¿WTF?

Mexicans are not exactly known for mincing their words… swearing, it is said, an average of 20 times a day.  Nor is Mexican media known to deny the fact.  When Emilio Gonzáles Márquez said that those opposing some policy of his to go fuck themselves, and added that his opponents could fuck their mother, his words made headlines in the national papers, and were reported on television.

Of course, the swearing (and the reportage on swearing) was in Spanish.  Apparently, ENGLISH swearwords, however, require a different approach.  An EFE wire story out of Miami in yesterday’s Milenio reports on a U.S. Federal Communications Commission ruling that prevents media broadcast of a recent Enrique Iglesias song in English that perhaps states rather baldly the what is normally expressed through metaphor in popular music… being entitled (and including the lyrics), “I want to fuck you tonight”.  Weird to read in a Mexican newspaper about such an ruling — weirder still to read about it in Spanish, as “una palabra obscena en inglés, la cual empieza con ‘f’” (an obscene word in English, that begins with “f”).

While, of course, Milenio readers wouldn’t necessarily have enough English to figure out what the obscene word beginning with “f” might be, it helpfully posts the video of the song with the English word beginning with “f” in the title… and the lyrics.  I guess it’s educational outreach… or something.

For which, in Spanish, there are a couple of possible responses:

¡Qué putas pasa! ¡or, ¡Qué carajo!  … or “¡Que coño!… or … if one is Peruvian, “¿Qué mierda pasó?