Descarado is a Spanish word that may have several meanings, but one of them is shameless. The root of the word is cara, which means face. So, a descarado is a “faceless” person, that is a person without honor, in other words, a shameless person. For those of you who are into cultures, this word points out that Spanish/Latino culture is one of the cultures in which saving face is important.
Today I saw an example of that on TV. Sen. McCain’s campaign released a video in which they blamed Sen. Obama (and his party) for the failure of the bailout bill to pass. The claim was that partisanship by Sen. Obama during the negotiations helped them to tank. This would have been fine, except that MSNBC aired part of an ad that had been sent to them by the RNC when it was assumed that the bailout would pass. The ad was to be played after the bailout passed, and it blamed Obama (and his party) for spending the taxpayers’ money and suggesting that this was only the first of many spending bills that they would pass.
MSNBC had great fun playing parts of the two ads side by side. And, yes, this meant that whether the bailout passed or did not pass, there would be a negative ad blaming Sen. Obama. This is neither statesmanship nor “straight talk.” But, it is a fine example of the word “descarado” meaning, in this case, having no shame whatsoever, and no honor either. But, see for yourselves.
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