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

“People are expecting the cholo aesthetic,” says Escareño.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 27, 2022

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

His distinctive style was thus born, a sort of cholo baroque aesthetic that is finely detailed, strict in its parameters: he never uses colored ink, only black and gray.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2020

She sees her neighbourhood’s cholo culture fading away.

From The Guardian • Sep. 22, 2016

And when a cholo got his time and left the line, he showed him the way he was to go.

From Alec Lloyd, Cowpuncher by Gates, Eleanor