Pocho

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Pocho is a term for a Mexican who is born and/or raised in the United States.

It is generally used as a term of abuse in Mexico to describe Mexican Americans in the U.S.A. who are often perceived by Mexicans to be badly educated and without a "proper" sense of culture, having forgotten or rejected their Mexican heritage. They are accused by some Mexicans of speaking bastardized forms of both English and Spanish, often called Spanglish, or inventing anglicized Spanish words (called "Pochismos"), such as "mopear" for the verb "to mop," or "parquear" for the verb "to park." Many Mexicans feel that the improper use of Spanish and English tends to perpetuate the stereotype of the Mexican as lazy and ignorant, and so react with disdain at such language usage, though there is a small but increasing amount of such language use in some Mexican border cities, such as Ciudad Juárez, where, for example, the word "troca" is often used instead of camión for "truck."

The literal meaning of pocho is a "rotten fruit," although the term is only used in Spain, and rarely at that.