Dictionary

vato en · NOUN

Etymology

From Spanish vato, ultimately from chivato. Term is mostly used by people from northwest Mexico (Sinaloa, Sonora, Chihuahua, Baja California).

Meanings

1. (qualifier:Chicano slang) A Hispanic youth; a guy; a dude.
   • Two of the pursuers broke cover, a zoot-suited vato armed with a sacred Thompson gun and a thugee in dirty robes with a nineteenth century Martini carbine. 1999, Mick Farren, Jim Morrison's Adventures in the Afterlife, A Novel:
   • Its 20-page portfolio of stills from the music-video director Mark Romanek functions as a virtual swipe book of contemporary style idioms: cowboys, aliens, vatos, Janet Jackson and Madonna. 1998 February 22, Guy Trebay, “Uprising the Indie”, in The New York Times Magazine:
   • Say sergeant, my primo from Osten is over there. A real crazy vato, man. 1976, Christopher Press (publisher), Caracol, Volumes 3-4:

Forms