\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t forget \u00e2\u20ac\u02dctruchas,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Joseph P. Santillanes yelled at me as I parked on Douglas and he crossed the street.<\/p>\n
Was the personable candidate for San Miguel County Sheriff inviting me to have trout with him at Charlie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Restaurant or at Dick\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s?<\/p>\n
Hardly. Santillanes was reminding me that in my frequent attacks in my columns on words we use around here I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d omitted \u00e2\u20ac\u0153truchas.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you write about truchas?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he asked.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true: I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve written entire columns on words like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153so,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153whatever\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sapo\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but never \u00e2\u20ac\u0153truchas.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Let me explain:<\/p>\n
That expression I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard since I was a child. Usually the full text is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pontetruchas,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which roughly translates to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153be on the alert.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like what Zeus said to Narcissus: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153watch yourself.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But the contexts in which I hear the expression usually deal with mischief.<\/p>\n
To someone unfamiliar with barrio-speak, or using a translating dictionary, the literal rendering of the expression might be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153put on a trout.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sorry, in northern New Mexico, we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do that. Yes, we might put on the dog (or in this small berg, put on the puppy) or even put on airs, but not fish.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ponte truchas\u00e2\u20ac\u009d would never qualify as a warning to a night watchman whose supervisor tells him to be on the lookout for thieves. Instead, thieves would be the ones warned to look out for night watchpersons.<\/p>\n
The expression generally comes as a companion to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get caught.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d So a cell phone-toting kid surreptitiously texting answers to a buddy is the kind of person for whom the truchas-clause is intended. Or someone sipping beer while driving might also hear the truchas warning.<\/p>\n
But why truchas \u00e2\u20ac\u201d of all words \u00e2\u20ac\u201d to convey the meaning of being cautious? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably the northern New Mexico equivalent of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Cheese-it, the cops!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a term we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard in every black-and-white movie of the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc50s, or read in comic books. There, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s usually some ghetto kids swiping apples from a green grocer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cart who must cheese-it.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Cheese-it\u00e2\u20ac\u009d might be a variation of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cease it\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but more likely a P.C. way of rendering \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jesus\u00e2\u20ac\u009d without seeming profane. It appears in O Henry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s The Voice of the City, published in 1908 but has even earlier citations.<\/p>\n
But back to our Lenten staple: fish.<\/p>\n
A good source for this kind of ethnic curiosity is in Ruben Cobos\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In addition to the definition as rainbow trout, Cobos\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dictionary refers to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pontetruchas\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as a slang expression \u00e2\u20ac\u0153to be on the lookout.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Cobos defines the term but doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t explain why it means that.We can accept Cobos\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 expression \u00e2\u20ac\u0153just because an expert said so.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doubtful there is anything peculiar to a silly little trout that hints at \u00e2\u20ac\u0153caution.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true that many breeds of fish outsmart fishers by failing to fall for the worm trick at the end of the hook. But why would a trout be noted for its eel-ishness more than any other fish?<\/p>\n
I asked people about the expression, most of whom agree they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard the expression only in the southwest, more particularly in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. And they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard and perhaps even used the term all their lives.<\/p>\n
Sam Vigil posits that truchas concerns both the alertness of the fish and of the fisherperson. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A slight tug on your line,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Vigil says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t guarantee that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve landed a fish.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Similarly, to avoid getting snared, the fish needs to be vigilant as well.<\/p>\n
And my friend James Sandoval, who admittedly would rather be fishing than doing anything else, says the truchas warning applies also to the caution people employ when running a chainsaw, for example. Like Vigil, Sandoval says he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heard the expression all his life, but only in this area. And he adds that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153trout are wary; if they see you, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not gonna bite.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Max and Bertha Jimenez, quite familiar with the expression, say it might have originated with the Pachucos of the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc50s. Ever hear of a Pachuco? They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the ones who wore slicked-back \u00e2\u20ac\u0153D.A.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d hairdos, taps on their shoes and who enriched our language with words like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153jefito\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for father, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bacha\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for cigarette butt and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ramfla\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for car. But more on that in a later column.<\/p>\n
Na\u00c3\u00afve one that I am, Moby Dick himself could be swimming in Lake Storrie without my being able to identify it. Yes, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m able to distinguish subtle differences among varieties of fish on my plate, but not on the hook.<\/p>\n
I naturally assumed that trout was about the only fish caught in this area. Not so, says Sandoval, who has caught carp, walleye, pike, catfish and others.<\/p>\n
Is there, then, any always-on-the-alert characteristic to the trout that earns it the distinction of qualifying for the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ponte Truchas\u00e2\u20ac\u009d award?<\/p>\n
Pike, even tastier than trout, for example, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get uttered in warnings to be on the alert. Catfish, also available in this region, is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bagre\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in Spanish; perch is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153perca\u00e2\u20ac\u009d; flounder is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153platija.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Would \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ponte platija, ese\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ever fly? How about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pontebagre\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? Nah, somehow they just lack the flair of truchas.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
As for the above-mentioned race for sheriff, Santillanes has plenty of company on the ballot: incumbent Benjie Vigil, Ben J. Lujan, Roy Pacheco and Clarence Romero.<\/p>\n
Regardless of who gets elected, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re sure all of the candidates are familiar with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153truchas\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and we promise they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll come across the term many more times \u00e2\u20ac\u201d probably even on their first night on duty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t forget \u00e2\u20ac\u02dctruchas,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Joseph P. Santillanes yelled at me as I parked on Douglas and he crossed the street. Was the personable candidate for San Miguel County Sheriff inviting me to have trout with him at Charlie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Restaurant or at Dick\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s? Hardly. Santillanes was reminding me that in my frequent attacks in my columns on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":573,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571\/revisions\/573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}