Folk Speech – Cuban

Nationality: Cuban, Mexican
Age: 21
Residence: California
Performance Date: April 2008
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Folk Speech

Me cago en dies

I shit on ten

I don’t care what anybody thinks

Analysis

Chris heard this curse when his parents finally let him hear them swear, possibly around the age of ten.  This Cuban folk speech is said by everyone but more so with adults than little kids. It is actually very common in conversation.  When one is told to be careful and he or she does not think they need to be, they can reply, “I’ll take a shit on what ten of you think, I don’t care!” The person could not care less about the given precautions and will do it anyways.  It is also used as a way of expressing frustration, translating to the effect of  “Shit!” in English.  It is considered somewhat vulgar and not said too loud in public areas.

From one source on urbandictionary.com, the blogger said this phrase is actually a transformation of the phrase “me cago en Dios”, or “I shit on God”.  It is uncertain whether or not this is justified, but it makes sense.  The Spanish are known as very religious people so insulting God like that is extremely offensive.  This could be reason behind the variation of the speech.  One can also use the phrase quite commonly with other nouns at the end; examples include, “me cago en el amor” (I shit on love) or “me cago en las vanguardias” (I shit on the vanguards).  The actual translation of this speech may not make that much sense to a westerner, but at times Americans read things too literally.