Juan Crow, et al.
Charles C Doyle
cdoyle at UGA.EDU
Fri Jul 30 15:20:14 UTC 2010
On the TV news last night, about street demonstrations in Arizona, I noticed a protester's sign that denounced the "Juan Crow" law.
Why, I wondered, not "Jaime Crow"? Or "Jaime Cuervo"?
Perhaps because the monosyllabaic character of the names "Juan Crow" more effectively echoes "Jim Crow"? Or because Anglos might more easily recognize "Juan" as a stereotypical Hispanic name than "Jaime"--and fail to comprehend that "cuervo" is Spanish for 'crow'?
Raw Google figures (recognizing that, in each case, the name belongs to some real persons):
Juan Crow--18,000
Jaime Crow--5,000
Jaime Cuervo--7,000
Not much there, really!
--Charlie
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list