When am with my family or friends a word that you hear a lot in our conversation is BOBO. This word has become so important to me because throughout time it has been a way of saying multiple things in one single word. Over time I have not changed my perspective about this word each day I like it even more. For example ay un bobote this means there is a big problem. This word so important to me and my community because we used this world to express how we feel about something that is big but with the word we can express it more calmly. From the most lower-class community to the highest-class community the word BOBO has become a lot more familiar. Is very common for us to say ay puse un huevo que BOBO.(I put an egg) BOBO is a way to explain that I did a mistake without having to say what it is, I can just be like ay un BOBO. For example with all this quarantine thing we can be at a party and if the police arrive that’s a BOBO. This is a perfect example because it tells how we in trouble and we gonna sleep at the prison but you can just be like ay que BOBO. Sometimes it just feels cools to say the word BOBO especially when you don’t know what it means but when you have an explanation by someone who knows the word BOBO there is when the community starts growing.
Sometimes people who are not part of this discourse community try to do the same but it just doesn’t work because we are so used to saying it that it comes out naturally. However, when the word is in people mouth that don’t even know how to speak Spanish is good cuz they try saying it and is a new word for there vocabulary. This world is not in the dictionary which means that not a lot of people can say this world. However, when you hear this word on a group of people you can tell they Dominican without even having to say where they from. Even though some people be ignorant of this word. Just because they believe that if the word BOBO is not on the dictionary they are just talking nonsense.
A few months back I was in the Dominican Republic with friends families and more people out in the streets. Everyone was happy like any other day in the Dominican community. Until a Dominican artist pops out with a son called Los BOBO son Mio. This was a very interesting song that got everyone’s attention no matter if you were young are old. I got so into this word that I came back to the united state and everything I would say is BOBO. This got to a point that I was saying it so much at my working place and home that people that didn’t know about it started saying BOBO. When I got back I remember saying to my grandma mama ay un BOBO and she already knew something was wrong because this word means a problem. I got used to saying this so so so much that my family instead of calling my name now they call me BOBO better. Some people don’t like when I say this word however some people take it as something dramatic or a way to overreact to something. In my opinion, at this point, every single Latino person should know this word because is very common to know and since the word originally came from a song is a lot easier for a person to learn it. People in general who do not knows the word shouldn’t say is a bad word if you don’t know it as a human been you should always be open to learned new things that would help you to always have your vocabulary full.
If I could publish my article it would be at the New York Times since is one of the biggest company but since I don’t like reading and a lot of people besides me also hates reading. Therefore I would also do a mini-documentary with graphics or people talking that would give you a better understanding. Is very important to get people’s attention so if I can find a better way that I can convey to my audience what they wanna know is very important to me as a writer. The word BOBO each day has become more popular my question is why should we stop using it if the word is clean. And it doesn’t mean anything wrong. This word will forever be a word that was added to our Vocabulary and would never leave our minds. We don’t use this word to curse someone out or say something bad like some people might understand.
Carlos, no– this is not wrong!
One thing is, I’m not quite sure what “bobo” means. I mean, I don’t think I need to know exactly, but I think you could make it a bit more clear. I think you could think about what we talked about regarding paragraphs in class. That is, I would go through this and think, what are the main points you want to make about this word? One paragraph could be saying that a bobo is a way of saying you made a mistake without saying what that mistake is (then follow up with illustrations and explanations). Another paragraph could be about how the word means more than that– knowing how to use it right means you’re a real Dominican– like in the song you mention (you can also bring up other illustrations and explanations). And you could have another paragraph about what the word means to YOU as a Dominican– how you used it like crazy after you came back from the DR. If you’re running out of things to write about, I might focus on your relationship to Dominican slang and culture and why it’s important to you.
I’m unclear as to why it’s a swear word. What does it originally mean? This could be another paragraph.
Also, you don’t need to capitalize it. You could italicize it (which is what is often done with words that are in a different language). I would also cut out that last paragraph. You can write this like it is the article that will BE published in the NYT.
This is 200 words short, so I can’t give you a grade on it.
Thank for the feed back is very helpful now I have a better understanding on what to do.