WHERE DOES THE EXPRESSION "QUILOMBO" COME FROM?
We cannot deny that the word "Quilombo" is part of the popular heritage and in our vocabulary. Obviously, like many words or expressions we say them and we do not know where they come from. Let's see then how this word arises in the Argentines;
When a foreigner arrives in Argentina, he or she comes across a word: quilombo. What is a quilombo in Argentina? What does this popular term mean?
It is one of the most used terms in the streets of Buenos Aires and all over Argentina. However, its origin and provenance is a real mystery for most Argentines. We tell you where the word quilombo comes from and what this popular term means to us.
It is one of those words so common in urban jargon that its semantics is almost incomprehensible... Beyond its etymology, the word is used today to express a large number of ideas that, although they are somewhat similar, will mean different things depending on the intention of the person who pronounces it.
Generally in Argentina, someone refers to a situation as "quilombo" because there is a conflict, a problem that is difficult to solve and which in turn generates more chaos.
In Argentina nobody says "the traffic is chaos": at a popular level, the easiest and clearest thing for everybody is to say "the traffic is a mess". The same thing when the national political climate becomes dense: obviously ... "es un quilombo" (it's a mess).
However, for a long time, Argentines also used this term to refer to brothels, taking in this case almost a representative entity. To go to a quilombo literally meant to go to a house where prostitution was practiced.
But to make things a little more complex, the same word quilombo also has a positive meaning among its interpretations. For example, when a party or a meeting is fun because there are many people, it is said that "this party is a quilombo".
The word is undoubtedly one of the most important words of Argentine lunfardo. Lunfardo is one of the most notable characteristics of the speech of the inhabitants of Buenos Aires, originally linked to tango lyrics but which emerged from the arrival of millions of immigrants to the Río de la Plata at the beginning of the 20th century.
The largest number of foreigners came from Italy and Spain, although there were immigrants from all over Europe. Each arrived with his or her own language and, while learning Spanish with difficulty, came into contact with other immigrants who spoke different languages and even dialects within their own.
The newly arrived immigrants settled in the already famous tenement houses where they lived with the lower classes of the city. These language exchanges took place there: Italian and the confusions were mixed with the gaucho, aboriginal and African words that were already in use.
But why does this word have the meaning of "mess", "mess", "messy", "complicated situation"? Quilombo comes from kilombo, a term from the Kimbundu language spoken in Angola. In colonial times in Latin America, the term was used to refer to the place where black slaves gathered.
"Quilombo'' then originally refers to the settlement of people who fled slavery, specifically in Brazil, locations where runaway slaves who gained freedom, escaping from the plantations to which they were condemned to work by Portuguese colonizers, settled for nearly 200 years.
There, the freedmen were joined by their descendants, indigenous people, as well as all kinds of outlaws and fugitives from Portuguese justice of all races and conditions, reaching in some cases, as in the case of Quilombo de los Palmares (state of Alagoas, Brazil), almost 20,000 inhabitants and a fortified perimeter of 6 km.
Fortunately, language, a living element of human culture, modifies words as it pleases, as the adaptable tool of communication in time that it is. Thus, ''quilombo'', in Spanish, became a synonym for an outlawed, expatriate and -for some- problematic place, and nowadays it has come to mean all these things that we Argentines express.
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