The rotation begins

Essential vocabulary

• Llévense, hay bastante.: Take some home, there's plenty. The tupper send-off announcement, the host's final course, offered to the whole table at once.
• Este es para usted, abuela, está cortado chiquito.: This one's for you, abuela, it's cut small. A portion cut for an elder's reality shows a host who paid attention all day, not just at the stove.
• El tuyo te lo prometí, Cami.: Yours, I promised you, Cami. Keeping a small promise from weeks earlier turns a tupper into proof you were listening all along.
• Gracias por venir, esta casa es de ustedes también.: Thanks for coming, this house is yours too. The line that turns a one-time visit into an open door, the host's version of belonging.
• Gracias a ustedes por llenarla.: Thank YOU for filling it. The fixed host counter to a guest's 'gracias por recibirnos', leaving it unanswered reads as a dropped conversational ball.
• Gracias, abuela, venga cuando quiera.: Thank you, abuela, come whenever you like. The reply that receives an elder's threshold blessing with the weight it deserves, instead of rushing past it.
• Entonces la próxima ya está armada.: So next time is already set up. The reply to chairs left behind on purpose, naming out loud that the rotation just opened at your address.
• Acá de nuevo. Ya saben dónde queda su casa.: Here again. You already know where your house is. The notebook's closing line: accepting the almuerzo rotation with joy, in the family group thread.

Bolivian Spanish terms

• el tupper: the leftovers container A brand name turned everyday noun: no Bolivian family lunch really ends until the tuppers go out the door.
• mijitos: my dear ones (affectionate, to a younger couple) An elder's endearment that carries real weight at a threshold, it means you've been folded into the family, not just visited.
• nomás: just, go ahead (softener) Tacked onto an instruction like 'llévense nomás', it turns an order into an invitation, the softener that makes hosting sound like generosity, not command.

Useful phrases

• Le corté chiquito el suyo, abuela, para que le sea más fácil.: I cut yours small, abuela, so it's easier for you. Narrating a portion differentiated for one guest's reality, the tupper line that shows attention, not just food.
• Le puse su nombre en la tapa, tía Mery, para que no se confunda.: I put your name on the lid, tía Mery, so it doesn't get mixed up. Labeling a tupper for a specific guest, a small logistics detail that reads as care.
• Gracias por recibirnos. / Gracias a ustedes por llenarla.: Thanks for having us. / Thank YOU for filling it. The fixed guest-thanks / host-counter exchange at the door, a pair that must always be completed, never left half-said.
• Quedate con las sillas, para la próxima. / Entonces la próxima ya está armada.: Keep the chairs, for next time. / So next time is already set up. Furniture left behind on purpose, answered by naming the rotation it opens, the chapter's clearest symbol read aloud.
• ¿Acá de nuevo? / Acá de nuevo. Ya saben dónde queda su casa.: Here again? / Here again. You already know where your house is. The family group thread's closing exchange, the almuerzo rotation offered and accepted, warmly and without hesitation.
• Nos quedamos saludando hasta que el auto dobla la esquina.: We keep waving until the car turns the corner. Describing the full driveway-wave ritual from the host side, cutting it short is one of the few real etiquette misses.

Learn this in the app

Host Your Bolivian Family, Practical Spanish

More guides from this notebook

• The invitation that repays two notebooks
• Menu council and the mercado run
• Six chairs, ten guests
• Usted for the elders, vos for your own generation, now from the door side
• The mirror at your own table

Words from this guide in the glossary

• el tupper: the leftovers container
• mijitos: my dear ones (affectionate, to a younger couple)
• nomás: just, simply (softening particle)