Search results for

Arizona cypress can grow 80 feet high, with blue-green to gray-green foliage. These Southwestern conifers are “obligate seeders” – they require fire to reproduce – and changing fire patterns have put them at risk.

The headline of this episode is a well-known word: calcos. To be sure, along the Río Grande, calcos is a general term. Work shoes and dance shoes are considered calcos, but not boots or chanclas. Of course, when you dance in calcos you are actually chancleando, but that’s another episode.

Right now, spring is announcing itself across West Texas in diverse ways.

Órale, this episode’s feature is about a very notorious word in Caló, pinche. It’s very misused, to the point that many people think it’s a curse word, as it’s often used in concert with curse words. Pinche itself isn’t a curse word, however. In both Iberian Romani and Rio Grande Caló, it merely means notorious, well-known, undeniable. When it’s used in conjunction with a curse word, the purpose of pinche is to aggrandize the curse, as in that pinche one-eyed truck wouldn’t start or el pinche show-off is at it again.

Órale, this is the last episode of the series focused on the Iberian Romaní Caló words that also circulate in Rio Grande Caló. And today we've got a surprise: lollipop. Candy on a stick. Everybody who knows Caló knows that’s what it means. But it originally comes from the Romaní specialty of candied apples, ayí poba. Of course, it’s a powerful image that allows for a wide spectrum of metaphors. In Rio Grande Caló it's used to reference everything from a hot love to a false promise—but not likely a candied or sugared apple on a stick.

On Caló this week, the word writer Oscar Rodriguez explores: "Apéate" — get down, get off, get on your feet.You can hear Caló every Tuesday on Marfa…

Órale, the word ‘cóncono’ is the word we're exploring this episode. Cócono means turkey. It’s an onomatopoeia, a word that sounds like the object being…

The Caló expression 'le canta' is this episode’s feature. It comes from the Spanish verb cantar, to sing. In Caló it means to speak strongly or with great intention about something. When somebody la canta to somebody else, it’s usually to mark a boundary or give a warning, as in to say, “pay attention to what I’m saying because what comes next is action.”

Órale, today’s episode is about the word, chisgado, an adjective that describes a bad state of mind or, better yet, being out of one’s proper mind. It…

Today's word of the day is Apañar. It comes from the old Castilian, meaning to cover or hold in your hand. It was brought to the borderlands by Spanish…