negrito y negrita

Question

negrito y negrita las palabras se usan en canciones Duerme negrito "Duerme, duerme negrito" (Sosa) y La tortura "Oye negrita mira, no te rajes" (Shakira). Claro que no las se usan para negro o negra como colores ¿no? No conozco claro de usan de etas palabras. cuál es significa de estas palabras Ayudarme, por favor. Muchas gracias

Answer 1

In Spanish speaking cultures it is not uncommon to use the physical characteristics of someone in an affectionate way, in a way that would never be PC in the US. See this answer from the past by Gekkosan, who is a native speaker:

http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/209424/what-does-negrito-hermoso-mean-in-spanish

what does "negrito hermoso" mean in Spanish?

All right, since nobody is answering this, I'll give you my native point of view. This means literally "my beautiful little black (person)".

In the Spanish-speaking world, it is not generally considered rude to address people by some physical feature of theirs; in fact, it is very common:

So it's quite common to call someone who is blond "hola güero",or "¡epa catire!"; someone who is heavy-set: "gordo"; "mi gordo", "gordito". Someone who has Asian features will probably be referred to as "chinito", and someone who is black, or merely dark skinned, will quite naturally be called "negro" or "negrito", as a term of endearment.

I think that to call someone "mi negrito hermoso", meaning "best friend" is a lot of nonsense, and in fact quite dangerous out of context. If you're male, and try to address your best buddy in a bar as "mi negrito hermoso", you'll probably get a fist in the face for publicly acting like a homosexual.

And if a girl addresses a casual friend like that, then this friend may think her intentions are not so casual after all.

Furthermore, it is absolutely silly to address a white, blond person as "negrito hermoso": they'd probably think you're being sarcastic!

I think this kind of expression is something that a lover may safely say to his/her dark-skinned lover, or a mother to her dark-skinned kid.

Dark-skinned, by the way, does not necessarily mean actually Afro-black. Just as long as the person is not shiny-white / blond, this may fly.

Context can make a huge difference in terms of how this is perceived, obviously.

I looked at the sosa lyrics and they look to me like it might be a mother singing her (little black baby) to sleep before she goes out to work in the fields. I did not look at the other lyrics.

Well done. It is often common here to say after a hard day of work that I worked like a negro or my boss made me work like a negro. There is no such thing as PC here so if you visit please leave that concept at home. - gringojrf, Apr 1, 2016

Muchas grasias, bosquederoble. - baonguyen5515, Apr 2, 2016

De nada. :) - bosquederoble, Apr 2, 2016

Answer 2

Negrito means black male person. Negrita means black female person. It is not used as racism, is in fact, in a tone of affection.

Gracias, KatiaFromSpain. - baonguyen5515, Apr 3, 2016

Answer 3

When I visited Cuba, it was interesting to hear novios calling each other "negro" y "negra" like we would use "honey" or "sweetheart" here.

In Desi Arnaz's rendition of "Babalú" the singer says:

"Le quiero pedir a Babalú una negra tan mona como tú que no tenga otro negro pa'que no se fuera."

There is another classic love song titled "Negra consentida" Which I have seen translated as "My Pet Brunette"

Muchas gracias para las canciones, me gustan. :-) - baonguyen5515, Apr 3, 2016