Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/217

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
THE MEXICANS IN THEIR HOMES.
211

press this without uttering a word. "One little moment!" Everybody uses it.

One Little Moment.
One Little Moment.

No. 2. ''El no quere gastar dinero" ("He owes money but is very stingy, and from not using it to get the money, out of his pocket, his arm has grown too stiff to reach into his pocket for the money, consequently he is unable to pay his debts").

Too stingy to pay his debts
Too stingy to pay his debts


No. 3. "Muy buen violinista" literally means one who plays well on the violin, but in this instance he plays, instead, on the credulity and

He plays on the credulty of his friends
He plays on the credulty of his friends

verdancy of his friends. He plays off on them by inviting himself to dine with them, having little or nothing to eat at home, thus supporting himself on their involuntary hospitality.

No. 4. "Tiene bastante dinero" ("He or she has plenty of money").

He or She is pretty rich
He or She is pretty rich

No. 5. "Muy criticolo" ("It is quite doubtful in my mind"). I have seen three persons in conversation, one being engaged in relating some circumstance or event, the other two paying marked attention. When at length the narrator made a digression from facts, or added a few embellishing touches, one of the listeners, without speaking a word, but throwing a world of expression into her eyes, tossed her head to one side, and at the same time planting the forefinger of the right hand on the temple, the little boring process is gone through, and the unspoken language