Verified answer

According to the Real Academia Española, cholo/a is a "mestizo de sangre europea e indígena" or "un indio que adopta los usos occidentales" This is the usage most common in South America, meaning "half-breed" - it's often insulting, too.

However, in U.S. chicano slang, "cholo" means "gangster" or "tough guy". It can be used in the feminine too (chola) with a similar meaning. The link below to UrbanDictionary.com has a lot of interesting information about these terms.

GANGSTA (fem./masc.)

They can be "fake" or "real" gangstas....in other words it is a style...chicano/a mostly from Southwest US and California!

Just search on google images if you want to see it, i.e.:

http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&gbv...

EDIT:

I'm assuming she wants to know what a "cholo" is in the EEUU, not Panama or Peru!...and not the 'origin' on the term, which anyone without cultural knowledge could locate in a dictionary could locate.

According to the Wordreference.com forum the word "cholo" (and I guess "chola" for the feminine) it seems is used in Peru in a derogatory manner to show one's superiority...it might be in the sense of half-breed, but that wasn't mentioned explicitly (no official translation in English given)...As well, there is mention of "cholo" being used to refer to a Mexican gangster....An additional link to this site http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cho... was provided, which gives a more comprehensive definition...Hope that helps!

Cholo is the mix of spaniard with indigenous people. It is also used to say that a person is not well educated or poor or ignorant. (Not that I agree with the term).

Edit:

This is the meaning we give it in Panama. It also means that your hair is straight, “tiene el pelo cholo“, her hair is straight.

Thespian… is the right answer.

that's what they call gangsters in spanish