[HN Gopher] Gonzalo Guerrero
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Gonzalo Guerrero
Author : akkartik
Score : 76 points
Date : 2025-05-11 14:54 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org)
| pelagicAustral wrote:
| Talk about turning your luck around...
|
| Somehow not mentioned in the Wiki page, but _Guerrero_ actually
| means Warrior in Spanish. So I get the last name comes from him
| (?), unverifiable of course.
|
| EDIT: Several people pointed out that the surname "Guerrero" has
| existed in Spain long before the 1500s, so my guess about it
| originating with Gonzalo Guerrero was off. Thanks for the
| corrections--leaving the rest of my comment for context.
| Azkron wrote:
| "Guerrero" is a common last name in Spain.
| taveras wrote:
| How did you come to that conclusion? The last name Guerrero
| predates the 1500s by centuries.
| LtdJorge wrote:
| Why would the last name come from him and not the other way?
| yard2010 wrote:
| There's that lovely phenomenon, I can't recall the name, of
| people that live to their name. Like a cook who's named Jon
| Cook, a gardener who's named Phil Gardener, you get it.
|
| So this.
| enricozb wrote:
| nominative determinism
| mistercheph wrote:
| It's name itself serving as a kind of fate for what it
| refers to
| pelagicAustral wrote:
| Is that "bootstrapping"?
| AStonesThrow wrote:
| Well, it may surprise you to know that surnames such as
| "Cook" and "Butler" are _occupational_ and actually derive
| from men, centuries ago, who were actually cooks or butlers
| and eventually coined a newfound surname from that
| occupation (which may often be passed down father-to-son.)
|
| So if a modern fellow is named "Jon Cook" it may indeed be
| a regression hearkening back to one or more of his
| ancestors and how they were named.
|
| I am more accustomed to "nominative determinism" being
| associated with a person's given name, and how they grow up
| to take on a given role.
| matheist wrote:
| "Guerrero" comes from Spanish "guerra", which is cognate to
| English "war". They both derive from a common proto-Germanic
| root.
| elnatro wrote:
| While this "going native" is interesting, sadly there are not
| much accounts of his whereabouts.
|
| This reminds me about the concept created by the Spanish writer
| Miguel de Unamuno: "intrahistoria", i.e. the unofficial history
| formed the common people.
| pachico wrote:
| Unofficial history, many times, is simply glorified memory,
| which is very biased and dangerous.
|
| This fueled quite a lot the hangover of the nationalisms born
| during the XIX century.
| mistercheph wrote:
| And official history is unglorified, unsmudged fact and
| circumstance?
| pachico wrote:
| Not necessarily, but it's not not that hard to find anymore
| to the curious eye
| eschulz wrote:
| He must have been a very intelligent and determined man. Not only
| did he assimilate into a completely foreign culture and marry
| into their aristocracy, but he did so after starting as a slave
| of said culture.
| neuralkoi wrote:
| Not only that, he resisted Hernan Cortes' efforts to recruit
| him for the conquest of Mexico using clever guile and cunning.
|
| Twice he helped in thwarting the Spanish entradas into the part
| of Yucatan where he lived. By then, he had fully assimilated to
| Mayan culture.
|
| From the account of Bernal Diaz, he seemed to know what was
| coming from the clash between the Spanish and the natives.
| mrfinn wrote:
| Loyalty is one of the strongest qualities of Spaniards. Or
| curses. Depends on the occasion I guess. But the saying "ser mas
| papista que el papa" (to be more pro-pope than the pope himself)
| is not said by chance in Spain.
| throwanem wrote:
| "More Catholic than the pope," I believe that may also mean,
| referring not to loyalty but to intolerably unctuous and
| hypocritical sanctimony.
|
| We do have that expression in this language, and "papist" is
| one of the old anti-Catholic (anti-Irish, anti-Italian, anti-
| Latin) slurs that actually survives, however deracinated, to
| the present.
|
| One example of the sort of such slurs that did _not_ survive is
| 'mackerel-snapper,' deriving from the pre-Vatican II meat fast
| observed on Fridays, which is also what first put a fish
| sandwich on McDonald's menu.
| pilooch wrote:
| An inspiration to Avatar maybe!
| lockedinspace wrote:
| Fun fact, Gonzalo means warrior
| skylurk wrote:
| "battle-elf" :D
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzalo_(name)
|
| "Gonzalo Guerrero" is the "Magnus Maximus" of names.
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(page generated 2025-05-11 23:00 UTC)