Today is the Day of the Boludo and that give us a chance to talk about Argentinean culture, yet again!
What’s a boludo, you ask? It’s basically an idiot, someone who’s not very bright. But the campaign for Dia del Boludo is doing its best to assert another definition: a boludo is someone who follows the rules. The opposite is a vivo, someone who’s clever and likely a cheat. Vivos look for opportunities to take advantage of others typically by breaking the rules.
Argentina is full of both boludos and vivos. But the culture sometimes seems to respect vivos more than boludos and that’s what the gang over at El Dia del Boludo wants to change. In fact, I pulled most of these quiz questions from their Boludo Testimonials page, which is full of people confessing to being boludos.
Happy Day of the Boludo! Try our quiz (15 questions) and then let us know in the comments whether you’d categorize the three San Francisco hippies in the picture at the top of this post as boludos or vivos????
Boludo or Vivo – A Quiz
14 Comments To This Article… add one
June 28, 2010 at 5:59 pm edit
Soy una boluda y yo se lo!
June 28, 2010 at 7:24 pm edit
Yo tambien….. una boluda total!
June 28, 2010 at 6:59 pm edit
Soy una Boluda total! Feliz dia a todos!!!!
http://www.perfil.com/contenidos/2010/06/27/noticia_0005.html
http://www.perfil.com/contenidos/2010/06/28/noticia_0012.html
June 28, 2010 at 7:26 pm edit
Gracias, Naty! Todos saben que vos siiiiiiii sos una boluda!
June 30, 2010 at 12:40 am edit
Miro la foto que esta en el blog y tengo una gran contadiccion si son boludos o se hacen los boludos( vivos) para mi el mensajes que estan dando es muy lindo pero son VIVOS ya que quieren Levantar chicas!
June 30, 2010 at 8:09 pm edit
Si para mi son vivos mas que boludos. Pero en la manera normal de usar boludo, pueden ser boludos ellos, o no? Creo que les entra mas dinero con un cartel asi que con un cartel pidiendo trabajo o algo parecido.
June 30, 2010 at 10:04 pm edit
The folks asking for spare change in the picture are not hippies, though, just to clarify. There are very few “hippies” left in the Haight Ashbury anyway. Most of them can’t afford to live there as they are generally not in high-paying professions.
The kids in the picture are either punks or pretending to be punks. Some forms of punk subculture is into squatting and begging for money. Kids from wealthy backgrounds are sometimes are drawn to punk aesthetics without actually having the political or philosophical awareness of people who have been part of the punk subculture for a long time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punk_subculture
I would say punk folks who are true to their beliefs are boludos, those who pretend to be part of something and try to get people to believe they are a part of it when they are not…definitely vivos! They look like vivos to me…
July 1, 2010 at 1:30 pm edit
That’s great info, Gretchen. My niece hates the word “hipster” for some of those same traits that are in the punk subculture. Basically, she says today’s hipsters are wannabes and lack authenticity. Seems the same for the punks in Haight Ashbury. Definitely vivos. Ah, in fact, another way to describe a vivo could be “one who lacks authenticity.”
July 7, 2010 at 1:02 pm edit
¡Qué boluda que soy! jajaja Nice job – this was a fun post.
July 15, 2010 at 5:56 pm edit
Glad you liked it. I knew you were a boluda, just like me
July 7, 2010 at 1:11 pm edit
Este programa Argentino “Todo por dos pesos”, es genial…aquí un sketch , se llama “Boluda Total”, espero que lo entienda hay mucho argentino aquí,:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnmIckFmojU
Besos
July 15, 2010 at 5:55 pm edit
Que barbaro!
July 7, 2010 at 1:32 pm edit
jajaja ¡Ese sketch me mató de risa!
July 15, 2010 at 5:55 pm edit
I tell ya… that Naty comes up with the best stuff!