Word borrowing as resistance

We talked about this a little in class today. Although I do agree that loan words mostly develop because of repetition in a given context, I think there are some that develop because of resistance.  I brought up the specific case of "Navidad" & "Crismes" today in class because I believe for New Mexico "Crismes" was borrowed as a sort of cultural resistance instead of a simple issue with repetition, because of the extreme differences in meaning that each word contains.  

In many northern New Mexican hispanic villages the "Navidad" celebration is when a masked figure "El abuelo" comes down from the mountains.  He is a boogyman of sorts. He comes once a year and makes the children dance, say prayers and prove they are learning Spanish.  The children have to appease the "abuelo" or they can be punished.  "El Abuelo" is a guardian of religion and culture in these communities.  This "Navidad" celebration looks nothing like the "navidad" celebrated in other parts of the Hispanic Americas.  The "abuelo" figure also appears in the Matachines dances all over NM.  In fact, many believe that the "Abuelo" figure comes from an indigenous tradition. No possible link to Santa Clause. 

So then we have the loan word "grampa."  Why do people use this although everybody knows the translation is abuelo? Many believe it is the same reason.  El "abuelo" being the boogyman figure and guardian of religion, customs and languages is very distinct from the father of one's mother or father.  

So these loan words "crismes" and "grampa" wouldn't end up in a lot of places in the Hispanic Americas, because these traditions were so distinct to New Mexico (partly from being so isolated).  The development of these loan words could be the result of repetition of the word, within a specific context, but in these two cases I think it is more complex, given the extreme difference in meanings of the words.  New lexicons had to be developed in order to encase the four distinct definitions.

I pretty much took all that from Enrique LaMadrid and Aurelio Espinosa. If you are interested in this kind of stuff here is a good reference below: 

Thomas J. Steele. Hispanic los Agüelos and Pueblo Tsave-yohs. Albuquerque: Southwest Hispanic Research Institute, University of New Mexico, 1992. Working Paper. 

I am interested to see what you think!