Gringolombia

After arriving at Teatro Universidad de Medellín on Saturday night, I discovered that Gringolombia is not a movie.  It's a Spanish-language two-person play.

While most of the several thousand in the auditorium were laughing, chuckling and occasionally clapping, I had little to no idea what the characters were saying.

It appeared to be a Bizarro World concept of Gringos -- a curiosity for a few minutes, but by half an hour in, I was itching to get out.  And I did.   I took a cab to San Fernando Casino and played blackjack.

This is a caution to Gringos who think their rudimentary Spanish might enable them to enjoy a night at the theatre.  It probably won't.  Have an escape plan ready if you try something like this.

(Art for this obra is available at www.aguiladescalza.com.co .. That is not a recommendation for the play.)

cccmedia in Medellín

Thanks,  you just saved me time and money by not attending.

For me it is difficult to understand a lot of Spanish humor for various reasons - they go too fast, they reference many things with double meanings and they often do not speak clearly.  I notice the same thing in reverse with my colombiana wife - she often just doesn't get spoken humor in English.

Here's a short YouTube video where the two protagonists are promoting Gringolombia.  You can find more by doing a search to get a flavor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMuiWfswjWA

Here's several articles in Spanish reviewing and describing Gringolombia:

http://caracol.com.co/emisora/2017/05/1 … 40878.htmlhttp://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/medell … alza-91746

What they have done in the play is to explore humorously the experiences of Colombians in the US, their life and difficulties, and use them as a basis for comedy - so things are parodied, exaggerated and magnified, often beyond all recognition, to us in the US, anyway.  But apparently it's a big hit.

Here are pages of some jokes in Spanish about Pastusos, which are the Colombian equivalent of "dumb Polak" jokes.  You should be aware that in Colombia and the Spanish world in general, that political correctness does not yet rule to the degree it does in the US - so jokes about anything and anyone, often cruel to our current thinking, are common.  Some of them you may not get, and some you may find just aren't funny - it's not necessarily you, it's the difference in humor.

http://www.chispaisas.info/pastusitos.htmhttp://chistespastusos.blogspot.com/

Here is a YouTube of some pastuso and other jokes, spoken (no video just audio).  Many I do not understand but it is helpful because you can play them over and over.  For instance listen to the joke from about 9:45 to 10:45 illustrating difficulties in communication about the train schedule, and from 44:45 to 46:00 about three soldiers a paisa, a caleño and a pastuso on an intelligence mission:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUqjVviVEA0

When you have gotten to the point where you can joke and understand jokes in Spanish or any foreign language then you have finally arrived.........and can consider yourself bi-lingual........