Quote:
Originally Posted by gbermor
I live in Puerto Rico (Caribbean) and here like you said "mamacita" is a cat call and generally considered rude. "Mama" or "mamita" on the other hand is more of an endearment.
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This is really interesting, because I live in the western US where most people with a Hispanic background are either Mexican or Central American. Here, mamacita is often not rude. In fact, it's not unusual to hear a mother referred to as mamacita by her family. In slang young guys sometimes also refer to a sexy woman as a mamacita but not really as a cat call.
I guess it's not enough to translate the word, you've also got to take into account the culture it's being used in. In Perfect Chemistry, I think the male lead is Puerto Rican, but I would have passed right over the probable usage of that word as a cat call since I was reading it with a Mexican context.