(Photo opposite: Chabacanos) My two favorite words for describing people in Panamanian Spanish are Chabacano and Racataca. Both words are used in Panamanian slang. Panamanian Spanish is filled with all kinds of slang words. In fact, of all the Spanish I’ve heard Panamanian Spanish uses more slang than any other Spanish. But of all the slang words Chabacano and Racataca are my favorites.

Chabacano

My next door neighbors are what you would call Chabacanos. The word Chabacano in Panamanian Spanish literally means someone who behaves very primitively. A Chabacano has a Stone Age mentality, but lives in the modern world; a Chabacano behaves in ways that humans normally don’t behave. Think of a cave, a club, a fur suit, knuckles dragging on the ground and with a very bad disposition and you get an idea of what a Chabacano looks and feels like. During the day a Chabacano will only grunt at you or give very simple answers to your questions. They are normally in a very bad mood. But at night, when they begin drinking, a Chabacano will change his/her mood and become very loud. And Chabacanos normally drink late at night. Say midnight until 6 or 7 in the morning. Through the early morning as you lay in bed you can hear Chabacanos screaming and yelling at one another at the top of their lungs. They yell at one another in growls and screams, not words. They get completely drunk and start dancing and screaming at one another. They play their music as loud as it will go and walk around their lawn completely drunk and stoned: all the time screaming at the walls of the surrounding houses. Somewhere in the middle of their party spirit they walk over to your yard and scream and yell.

In Panama this is accepted; you can’t call the police, because they won’t come out at that time of night. And hard partying is permitted and encouraged in Panama; you can’t tell people to stop having fun just because it’s 4 in the morning. Anyway, eventually, Chabacanos will crash sometime after the sun has come up. And then sometime around one or two or three in the afternoon you will see Chabacanos walking around their property, hung-over, drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette. Saying little and doing next to nothing.

Racataca

(Image opposite: Racataca) Now a Racataca is something all together different from a Chabacano. A Racataca is always a woman. The first thing to remember about a Racataca is that she has no problem with people thinking the worst of her. In fact, she will wear her bad reputation like a badge of honor. Her bad reputation comes from her desire to offend and her desire to be as trashy as possible. Most people in Panama when they hear the word Racataca think of a very trashy girl who will do anything for a buck.

The Racataca will always have some money in her pocket. She will live well, but she will behave as badly as possible to maintain her lifestyle. And the lifestyle is one man to the next. The more men the Racataca can get the better, and the more dishonest and trashy the Racataca the better her reputation will be. Racatacas always pick men who like Racataca women: that’s important because any Racataca in the end will look for $. A Racataca is often running around with tourists. Tourists don’t know anything so the Racataca is free from her bad reputation when she runs with a tourist. She will go to the beach with her tourist, to dinner, a hotel and breakfast. Her tourist will sometimes send money from his home country to keep his Racataca contact.

There used to be a beauty contest in Panama where the Racataca queen was chosen. To win the contest the beauty queen had to be raunchy, rude and most importantly very loud. Loud is very important to being a real Racataca.

Chabacanos and Racatacas come and go. Racatacas get old and Chabacanos get sick. But there are always up and coming Racatacas and Chapacanos in the Panamanian firmament.

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