Piropo

Pi-ro-po \pi-‘ro-po\n. pl-pos [Sp. Piropear]1. An amorous compliment 2: A flirtatious remark.

There are those words that are very hard to translate without them losing all of the impact and significance they have in it's original language. Piropo is one of them. In Latin culture there is a very common practice among men to compliment women with smart little poem like phrases. Women ( and gay men also) usually act nonchalantly towards these comments because it is the right way to react ( well bred people) but in most cases they just love it.

In American culture the closest thing we could find that has a similar appeal is the pick up line. Although the pick up line, as the name implies, has a defined purpose; the piropo does not. In context the piropo is just meant as a token of admiration of the beauty or sexiness of the "victim" and usually it is done in a public environment where there is an increased chance of not seeing the admired person ever again.

The reason for this blog entry is that this week as I was walking down the streets, sunglasses and ipod blasting Chayenne's Salomé and maybe I was sort of walking with the rhythm of the music- well this guy passes by me and says "It should be illegal for something this hot to be out in the streets with this heat wave"... I could only smile and feel refreshed that after all these years of cynicism and aloofness these kind of gestures totally make my day, what the heck it made my year.

With all this culture of sexual harassment and political correctness it bring hope back to life's routine to know that old fashioned courting and spontaneity is still alive ion the XXI century.