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“It was [an] illimitable expanse of desert prairie... a region almost as trackless as the ocean,” wrote General Randolph Marcy in 1852, in one of the…

The ancient Southwest was a place of tremendous diversity. Among the deserts, high plateaus and wooded canyons, cultures grew and flourished, influencing…

It's a life-giving stream in a desert land, that for millennia has sustained human communities and creatures found nowhere else on Earth. The deep canyons…

They form a sophisticated society, with intricate communication. Prairie dogs are remarkable for their intelligence and sociability. And they're a…

Órale, in this episode of Caló, we’re going to retell the story of how the local folks came to adopt a new landmark; namely, the profile of Lincoln, which you can see announced on a road sign on the way to OJ. The sign indicating it was there seemed to pop up one day. People passing by noticed it right away, but it took some time for it to sink in. It was as if the mountain changed overnight, one day just another mountain indistinguishable from the others surrounding it and the next day a new remarkable look. Qué onda?

Órale, the word for this episode is cantar. In proper Spanish, it means to sing. In Caló, it means to either speak truth to power, declare a deep feeling, or denounce someone in public. Depending on the circumstances, however, it can also mean to snitch or rat somebody out, as in the English slang expression, sing like a bird. Clearly in the first nuance, to cantar is an act of power or defiance. In the second, it is an act of weakness or fear. Either way, what’s invoked is a cut from an opera, where the hero le canta to the villain and the villain le canta to the hero’s enemies.

Órale, the feature this week is the word sobres. It comes from the Spanish word, sobre, which means above or hovering. In Caló, it means to be attentive of or focused on someone or something. When you’re courting, you are sobres, attuned to the needs and desires of the person you’re pursuing. Of course, you can also overdo it and be so sobres that what you’re really doing is stalking. In either case, it can be said you’re sobres only if it shows. Somebody who’s sobres manifests their intentions. Otherwise they’re just being chiflado (presumptuous), but that’s for another episode.

Archeologists have identified numerous “shrine caves,” ancient pilgrimage places, where ceremonies were conducted and offerings made.

Órale, the featured word of this episode of Caló is vide. It’s old Castilian for “I saw you (or it).” In modern Spanish, the term that’s used is simply vi. In Caló, vide solves the problem of having to decide to speak in the formal or familiar at the same time it allows you to make clear who or what it was you saw. In other words, vide says it’s not that you could see, but that you for sure vide the person or thing you’re talking about.

Órale, the featured word of this episode is levantar. It’s a verb in modern Spanish that means to pick up. In Caló, it means pick up the pace or attract sexual attention, male or female. The general image behind both is the picking up of feet. A comparable expression in English is a “pick up.” A fifty-something prances through a dance hall and turns heads, and people will say she or he still las levanta. They’ll say this because they can both pick up their feet and people are attracted to them.