palabras CINDY CASARES

Guanabee editor Cindy Casares grew up across the border from Mexico where rich Mexicans came over to shop, vacation, and even avail themselves of the private schooling. These people were not so affectionately termed, “fresas.” Recently she learned that in Argentina such people are known as chetos. And in Spain they’re called pijos. She decided to look a little further into the world of the Latin upper classes to break down this fascinating species.

Growing up in Brownsville, Texas, fresas were a part of my everyday existence. Some went to my high school. Most went to the private schools across town. They drove their own luxury cars, like BMW’s, Porsches, or the ever-popular Mexican favorite—the Volkswagen Jetta, by the time they were in junior high. They refused to speak English and basically kept our local malls afloat with their daddy’s platinum cards. And, oh yeah, they looked down on pochos like me.

Back then, most fresas were easily identified by their fair skin, their loafers, and their sense of entitlement. (See Timbiriche at bottom—a fresa band of kids from the 80’s whose asses you’d totally kick if they walked into your favorite bar. At top-Timbiriche a couple of years later, after pumping some iron and frizzing out their hair.)

Often fresas I grew up around had family in Monterrey or Mexico City or they had bumper stickers on their cars that said, “Yo ♥ DF,” (“I love the Federal District” i.e. Mexico City), so that everyone would think they were from there. Being on the border, the fresas I grew up around often had dads in the “import/export” business, if you catch my drift. (And if you don’t, I mean they had ties to the drug-running Mexican mafia.) Despite my outward disdain for these kids, secretly they always fascinated me. Now that I live in New York, I have a chance to learn about Latin culture from all over the world. Turns out fresas are everywhere. But just what makes one?

Mexico: The Fresa

When non Spanish-speaking friends ask me to translate the slang use of the word fresa into English, (the literal meaning of the word being “strawberry”), it’s always difficult to say. Usually I boil it down to three words: rich, Mexican preppy. But by preppy, I don’t mean simply that they dress like one. I mean, they come from old money with conservative leanings. At least originally. Says Wikipedia:

The term fresa (then often likened to the “preppy” stereotype), was born in the 60’s to define teenagers with a conservative mentality, who didn’t drink and enjoyed being from traditional families. During the 80’s the meaning changed and became a term to describe the lifestyles of the young and rich.

Like a preppy, a fresa may or may not be a vapid asshole, but for those who are not a part of the power structure, the tendency seems to be to assume that they are. As for the old money part of the equation, nowadays that seems to be up for debate too:

Initially, only those with typically Spanish or European looks and belonging to the middle or upper classes could be called “fresa.” However, despite popular belief, a fresa can be working class or even poor- it’s how they talk and act that earns them the “fresa” label.

Like the American Valley Girl, fresas have practically coined their own language, inventing terms like “naco” to describe the uncultured Mexican poor. (The ongoing hatred between fresas and nacos is the subject of hundreds of online parody videos and a documentary.) And appropriating their own version of Spanglish where Spanish is peppered with English.

Other words used to describe fresas are “los hijitos de papá” “los alzaditos”, “los muy-muy” and “los juniors,” but what does the rest of the world call their young socialites?

Argentina: The Cheto

In Argentina, spoiled, rich kids are known as chetos which is short for concheto. Concheto is a euphemism in Argentina and Spain for the female genitalia. And so we begin to see a feminine theme developing to describe the more pampered of Latin society.

Like their fresa counterparts, chetos are obsessed with shopping and labels. But, chetos seem to be less about classic style and more about hipness. So it follows that chetos are broken into further sub-cheto groups based on the music they listen to. The vast majority of which is something called “Punchi,” an electronic dance music where the vocals are computerized.

The second most popular music genre for chetos is the more traditional cumbia. A cumbia-loving cheto seems to be the Argentinian equivalent of an upper class white kid in the States who is obsessed with gangster rap.

A smaller portion of chetos like either rock or emo music and are just as hated as their emo/rock loving cousins in this country.

Like fresas, chetos have a working class arch nemesis in another Argentinean subculture called the negro cabezas. Like the Mexican “naco,” “negro cabeza” is a term as offensive as the American “white trash” which is often appropriated by rebellious lower classes who wish to distinguish themselves from the Bourgeois. When reading a definition of either cheto or negro cabeza, the other is always mentioned, almost as if one cannot exist without the other. Without the dark there is no light, so to speak.

So we see striking similarities between Argentina and Mexico, but is this trend purely one of the Americas? It turns out, no. Spain has it’s own version of the rich, spoiled brat.

Spain: The Pijo

Curiously enough, Frikipedia tells us that pijo is the sex organ of the cock. Which raises the question, are pijos more macho than chetos? Seemingly, no. Once again, the pijo is known mainly for his obsession with labels, hip technology & his obnoxious overuse of the words “o sea” which we saw earlier in the fresa video. “O sea” translates in English to “in other words”— kind of like the American youth obsession with the word, “like.” In addition to the “o sea” similarity, there is once again the affected accent, the refusal to pronounce certain letters correctly or at all, and the love of shitty music.

Through all my research, what I began to realize is that all of these groups are simply the same phenomenon of Bourgeois youth culture found all over the world. And seemingly every country has their version. (Click the map below of rich kids around the world to enlarge.) In England, they’re called Sloan Rangers. In Italy, they’re called truzzi. Cheto is also used in Paraguay and Uruguay. In Colombia they’re called gomelos. In Chile they’re called los cuicos. In Perú they’re pitucos. In Venezuela sifrinos. In the Dominican Republic, they’re called yeyés. In Panama prepis, in Ecuador aniñados or pelucones and in Costa Rica, my personal favorite, los pipis. If I missed one, feel free to call it out in the comments.

While historically in this country the East Coast preppy and West Coast Valley Girl have filled that role, today I would venture to say that the reviled hipster is the new millennium version of those same creatures. After all, the true, hardcore hipster always comes from an upper class, white bread background without which he wouldn’t be able to afford the snooty liberal arts college of his choice and the post-college “artist” lifestyle he affects in such high rent neighborhoods as Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and Silverlake in Los Angeles.

As the economic power in America continues to shift to a smaller and smaller group of people, while mainstream culture turns more and more Latin due to a seemingly endless supply of immigrants from down south, will we begin to see a more fresa/cheto/picho-like culture emerge here? Only time will tell.

Originally appeared on guanabee.com