Saturday, July 02, 2005

Spanish names

By tracking the names of dictators in Latin America, I'm confused with their names a lot. Take the Somoza dynasty in Nicaragua. The founder's name is Anastasio Somoza Garcia, who ruled the country since 1937. When he was assassinated in 1956, his son Luis Anastasio Somoza Debayle succeeded. In 1967, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, Luis's brother, succeeded.

How complicated! Especially, the last guy's name has no original part!

Then I found this website explaining how Spanish-speakers name their children. Finally it makes sense. Take the second-to-last name as the family name!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting link! The Somozas had such long names that they earned nicknames anyway. Anastasio Somoza GarcĂ­a is known as "Tacho" and Anastasio Somoza Debayle is (fittingly) known as "Tachito".
Luis kept his name, breaking the family tradition - which he also did in other ways, such as dying a natural death, unlike the "tachos"