Delicious! I don’t think macho Mexicans care much for political correctness.
New York Times: The Mexican soccer star Javier Hernández, known as Chicharito, has condemned it in a public service announcement. Hashtags have spread to raise awareness of its offensiveness and to try to put an end to it. And after the massacre in an Orlando nightclub popular with gay Latinos, commentators have urged fans to abandon it once and for all.
But still, as is customary when the Mexican national team is playing in an international tournament, it could be heard: the roar of “Eeeh … puto!” by Mexican fans trying to distract the opposing goalkeeper punting the ball upfield.
“Puto,” roughly translated as “male prostitute,” is a slur often hurled at gay men in Mexico, but fans who chant it say they use it out of the more generalized meaning of “coward” (or, in the adjective form, simply an unpleasant thing).
On Monday, two days after a gunman killed 49 people in Orlando, Fla., including at least four Mexican nationals, the chant could be heard during Mexico’s match against Venezuela in Houston during the Copa América regional tournament, being held in the United States for the first time.
Some people even believe they heard it chanted with a little more gusto, as if in defiance over the criticism of the term.
Mexico’s national team was fined $20,700 in January by FIFA, the world soccer body, over fans’ use of the chant in a World Cup qualifying game against El Salvador in November. In theory, FIFA could move to take away points in the World Cup standings, which could derail the team’s advancement to the 2018 finals.
On Thursday, without mentioning Mexico, Concacaf, the governing body for soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean, issued a statement denouncing “chants or actions that are derogatory or offensive” and said that “they must be stopped.” It did not mention what action, if any, it would take.
Mexico next plays on Saturday night in a Copa América quarterfinal match against Chile at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.
In Mexico, the chant is largely seen as much ado about nothing, and penalizing the team over it a sign of political correctness.
Luis Fernando Lara, the editor of the Diccionario del español de Mexico (Dictionary of Mexican Spanish), said in an interview that the word derives from a Latin root that means “child.” In its feminine form, it came to mean “prostitute,” and its male form took that meaning as well, particularly in the gay community. It evolved to mean “coward” or “scaredy-cat.”
In soccer matches, he said, it is intended simply to insult the goalkeeper, not to call him gay.
