El Libro de Calo - The Dictionary of Chicano Slang. Revised Edition (Paperback, Revised ed.)

When the first edition of El Libro de Cals: Pachuco Slang Dictionary appeared in 1983, it was critically acclaimed as a much needed guide to a little-understood living dialect spoken predominantly by Mexican American teenagers whose dress, speech, low-rider cars, and attitudes set them off from those around them. Cals is popularly regarded as a bastard dialect, neither Spanish nor English. Linguistically, these notions are ill-founded; Cals has as much validity and expressive potential as any other dialect. That it is used by a group of people who exist at the edges of mainstream culture, however, has brought it into disrepute, and not many studies of Cals have been carried out with the thoroughness of this work. Now, building on that first landmark study, the authors have produced an expanded, revised edition. Based primarily on data gathered in the San Diego/Tijuana and Calexico/Mexicali areas, this edition incorporates terms from Texas, New Mexico and other areas of the Southwest as well. In an easy-to-use format designed to appeal to the native English-speaker, El Libro de Cals: The Chicano Slang Dictionary provides a unique and fascinating view of one aspect of our border culture. "As an anthropological record of a little-studied people, this work will have ... permanent value. Recommended for public and academic libraries in California and the Southwest..." CHOICE, May 1984 (about El Libro de Cals: Pachuco Slang Dictionary)