Sarah Palin’s Cojones

The drama that has been unfolding in Arizona, a U.S. state that borders Mexico, must be followed with a dictionary at hand. Former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska stated that Jan Brewer, the governor of Arizona, “has the cojones that our president does not have” in dealing with immigration. She made the statement in English, the official language of Tucson, Arizona, except for the word “cojones,” which was uttered like a native of Nogales, Mexico. Nogales is an hour’s drive south of Tucson. Ms. Palin’s statement confirms that things are not that great, because if an Alaskan politician is already talking like an enchiladas vendor, just imagine the wave of Chicanos that has taken over Arizona. Ms. Palin’s choice of words is surprising. In contrast to her party colleague, Gov. Brewer has built her career with more careful lexical choices. Gov. Brewer chose to assume her husband’s surname in lieu of her maiden name, Drinkwine. What is certain is that she will not go down in history as Jan Tequila. It is also worth noting that the word cojones is a real “Palin”-drome in the United States. A palindrome is a word that reads the same in either direction, and cojones has been used by both conservatives and liberals — but only by women. Madeleine Albright, who served as secretary of state under President Clinton, also used the word in addressing the Security Council.