Vos

I studied Spanish for a couple of years in high school; lately I’ve been studying a grammar text and listening to podcasts aimed at teaching Spanish. All of them say that there are two translations of the word “you”: usted and tú. Why do none of them mention “vos,” the familiar you used in much of Latin America? I asked Pablo about vos today, and he explained as follows: People use usted with their parents or other people much older than they, or in very formal situations (ok, I knew that). Chicas use tú with each other, and chicos use tú when talking to chicas. Chicos, when talking to each other, always use vos; in Guatemala, the only time two chicos would use tú with each other is if they’re gay. Wow! All these years, textbooks and teachers have been teaching me how to talk gay! (Apparently this is the case only in Guatemala.)

Pablo was very matter of fact in the way he told me this, and didn’t seem to be making any judgments about the gays. He’s an educated guy, with clearly lefty politics (today he was wearing a shirt that said “revolucion” in big letters, and spoke with some pride of his public university’s reputation for producing revolutionaries). And yet I didn’t feel comfortable saying, “I’m gay!” Maybe he’s figured it out already (we’ve already covered the fact that I’m still soltero, and I’m clearly older than him). Or maybe he hasn’t, and if he knew, he’d totally freak out. I’m not ready to find out yet. I’m enjoying our conversations every morning, and don’t want to risk ruining them, even though it means retreating to the closet for a couple of weeks. Perhaps I’ll find a way to work it into conversation during the last couple of days, and see how he reacts. Meanwhile, he says it’s fine for teachers and students to use tú with each other, even if we’re both guys, but he was very impressed when I threw in a vos later in the conversation.