Here’s your illustrated Guatemalan Spanish word of the day: Chapín nickname for Guatemalan.
That’s right, chapin is the nickname used by Guatemalans and others that you can use interchangeably with guatemalteco. Guatemalan use the nickname chapin with pride. I believe Guatemalans are the only people in Central America that use their nickname with pride, but I could be wrong; what are your thoughts?
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Do you know something about the origin of the word chapin and what exactly it means ?
The word chapin is the name of a style of Guatemalan shoe that was in fashion in the 17 century. Chapines were very uncomfortable, but they say that Guatemalan people wore them and when they traveled to other counties of Central America it was easy to identify the Guatemalans for those shoes, and with the result that they began to call us ” CHAPINES “.
Guatemalan women wore this traditional shoe that had a cork sole. Not only was this style of shoe very elegant but it also made people look very tall (as the sole was large). Back in the good old days when Central America was one, women only wore this shoe in rich, and urbanized cities, the biggest of which was in Guatemala. And therefore from that Guatemalans are called Chapines.
Thanks a lot for that very interesting explanation… I never heard of that ;o) !
Chapines or Chopines, a shoe of Hispanic – Musulman descent. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/338e3de4fc5e40762c47d719be2b9094f54eead00dd4581cec9d05d6b0cd523c.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7f67d78b4bff697572d4e1209b4b79634994aa579b28550f03dd870701b3add3.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8fe7807596b64a2dbb53187527655bc3226b64ceb010c50430b3b6ce1d918aac.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3d963c659321296e9e3157f94e36e4d5c59bcadf00df58f312445d890596c747.jpg
Wow, Jorge, this is quite interesting. Thanks for sharing.