear "mamacita" though and it would probably be on character for a narco. Another option would be "You look lost linda" (I recommend against using a comma in the sentence). Bear in mind that chula, mami, mamacita and linda indicate that the narco finds her attractive, if this is not the case just use "güera" instead. As for "And here's your change novia" (same thing about the comma), don't use novia; novia means either girlfriend or bride depending on the context. For sweetheart you could use cariño (kinda sounds like a grandma or aunt though) or preciosa (preciosa is more like linda or chula though). All that being said this can and will change depending on the region, as I said previously I'm most familiar with the "neutral Mexican" from the center and the south, however this is the "neutral" speech, México is one of the largest countries in the world (14th out of like 200) and the way of speaking can and will change not only between states but individual municipalities (I think that's the word). E.T.A: Güera is mostly for blonds and/or comparatively light-skinned people, I'm often called güero even though I have more of a Mediterranean light brown skin... or maybe you're writing this in the coast of Veracruz in which case everyone can be a güero or güera.
Thanks. Google gave me "coriña" for "sweetie", but it didn't look right to me either. I knew about "mamacita", but I felt that would be an easy out or too on the nose. I'm also still debating wether to just make them nondescript gangsters. My girlfriend, who is pretty well read, is doubling as my editor (because just the stress of quarantine was getting old) and she had some problems with it feeling forced anyway.
Und here I be. My Spanish is Caribbean Zone (Puerto Rico), but in this context, these kinds of endearments and epithets are generally universal. I agree with @AbyssalJoey about chula, mami, mamacita and linda. From a stranger, these are somewhat lurid and lewd. There are cultural elements in play that make them feel slimy in this context. Mija, which is a truncated form of mi hija, is as universal as it gets in these kinds of terms. It's non-committal, doesn't really carry any other subtextual connotation, and it's important to note that my culture is all about the subtextual connotations. It's little more than an acknowledgment of gender. Novia is just a bad translation. As mentioned above, it means either girlfriend or bride-to-be. If you want something a little softer, a little more kid-glove in delivery, then something like cielo or corazón. We use terms like this to invoke the idea that we are treating the person gently, but not in an inappropriate kind of way. I'll have to defer to AbyssalJoey with respect to using güera as an epithet. I know that word and I know it's used to refer to people who are light-skinned, usually blond, the more Northern European-looking of our people, but we don't use that word in Puerto Rico (though, again, we know it), and the equivalent word here, jincha, would never be deployed in that fashion. We just wouldn't use it like that.
i don't have anything to add to the linguistics on the question of stereotyping drug dealers - they can be any race. The wholesalers are usually connected with organised crime but again you get organised criminals of every race in the world one point to be aware of is that your tv star per the other thread isnt going to be scoring on the street in the barrio... there tend to be specific dealers who serve different demographics... so celebrities will buy from a dealer who specialises in celebrities (Nickelback weren't lying when they said 'everybody has a drug dealer on speed dial')... its also not unusual for it to be a colleague who is subsidising his own use by dealing on the side. so in essence while there's no problem with making your dealers Mexican, or connected to the Mexican mafia, be aware that it is unlikely that your celebrity will face to face with them, and if his dealer is mexican he'll be a well presented mexican who can move easily in celebrity circles, not a tattooed thug wearing gang colours
Agreed in full on all counts. And it doesn't take much of an economic lift for the street dealer to disappear from the equation, though Hollywood does love how that trope renders on camera. As an upper-middle class representative, in any of my more youthful experimentations, it came to my house in a respectable car. No street corners, no hand signs, no alarmingly thin sketchy individual. More like some dude named Chad (they were always Chad back then) who looked like the kid who slipped through the cracks in a family that could easily have lived next door to me in my nice neighborhood.
Alright, as far as language goes, I've pretty much decided to keep the gangsters more nondescript. It's either bad Google translations or bothering you lot every two words, if I stay this course. The host sends my main character to go and get the drugs, so he indeed isn't face-to-facing himself. Incidentally, I didn't want a rundown crackhouse, so I already went for a regular sort of house in a regular sort of street.
