Que flaite.

Last night I met a young woman named Josefa.

Josefa is four years old. She arrived unexpectedly at a moment in which I was going to cause a lot of trouble for my friend, her brother, who had irritated me exceptionally. Luckily for everyone present, I can't wait to work in a preschool and the arrival of an outspoken four year old was about all I needed to let it go. Before you knew it, we had sequestered ourselves with a comic in Italian and were selling my H&M bracelets to each other (just DON'T forget the imaginary bag, that is bad customer service).

Unfortunately, while we were learning our numbers in Spanish and English and going blind unexpectedly ("Donde estas? Where are you? I can't see!") someone decided to break the window of her parents' car with a rock. They came in and told me what had happened, and then left again. Josefa thought for a minute.

"Is it true," she asked after a bit, "what my brother said, that the car is broken?" Yes, I told her (while teaching her terrible Spanish I fear), it's true, but the car is fine.

A few more minutes passed.

"Meredith," she said carefully, "como se dice 'flaite' en Ingles?"

After a bit of death by laughter I had to explain that I could not answer how to say "flaite" in English, because in the States we don't have a synonym. It is a special Chilean word, I told her.

This is quite true. I believe that it's different in England, where a similar sense of class relations exists. Tonight I was taught a few versions of 'flaite' by a British friend. Nonetheless, in USA English, there is no accurate translation. This is because there is no exact concept.

Flaite is a word that gets a lot of mileage in Chile. To itemize the various English almost equivalents, it is somewhat like low-class, ghetto, uncultured, rude, dive (as in bar), trashy, sketchy, and redneck. It is all of these things, and none of them. Flaite is a word that applies not just to a person's attitude, SES, or current position; it goes beyond fashion or cultural affiliation; it goes beyond how expensive the beer is and whether or not you're drinking it from a plastic cup.

Flaite is a noun, an adjective, and much more. Fleite is a way of life.

Chile's class system is an inherant part of the culture. This has become apparent to me in odd ways due to the fact that I happen to have blond hair. Here, paleness indicates European relations, which for years has meant power and influence. Hopefully this is changing, but the fact remains that when I walk on the street in any normal neighborhood, everyone has black hair, brown eyes, and medium colored skin. I turn on the TV to watch anything related to politics, and everyone interviewed looks as if they could be my uncle. It is one of the oddest and most disturbing factors of Chilean culture. People who are in the upper classes speak to me about their terrible household help, not realizing that my grandmother arrived in the US with no English and worked as a maid with only one half day off a month. Conversely, people in the middle class have reproached me with no end of various combative remarks, unable to accept that I make 300,000 pesos a month and will not be owning anything designer at any point that I can think of.

So to be flaite, as it is to be any other rank in the social system, is an all-defining thing. In the states, we'll go to dive bars. That doesn't, however, make us trashy. You can be incredibly educated and cultivate a ghetto style. You can live in the projects and be a bookworm. Here, these divisions don't seem to exist in the popular imagination. You ARE where you go, where you live, who you know, who your father is, who your father knows. It is indelible. You are a function of these things, and if those things are flaite, so are you.

As a gringa, this concept is difficult for me to grasp. I am never aware of what is flaite. Yes, I know what "low-class" is. However, I have been, at various times, told that the following things are flaite:

--Valparaiso
--Plastic outdoor tables at bars
--Drinks on the beach
--Picnics
--Bars frequented by the after-work (as in blue collar) crowd
--Bars frequented by people my age who, as far as I can tell, look just like me
--Micros
--Public transportation in general
--Street art
--Juggling
--Streets with inexpensive shops
--Arcades

And many, many more. I'll be walking with a friend, and suggest popping into a place for a sandwich or a beer, only to be met with an incredulous look and the response, "Pero que flaite esta lugar!" Thankfully, gringos seem to be excused for flubbing the social norms, because it's generally assumed that we have no idea what we're doing. This is a very good thing, because it seems like everything I like is incredibly flaite (ie, I ride micros for fun). Nevermind that flaite also includes mugging people, going to jail, beating your girlfriend, and other such wonders--you had a beer at that place with the plastic cutlery?!?!

Que flaite!!