Chango / changa
Lad and lass — the everyday Bolivian word for anyone young, and a homonym of "changa", a bit of casual work.
Related lesson: Bolivian Spanish: A Survival Guide.
Hear it in context
Ese chango juega bien al fútbol.
That lad plays football well.
Cuando era changuita vivíamos en Oruro.
When I was a little girl we lived in Oruro.
Los changos ya salieron del colegio.
The kids are already out of school.
What It Actually Means
A chango is a boy or a young man, a changa a girl or a young woman, and changuito / changuita the affectionate small version. The word covers roughly toddler-with-opinions to early twenties — above wawa, which is strictly a baby, and below the point where anyone would take offence at being called one. Bolivia shares it with the Argentine northwest: Salta, Jujuy and Tucumán say chango in exactly this sense.
Where It Comes From
Genuinely disputed, and worth saying so rather than picking one. The most repeated account derives it from muchacho by way of a form muchango — with the -ango ending seen in charango and tango — then clipped at the front to chango. Others reach for a Quechua root instead. Neither has been settled, and the Mexican chango meaning “monkey” is a separate story that only muddies this one.
How Natives Use It
Constantly, warmly, and everywhere in the highlands and valleys — Cochabamba especially, where changos is simply what your friends are. Parents use it about their own children well past childhood; adults use it about the young in general, with a faint note of “kids these days” that never quite hardens into complaint.
Common Pitfall
Watch the homonym. Across Bolivia and the Southern Cone una changa is also a casual job or a bit of odd work — hacer changas, changuear, changuero — so the same syllables cover a young woman and a day’s labour, separated only by context. (For work in the ordinary sense, most of the Andes reaches for chamba.) And keep it away from Mexican ears: there, mi changuita does not mean what you intend.