La pupusería de la esquina
Friday night in San Salvador: the sound of hands clapping pupusas into shape, revueltas and loroco, curtido in a bowl, two kids arguing over the last piece, and money that arrives every month from Virginia.
Reinforces vocabulary from Salvadoran Spanish: A Survival Guide.
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The Scene
A Friday at the pupusería is Salvadoran Spanish at its most concentrated: chero, revueltas, loroco, horchata, curtido, puchica, maje, cipote, chivo, cabal, remesa, pisto, bayunco and vaya pues — with vos carrying every instruction and tú never appearing at all. Note the remittance from Virginia: a fifth of the country lives abroad, and the money and the vocabulary come home on the same route.
Vocabulary Highlights
- el chero / la chera — the friend-word: chero.
- puchica — the swear word you are allowed to say: puchica.
- maje — mate, or idiot, decided by tone: maje.
- el cipote — the kid: cipote. And bicho does the same job — but not in Puerto Rico.
- chivo — great, cool: chivo.
- cabal — exactly, spot on. Emphatic agreement, shared with Guatemala.
- bayunco — daft, unrefined. Affectionate among friends.
- el pisto / la remesa — money, and the money that arrives from abroad: pisto.
- la pupusa / el curtido / el loroco — the national dish, its pickled cabbage, and the flower bud inside it.
- vaya pues — right then, agreed, see you: vaya pues.
Read the Salvadoran Spanish survival guide for the voseo and the phonology behind all of this, or the El Salvador hub for the country’s full linguistic map.
This scene only scratches the surface — the full chapter is in Daily Life and Culture, part of our Speak Spanish Like a Native book series.