Caló (also known as Pachuco) is an argot or slang of Mexican Spanish that originated during the first half of the 20th century in the Southwestern United States. It is the product of zoot-suit pachuco culture that developed in the 1930s and '40s in cities along the US/Mexico border. Origin According to Chicano artist and writer José Antonio Burciaga: He goes on to describe the speech of his father, a native of El Paso, Texas: The Caló of El Paso was probably influenced by the wordplay common to the speech of residents of the Tepito barrio of Mexico City. One such resident was the comic film actor Germán Valdés, a native of Mexico City who grew up in Ciudad Juárez (just across the US-Mexico border from El Paso). His films did much to popularize the language in Mexico and the United States. Development Caló has evolved in every decade since the 1940-1950s. It underwent much change during the Chicano Movement of the 1960s as Chicanos began to enter US universities and become exposed to counterculture and psychedelia. Caló words and expressions became cultural symbols of the Chicano Movement during the 1960s and 1970s, when they were used frequently in literature and poetry. That language was sometimes known as Floricanto. Caló enjoyed mainstream exposure when the character "Cheech", played by Cheech Marin, used Caló in the Cheech and Chong movies of the 1970s. By the 1970s, the term Pachuco was frequently shortened to Chuco. The Pachuco originated from El Paso, which was the root of the city's nickname, "Chuco Town". Pachucos usually dressed in zoot suits with wallet chains, round hats with feathers and were Chicanos. Caló is not to be confused with Spanglish, which is not limited to Mexican Spanish. It is similar to Lunfardo in that it has an eclectic and multilingual vocabulary. Features Caló makes heavy use of code-switching. Caló uses rhyming and, in some cases, a type of rhyming slang similar to Cockney rhyming slang or African American Vernacular English jive. Examples Since Caló is primarily spoken by individuals with varying formal knowledge of Spanish or English, variations occur in words, especially of phonemes pronounced similarly in Spanish: c/s, w/hu/gu, r/d, and b/v. It is common to see the word barrio ("neighborhood") spelled as varrio, vato ("dude") spelled as bato or güero ("blond/white man") spelled as huero or even weddo. Usage The translations should not be taken