quote:

ORIGINAL: Ricardo

quote:

is this how they talked

If you mean “is this how they WOULD HAVE TALKED, if they were American?”, then the answer is pretty much yes, pisha. There is a lot of that 5th grader humor and slang that adults maintain. I am not sure if you are aware but there are SOME small group of Americans that talk that way as adults. Many of my Latin American friends have trouble translating the Andaluz. Just like Americans can’t understand Brits at times (I always put on subtitles if the movie has thick British accents going on). There is the historic fiction by Paco Sevilla that has some “cringy” language, but it is more of an invention than a translation. But this guy’s Pericon book sounds pretty good to me, based on my Andaluz friends that speak English. I just worked with Ismael Fernandez in DC and his wife speaks English pretty good, but I had to help them a few times with tranlsation. He frequently called out to me “oye, maricon!, tre por arriba!”, (pretty much: “hey, Fag!, put the capo on 3, E Phrygian!), and I would look at her face (to see if she was surprised at her husband insulting a guitar player he hardly knows), and no, she was unaffected. I later told this to a colleague that works with him, and they confirmed he just calls everybody that way.

So not only yes they used to talk like immature 5th grade boys, but many still do.

quote:

ORIGINAL: RobF
Even tall tales and out and out bald-faced lies have to be based upon some measure of substance to actually succeed, if only in providing a plausible setting. In that sense, the vignettes give insight into the character of the narrator and his subjects and, while some of the events may stretch credibility, the reactions to them are always human and relatable.