Fresa (Spanish: "strawberry") is a slang term in Mexico and some parts of Latin America to describe a cultural stereotype of a wealthy, superficial young person from an educated, upper-class family.[1] The word was originally used by teenagers and young adults but its use has spread to all age groups.
Fresas are typically seen to be stand-offish and use a mixture of Spanish, and English or "Spanglish." They have a certain accent described as similar as if one had a potato in the mouth (la papa en la boca).[1] The term fresa may be similar to the term preppy, which originated in the United States in the 1960s to define teenagers with a conservative mentality who were of upper social status. In Mexico during the 1970s, the meaning changed and became a term to describe the lifestyles of the youth who were wealthy and well-known.
However, the current usage of the term in Mexico has its origins in the late 1980s. During the rapid change in society as a result of globalization, which brought new forms of fashion, food and entertainment into the culture, a number of Mexican people began to adopt the "preppy" American lifestyle by mimicking American styles of dress, mannerisms and etiquette. Some examples include wearing polo shirts, boat shoes and chinos.
Kali Uchis, ACL 2015
Fresas slang and speech
The fresa (strawberry) sub-culture uses different words and speech patterns to be condescending to other people and using words like "Que oso" ("what a bear"), oso meaning doing something embarrassing; or "made me feel like a bear" ("I was standing next to him, he did something embarrassing and I was standing there, feeling like a bear"). "Neta?" ("it is true?"), "chale" or "chaz!" when surprised; "zero" meaning "being nothing or no-one" as in "he is zero to me now"; and "X" meaning "means nothing, let's not worry about that now", "he is no-one in my life now" or "I don't have the answer right now, let's not talk about it anymore".[2]
Fictional fresas
Soy Rebelde Tour - Rio de Janeiro - Nov 10, 2023 - examples of fresas sub-culture in Mexican pop culture.
A well-known "fresa" is the fictional persona El Pirrurris, created by comedian Luis de Alba, a parody of the so-called juniors, the young and presumptuous children of Mexican politicians and entrepreneurs. Although this character is overacted and doesn't exactly match the real life fresa standards, he is often mentioned as a reference.[3]
Jose Emilio Pacheco, in his novel "Las Batallas en el Desierto" written in 1981, exposes a series of characters that accurately represent diverse social Mexican subcultures from which we can have a more precise understanding of some social aspects in real-life interaction to comprehend how really several groups are.
In the Mexican telenovela Soñadoras Angélica Vale plays Julieta, a teenager of lower middle class origins who often poses as a high society person by behaving like a fresa.
In the Mexican film Amar te duele the character Renata and her group of friends would be considered fresas.
In the Mexican telenovela "Amor en Custodia" the character Bábara.
In the Mexican telenovela "Teresa" the characters Paulo and Aída.
In the Mexican telenovela "Rebelde" the character Mía Colucci, and also Sol de la Riva.
In the Mexican telenovela "Una familia con suerte" the characters Freddy and Monica are considered fresas.
In the Mexican telenovela "Amores verdaderos" the character Nicole "Nikki" Brizz
The Mexican family television sitcom "Una familia de Diez" the character Martina is considered fresa by the viewers; her own family considered the same, especially by her cousin "La Nena", who always uses "fresa" as an insult because they aren't rich and she is only posing.[according to whom?]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
