PIROPOS AND ATTRACTIVE WOMEN

The piropo was once the order of the day on Spanish streets. As social attitudes have evolved, this type of street compliment has largely faded, or at least become far less publicly acceptable.

As a child, my mother and I would walk to meet my father. On the way, we passed a military barracks where a Spanish GI stood on guard. One day he addressed a piropo to my mother. Small as I was, I turned around and kicked his shin so hard that, startled, he dropped the rifle he was holding. I have never tolerated men harassing women.

Spanish, however, remains lexically inventive when it comes to describing female attractiveness — sometimes playful, sometimes coarse, often revealing of a cultural attitude that blends admiration with objectification.

MUJER atractiva cf. (afines): bollicao, bollo, bomba, bombón, bombonazo, buenorra, como un camión, cañón, cañonazo, chorba, para comérsela, esculpida, estupenda, guaperas, jaca, maciza, monada, monumento, de bandera, negraza, perchas, perita en dulce, sexi, tener un buen polvo, tía buena, que lo tira, tipazo, como un tren, como para parar un tren, de buen ver, virguito, yogurcito, yogurina.