Eh Puto
Eh Puto is a Mexican battle cry of football - fans , of the kick or free kick is called by the opposing team and for alleged homophobic several times to trends sanctions of FIFA against the Mexican Football Federation led. It has its origins in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey , when the spectators - first in football and later also in football - shouted Eh Pum and was in 2003 at a Clásico Tapatío in Guadalajara by supporters of CF Atlas , against the national goalkeeper who was under contract with the neighboring club Chivas Oswaldo Sánchez , converted to Eh Puto .
The origins
The origin of today's battle cry Eh Puto (a long drawn out Ehhh when a player runs up to take a kick or free kick and a subsequent puuu-tooo while the ball is hit and flies through the air) goes back to the 1980s when Fans of the football team Potros from Monterrey , playing in the Asociación de Futbol Americano Infantil de Monterrey (AFAIM), shouted Eh Pum at every kickoff ( Pum is synonymous with the German term Bum and was called at the moment when the ball was hit by a player) . About ten years later, this reputation was also practiced by supporters of the Borregos Salvajes del Tec de Monterrey football team, which is represented in the Organización Nacional Estudiantil de Futbol Americano (Onefa) . It finally found its way into football (2001) when it was adopted by supporters of the same city-based CF Monterrey . Its modification to the current term Eh Puto was made in 2003 by supporters of the Club Atlas from the second largest Mexican city of Guadalajara. The call was previously used to support one's own team, but now it was directed against the native Tapatío and goalkeeper Oswaldo Sánchez from the neighbor Chivas, who was trained in the youth of Atlas, after he said in an interview that he was grateful to Atlas for him To have given his first professional contract, but his heart belongs to Chivas. Soon afterwards the call could be heard everywhere at soccer games in Mexico and was not left out by the fans even at national team games . It was heard for the first time at a soccer World Cup in Germany in 2006 , even if the public did not notice it at the time.
Penalties for Discrimination
The Spanish term puta is well known internationally and means a whore . Accordingly, the male equivalent Puto denotes a prostitute , but is also - especially in some parts of South America , such as Argentina - used very generally (derogatory) for a homosexual man. Because of this derivation, the word is understood by some parts of society as a denigration of gays . FIFA recently followed this view after classifying the word as “not offensive” in a football context at the 2014 World Cup . However, FIFA soon changed its original view and penalized the Mexican Football Association a total of twelve times during qualifying for the 2018 World Cup (2 warnings and 10 fines). At the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup , the Mexican Football Association received a warning from FIFA because of the “Puto” calls from its fans. The team then wrote an open letter to the Mexican fans and asked them to stop calling. Even before the 2018 World Cup, the association and some national players appealed to supporters traveling to Russia not to make the call. Some newspapers suggested shouting “ Putin ” instead . The request from the official Mexican side was not followed, however, and so the call could also be heard in Mexico's first game at the 2018 World Cup against Germany , mainly against the German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer . This resulted in the Mexican federation being fined 10,000 Swiss francs by FIFA . It is also a risk for fans at FIFA tournaments to scream “Eh Puto”. Because anyone who took part in the call at the 2018 World Cup risked a dismissal from the stadium and a stadium ban for the other games because of discriminatory behavior. Therefore, the international Marco Fabián , who is under contract with Eintracht Frankfurt , appealed to the fans to give up the call.
Meanings of the word puto
Just as there are different meanings for one and the same word in the 20 or so Spanish-speaking countries around the world (a tortilla in Spain describes an omelette , while the same word in Mexico describes a type of flatbread ), this also applies to the word “puto”.
While the word is clearly homophobic in Argentina and Paraguay , in most Central American countries as well as Venezuela it also stands for an unfaithful or sex-obsessed man. In Colombia and Uruguay , the word is even used to denote courageous people, although the term in Colombia can also stand for a pushy or otherwise unpleasant person. In Mexico, according to some reports, the word “puto” can also mean a “weakling” or a “wimp”. The then Mexican national coach Miguel Herrera explained this fact in 2014 : "The reputation has no malicious meaning and only serves to unsettle the opposing goalkeeper." To put the term, now classified as homophobic by FIFA, into perspective, an analysis in the social recalled Media about Mexicans using “Puto” and the feminine form “Puta” to curse the weather, traffic, their superiors or even their best friends (in this context “Eh Puto” could also mean the expectation of a failed ball hit to unsettle the shooter). According to another interpretation, “puto” is equivalent to “idiot” in Mexican parlance.
The different meanings of the word are also confirmed by the renowned dictionary publishers Langenscheidt and Pons . Because according to the extensive Langenscheidt dictionary of Spanish , the word “puto” has to be translated as “lousy” or “damned”. According to the online edition of Pons, the word means something like “damn” or “shitty”, among other things. For example, a sentence like “el puto coche no arranca” has to be translated as “the shitty car won't start”. The feminine word “puta”, which actually means a whore, has similar meanings. It has become common in linguistic usage that “ni puta idea” roughly means “not a clue” or the phrase “que puta suerte” can be translated as “such a lucky pig”. In addition, the term “de puta madre” does not mean that one is descended from a mother whore, but has a meaning that can be equated with the colloquial word “Geil” (for “super” or “good”).
FIFA seems to follow an interpretation according to which “Puto” is used in Mexico as a synonym for “weakling” in jovial interactions with friends, but in the context of an exclamation from thousands of football fans it should be translated as “ fagot ”. The Mexican interpretation of the "weakling" can be understood much better, especially when taking a goal kick or free kick, because the aim is to make the shooter insecure that he has fired a bad shot and thus classify him as a "weakling".
At least among the fans of the Tijuana- based Xolos , an extended version of the “Puto” call is already circulating, which seems to confirm the above-mentioned Mexican meaning of “idiot”. In this chorus, fans sing the following lines:
Eh, puto! puto! puto! y re-putisimo!
Que lo vengan a ver, que lo vengan a ver!
Ese no es un portero, es una puta de cabaré.
Puto!
This refrain can be translated as follows:
Eh, idiot! Jerk! Jerk! Just a sucker!
Everyone can see it, everyone can see it.
He's not a goalkeeper, it's a cabaret clown.
Idiot!
A Mexican tradition
Although the exclamation “Eh Puto” has only been in circulation since 2003 (but was previously practiced as “Eh Pum” in Monterrey for more than a decade), it is now a Mexican tradition, the use of which the Mexicans do not want to be forbidden. Especially not from know-it-all gringos . For example, it is revealing that the US media took no notice of the “Puto” shouts until the 2014 World Cup, before some sports journalists and politicians took up the topic and began to label Mexican fans as homophobic Neanderthals . However, this was the worst possible way to get the Mexicans to give up this exclamation. Because the more the Mexicans were confronted with paternalism, the more determined they were to defend and shout out their traditional reputation with all the more ardor.
The allegedly negative "Puto" calls, which were punished with anti-discrimination penalties, can also be targeted media manipulation . The opposite result comes to the contrary in the film contribution of two Mexican reporters who asked tourists lingering in Mexico City what they thought of the battle cry and whether they supported or disapproved of a punishment by FIFA? One interviewee from the United States said that he liked the reputation because it created a good mood. As a result, he declined any outright punishment for this: “I think every fan curve should be able to articulate itself the way it wants to. It's a free world. So you should be able to say what you want to say. ”Another respondent said:“ It's traditional and should therefore be preserved. ”
After the Mexican federation had already been punished several times for shouting “Puto”, the annoyance of the Mexican fans increased even more when both were shouting “Puto” during the final game of the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2017 between the United States and Jamaica Sides of the audience could be heard, but their associations were not punished. However, it could not be ruled out that these actions were initiated by Mexican fans who had already purchased final tickets before their team was knocked out in the semifinals against Jamaica and who wanted to provoke them in a targeted manner during the final without their team. In any case, the "Puto" call is spreading more and more in the United States and was also heard in 2018 at soccer games of the LA Galaxy and New York City FC .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Así surgió el famoso grito de 'eeh ... puto' with documentary footage at mediotiempo.com (Spanish; article from January 13, 2016)
- ↑ According to a Guardian report ( 'Homophobic and not very clever': why puto chants haunt Mexican football of June 18, 2018), the call was first heard at the 2010 World Cup and reached a new level in 2014 . However, the author of these lines already heard the call at the preliminary round match of the 2006 World Cup between Mexico and Angola .
- ↑ a b After the game against Germany - Mexico gets in trouble because of its fan chants (article from June 18, 2018)
- ↑ Javier Hernández pleads with Mexico fans to stop homophobic 'puto' slur (English; article from June 20, 2018)
- ↑ Better "Putin" than "Puto" - Mexico fans insult the DFB-Elf homophob (article from June 18, 2018)
- ↑ FIFA multa a México por el grito 'ehh pu…' (Spanish; article from June 20, 2018)
- ↑ Marco Fabián pide a la afición evitar gritar 'eh puto' (Spanish; article from June 19, 2018)
- ↑ Los distintos “puto” en Latinoamérica (Spanish; accessed June 19, 2018)
- ↑ Rafael Castillo & Andrea Noel: Mexico Soccer Fans Debate Use of Controversial 'Puto' Chant (English; article from June 26, 2014)
- ↑ Holly R. Cashman (Huffington Post): Why 'Puto' Must Go (article from June 23, 2014, updated February 2, 2016)
- ↑ Langenscheidt KG, Berlin and Munich, 2006, ISBN 978-3-468-05343-6
- ↑ translation of Puto in de.pons.com (accessed on 20 June 2018)
- ↑ Homophobic calls from Mexico fans: Fifa punishes association (article from June 20, 2018)
- ↑ Eh puto completo on YouTube
- ↑ Eh puto completo - Xolos vs Atlas on YouTube
- ↑ Mexico's "Puto" Chant Won't Ever Go Away, No Matter What FIFA Does (English; article from November 2017)
- ↑ ¿Qué opinan los extranjeros del grito de "ehh puto"? on YouTube
- ↑ Mexican Fans Want FIFA to Punish the US For “Puto Chant” During Gold Cup Final (article from July 27, 2017)
- ↑ Víctor Balta (The Guardian): 'Homophobic and not very clever': why puto chants haunt Mexican football (English; article from June 18, 2018)