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

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