Folklorico

I was at a bed & breakfast recently in Bogota and the other guests were a couple, an American guy and Colombian girl who were in Bogota to try to straighten something out at the U.S. embassy. Seems she had a valid tourist visa to enter the United States but when she went to visit her boy friend she lied about something to the immigration officials and they sent her back to Colombia. (My understanding is she can't hope to reenter the U.S. now for at least five years but she didn't seem to grasp that.) The owner of the B&B and I were discussing the couples' problem later and she said "Well we Colombians are very folkloricos. This means a little lie here or a little lie there, a little breaking the law, going through a traffic signal etcetera does no harm and in Colombia it's understood and accepted behavior. The girl doesn't understand that in the U.S. you don't break into lines, run stop signs without slowing down or make little lies to Immigration."

So there you have it. That's a definition of folklorico you'll never find in your English/Spanish dictionary.