Valeria Agis Argentines call popcorn pochoclo,but you wouldnt know that watching television in Argentina,where many shows are made in the US and come dubbed by actors with Mexican or Spanish accents who call it palomitas. In a bid to recover part of Argentinas lost cultural heritage,create more jobs and stir up nationalist pride in an election year,President Cristina Fernandez has decreed that certain broadcast TV shows must be dubbed instead into Argentinas lyrical brand of Spanish,though stipulating the language must be neutral enough for all Latin Americans to understand. The move won praise from Argentine film director Carlos Mentasti,whose most recent hit,A Chinese Tale,beautifully captures a Buenos Aires culture clash. He complains that something important is lost when kids grow up listening to voice-overs that sound nothing like how their families and neighbours talk. That hasnt stopped the move from being lampooned on social media around Latin America,playing on the stereotype that Argentines consider themselves more European and therefore superior to all their neighbours. The Argentine way of speaking is highly distinctive,especially when served up in the porteno accent that instantly marks people from the nations capital. Spanish here was heavily influenced by the waves of European immigrants who arrived in South America a century ago,and Argentines still employ grammatical constructions considered a bit archaic. A page for parodies on Facebook,fed by Twitter #doblajesargentinos,has earned 60,000 likes as people invent new Argentine subtitles for classic movie scenes. For example,while Play it again,Sam in Casablanca,directly and neutrally translated,might be expressed as Tocala de nuevo,Sam,someone suggested that Argentine dubbers would employ an off-colour chant crowds shout at rock concerts. Much of the slang Argentines speak daily is too raw to be printed in newspapers,but there have been tamer posts,too,like an Argentine Darth Vader saying Lucas,soy tu viejo,as in Luke,Im your old man rather than Luke,Im your father. The measure implements a never-enforced,25-year-old law requiring that foreign-language shows,movies and commercials that are broadcast on local television must be dubbed by actors who share the phonetic characteristics of Argentines. The decree is great news for local actors who will get more dubbing work and be able to charge intellectual property rights for movies,Argentine Dubbing School director Dany de Alzaga said. But the July 15 decree,which gives government regulators until September 15 to implement the law,left many questions unanswered and provided for several major exceptions. It ruled out new voice-overs for imported content that arrives already dubbed in another countrys Spanish. It applies only to broadcast television,not cable TV or films shown in movie theatres,and it can only be enforced for content aimed solely at Argentine audiences. Weeks after the decree,the two government agencies in charge of implementing the law are still waiting for guidance on how to go about it. The law doesnt say who is expected to foot the bill for the new dubbing,and it is also unclear how it will affect subtitles. Others say the move has less to do with culture than stoking nationalism ahead of midterm congressional elections on October 27. But for many Argentines,those criticisms are of secondary concern. I dont know if this law is good or bad,but its true that years and years of watching dubbed programming generates feelings of something foreign: We dont speak this way, said philosopher and writer Alejandro Rozitchner.
