SPANISH IN THE EUROPEAN SPANISH DUB OF BARBIE (2023)

Today I went to see the Barbie film, in pink and with new pink make-up on. Now you must know I am Spanish, so I went to see the European Spanish or Castilian dub. 

The real-world portions of the film are set in L.A., and the character of Gloria's husband, Sasha's dad, who looks pretty Anglo or Nordic (he is played by Ryan Piers Williams), is frequently seen learning Spanish with DuoLingo and speaking with a Nordic accent. Due to my Translation studies, I wondered what language he was learning in the original film, and I looked it up on TV Tropes:

Gloria's husband (who's trying to learn Spanish) says "Sí, se puede" to Barbie.

• There's a Cutaway Gag to Gloria's husband practicing Spanish with Duolingo.

Holy moley... That happens very rarely when Spanish occurs in the European Spanish dubs of Hollywood films (I can only think of "la Muerte Roja" in Osmosis Jones and Puss in Boots, or el Gato con Botas, from the Shrek franchise and his own films, dubbed in the original and both Spanish dubs by Antonio Banderas (the first European Spanish character in the DreamWorks canon!), aside from Barbie now! There's also Buzz Lightyear's Spanish Mode, done as Modo Romántico, European Spanish with an Andalusian accent, by legendary cantaor, flamenco singer, Diego el Cigala!). Normally, what was Spanish in the source material gets usually dubbed as another Romance language (French in Frozen --the Spanish Dignitary, Disney's first canonical European Spanish character, who became French in the Castilian dub, Brazilian Portuguese in Pulp Fiction, or Italian in The Goonies to name a few good examples).

EL TANGO DE LA MUERTE

This film El Tango de la Muerte, a whole-plot reference to Strictly Ballroom featured in the Simpsons episode "Last Tap Dance in Springfield", is produced and set in a non-existant and stereotypical "Spexigentina", ie the Hollywood view of fusing Spain, Mexico, and Argentina into a strange amalgam of their most general stereotypes; and therefore also the dialogue is peppered with gratuitous Spanish:

EL TANGO DE LA MUERTE

SCENE 1: THE DARK HORSE

(Eduardo, a dashing young tango dancer who looks like Levi Ackerman, and his older dance coach, at a soirée, before the great dance contest).

Eduardo: Now that my severed foot has been reattached... I must win back the coveted dance title- Loco Legs.

Coach: As your wise but alcoholic dance coach... I know that somewhere your father is looking down on you and smiling. (Beat.) Oh, there he is. (Eduardo's father waves from the balcony.)

Eduardo: And now, I must choose a beautiful partner for the big dance contest. (Eduardo passes review by the attractive female tango dancers, spurning each of them in turn.) Hmm. [ Grunts, thrusts his hips ] Hmm-hmm. [ Grunts, thrusts his hips ] No! [ Gasps, thrusts his hips ] Hmm. (Eduardo reaches Lisabella, a socially awkward, flat-chested girl with glasses and her hair in a bun, reading a book sitting in a chair).

Lisa Simpson (across the fourth wall): Oh, he'll never dance with her. She'll have to settle for some Mexican Milhouse. 

Eduardo: I demand to know your name. 

Lisabella: My name is... (Beat.) Lisabella. 

Lisa Simpson (across the fourth wall): [ Gasps ] That's my name with "bella" on the end of it. Ask her. Oh, God. Please ask her to dance. 

Eduardo: I shall dance... (Beat.) with her. 

Mexican Milhouse (to himself): Ooh! Qué malo. Once again, I must sugar my own churro. 

Lisabella: But I am just a simple librarian. I have only read about dancing in books. 

Eduardo: [ Chuckles ] I will show you something that is in no book. (He takes Lisabella by the hand and twirls her around; as she twirls, her bun comes undone, her spectacles drop off, her chest swells under her blouse to reveal far more bosom; a real "ugly duckling" transformation)

Crowd: [ Gasping ]

Lisabella: [ Gasps ] Ooh! Mmm. Ohh! Mmm. 

Lisa Simpson (across the fourth wall): She's not plain. She's beautiful!

SCENE 2: THE TANGO OF DEATH

(The ballroom where the great dance contest is held; a grand estate with spotlights in the gardens.)

[A sign outside says:

TONIGHT:

CONTESTO DE LA DANCE!

TOMORROW: REVOLUCION]

♪ [Tango Music] [Applause] (A couple of attractive tango dancers in green perform before Eduardo and Lisabella's turn; Eduardo wears a light brown jacket, a shirt that reveals the hair on his chest, and black trousers, while Lisabella wears a sexy red two-piece ensemble, a red flower in her hair, and her hair down).

Eduardo: There is just one dance that will beat them: the Tango de la Muerte. 

Lisabella: [ Gasps ] Only one man was crazy enough to dance that dance, and he is dead. 

Eduardo: My twin brother, Freduardo. But where he died, I shall live- in his apartment.

(Eduardo and Lisabella dance the Tango de la Muerte: they first dance, hand in hand, eight or nine tango steps forwards. Then they dance past one another four or five steps back and forth. Then Lisabella spreads her arms and Eduardo lifts her in the air and carries her back and forth. Finally, he loops her like an oversized donut around his shoulders, then he loops her on the ground, until he stops.)

Crowd: [ Gasping ]

Eduardo: You are now carrying my child. 

Lisabella: But how?

Eduardo: It is the mystery of the dance.

*********************************************************

The Castilian (European Spanish) dub of the episode is far better and did justice to the scene: in its version of El Tango de la Muerte, the setting (and film's country of production) was changed to real-life Argentina, and all the characters in the film (except Eduardo's dance coach) spoke in Rioplatense (Buenos Aires dialect). Es más porteño que el Papa:

EL TANGO DE LA MUERTE

ESCENA PRIMERA: LA PAREJA INESPERADA

(Eduardo, un joven y apuesto bailarín de tango que se parece a Levi Ackerman, y su entrenador personal, un señor mayor, en un sarao la víspera del gran concurso de baile).

Eduardo: Ahora que me han vuelto a plantar el pie, haré lo posible por recuperar mi ansiado título, "el Piernas Locas".

Entrenador: Como tu sabio pero alcohólico entrenador, sé que tu padre te estará mirando y sonriendo desde alguna parte... (Pausa.) (Con acento de España) ¡Allí está! (El padre de Eduardo les saluda desde el balcón.)

Eduardo: Ahora debo elegir una hermosa piba para el gran concurso de baile. (Pasando revista ante las atractivas bailarinas de tango, les da calabazas a cada una de ellas). Ejem... (contonea las caderas) Ejem... (contonea las caderas...) No. (Contonea las caderas). Ejem... (Eduardo llega a donde está Lisabella, una joven con aspecto de "empollona" con gafas, un moño y el pecho plano, sentada leyendo un libro).

Lisa Simpson (al otro lado de la cuarta pared): Oh, no, jamás bailará con ella. Tendrá que conformarse con algún Milhouse argentino.

Eduardo: ¿Che, cómo te "shamas?"

Lisabella: Me llamo... (Pausa.) Lisabella.

Lisa Simpson (al otro lado de la cuarta pared): ¡Oh! ¡Es mi nombre acabado en "bel-la"! ¡Por favor, sácala a bailar...!"

Eduardo: Bailaré... (Pausa.) con "esha."

Milhouse argentino (a sí mismo): ¡Qué rabia! ¡Otra vez más deberé "asucararme" "sho" solo el churro!

Lisabella: ¡Pero si soy una simple bibliotecaria! Sé de bailar lo poco que he leído en los libros...

Eduardo: (Risita.) "Sho" te enseñaré algo que no "aparese" en los libros... (Coge a Lisabella de la mano y le da un par de vueltas: mientras ella da vueltas, se le deshace el moño, se le caen las gafas y se le hinchan los senos bajo la blusa: toda una transformación de "patito feo".)

Multitud: Oooooh (Sorpresa)

Lisabella: Oooooh (Sorpresa)

Lisa Simpson (al otro lado de la cuarta pared): No está plana, ¡es guapísima!

ESCENA SEGUNDA: EL MISTERIO DEL TANGO

(El pabellón de baile donde se celebra el gran concurso de tango: una gran mansión con reflectores en el jardín.)

[El cartel de fuera dice:

TONIGHT:

CONTESTO DE LA DANCE!

TOMORROW: REVOLUCION (sic, sin acento)]

(Música de tango. Aplausos. Una pareja de bailarines de tango atractivos, vestidos de verde, preceden a Eduardo, con chaqueta marrón, una camisa que deja ver el pelo de su pecho y pantalones negros, y a su pareja Lisabella, con un traje rojo sexy de dos piezas y la cabellera suelta con una flor roja.)

Eduardo: Solamente con un baile se puede ganar: el Tango de la Muerte...

Lisabella: ¡No! Sólo hubo un hombre lo bastante loco que lo bailó, y está muerto.

Eduardo: Mi hermano gemelo, Freduardo. Y donde él murió viviré "sho": en su apartamento.

(Eduardo y Lisabella bailan el Tango de la Muerte: primero, bailan ocho o nueve pasos de tango cogidos de la mano; luego, bailan de lado hacia adelante y atrás/una y otra vez cinco o seis veces; seguido de esto, Lisabella pone los brazos en cruz, Eduardo la levanta por los aires y la lleva adelante y atrás; finalmente, él la pasa velozmente por encima de sus hombros, y luego la gira por el suelo, hasta que se detiene.)

Multitud: Oooooh (Sorpresa)

Eduardo: Ahora esperás un hijo mío.

Lisabella: Pero, ¿cómo?

Eduardo: Es el misterio del tango.

FROM THE BOCAZAS OF GOONIES

It's one of the films of the Eighties. In both the Anglosphere and Spain.
That rag-tag band of outcast children searching for pirate treasure on the outskirts of their hometown (Astoria, Oregon), following a map discovered while spring cleaning in the attic (and while being chased by persistent mobsters).
GOONIES!
Brand (Bran) was the leader, a brave teenager. Mikey (Mickey), Brand's little brother, had asthma. Data was the token Asian, the brains and the Q of the band. Steph was the girly girl. Andy was the nerdy tomboy. Chunk (Gordy) was overweight, and he could do the Truffle Shuffle (El Supermeneo). And Mouth (Bocazas)... It's not hard to find out how he got his nickname.

Clark Devereux, AKA "Mouth" ("Bocazas").

The treasure was hidden by Captain "One-Eyed" Willy (Willy el Tuerto) in the seventeenth century, when the region was a colonial battleground between the interests of the Habsburgs and the Stuarts. Thus, he wrote the treasure map in Spanish (which became Italian in the Spanish/Castilian dub).

In fact, Clark Devereux's fluency in Spanish (Italian) is an important plot point, not only because he can translate the treasure map, but also to trick cleaning lady Rosalita (Mexican in the original, and obviously Italian, renamed Rosanna, in the dub), who can't speak the language of her employers.

Rosalita (Rosanna)

 Mouth/Bocazas acts as an interpreter between Rosalita/Rosanna and the Perkinses, but as a rather unreliable interpreter, mistranslating what the cleaning lady says to trick both her and her employers!!

Long story short, the dub of The Goonies translates English into Castilian and Spanish into Italian, a trend followed when there is a language barrier to be overcome in the film (compare Sebastian or Tito in classical Disney films, Buzz Lightyear's Spanish Mode/Modo Romántico, the "Franish" Dignitary in Frozen...).

DIAL MFT FOR...

MURDERED FILM TITLES, which are an area of expertise for fiction translators in Spain. Here are some of the most notorious changed film titles (now we've added an Easter egg at the end of the list: highlight to read it):

• Dial M for Murder: Crimen perfecto (Perfect Crime)
• Murder by Numbers: Asesinato un, dos, tres (Murder One, Two, Three)
• The Living Daylights: Alta tensión (High Tension)
• Home on the Range: Zafarrancho en el rancho (Ruckus on the Range)
• Some Like It Hot: Con faldas y a lo loco (With Skirts On/In Skirts and the Crazy Way). The Latin American title is Una Eva y dos Adanes (An Eve and Two Adams)
• Thunderball: Operación trueno (Operation Thunder)
• Breakfast at Tiffany's: Desayuno con diamantes (Breakfast with Diamonds)
• Arsenic and Old Lace: Arsénico por compasión (Arsenic for Mercy's Sake)
• Kind Hearts and Coronets: Ocho sentencias de muerte (Eight Death Sentences)
• Die Hard: La jungla de cristal (The Crystal Glass Jungle)
• The Towering Inferno: El coloso en llamas (The Colossus in Flames)
• Airplane!: ¡Aterriza como puedas! (Land the Best Way You Can!)
• Spy Hard: ¡Espía como puedas! (Spy the Best Way You Can!)
• Naked Gun: ¡Agárralo como puedas! (Seize It the Best Way You Can!: a whole saga of parody film titles were translated with ¡...como puedas! in Castilian Spanish - anyway here's the rest of the saga)
• Kevin of the North: Esquía como puedas (Ski the Best Way You Can!)
• Family Plan: Acampa como puedas (Camp the Best Way You Can!)
• Free Money: Asalta como puedas (Assault the Best Way You Can!)
• Mafia: Estafa como puedas (Scam the Best Way You Can!)
• 2001: A Space Travesty: Despega como puedas (Blast Off the Best Way You Can!)
• Teen Wolf: De pelo en pecho (With Hair on his Chest)
• Weekend at Bernie's: Este muerto está muy vivo (This Corpse is Very Alive)
• The Money Pit: Esta casa es una ruina (This House is a Ruin)
• North By Northwest: Con la muerte en los talones (With Death on One's Heels)
• Bell, Book, and Candle: Me enamoré de una bruja (I Fell for a Witch)
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: ¡Olvídate de mí! (Forget About Me!)
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: Dos hombres y un destino (Two Men and a Destiny)
• Bad Girls: Cuatro mujeres y un destino (Four Women and a Destiny)
• White Heat: Al rojo vivo (Red Hot)
• The Hangover: Resacón en Las Vegas (Big Fat Hangover in Las Vegas). The Latin American title is ¿Qué pasó ayer? (What Happened Yesterday?)
• Spaceballs: La loca historia de las galaxias (The Crazy Story of the Galaxies)
• Weird Science: La mujer explosiva (The Explosive Woman)
• As Good as It Gets: Mejor... imposible (Better... Impossible)
• Liar Liar: Mentiroso compulsivo (Compulsive Liar)
• Shallow Hal: Amor ciego (Blind Love)
• Up the Creek: Los Albóndigas en remojo (The Meatballs Left in Water)
• All About Eve: Eva al desnudo (Eve in the Nude)
• Heartbreak Ridge: El sargento de hierro (The Iron Sergeant)
• Sergeant Rutledge: El sargento negro (The Black Sergeant)
• High Noon: Solo ante el peligro (Alone Against Danger)
• Gunfight at OK Corral: Duelo de titanes (Duel/Clash of the Titans)
• Clash of the Titans: Furia de titanes (Fury of the Titans)
• Lake Placid: Mandíbulas (Jaws)
• Jaws: Tiburón (Shark)
• Eight-Legged Freaks: Arac Attack
• The Reluctant Dragon: El Dragón Chiflado (The Nutty Dragon)
• All Night Long: Noche de pesadilla (Nightmare Night)
• O: Laberinto envenenado (Poisoned Labyrinth)
• Love and Death: La última noche de Boris Grushenko (The Last Night of Boris Grushenko)
• Blue Ice: Seducción peligrosa (Dangerous Seduction)
• A View to a Kill: Panorama para matar (Panorama to Kill)
• The Parent Trap: Tú a Londres y yo a California (You Go to London and I Go to California)
• Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb: ¿Teléfono Rojo? Volamos hacia Moscú (Red Telephone? We're Flying Towards Moscow)
• The Frontiersman: La ley del revólver (The Law of the Revolver)
• The Manchurian Candidate: El mensajero del miedo (The Messenger of Fear)
• An Inconvenient Truth: Una verdad incómoda (An Uncomfortable Truth)
• Legends of the Fall: Leyendas de pasión (Legends of Passion)
• Monkey Business: Me siento rejuvenecer (I Feel that I Rejuvenate)
• I Was a Male War Bride: La novia era él (The Bride Was a He)
• Under Capricorn: Atormentada (Troubled)
• Bringing Up Baby: La fiera de mi niña (My Shrew of a Girl Child/The Shrew of my Girl Child: ambiguous title)
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: La gata sobre el tejado de zinc (The Female Cat on the Zinc Roof)
• Rear Window: La ventana indiscreta (The Indiscrete Window)
• H.M. Pulham, Esq.: Cenizas de amor (Ashes of Love)
• The Shawshank Redemption: Cadena perpetua (Lifetime Imprisonment)
• Double Indemnity: Perdición (Perdition)
• She Wore a Yellow Ribbon: La legión invencible (The Invincible Legion)
• Groundhog Day: Atrapado en el tiempo (Trapped in Time)
• Evan Almighty: Sigo como Dios (I'm Still like God)
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: Caballero sin espada (Knight Without a Sword)
• The Dirty Dozen: Los doce del patíbulo (The Dozen/Twelve from the Gallows)
• Operation Dumbo Drop: Operación elefante (Operation Elephant)
• Hidalgo: Océanos de fuego (Oceans of Fire)
• The Magnificent Ambersons: El cuarto mandamiento (The Fourth Commandment)
• Make Mine Music: Música, maestro (Music, Maestro!)
• Scarface: El precio del poder (The Price of Power)
• Goodfellas: Uno de los nuestros (One of Us)
• The Seven-Year Itch: La tentación vive arriba (Temptation Lives Upstairs/Up There)
• Spellbound: Recuerda (Remember)
• Something's Gotta Give: Cuando menos te lo esperas (When You Expect It the Least)
• 500 Days of Summer: 500 días juntos (500 Days Together)
• Wee Willie Winkie: La mascota del regimiento (The Pet of the Regiment)
• The Mighty Ducks: Somos los mejores (We're the Best)
• Animal House: Desmadre a la americana (Overload the American Way)
• The Boat that Rocked: Radio Encubierta (Radio Undercover, pun on "Radio en cubierta": Radio on Deck)
• The Frighteners: Agárrame esos fantasmas (Seize Those Ghosts for Me). The Latin American title is Muertos de miedo (Dead with Fear).
• Lorenzo's Oil: El aceite de la vida (The Oil of Life)
• Rabbit-Proof Fence: Generación robada (Stolen Generation)
• The Gingerbread Man: Conflicto de intereses (Conflict of Interest)
• The Theory of Flight: Extraña petición (Strange Petition)
• Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Mejor solo que mal acompañado (Better Off Alone Than in Bad Company)
• Bend of the River: Horizontes lejanos (Distant Horizons)
• Blacula: Drácula negro (Black Dracula)
• Creature of the Black Lagoon: La mujer y el monstruo (The Woman and the Monster)
• The Day of the Triffids: La semilla del espacio (The Seed from Space)
• The Day the Earth Stood Still: Ultimátum a la Tierra (Ultimatum to the Earth)
• Them!: La humanidad en peligro (Humankind in Peril/Danger)
• The Deadly Mantis: El monstruo alado (The Winged Monster)
• The Parasite Murders: Vinieron de dentro de... (They Came from Inside/Within...)
• One Touch of Venus: Venus era mujer (Venus Was a Woman)
• Touch of Evil: Sed de mal (Thirst for Evil)
• 
  

As an Easter egg, we have expanded the list to include some Anglophone titles of non-Anglophone films:

• On connaît la chanson (We Know the Song): Same Old Song
• Gazon maudit (Bloody/Blasted Doormat): French Twist
• Lola rennt (Lola Runs): Run, Lola, Run
• Gegen die Wand (Against the Wall): Head-On
• Sostiene Pereira (Pereira Declares): According to Pereira
• Tacones lejanos (Distant Stiletto Heels): High Heels

FATTY OWLS... FAWLTY...

That's right, this is a Fawlty Towers post!
Last summer, I visited Stockholm to meet a female friend of mine, a lady who works for the Spanish Embassy. She can't speak Swedish, but she's able to make up for it with her excellent English and German (having been a high school English teacher back in Spain). For instance, she could find out that "riksdag" means "Parliament" in Swedish thinking of the German cognate "Reichstag" (In between Swedish and German, being the languages of sister nations, there are hundreds of cognates more).
So this teacher-turned-official friend of mine didn't understand why her new Swedish friends say about her: "She's from Barcelona". Time to explain the connection with Fawlty Towers, one of the British comedies most loved in Sweden (together with 'Allo 'Allo, Flying Circus, Blackadder...)!
Cue Mercedes surprised! In the version of the show she knew, Manuel was a cuate from Jalisco. The laziness of the average Spaniard when it comes to foreign languages is translated into the media as the practice of dubbing every single foreign show. In Sweden, only media for children below 11-12 are dubbed into Swedish (and minority languages such as Finnish, Yiddish, Saami...): the rest of TV programmes are broadcast in original language, with Swedish (or Finnish, Yiddish, Saami...) subtitles. Including British comedy.
Again, in the Castilian (European Spanish) dub, Manuel (played by a Briton with dark features and a knack for foreign accents!) is from Jalisco. Cue Mex accent... In a previous post, I dealt with changes upon European Spanish characters in Castilian translations of media. But this is not the only issue that makes FT such a difficult series to Castilianize.
To start with, the title. Hotel Fawlty, with a silent H, instead of the literal Torres (de) Fawlty. The towers on the hotel are actually so short that they can barely be noticed. Aside from the fact that the new title, unlike the original, does give a clue on what kind of enterprise Fawlty Towers is.
The billboard gag, the opening running gag similar to Bart's blackboard or the family before the sofa in The Simpsons opening, is based upon the premise of anagrams. In the first episode I saw, "The Kipper and the Corpse", it read "Fatty Owls", which has become our in-family nickname for the whole series.
How to translate these anagrams? Of course you can take the letters in FAWLTY TOWERS and make FATTY OWLS, but can you make BÚHOS GORDOS with the letters in HOTEL FAWLTY? So, the dub leaves the billboard du jour intact with a caption/subtitle to translate it literally.

Notice the towers.
And the billboard.

But this is not the only issue in FT. How to translate cultural references...? "At the Oval" becomes "en el críquet", but "Wogs?" (British slur for South Asians, very offensive to them!) And Manuel's funny mistakes, based on the Anglo-Spanish language barrier?

Mr. Fawlty: Manuel, there is too much butter on those trays.

Manuel: ¡No, no, no, señor Folty! ¡Not "on, dous, treis"! ¡"Un, dos, tres"! (counting to three with fingers)

This fragment is simply cut out. Just because most Spaniards, due to the lack of long vowels and other features of their mother tongue, prove as ineffectual when it comes to foreign languages as Manuel in the dialogue above.

INVENTIVE LOYALTY

When it comes to puns, however, how should they be translated? Worth of mention is a verse in the lyrics of the Hercules song "Zero to Hero", Castilianized ("De cero a héroe"), and what the writer of this blog calls "inventive loyalty". The expression means "staying true to the cause/goal, yet without losing creativity" (The Ringstetten Saga is, at length, an ode to inventive loyalty: the dynasty's history started with an ensign using the flag he was sworn to as bandage for his shoulder wound, which led to the use of the flagpole as a weapon to lunge at the enemy leader).

The song, the most easily recognized one in the classic nineties film (the mistress of this blog grew up with it as part of her childhood soundtrack), chronicles Herc's career into stardom through monster slaying. The film is rife with puns, including the shibboleth/homographic pun in the verses this post is discussing.

ORIGINAL "Zero to Hero"
Muse I: And they slapped his face on every vase... (/vayz/, American standard)
Muse II: On every VASE! (/vahz/, RP or Queen's English)

In Disney media, RP is reserved for upper-class, highbrow characters, whether humans or animals (due to the connotation of the UK and British culture with tradition, conservatism, high culture). The first muse to sing in this fragment is younger than the second and appears to be middle-class. How to translate the shibboleth reference into Castilian? The translators of Hercules did actually manage to replace the vayze/vahze pun in a way that does, surprisingly, not betray the original:

CASTILIAN "De cero a héroe"
Musa I: Y en donde estéis, su rostro veis...
Musa II (interrupting): Hermosa faz!

The translation into Castilian focuses, rather than on the diatopic heterophony of the word "vase" (vayze/vahze), on the words for the concept of "face". The younger muse employs the standard Castilian "rostro", while her older sister corrects her with "faz", more archaic and of a higher-class diastratic variation (not to mention more frequent in classical literature).

That's what I call inventive loyalty: in this case, sticking to the form of the original lyrics (lyrics must stick to the rhythm of a song's music, and thus, they must be written in a certain form of verse... making the lyrics one of the trickiest genres in literary text to translate), and conveying the original's highbrow vs. mainstream pronunciation dichotomy, creatively altering the text to find a way to convey the source language's cultural reference (diatopic/diastratic, in this case) in the target language.

DISNEY DUBS' CASTILIAN CHANGES

When I saw the Castilian dub of Frozen for Christmas, I drank the whole film like a warming draught of Napoleon Cognac. The trolls, the royals, the loyal and stalwart yet insecure Kristoff... even the foreign dignitaries that show up at court. Including that dark diplomat (clearly established as a foreigner in Scandinavia) who spoke French and Castilian with a French accent.

Faux français

In the original (as listed in the end credits), he was the Spanish Dignitary! the Spanish Dignitary, Disney's first European Spanish character, who became French in the Castilian dub... Zut alors (or, as the French would rather say, Oh la vache! [c'est à dire, "Holy cow!"])!

This being the very first Castilian (European Spanish) character in a Disney film. The supporting cast of the previous films had hitherto only contained Latino characters, whose background was given in the dub through the Castilian/Latino dialects dichotomy (shibboleths such as lisping or lengthening vowels mark the diatopic variations).

A Mariachi mutt...

...or a Cuban crab, for instance.

Castilian characters in the European Spanish dubs of Anglophone media tend either to be changed into Latinos (Fawlty Towers's Manuel became a cuate in Hotel Fawlty) or into speakers of another Italic/Romance language, most commonly Italian or French (the "Franish" Dignitary in Frozen, to prove the latest example).
When there is a language barrier in the film, Spanish is most frequently translated as another Romance language. For instance, as Italian in Los Goonies (to which I have consecrated a post).

"He's from Barcelona."
"Well, I thought he's from Jalisco."
"Have you payed heed to his accent?"
"In which version?"

The only exceptions being Íñigo Montoya (in The Princess Bride/La princesa prometida), Buzz Lightyear's Spanish Mode (renamed Modo Romántico!), and Puss in Boots or Gato con Botas (in the Shrek film series): the former remains Castilian due to his Basque-sounding name (he is characterized as a brash and fight-loving swashbuckler, evoking the Basque regional stereotype [regarded in Spain] to a Spanish audience); the latter, due to his voice actor (in English original, Latin American and Castilian dubs), the celebrated Anthony Flags... Antonio Banderas. Buzz's "Modo Romántico" is clearly an over-the-top parody of the Latin Lover stereotype.

Egun on. Me llamo Íñigo Montoya. Tú mataste a mi aita...
En la Anglosfera, el gallardo latino.
En España... el gallardo vizcaíno (¿bizkaíno?).

"Miau, de Benito Pérez Galdós."
"No, no, no! Not Galdós!"
"Aún así, me recuerda a una novela en nuestro idioma, titulada Miau..."

In the latest installment of the Toy Story film series by Pixar (id est, Toy Story 3), Buzz Lightyear is reset as a dashing Castilian Casanova, the so-called Spanish Mode, which became Modo Romántico in the European Spanish dub. The Castilian accent was retained, but Buzz's voice actor (the legendary cantaor, or flamenco singer, Diego el Cigala!) compensating it by acting over the top, flamboyant and dashing.

Buzz Añoluz, Modo "Latin-Lover" Romántico

Castilian and Latino characters, Italians and sometimes the Southern French, are all depicted in Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian, and Germanic media as "without the ability to self-regulate, and in serious need of paternal supervision and cultural refinement [···] fast-talking, violence-prone, sexually predatory, and criminally inclined [···] who overestimate their own prowess in predictably dramatic fashion. [···] motivated entirely by passions and carnal desires, and thus incapable of self-restraint." 

The same applies to counterpart cultures in fictional universes, for instance the Dornish in Westeros.

Consider the following joke:

Q: How many Dornishmen does it take to start a war?

A: Only one.

There is also the folk song "The Dornishman's Wife":

The Dornishman's wife was as fair as the sun,

and her kisses were warmer than spring.

But the Dornishman's blade was made of black steel,

and its kiss was a terrible thing.

The Dornishman's wife would sing as she bathed,

in a voice that was sweet as a peach,

But the Dornishman's blade had a song of its own,

and a bite sharp and cold as a leech.

As he lay on the ground with the darkness around,

and the taste of his blood on his tongue,

His brothers knelt by him and prayed him a prayer,

and he smiled and he laughed and he sung,

"Brothers, oh brothers, my days here are done,

the Dornishman's taken my life,

But what does it matter, for all men must die,

and I've tasted the Dornishman's wife!"

In the latest season of Game of Thrones, Dornish Lover Oberyn Martell (played by Pedro Pascal) lived up to his reputation as a bisexual sexoholic, who cohabited with his partner and has had countless romances. His untimely death will lead, in the next season, to the entrance of hitherto neutral Dorne into the struggle for power.

Oberyn, we hardly knew you...

(Rumour has it that Andalusia (southern Spain) will stand in for Dorne on screen. Let's hope this becomes real and the producers don't turn to Croatia once more...)

The passionate Mediterranean versus the cool Northerner, what is called the "Saxon/Latin" divide. The Spaniard, Italian, Latino, or Dornishman in fiction of a Germanic language is, in the "hierarchy of races", below the more composed, fairer Northern Westerners, and above the non-Caucasians. It's a liminal position (liminal: on a threshold or boundary). Exotic, yet familiar. Sensual, yet not savage. More childish, yet not completely foolish.

I once had a conversation about this divide in the Occident, and this conversation is to be transcribed in this blog. It contains these words:

Una de las dos Europas te partirá el corazón.

THIS BOOK IS THE MILK!

• Want to know who "Placid Sunday" or "Britania Lanzas" are? 
• What is the English title of Aterriza como puedas? 
• Is there "Iberian Prisoner" on the menu?
• Does the Michael Jackson (RIP) lyric "Beat it" actually mean "go away"?
• But, is the English equivalent of "el último mono" something along the lines of "the last ape"?

¡Este libro es la leche!

Easy English for the average Spaniards.

With songs, idioms, slogans, puns, jokes... by the dozen!

You always learn something new from my newest literary adquisition.

Remember "The Show must Go On?"

Well, Freddie wrote the lyrics shortly after he had been diagnosed. He knew he was sentenced to die young, but did that turn his spirits low?

The song is about carrying on in spite of all the hardships. Not only about being seropositive and staying positive. It's such a popular song because it encapsulates a feeling, a value, not unique to Freddie Mercury. Next time you listen, pay attention to the beautiful lyrics!

But to return to This Book is the Milk. You have punny sentences to translate (try this one: "Le hizo un calvo a la luna"). Lyrics galore (in my favourite section "Singermorning"). The puns from Regreso al futuro and Pulpas ficticias, lamentably lost in Spanish translation. Want to know what a French kiss is? (Mais oui!) How to understand the surname "Lightyear" (familiar to Pixar viewers)? Why Piglet was so filthy? (He used to play with Winnie the...) Or what does it mean to learn or teach someone the ropes?

To teach the ropes, "enseñar las cuerdas", is what this book is made for. Funny, ameno, musical... un must de la actual oferta literaria.

RACISM IN "DAS GALLEY"?

The article "Das Galley", which I have recently written, may have appeared racist to some readers.

The intention of said post is not racist or otherwise offensive (leftist, for instance).

The word "negro" was used by Oscar Wilde to refer to the ethnically Sub-Saharan officers on the galley. Thus, Wilde should be the one blamed, if there is any blame. "Negro" is more or less positive (United Negro College Fund), but this Spanish word has given rise to a particularly offensive cognate in the English language (there would never be a United N***er College Fund!)...

Actually, it struck me as a child that Anglophones can tell the difference between "sauce" and "salsa". To them, "salsa" is one specific kind of "sauce" (hyperonymy/hyponymy). Likewise, "queso" is one specific kind of "cheese." And "sombrero" is one specific kind of "hat."
The same observation can be said about "nap" and "siesta". Or, if you're in for something more outré and Carrollian, about "flamingo" and "flamenco" (imagine flamingos dancing flamenco, dressed in Andalusian folk costumes!).

But this Anglo-Spanish relation can be zigzagged as well. The reptile whose scientific name happens to be Alligator mississippiensis and whose Castilian (European Spanish) denomination is "caimán del Misisipí" (or simply "caimán", for short) is known in some parts of the Americas as "lagarto", id est, "lizard." Now this would have surprised me... hadn't I known that the English word that lends itself to the scientific name is actually a metathesis ("ligator" for "lagarto") . Imagine some conquerors, or conquistadores, having come over from Castile (the Spanish heartland, which they call Castilla) to found a new colony, in the days of Charles V. They land in a swampy region in springtime, and the glades are rife with blossoms of all shapes and colours. Thus they decide to call the place "Flowering" (Florida). What kind of strange logs are there, basking on the shores? They have eyes! Back in Castile, we have much smaller lizards (lagartos)! The English arrive after the Spaniards, and they take the word "lagarto" to call those reptiles, since the English have no word themselves (unlike the Castilian conquistadors, who took the croc-like reptiles for lizards, the Britons have at least seen that they're not European lizards). And from "a lagarto" to "a ligator", easier to pronounce for an English speaker ("lagarto" sounds way too cacophonic in English), there is a teeny tiny step.

Un señor lagarto.
NOT "a gentlemanly lizard".

Known in Spanish (even in Castilian!) as
"El lagarto Juancho", i.e. "Jack the Lizard".

Call a spade a spade, and it will prove dull, as in ordinary. Call a spade a pica, and every reader or listener will make an O with his/her lips.
After all, a rose by any foreign name, such as a rosa (with a short O and a final A), will always display a difference to the Tudor rose in scent, shape, colour...