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In Abuelito Who by Sandra Cisneros, the symbolic meaning of one line is quite confusing. The narrator is referring to her grandfather (abuelo), and she says he:
who used to laugh like the letter k
I'm not exactly sure what this means; does this mean his laugh was common and good-natured, or rather cold and rare?
I always felt that it was visually symbolic, that someone who
laugh[s] like the letter k
was simply someone who throws their head back and opens their mouth extremely wide when laughing, so that their head and mouth seems to form a letter "K".
It means his laugh was a hearty, good-natured laugh. There are really two ways you could've pieced this together: one, realize that the letter "k" is a common part of inherently funny words, which are simply words that can make people laugh without any other context. According to Wikipedia, (emphasis mine)
the concept that some words, especially those with a k sound, are inherently funny is a common trope stated in many fictional works. In the Neil Simon play The Sunshine Boys, for example, a character says, "Words with a k in it are funny. Alka-Seltzer is funny. Chicken is funny. Pickle is funny. All with a k. L's are not funny. M's are not funny". Similarly, the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Outrageous Okona" features Joe Piscopo as a comedian who, in attempting to teach the android Data the concept of humor, refers to words ending in a k as funny.
The second clue that gave it away was the context of the poem. In it, the narrator talks about how her grandfather used to spend time with her and have a deep, personal relationship with her. This is when the author brings the laugh sounding like the letter "k". Now, however, he is distant and so tired all the time, so much so that it feels as if he's not even there.
Another possibility is that it's simply the onomatopoeia being used for the sound of his laugh. While the usual Spanish onomatopoeia for laughter is a "j" sound, "jajaja, jejeje, jijiji, jojojo, jujuju", there are some languages such as Korean that use a "k" sound to depict it, with "kekeke" becoming a fairly well-known one from Korean StarCraft players. Outside of its normal cultural context of standard onomatopoeia, it's more likely descriptive of the actual sound of her grandfather's laughter, a breathless chuckle that one might associate with someone so amused they can barely draw breath to actually put voice to the laughter. Now, sick and old, he no longer has that voiceless mirth.
I personally feel it's the least satisfying of the answers so far, since it's more descriptive than symbolic, but it's what came to mind with the phrase.
The phrase "laugh like the letter k" sounds like the way speakers of Portuguese, especially Brazilian Portuguese, represent laughter. See the article Jajaja, 55555, kkkkk: las curiosas formas de escribir risas en otros idiomas on BBC News Mundo (4 September 2019). See especially the following paragraph (emphasis from the original):
Los hablantes, principalmente en Brasil, expresan la risa con la letra k, la cual se pronuncia como "kja" y al unirse en una cadena de la misma letra terminan produciendo la onomatopeya de la risa: kkkkkk.
Translation:
Speakers [of Portuguese], especially in Brazil, express laughter with the letter k, which is pronounced "kja"[1] and when joined in a chain of the same letter, they end up producing the onomatopoeia for laughter: kkkkkk.
[1] Note that the Spanish pronunciation of "j" is different from the English one. For an example, listen to the pronunciation of jalapeño on Wikipedia.
I found this by searching for reir como "letra k" (i.e. laugh like "letter k").
He simply means he laughs with a k sound — literally.
When most people laugh, they laugh with the letter H as in HA HA HA HA HA HA
The Count from Sesame Street laughs with letter A. A is for AH AH AH AH AH AH (sorry had to get that joke in).
Laughing with the letter K is like saying Kick minus the CK which would sound something like saying Kiss but don't use the two "s's" from kiss and give it a hissing sound with your mouth. A better way to imagine it is if you know the "FRIDAY THE 13th sound effect" where the creepy sound goes "ki ki ki ki ha ha ha" now imagine laughing with that ki ki ki faster and hissing more or the word ca(boose) minus the word "boose". ka ka ka ka ka! There are more ways but I think you get the point.
I sometimes laugh with the letter S which is just hissing with the letter S
