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Definition of a Chonga

A chonga is a stereotypical, and sometimes derrogative term generally used by young South Floridians that means a girl, particularly of hispanic origin, who has certain cliche characteristics. Although it may not be an official "dictionary" word, the term is used by thousands of South Floridians. The definition is extremely realistic, and being a chonga is being part of a culture. Therefore, the definition is something many South Floridan youths agree upon. The word chonga is believed to have originated in Latin America.
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History of the Chonga

Early beginnings/Original Chongas

In the mid-1990s, the original chongas started to spawn around the Miami/Hialeah area. Typical characteristics of these chongas consisted of:
- gelled hair that came up into a ponytail at a very high area of the skull
- medium-sized hoop earrings
- gold chains with the name of the wearer on it
- dark brown lipstick
- pacifiers in the mouth (not a reference to the use of ecstacy)
- platform sandals
- thick predominantly used by males type of sweater or hoodie

The 2000 Chongas

At the beginning of the millenium, chongas began to evolve in appearance. The introduction of new and tacky accessories began to show up in their wardrobe:
- the introduction of gold hoop earrings with the wearer's name on it or other words like "Cutie, Sexy, Baby, etc."
- the use of tighter pants and less use of jeans
- tighter shirts
- red acryllic nails
- belts with buckles that have the wearer's name on it or other words like "Cutie, Sexy, Baby, etc."
- more intricate hairstyles
- fairly new technology like AIM (more on that later) allowed for screen names that had chonga references all over them
- the use of eye liner on the lips' outline with brown lipstick

The 2002 Chongas

The 2002 Chongas brought new pieces of clothing to the chonga world:
- The introduction of Brazilian Jeans and Pants became a long-lasting fad
- highlights in the hair became very common
- acryllic nails with colorful patterns on them
- curly, moosed hair was extremely common
- many accessories and clothing items that have the playboy bunny on it
- nylon bookbags with a young child on it wearing clothes that had the wearer's or her ancestors' country of origin
- large hooped earrings were replacing the long standing gold-with-your-name-on-it earrings
- the common use of Metro PCS phones gave chongas the power to text and call with unlimited use

The Hollister-Hybrid Chongas

As news of new Hollister Co. openings around the Miami-Dade area spread, many chongas started to explore that market territory. Chongas began to become significant consumers of the preppy market of South Florida. The new Hollister-Hybrid chongas began wearing new designers like Lacoste and American Eagle. The mixing of Brazilian jeans and pants with a Hollister shirt is a common practice. Abercrombie and Fitch, who clearly does NOT market their products to chongas, became a new place for chongas to buy clothes. Wearing these brands out became a huge upset many who are involved in the "preppy" styled youth of South Florida. Many chongas mixed beads and pearls along with their outfits; something done by other groups of youth in South Florida fashion seasons before. Chongas typically wear styles that are (on average) 2 or 3 seasons behind, so "anti-chonga" fashionistas and fashionistos still wear the latest from New York and Europe, while chongas will typically not bother to look at those styles until much later in the year.

A group of several of these "chongas" can be seen below. You can tell they are part of chonga society by looking at what they have on, and how it is: to the farthest left, she is wearing a shirt she probably should not be wearing according to most people. It is short enough to display a large amount of her stomach, but she is overweight, so it is sometimes viewed as not good. Also, several of the others are "heavy", and also have contoured or visible bellies. Their lipstick and earrings are the most dead give-aways, however. This is an authentic photograph, and not staged for any reason, thus, their faces have been blurred to keep their indentities secret.

http://www.underground-creations.net/images/chonga.jpg

Currently

Many of the styles discussed are present in all of teenagedom of South Florida. The majority of chongas that are recent immigrants from countries such as Cuba arrive with the style of the pre-millenium chonga, but soon adapt and use different aspects of each fashion trend.
An occuring trend is the introduction of "scene" fashion, including imitation designer sunglasses, light colored shirts with simplistic patterns, polka dots, neon colored accessories, and Puma(c) shoes.

Chonga Language

Chonga vocabulary is very complex and sometimes difficult to understand. The most common writing schematic is capitalizing every other letter in the statement, such as:

- *~*SeXiI gUrL*~*
- oMg!!!!!!!11111 mAmii, jOo LoOk sO pUrDy bAbBi DoLl
- ^*~* 305 fInEzT *~*^

On writing their name or namemark chongas typically place symbols and marks such as stars and HTML markups to add flash. Example:

- *~*SeXiI gUrL*~*
- ^*~* 305 fInEzT *~*^

Chongas also use a unique writing language, where they contract phonetic sounds that use more than one letter into one letter only, such as in Ebonics. For example, that becomes dat, my becomes mah, etc.
A typical element in language is the introduction of spanish words, as most chongas are of hispanic origin.


Some typical, and stereotypical (as well as degrading), remarks about chongas that people can make are: "How do they know all the HTML codes on MySpace.com, but they cannot pass the FCAT."


-- 00:33, 10 February 2006 (UTC) - Image and some information provided