[Marxism] Flaco?

["Paul H. Dillon" <illonph@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

  Chris,

  I enjoyed your discussion of the role of pseudonyms but want to make one
suggestion.  In Spanish speaking coutnries I have lived in (Mexico,
Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile), calling someone
"flaco" or "gordo" or any other nickname based on physical characteristics
doesn't have the quality of derision that such a nickname would have in
English speaking countries, esp. the U.S.

  I was married to a Peruvian whose brother-in-law was an MIT trained
economist (worked with Paul Samuelson).  This guy was so fat that when
Samuelson came to Peru to discuss inflation, they did a photo in Caretas
(the Peruvian equivanlent of People and Time together) that showed him
standing with Samuelson in such a way that Octavio's girth extended past the
edge of the column into the border part of the page.  The photo-caption read
"Samuelson comes to Peru to discuss inflation."   Octavio didn't take this
personally, even though everyone joked with him, and everyone called him
"gordo" anyway.  Any concern about him being fat came from real care that
his health was in danger; his corpulence was just no big deal otherwise.
People still joked with him about the photo, he told me: "ya tengo ancho
correa", an idiomatic usage that literally means "I have a wide belt" but
that translated correctly means "I have broad shoulders"; it's just that the
ribbing and playing about his tremendous size was perhaps funny, but nobody
got mean about it.

  That is only one example.   Just a comment, and probably too far off
thread, but it's a question of ethnocentrism to assume that everyone has the
same reaction to basing nicknames on physical characteristics or even that
everyone thinks that the same physical characteristics are necessarily a
matter of shame and a potential target for derision.

  Paul


_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism