Ms. Garbage

What do you call a woman when you dont know her name? Well, you can say hola Mi reina (my queen), mi princesa (my princess), mi gringita (my little foreigner), mi preciosa (my precious), mi delisiosa (my delicious)… these are just a few of the names men typically call me while walking around Arenillas. It use to drive me crazy, I´m not your queen, or your princess, or your precious one. Now, I don´t even hear them, I´ve mastered the skill of tuning them out. Women typically call me Niña (little girl). And kids for a long time called me Señorita AREvista (Ms. Arevista, since that´s the name of the youth group I was working with).
Recently I was in the market, and this little prekinder age girl passed me with her mom, and she pointed to me and screamed ¨hola senorita de basura!¨ (Hi, Ms. Garbage!). Her mom smacked her in the beack of the head and looked at me with the mortified face as she hurried away. A few moments later I was in the back of the market, and the little girl and her mom were at the same stand.
Girl: while jumping up and down screams ¡¡¡¡Señorita de basura!!!
Mom smacks her in the back of the head again. I greet her back with an hola niña and start buying my fruits. She screams it again. Her mom smacks her again. People start to look towards me. And then the mom turns to me and says ¨I am so sorry I don’t know why my daughter is calling you Ms. garbage.¨ I then had to explain to her now worries, this happens all the time. I teach about recycling in the schools so the little kids associate me with the garbage cans. The mom signed ¨I am so realized. I thought it was because you are a foreigner.¨ Foreigner… Ms. Garbage? Not sure how the mom made that connection, but hey if I had to choose between being called My Queen, My Princess, My little foreigner, or Ms. Garbage, I think I´d choose Ms. Garbage any day!