¨Que fue, gorda¨...

I remember the first time I heard it. I´m sitting at the dinner table with my host family in Argentina. My host mom puts the plate down in front of me, the portion of food equal to that of my host fathers. ¨Coma mi gordita¨ she says, ever so sweetly. At that moment I suddenly lost my appetite. Tears started to gather in my eyes as I thought to my self...¨did she just call me one of the items off of the Taco Bell menu?¨

It didn´t take me long to figure out that ¨gorda¨ (fat girl) or ¨gordita¨ (little fat girl) are never meant to be offensive, but rather, sweet and caring nicknames used frequently between friends in Latin America. I still wonder what it is about the culture that allows people to speak so casually about ones appearance. And, why we in the states avoid the subject at all costs. Just imagine yourself for a minute, greeting your best friends with:

¨What´s happening skinny!¨ or ¨How´s life fatso?¨

Not only that, but in every conversation there is a reference to your weight. When I was deathly ill with GI problems on a regular basis, I would hear:

¨Wow look at you, you´re thinner. When you first got here you were huge.¨ Or, one of my favorites which came from one of my girls at the Hogar, ¨You´re stomach is smaller, but your butt is still giant. Why is your butt giant?¨

I can honestly say it usually doesn’t offend me anymore. I only say usually because one night I came home after drinking a healthy amount of tequila. Maria Dolores friend was there and said to me, ¨You know, you´re fatter now. Before you were skinnier.¨ Now let me just say, this women is by no means thin. She could stand to loose about 40 pounds. In my drunken frustration I looked at her and said…¨You should talk fatty. And you wanna know WHY I´m fatter….because I finally don´t have diarrhea every other day!¨ Thankfully, I didn´t offend her.

But really, I have gotten used to it. And it´s not just those two words. In Spanish you can add ¨ita/ito¨ to the end of the word as a diminutive. For example, ¨Hola mi niñita chiquitita lindita¨ (Hi my little tiny itty bitty pretty girl!). You can also however, add ¨ota/ote¨ to the end of the word to enhance the size. When I go to the pool with Javier, he will often say…¨Que piernotas grandotas.¨ (What gigantic legs you have). Of course that´s nothing compared to Javier´s main nickname for me...¨Mamut¨

Mamut means Mammoth.

Even now there are times I wish I had been raised as a native Spanish speaker. Then I might be able to truly understand the meaning behind these comments. I might even find them sweet and flattering. Instead, I will always hear the literal translation…¨What´s up fatty¨. And you know, for a long time I thought I wouldn’t miss the weight references one little bit when I go home. But then again, at least in this culture there is no room for you to have unrealistic ideas about the way you look. If you´re fat, people will tell you. And in my case that´s a good motivation to keep working out. Of course it´s not like that would matter. I will always be a Mamut.