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Chapter 8. Curse and Disorder: El Desmadre
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n 171 CHAPTER 8 Curse and Disorder: El Desmadre Battles in academia are so fierce because the stakes are so small. Common saying This chapter takes the word desmadre as used in everyday life and subjects it to a descriptive analysis. To conduct a phenomenological analysis is to bracket what we think we know about an experience. More important, it is to “study . . . the structures that govern the instances of particular manifestations of the essence of that phenomenon. Phenomenology is the systematic attempt to uncover and describe the structures, the internal meaning structures of lived experience” (van Manen 1990, 10). In a book on the argot of the California prisons, Patricia Gutiérrez (n.d.) called desmadre “disorder.” This chapter is concerned with the social interactional nexus under which desmadre develops. Ultimately we would like to arrive at the core meaning(s) of desmadre, its essence, to use a term from phenomenology. First, we must deal with a number of instances of desmadre as heard in daily life. Origins A newly installed garbage can in historic West Las Vegas had the word desmadre written on it in gang graffiti style, with its overemphasized iconography. Perhaps the 172 n Chapter 8 author was making a statement of his or her own condition or his or her disapproval of the sprucing up of this section of town for the hordes of summer tourists. The term desmadre is heard in youth. Some of its usages stand out as memories of a group of preteen youths chasing a lizard, pelting it with rocks, and yelling “¡Desmadralo, desmadralo!” (Kill it, kill it!). A fight breaks out during a National Guard drill. The aggressor lands a number of punches. Onlookers egg him on with “¡Desmadralo!”—encouraging the assailant to give the victim the same fate as the lizard. A fellow who worked in a maintenance department used to deal with all manner of situations by making a fist and proclaiming “¡Yo los desmadro!” An elderly man in Santa Fe once told me, “Tienes que cuaidar todo tus biles cada mes, por que si no, te desmadran” (You have to watch your bills every month to make sure they are correct; if not, they will bill you twice for the same thing). The key to understanding the intent of the garbage can image is to amplify the term’s meanings from many sources and find a structure in which we can place the above examples. A CORE DEFINITION The prefix des- means “without”; madre refers to the mother. The Velázquez Dictionary has seven pages of words in Spanish with the prefix des-. For example, the word for lacing one’s shoes is abrochar; to undo the lacing is desabrochar or desatar (to untie). Does the term desmadre mean a dysfunctional family life or intolerable social situations? The sociology of violence and aggression, imbued with ideas from existential phenomenology, yields rich results. Much of what follows is offensive to life, but one must recognize that it comes from the existential hell in which some people find themselves. The study of this kind of violence can only be captured by a dictionary of disparaging actions and feeling states.* ENVIDIA Y CHISME Envy is an all-too-common behavior connected with spreading gossip (Schoeck 1969). Envidia, mentiras, mitote, desmadre (envy, lies, gossip, and disorder) are all aspects of the microenvironment connected with linguistic behaviors—for example, the naming of things, events, and social happenings. As the simple calculus in James 3:16 has it, “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice.” This cause-effect relationship points to the havoc the tongue is capable of wreaking. Frederick Sandoval tells us that the seeds of envidia occur *When some people find themselves in intolerable situations, they adopt the language of desmadre. This would be a study in its own right. Curse and Disorder n 173 when someone is “experiencing success, fame, power, affluence, popularity, beauty, intelligence, talent, achievement, athleticism or materialism” (1996, 37). To deal with the anxiety or bad feelings aroused by the other’s good fortune, one begins a covetous verbal attack on the other. These elements are the basis of mitote (gossip) and, more generally, to desmadrar another person. St. James serves sociology by crystallizing the effects of bad talk and the creation of social disorder. The “epistle” presented here is about the social havoc and discord of desmadre created in the social interactional setting. In...