Tolmasos? Vignazos?

October 15, 2012 7:18 AM

Canarian Spanish slang filter: On a recent trip to rural Tenerife I found some graffiti on a water pumping station wall. It reads: "Tierra Guanche - only local - no nos hacemos responsables de posibles tolmasos o vignazos" 'Tierra Guanche - only local" seems pretty clear; a (possibly non-literal) identification with the Guanche (pre-Castilian indigenous people of Tenerife) and a comment on tourism or immigration. My rudimentary Spanish says the rest runs "we take no responsibility for possible ..." but 'tolmasos' and 'vignazos' seem to be local slang. Does anyone know what they mean? There's a photo (not mine) here.
posted by cromagnon to Writing & Language (4 answers total)

Best answer: Vignazos is almost certainly a transposition/pidgin form of venganza, Spanish for vengeance. I don't know what tolmasos are but probably some other kind of retribution if you take the water.
posted by chavenet at 7:46 AM on October 15, 2012

Best answer: I believe a 'tolmaso' is a stoning. This blogger from Tenerife writes as if its synonymous with a "pedrada" which is a stoning.
posted by vacapinta at 7:52 AM on October 15, 2012

Best answer: I'm remembering a shameless flirt in a t-shirt printed with a variant of the traditional laundromat sign: 'Management is not responsible for hearts lost or broken', or a creepily threatening private property sign reading 'Trespassers Will Be Violated'. Is there a common publicly posted sign that employs a similar construction or similar-sounding words to the graffito, and someone's making a play on that phrase?
posted by bartleby at 2:46 PM on October 15, 2012

Response by poster: "Our people's land - only for locals - we cannot be held responsible for stonings and revenge."

Glad I stood in front of that taking photos. Thanks, everyone.
posted by cromagnon at 3:14 PM on October 16, 2012