The Annotations:
The Annotations:
If you can help improve this in any way, please drop me an email (in English) and I'd be happy to change it - this is just what I was able to cobble together.
| Term | Description | Page # |
|---|---|---|
| Watership Down |
Watership Down is a heroic fantasy novel about a small group of rabbits, written by British author Richard Adams. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership_Down |
51 |
| Coño {Cono} | "Pussy" or "Cunt"; used as a common expletive in Spain and the Carribean, it is the most profane and disrespectful of the many, many Spanish names for the female genitalia. | 53 |
| Helen Keller |
Helen Keller was an American author, political activist and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. The story of how Keller's teacher, Annie Sullivan, broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language, allowing the girl to blossom as she learned to communicate, has become known worldwide through the dramatic depictions of the play and film The Miracle Worker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_keller |
53 |
| bruja | "witch" | 53 |
| Hija de Liborio |
Probably referring to Liborio, a Dominican voodoo religious leader said to have performed miracles. http://www.dr1.com/forums/13967-post3.html |
53 |
| Lo siento | Someone writes in: "lo siento means I'm sorry, but literally means 'I feel it,' as in I feel your pain. But it's also what you'd say if you literally felt a thing, such as a lump on a breast. This is a rich double meaning here." | 53 |
| Siouxsie and the Banshees |
Siouxsie & the Banshees were a British gothic/post-punk band which formed in 1976. Siouxsie's distinctive, intense voice and stage presence/persona made her something of a patron saint of female Goths to this day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siouxsie_and_the_Banshees |
54 |
| pastelitos |
In it's Carribean form, a fried dessert-empanada or sweet pie. Imagine a home-made version of a Macdonald's apple pie. http://images.google.com/images?q=pastelitos |
54 |
| making her coffee in la grecca |
A grecca or greca is a type of coffee pot, specifically an aluminum stovetop Italian- style espresso jug found in practically all Dominican kitchens http://www.dr1.com/articles/coffee_1.shtml Link to a photo |
54 |
| fea | ugly | 54 |
| Que muchacha tan fea | something like "Oh, what an ugly girl" | 54 |
| chanclas | flip-flops | 54 |
| correa | belt | 54 |
| bata | bathrobe | 55 |
| Big Blue Marble |
Big Blue Marble was a half-hour children's television series that ran from 1974-1983 in syndication. Distinctive content included stories about children around the world and a pen-pal club that encouraged inter-cultural communication. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Blue_Marble |
55 |
| morenas |
Literally, "moor-ish" or "moor-colored"; in Iberia, this refers to brunettes which may or may not have some portion of Arabic blood; in the Carribean, this refers more to skin than to hair, and to aboriginal (or in some cases, African) racial admixture more than to Arabic. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Morena |
56 |
| Bear Mountain | probably http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Mountain_(New_York) | 57 |
| The Sound of Music |
Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music is a 1965 musical film starring Julie Andrews in the lead role. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_of_Music_(film) |
57 |
| The Incredible Journey |
The story of three pets, a cat and two dogs, who lose their owners when they are all on vacation. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057180/ |
57 |
| My Side of the Mountain |
My Side of the Mountain is a 1959 book by Jean Craighead George about a boy who learns about nature and himself. The book won the Newbery Honor Award[1] and was loosely adapted into a movie in 1969. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Side_of_the_Mountain |
57 |
| Bon Jovi's "Runaway" | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_(Bon_Jovi_song) | 57 |
| una pendeja |
something like "idiot" or "asshole" http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pendeja |
59 |
| Figurín de mierda {Figurin de mierda} | something like "piece of shit" or "fucking phony". | 60 |
| Smiths |
The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smiths |
60 |
| Sisters of Mercy |
The Sisters of Mercy are an English rock band that formed in 1980. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sisters_of_Mercy |
60 |
| Aquí yo no quiero maricones {Aqui yo no quiero maricones} | something like "I won't have any fags here [in my house]" | 60 |
| hija de la gran puta | "daughter of the great whore", an expletive kind of like "sonofabitch" | 60 |
| dique |
something like "as if" or "supposedly". Someone writes in: "you could also use 'they say' which is a more literal translation. ('di' - dicen)" http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dique |
1 |
| Un blanquito |
Ok seriously, I think I've gotten more emails about racial terms than anything else in this book. I'm giving up on revising this particular entry, as everyone who writes in has a slightly different take on it, and most are insistent that all others are incorrect. Can we just agree that it's something like "white boy" and move on?
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=blanquito http://www.culturekitchen.com/liza/blog/blanquito_vs_latino_or_the_unbearable_lightness_of_being_alberto_gonzales |
61 |
| Wildwood, New Jersey |
Wildwood is a resort city that is very popular with vacationers and tourists mostly from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware and even nearby parts of Canada during the summer months. Its most notable features are its beach and 1.8-mile boardwalk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildwood,_New_Jersey |
62 |
| The Fountainhead |
The Fountainhead is a 1943 novel by Ayn Rand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead |
62 |
| sancocho |
Sancocho is a traditional soup (more often a starchy, meaty, complex stew) varying widely between Spanish and Latin American regional cuisines. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sancocho |
63 |
| Hija de tu maldita madre | "Daughter of your damn mother" | 63 |
| viejito / viejos |
"old person" http://dictionary.reverso.net/spanish-english/viejito |
64 |
| Encyclopedia Brown |
Leroy "Encyclopedia" Brown is a fictional boy detective, the main character in a long series of children's novels written by Donald J. Sobol since 1963. Only his parents and teachers call him by his given name of Leroy (a name he dislikes); the rest of the neighborhood children refer to him as Encyclopedia because of his intelligence and cleverness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_Brown |
68 |
| Ya te tengo | "I have you now" | 70 |
| Carol Morgan |
Carol Morgan School is a prestigious international school in the city of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Morgan_School |
71 |
| Dominican York |
A Dominican American (also Dominican-York) is any American who has origins in the Dominican Republic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_york |
71 |
| Nueba Yol |
Dominican dialectical pronunciation for "New York" http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie/nueba-yol/ |
72 |
| Tú verás {Tu veras} | "You will see" | 72 |
| la clase alta | "the upper class" | 73 |
| tesoro | "treasure" | 73 |
| culo | "ass" | 73 |
| Malecón {Malecon} |
Something like a pier or boardwalk along the water in Santo Domingo, which has a coastal park; a general term for scenic or park-style waterfronts in the Carribean and parts of South America (Lima and Havana both have famous ones). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malecon http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabykimba/632775241/ |
74 |
| Guapa soy yo | Someone writes in: [Emphatic syntactic inversion] é "[No,] I'm pretty/handsome"—the more quotidian 'guapa' means well-built, sturdy, attractive, as opposed to... | 75 |
| diosa | "goddess", otherworldly, regal. | 75 |
| cabeza dura | "hard headed" | 75 |
| exigente | "demanding" (and now you know what the English word "exigent" means!) | 75 |