Author Cabo Bob Talks About His Latest Book, Mexican Slang 101

Cabo Bob is the author of a notorious, non-fiction book. Mexican Slang 101. This self-published masterpiece has sold thousands of copies. Despite being more than 20 years old, it is still a popular beach purchase. My interview with Cabo Bob proves to be inspiring and true.

What made you decide to write Mexican Slang 101?
Mexican Slang 101

Cabo Bob

Date of Interview: February 4, 2008

grew out of what might be fairly typical. Friends, including gringo members of the Bi-cultural League of Playas de Tijuana, where I lived at the time, noticed I used a lot of slang expressions in my conversations at club meetings and dinners and asked me to share them. I got tired of xeroxing off lists for them, so I agreed to publish a book of slang for a local small press. This was the original version of the book: much more academic, with sections on Chicano slang and academic considerations: and written for people who already speak Spanish.

Difficulties arrived, and I ended my agreement with the publishing company.

Over time, I created my own book. I cut out the more intellectual stuff and added pronunciation guide. Spring-breakers and gringo ne'er-do-wells were my target demographic. My idea was sitting on a beach in Mexico while little urchins flogged the book to tourists and brought me the money.

The first versions of the book were deliberately very crude. The idea was to look like those joke packs of "Horseshit Cigarettes" sold to tourists in TJ. I actually xeroxed the cover several times to degrade the quality of the type. But it always had the same signature color cover: school bus yellow.

In the early nineties, while living in Mazatlan and selling the book on the beach myself as my only form of support (urchins turned out to be unreliable) I cleaned up the format, revised the contents and contracted the present skeleton covers from a fantastic Seattle artist, Jessica Creager.