Is "madre" really offensive to south americans?
In a spanish class I was told that in latin america "madre" meant something bad and that the word to use was "mamacita". Is this really the case?
3 Answers
mother is madre and the word madre is not a dirty word any where in South America,,Central America, and North America and the mother country (Spain)........................ . Of course people might add other words to mother and then it (madre) might become a dirty expresion. But let me repeat the word madre by itself means mother- nothing dirty about the word by itself.It is the same thing in English mother plus other words might become a dirty expression.
So be it.
Tu Maldito Chamacito, Lo Mas Abayardoso, will tell you the truth. Madre is a big slang thing. For example: Desmadro. Means to say it's screwed. A mi me vale madre.....you can figure that one out on your own. Something that is de Padre is to be cool as anything. The slang in Mexico centers around mothers and fathers, in general. Puerto Rican slang centers around food. Cuban slang centers around...we'll we can't really talk about that in this family forum. 
Mamacita is not a palabrota. My wife is my mamacita. My girl is my mamacita. As with all things in spanish, context is everything. If I say "c@#! tu mamacita", well then I'm looking for a fight. Context.....es todo.
mamacita means baby, sweetie, mamacita most of the times you only call that to your girlfriend in private (depends where or with whom you are)---madre is just my mother---tu madre is *******
Mexicans say: estás madre or estás padre---that's cool
In South America they call people's madre, madre, and there's no be problem with that, unlike Caribbeans that have to say mama to soften it up a little.
For example I could say "Mi madre es muy buena" but when I'm talking about someone else's mother I should say "Tu mama es buena".
En el Peru si te dicen: Tu madre es calva como tu, entonces eso si que es serio.
La madre de los tomates means to go to hell.
