Ser naco es chido

In Mexico you might see someone wearing a playera (t-shirt) with this image on it.

So what is "naco"?  Urban Dictionary defines naco as:

Naco (fmn. naca) is a pejorative word often used in Mexican Spanish to describe bad-mannered and poorly educated people. A naco is usually associated with lower socio-economic classes, but could also sometimes include the nouveau riche.

 In English you can relate this to being "ghetto", or "poor white trash". More generically, it means you come from the wrong side of the tracks.  The term isn't always used in a negative manner, but you really gotta know when, where, how, and more importantly who you can use it with it.  If you're familiar with the usage of ghetto and poor white trash, you've got a leg up on how the word naco is used and what it represents.  For women, it changes to naca. 

Several definitions for Naco have been posted at Urban Dictionary, it's worthwhile to take the time to read them all.

Now that we've gotten definitions out of the way, what sort of things are considered "naco"?  The video below is going to help us out with that.   Pay close attention, you'll see lots poorly written (mal escrito) signs (letreros) and the classic bathroom graffiti that's really pretty rude but usually makes us laugh anyway.  This footage in this video is from somewhere in Mexico.

I found this video to be pretty entertaining, and is a good test of your Spanish.  Some of the errores (mistakes) in the signs can be a bit tricky to figure out.  It took me a minute on some of them.  But then again, I also had help from my maestra.

Enough talk, here's the video.

Why don't you leave a comment about your favorite letrero in the video?  If there was something you didn't understand, leave a comment and maybe I can help you out.

I almost forgot.  We still need to translate our phrase.

Ser naco es chido
It's cool to be ghetto

You can't talk about being naco without talking about being a fresa, but in this entrada (post), I'm only going to cover naco.  In another post we'll find out what "fresa" is and step a little deeper into the culture of  "naco vs fresa".

Amar Te Duele is a decent movie that place in Mexico and is the classic love story between  two teenagers from different worlds, naco and fresa. Sort of a modern day Romeo and Juilet story.

I hope you enjoyed the video, I got qute a few laughs myself.

Hasta la próxima.