In Colombia some cows have raza, others also have breed: Maintaining the presence of the translation offers analytical possibilities

Abstract

This article is about cows in Colombia, the practices that make them different. Although our main concern is not the difference among breeds, we pay crucial attention to the word breed which, in its exclusive animal-use, does not exist in Spanish. Its translation becomes raza, a word that is also used to classify humans and therefore easily translates into English as ‘race’. Maintaining these differences in analytical sight, we follow the practices that make res and ejemplar – two types of bovines. Untranslatable to English, res refers to an ordinary cow or bull; the second one indicates an exemplary bovine, even a prized one. The practices that make these animals are different. We explain how making res does not meet the requirements of breed, while making ejemplar does; consequently, while the latter has breed, a res has a slippery raza, one that, difficult to pin down, transgresses the firmness of breeds. Thus, raza can be different from breed, and surprisingly, it is also different from ‘race’ in English: the slippery quality of raza also surfaces when talking about people, at least in Colombia and Peru, the countries of origin of the authors of this article. If classified, their raza may shift from ‘white’ to ‘mestizo’ (not white) depending on the eyes of the beholder – like res!