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Mother Tongue: A Bogotan Story
“When addressing a gringo, 90% of the time he or she will point out that you, foreigner, have an accent. Though some of them are nice about it, they are also telling you that you are a retard (some will immediately assume that you are a Mexican who likes soccer) because you have an accent. This novella is laying the cornerstone for what will one day be a brick shithouse of an answer.”
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Thus spoke Enrique Márquez Pino, another Mexican who likes soccer. Colombian, really (like Pancho Villa) but who cares.
“Told with sharp humor and uninching honesty, Mother Tongue is a riotous, double-edged exploration of what it means to feel a stranger in one's own homeland. Juan Fernando Hincapié is a writer to watch.”
Patricia Engel, author of Vida and The Veins of the Ocean
“Funny, intelligent, and at times postmodern, this Bogotan story is also a page-turner, compelling and a pleasure to read. The characters we meet are real and weird and interesting. This book is a great introduction to Hincapié’s work inthe US, a writer who has already earned his place in the Colombian literary world.”
Daniel Chacón, author of Chicano Chicanery and Hotel Juarez
"One of the things I admire most about the books of Hincapié is how deeply he explores his characters’ nature through humor and the singularities of language. In this decade, marked by a political correctness that borders on the absurd, we should celebrate the arrival of a fresh and eloquent book like Mother Tongue.”
Orlando Echeverri Benedetti, author of Criacuervo
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Thus spoke Enrique Márquez Pino, another Mexican who likes soccer. Colombian, really (like Pancho Villa) but who cares.
“Told with sharp humor and uninching honesty, Mother Tongue is a riotous, double-edged exploration of what it means to feel a stranger in one's own homeland. Juan Fernando Hincapié is a writer to watch.”
Patricia Engel, author of Vida and The Veins of the Ocean
“Funny, intelligent, and at times postmodern, this Bogotan story is also a page-turner, compelling and a pleasure to read. The characters we meet are real and weird and interesting. This book is a great introduction to Hincapié’s work inthe US, a writer who has already earned his place in the Colombian literary world.”
Daniel Chacón, author of Chicano Chicanery and Hotel Juarez
"One of the things I admire most about the books of Hincapié is how deeply he explores his characters’ nature through humor and the singularities of language. In this decade, marked by a political correctness that borders on the absurd, we should celebrate the arrival of a fresh and eloquent book like Mother Tongue.”
Orlando Echeverri Benedetti, author of Criacuervo
148 pages, Paperback
Published March 6, 2018
9 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
Juan Fernando Hincapié
15 books37 followersEscritor y traductor colombiano. Maestro en Creación Literaria de la Universidad de Texas en El Paso, realizó estudios de doctorado en Lingüística Hispánica en la Universidad de Houston. Su primer libro, Gringadas (Ediciones B, 2010), fue elegido como uno de los mejores del año por la revista SoHo. Ha sido editor de Rio Grande Review y de Aceitedeperro; y editó la antología de cuento colombiano contemporáneo Puñalada trapera (R+N, 2017). En 2015, Rey Naranjo Editores publicó su primera novela, Gramática pura, y en 2018 sacó Mother Tongue: A Bogotan Story. Ha traducido Drácula, de Bram Stoker, y Frankenstein, de Mary Shelley; así como A Cup of Water Under My Bed, de Daisy Hernández (R+N, 2018)
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Juan Fernando Hincapié is a writer and translator from Bogotá. He is the author of the novels Mother Tongue: A Bogotan Story, and Gramática pura, and the short story collection Gringadas. He is the first Colombian ever to translate Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. He is the editor of Puñalada trapera, an anthology of contemporary Colombian short stories. He lives in Bogotá.
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Juan Fernando Hincapié is a writer and translator from Bogotá. He is the author of the novels Mother Tongue: A Bogotan Story, and Gramática pura, and the short story collection Gringadas. He is the first Colombian ever to translate Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. He is the editor of Puñalada trapera, an anthology of contemporary Colombian short stories. He lives in Bogotá.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
April 27, 2018
Si tu no eres un hombre heterosexual al rededor de los 30 años clase media que creció en Bogotá en los 90 y tuvo la oportunidad de vivir en el exterior un buen tiempo es muy difícil que te sientas identificado con este relato, que precisamente apela a la identidad del bogotano.
Varias personas me lo recomendaron por su humor inteligente, su fácil lectura y lo divertido de la transliteración de la colombianidad al idioma inglés. Y al contrario me encontré con un tono sobrado que trata al lector como idiota todo el tiempo y un excesivo uso de pies de página. Entiendo la decisión de ser una narrativa disyuntiva, tal y como es el pensamiento humano, pero eso corta la lectura y es exagerada tanto su cantidad como la extensión de cada uno. Es una historia sosa y sus intentos de humor son bastante mediocres, esa transliteración no es tan graciosa como la venden.
Como había leído la anterior novela de Juan Fernando Hincapié (Gramática Pura) y me había gustado tanto, no dudé en comprar este ejemplar en la feria del libro de Bogotá. Y fue una gran decepción. Su protagonista es detestable y vivir en su mente es agotador. Lo que más me molestó fue el trato que le da y cómo se refiere a las mujeres (o "pichadorcitas", en sus palabras). Se nota demasiado que fue escrita por un hombre, editada por un hombre, e ilustrada por otro, y sin alguna mirada femenina por ningún lado antes de publicarlo.
Varias personas me lo recomendaron por su humor inteligente, su fácil lectura y lo divertido de la transliteración de la colombianidad al idioma inglés. Y al contrario me encontré con un tono sobrado que trata al lector como idiota todo el tiempo y un excesivo uso de pies de página. Entiendo la decisión de ser una narrativa disyuntiva, tal y como es el pensamiento humano, pero eso corta la lectura y es exagerada tanto su cantidad como la extensión de cada uno. Es una historia sosa y sus intentos de humor son bastante mediocres, esa transliteración no es tan graciosa como la venden.
Como había leído la anterior novela de Juan Fernando Hincapié (Gramática Pura) y me había gustado tanto, no dudé en comprar este ejemplar en la feria del libro de Bogotá. Y fue una gran decepción. Su protagonista es detestable y vivir en su mente es agotador. Lo que más me molestó fue el trato que le da y cómo se refiere a las mujeres (o "pichadorcitas", en sus palabras). Se nota demasiado que fue escrita por un hombre, editada por un hombre, e ilustrada por otro, y sin alguna mirada femenina por ningún lado antes de publicarlo.
July 26, 2018
Morsom! Og finurlig, særlig fin å lese hvis man har vært i Bogota
Read
October 5, 2024Kinda boring, kinda misogynistic. Also tried too hard to be funny when he in fact was not.
December 30, 2024
This book can was fun to read for me, just because it paints a perfect picture of a bitter, middle-aged, middle-class bogotanian man who goes and studies abroad and comes back full of witty remarks about his country. If you are not any of those things, I don't think you will find this book anything but annoying. It is full of unnecessary remarks praising football and degrading women, and sarcastically full of footnotes. It doesn't really go anywhere, and doesn't leave you with much of use. Maybe the footnotes.
June 10, 2018
Lo más sorprendente de este libro es que conseguí terminarlo, a pesar de que me resultó excesivamente tedioso. La historia no me dijo nada, odie al protagonista, así como la descripción detallada de partidos de fútbol 😒, pero más que nada su forma de tratar a las mujeres.
Los píe de pagina muy innecesarios (100 píes de páginas para 140 páginas 😶😶😶)
Los píe de pagina muy innecesarios (100 píes de páginas para 140 páginas 😶😶😶)
May 30, 2023
This is the most annoying book I've ever read. I can't believe i managed to finish it, if it were mine I'd burn it without thinking it twice.
February 15, 2021
• She asked me about my plans and I told her I was at a Creative writing meeting (I know, mom, I’m a little desperate)
• We all carry a miss penalty in our hearts.
• La gambeta Estrada played up front. Black, short guy, the type of player that can steal your wallet and your virginity without you noticing.
• I´ll never forget the reverse gear in the Renault 4: it sounded as if the world was coming to an end.
• This was a clear symptom of me not being in tune with the country. Had I eever been in tune? See, us Colombians like to be in tune all the time; or better, we don’t like to be considered an idiot, we would kill (and we have killed) before letting that happen.
• Sending postcards us both unexpensive and poetic. I encourage all of you shitty sons and daughters from all over the planet, to do so.
• That Monday I did what I was to do for a couple of weeks: nada. I walked around, read in cafés, did lots of observing, drank coffee and ate cookies—those unbeatable cookies from Bogotá’s bakeries: they tasted like childhood—
• On the other hand, English capitalizes days of the week, months of the year and nationalities; in Spanish, all of those are generics and should not be capitalized. Learn something, damn it!
• Always used the same sentences and nobody seemed to notice: “I would like to see this from another perspective…wonderful voice and narrative sense, but what if…? Like Wilde said once … The first person narrative seems a bit limited…Oh this reminmd me of a story by Carver/Kafka/
• When I got on the Transmilenio (Bogota’s main transportation system, red buses, a fucking mess)
• “Please take out a sheet of paper,” I said as I placed my jacket on the back of the chair and laid my bag on the table. Oh, the thrill of this sentence, the power, the beauty of it.
• When all you want to do in life is read Dostoyevsky and Miguel de Cervantes and play lots of Pro-evolution soccerand age in the process, you don’t need the trouble.
• “Something else like stress, Mr. Márquez, maybe you should take things a little easier.
“I thought that’s what I’ve been doing since I was born, doc.” I said but he didn’t laughed.
• I think actions are more important that idle descriptions, that’s what I think.
• Now that I think about it, my attitude during my birthdays tends to be the same: I just want to be left alone, but as the day unwinds IO always yearn for people. It’s kind of idiotic.
• The minute I stepped out of the building it started raining the way it rains here: wrathfully, more a punishment than anything else.
• She said she was gonna come visit me but she didn’t mean it; I say she could stay at my place and I mean it; although I didn’t have a place.
• Another sign of Colombianness: people are supposed to be sympathetic to your lies, know all the ups and downs of your sorry life.
• We all carry a miss penalty in our hearts.
• La gambeta Estrada played up front. Black, short guy, the type of player that can steal your wallet and your virginity without you noticing.
• I´ll never forget the reverse gear in the Renault 4: it sounded as if the world was coming to an end.
• This was a clear symptom of me not being in tune with the country. Had I eever been in tune? See, us Colombians like to be in tune all the time; or better, we don’t like to be considered an idiot, we would kill (and we have killed) before letting that happen.
• Sending postcards us both unexpensive and poetic. I encourage all of you shitty sons and daughters from all over the planet, to do so.
• That Monday I did what I was to do for a couple of weeks: nada. I walked around, read in cafés, did lots of observing, drank coffee and ate cookies—those unbeatable cookies from Bogotá’s bakeries: they tasted like childhood—
• On the other hand, English capitalizes days of the week, months of the year and nationalities; in Spanish, all of those are generics and should not be capitalized. Learn something, damn it!
• Always used the same sentences and nobody seemed to notice: “I would like to see this from another perspective…wonderful voice and narrative sense, but what if…? Like Wilde said once … The first person narrative seems a bit limited…Oh this reminmd me of a story by Carver/Kafka/
• When I got on the Transmilenio (Bogota’s main transportation system, red buses, a fucking mess)
• “Please take out a sheet of paper,” I said as I placed my jacket on the back of the chair and laid my bag on the table. Oh, the thrill of this sentence, the power, the beauty of it.
• When all you want to do in life is read Dostoyevsky and Miguel de Cervantes and play lots of Pro-evolution soccerand age in the process, you don’t need the trouble.
• “Something else like stress, Mr. Márquez, maybe you should take things a little easier.
“I thought that’s what I’ve been doing since I was born, doc.” I said but he didn’t laughed.
• I think actions are more important that idle descriptions, that’s what I think.
• Now that I think about it, my attitude during my birthdays tends to be the same: I just want to be left alone, but as the day unwinds IO always yearn for people. It’s kind of idiotic.
• The minute I stepped out of the building it started raining the way it rains here: wrathfully, more a punishment than anything else.
• She said she was gonna come visit me but she didn’t mean it; I say she could stay at my place and I mean it; although I didn’t have a place.
• Another sign of Colombianness: people are supposed to be sympathetic to your lies, know all the ups and downs of your sorry life.
June 16, 2020
Disfrute cada momento de este libro. No es una gran obra, ni una revelación de la literatura bogotana, pero su forma de escribir, sus anécdotas, sus pies de pagina; te llevan a Bogotá, te hacen sentir los rayes que te genera la ciudad, pero también te permite recordarla, vivirla, sufrirla, disfrutarla, reirla. Eso si hago una salvedad, su humor fino e inteligente muchas veces puede rayar en lo políticamente incorrecto; sobretodo frente a como el autor se refiere a las mujeres. Sin embargo, no hay que perder de vista que, por encima de todo, es ficción y es comedia. Recomendado si quieren tener una lectura ligera que los divierta.
November 21, 2019
Esta breve novela esta escrita en ingles, quizas la mayor sorpresa que a lo largo de la trama presenta este libro. El personaje Enrique Marquez Pino relata su regreso a Bogota despues de estudiar una maestria en EE.UU. El reencuentro con su familia, amigos, amores y colegas en esta ciudad colombiana son un relato un tibio de una vida corriente, sazonada por dos grandes pasiones: el futbol y los videojuegos.
July 29, 2024
Quirky novella.
The narrator, who could very well be the author, returns home to Colombia from his few years working in Houston academia. He is a single young man with no cares in the world. He's wanting a job in Bogotá, his own apartment separate from his father, and, of course, women. In the short 148 pages of this novella, we discover his love of football-futbol-fútbol-soccer, his distain for Mexicans, and, of course, women. His academic expertise is in linguistics and the narrator explains some of his annoyances such as anglicization of words and the importance of the accent for Spanish words.
The book was written as if he was talking to a group of friends. For 148 pages, there are 100 footnotes which often had their own story.
Interesting and fun.
The narrator, who could very well be the author, returns home to Colombia from his few years working in Houston academia. He is a single young man with no cares in the world. He's wanting a job in Bogotá, his own apartment separate from his father, and, of course, women. In the short 148 pages of this novella, we discover his love of football-futbol-fútbol-soccer, his distain for Mexicans, and, of course, women. His academic expertise is in linguistics and the narrator explains some of his annoyances such as anglicization of words and the importance of the accent for Spanish words.
The book was written as if he was talking to a group of friends. For 148 pages, there are 100 footnotes which often had their own story.
Interesting and fun.
April 17, 2025
En general es una historia divertida de leer. Obviando algunas partes de la historia que son discutibles, especialmente su forma de tratar y relacionarse con las mujeres que pueden rayar en el machismo e incluso misoginia.
Si alguien busca lecturas para practicar o mejorar su nivel de Inglés o reading, considero que es una buena opción... El vocabulario es actual y comprensible.
Si alguien busca lecturas para practicar o mejorar su nivel de Inglés o reading, considero que es una buena opción... El vocabulario es actual y comprensible.
August 8, 2022
It’s the perfect novel for a Colombian lad who is studying foreign language and wants to get into a funnies and pleasant chronicles. What a boss Juan Fernando 🫡.
July 26, 2023
The narrator tells his life story in a rambling but entertaining way, providing some insights into modern day Colombia.
January 23, 2025
The writing style is extremely my jam, unfortunately the author seems to be at least a slight misogynist and that's a drag.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews