Carnal Reason

In today’s Spanish lesson, I’ll try to explain the expression hay que tener la cara dura. Translated literally it means something like “one must have a hard face”. A hard face is a little bit like a straight face. You need a straight face to avoid smiling when saying something funny. You need a hard face to be taken as earnest when saying something hypocritical and shameful. Here’s an example, with pictures.

The first picture is of a slum in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay.

The next two pictures are Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, traditional residences of the British monarchy.


Finally, we have the Guardian, quoting Prince Charles re the Mumbai slums, whose “intuitive grammer of design” he claims to admire.

“I strongly believe that the west has much to learn from societies and places which, while sometimes poorer in material terms are infinitely richer in the ways in which they live and organise themselves as communities,” he told planners, charity workers and government officials.

“It may be the case that in a few years’ time such communities will be perceived as best equipped to face the challenges that confront us because they have a built-in resilience and genuinely durable ways of living.”

No doubt Windsor and Buckingham will soon be vacant, abandoned for something more resilient and genuinely durable.

Hay que tener la cara dura.

Posted on February 7th, 2009 by pwyll
Filed under: General