cholo

American  

[choh-loh] / ˈtʃoʊ loʊ /

noun

Chiefly Southwestern U.S.

plural

cholos

1. (especially among Mexican Americans) a teenage boy who is a member of a street gang.

2. Usually Disparaging. a term used to refer to a Mexican or Mexican American.

3. a mestizo of Spanish America.

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Sensitive Note

When used of a Mexican or Mexican American, the term cholo usually refers disparagingly to an immigrant who is considered to be low-class and poorly educated. However, cholo is also a term of self-reference used by Mexican American youths.

Etymology

Origin of cholo

First recorded in 1850–55; from Mexican Spanish: “mestizo, peasant,” possibly a shortening of Cholollán (from Nahuatl Cholōllān, modern Cholula ), a city-state in pre-Columbian Mexico

Example Sentences

Over a century, L.A.’s arroyos have drawn graffitists and their chroniclers — hobo, cholo and otherwise.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 11, 2023

For “Made in L.A.,” for example, Ayala focused on the underground magazine, “Teen Angels,” which documented cholo street culture in the late 20th century, featuring artworks, photographs and essays by gang-affiliated or incarcerated Chicanos.

From New York Times • May 17, 2022

“My first impression was like, ‘Oh look, a cholo movie starring Shia LaBeouf,’ and technically that’s what it is,” said Lalo Alcaraz, the editorial cartoonist and satirist.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 6, 2020

Luz ties Ecatepec’s hip-hop culture to the cholo culture popularised by Mexican-Americans in early-90s California, Cypress Hill among them.

From The Guardian • Sep. 22, 2016

Wasn’t nary one of ’em that suited her, and just when the chickens ’r the cholo gals needed her, here was a Briggs City galoot a-crossin’ the yard.

From Alec Lloyd, Cowpuncher by Gates, Eleanor