MONEY, MONEY, MONEY AND THE PIECE OF EIGHT

The Spanish Real de a ocho, known in the English-speaking world as a piece of eight  was, and is, also known as the peso, which according to moneymuseum.com was “…one of the most important trade coins of all times – if not the most important ever.”

For over three centuries the peso was the dominating international trade currency in the New World and also in Europe and Asia: a true global currency. The peso was produced in Spain to be used mostly in America, where it was heavily minted in Mexico and Peru. World trade flourished based on this silver coin: 8 reales equaled one silver peso. By the 18^th century it had become a world currency, accepted and used by most countries. The United States dollar was initially based on the piece of eight, the peso, although its name was taken from the German Thaler.

This silver coin, the peso, had several names in the English-speaking world: piece of eight, Spanish dollar, Mexican dollar and eight-real coin. After the currency reform of 1497, it was set up for use as legal tender in the Spanish Empire and gave rise to its being used by many countries and some –the United States, later- countersigned the peso and employed it as local currency. The piece of eight, the peso, was the currency that made the world go round… the world go round… for several centuries.      

Millions of Spanish dollars, piezas de a ocho, were minted and circulated extensively in the Americas and Asia. And yet the great and powerful Spanish Empire was bankrupt by 1598 or about a hundred years after the discovery of America and its riches. The colonies thrived and the metropolis became poor, especially Castile.   

But what happened after the independence of the American colonies from Spain? Did the peso disappear? We know it did not and to this day the peso as a currency unit is very much alive and even kicking, in seven American and one Asian countries: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Philippines and Uruguay.

Heroes who name new Latin American currencies:

Other Latin American nations changed the name of the currency in order to honor national heroes; to wit:

Bolivia changed the peso in 1864 for the Boliviano. Costa Rica in 1896 honored Christopher Columbus and renamed the monetary unit to colón. Ecuador paid tribute to Antonio José de Sucre y Alcalá in 1884 and replaced the peso for el sucre as legal tender. In 1892 El Salvador also honored the discoverer of the continent with a new currency, the colón. Guatemala paid homage to the national bird of the country, changing the peso guatemalteco for the quetzal in 1925. Honduras paid homage to Lempira, a chieftain who offered resistance to the Spaniards by changing the peso to el lempira, in 1931. Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, founder of Nicaragua, named the country’s currency el córdoba in 1912. El guaraní is the way the peso is called in Paraguay since 1943, for obvious reasons. Perú decided on el sol in 1863, renaming it nuevo sol later. Venezuela opted for el bolívar after Simón Bolívar, El Libertador.         

Long before the dollar was minted, the Hispanic Peso, the piece of eight, reigned supreme in world economy. But, alas, that was a while ago and things are different now.

THE ENGLISH-FRENCH CONNECTION

In a sea of English, survival and success will always depend on our mastery of it. Knowledge of a language is power, and the deeper the expertise of it, the more power at our disposal.

We are fast forgetting that the day before yesterday French was the language of diplomacy, elegance, refinement and culture, and that our grandparents –in the English and Hispanic worlds- spattered their conversation with Gallic words and expressions to prove they were culturally in, in the know. We cannot have a thorough knowledge of English without an understanding of the influence of French and its legacy. 

The example:

In order to be au courant (fully informed, fashionable, stylish, conversant), I always try to rub elbows with la crème de la crème (high society), and the nouveau rich (newly rich), with those who set the bon ton (proper, conforming to accepted standards), with those who have that je ne sais quoi (something that cannot be adequately described or expressed, a certain something), who give us joie de vivre (keen enjoyment of life), comme il faut (proper, conforming to accepted standards).

Yesterday I had a tête à tête (a private conversation between two persons) with a gourmet (a connoisseur of food and drink) acquaintance of mine, over a demitasse (a small cup of black coffee) and a croissant (a crescent-shaped roll) in a chic (smart, elegant) bistro (a small restaurant or bar). He was accompanied by a femme fatale (seductive woman) who vaguely suggested a ménage à trois, (sex involving three people, excuse my French!) as if this could possibly be some sort of a fait accompli (presumably acceptable or done). Being an intellectual of sorts, I declined and ordered apple pie à la mode (topped with ice cream) in order to break the cul-de-sac (dead-end) our conversation had reached. I concluded that both were bons vivants (those who enjoy the good life) but lacked the savoir faire (tact) elegant people possess.

I took French leave, of course. I did not even mutter a succinct adieu (farewell). (All these words are included in English dictionaries.)

The background:

We all know that the whole thing started in 1066, when William the Conqueror won the battle of Hastings and settled in England. William, being from Brittany, spoke French. He was simply a Duke but he marched to London and became King. He brought along his nobility, his troops and, to boot, thousands of new words in order to colonize the English language. For three hundred years the Kings of England spoke French.

That is why English has a duality of vocabulary: Hue/Color - Rape/Violate - Foe/Enemy - Pig/Pork - Woe/Problem – Wrath/Anger – Mankind/Humanity – Might/ Power – Hearty/Cordial.

Spanish speakers find English so easy to learn because of the Latin/French vocabulary. Right?

The fact that the nobility, the higher classes, the upper crust, spoke French seeped into the British populace, the hoi polloi, the plebs, and left them agape to this day.

The 18^th and 19^th centuries marked the heyday of the French language which became fashionable to the point that in some European Courts –Prussia and Russia, for example- it was the official language, spoken daily by Catherine the Great and Frederick the Great, for instance. Read the Memoirs of Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798), the lady-killer, where he explains about French.

World-War I gave the French language the coup de grace, the deathblow that started its decline, slowly but surely.

Up till the fifties French was the language of choice in US schools, now supplanted by Spanish.  It has given us also French kiss, French cuff, French bread, French chalk, French leave, French toast and, of course, French letter, French horn, and French fries.

The present:

La langue française still has that aura of elegance, of continental flair, of culture, of haute couture, great cuisine, prêt à porter, champagne, The Pink Panther, among the English-speaking peoples, probably handed down from generation to generation since the Battle of Hastings in 1066. So, by all means do sprinkle your discourse with smatterings of Gallic phraseology, with bons mots that will enhance your reputation as a savant. Mind not if you are tagged as a pedant, or idiot-savant. What is important is to do it at the right time, in the right place so as not to make a faux pas. Envy, as the Bible tells us, “slayeth the silly man.”

 

ERNEST HEMINGWAY AND THE SAN FERMINES

In For Whom  the Bell Tolls Hemingway wrote “There are no other countries like Spain…There is no other country in the world like Spain.” Did Hemingway help Spain become better known in the Anglophone world or did Spain help Hemingway become a writer?

Born in July, Hemingway died in July. His favorite Spanish festivity was Los Sanfermines, the 7^th of July. He visited Pamplona the 6^th of July, 1923, and was so much taken by the holidays, the bulls, the merriment and drinking that he returned eight more times, until 1959. July was a benchmark in his life and in his relationship with Spain.

“To me a heaven would be a big bull ring with me holding two barrera seats…” he wrote. (Ernest Hemingway : Selected Letters 1917-1961 (1981) edited by Carlos Baker.) His fixation with things Spanish, especially toros, corridas, and the festive atmosphere  around them made his blood boil, and helped him in his writing career. No doubt.

Los Sanfermines became known worldwide thanks to this American Nobel-winning writer who placed the city of Pamplona on the map when, in 1926, he wrote The Sun Also Rises, about some American and British folk who travel to that city to watch bullfights and the running of people on the streets, in front of bulls. He borrowed the title from the Bible, Ecclesiastes: “The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.” 

In 1933 Scribner’s Magazine published his famous masterpiece short story “A Clean Well-lighted Place,” about a Madrid Café, where he paraphrased: “Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada.” James Joyce said this was the best short story ever written.

In 1935 Hemingway came up with another bullfighting novel, Death in the Afternoon, in which he explores the nature of fear and courage, the essence of bullfighting and the passion that it arouses in people, especially among foreigners. The initial run of 10,000 copies sold out in a few days. He made a lot of money with this novel also.

For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1940, was the next novel Hemingway wrote about Spain. The Civil War (1936-39) was the plot of the novel. He started writing it in Cuba and it became a triumph for him, the first edition selling over 75,000  copies. It is set in the Guadarrama  Mountains near Segovia and Madrid. The title was taken from the well-known Meditation by John Donne, “No man is an island.” Most of Hemingway’s titles are memorable and confirm what Camilo José Cela always said, that titles are very important.  

In October 1956, Ernest Hemingway visited Spanish writer Pío Baroja in his deathbed. According to Time magazine he said: “Allow me to pay this small tribute to you who taught so much to those of us who wanted to be writers when we were young. I deplore the fact that you have not yet received a Nobel Prize, especially when it was given to so many who deserved it less, like me, who am only an adventurer.” (Picture at: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/bi8FkUqzskWOdUNICPmkAQ.aspx)

How much did Hemingway owe Spain and Cuba (The Old Man and the Sea)? Of course Cuba and Spain must be grateful to him, but would the great writer have gotten so much fame and so much international recognition without these two Hispanic countries and the themes and experiences he gleaned from them? He paid tribute to both, especially to Spain, recognized his debt and followed in the footsteps of Washington Irving, William Precott and Gerald Brenan  among others, who were taken by Hispanic culture.

Of all possible quotations from For Whom the Bell Tolls, I choose two: “If you stop complaining and asking for what you never will get, you will have a good life.” And from his Nobel acceptance speech: “Writing, at its best, is a lonely life.” It is, indeed.

JOSÉ VILLACÍS

For matters private, I do not read contemporary literature in either language. Today´s novel does not whet my cultural or aesthetic appetite. The classics are still there, time-proven, time-tried and, better still, timeless... So why venture, tread, into the unknown? Why waste my limited attention span on starting authors who have yet to prove themselves and their value? I hold steadfast to my beliefs... but -luckily- now and then, just to see what´s going on around me, I open a new publication.
I chanced upon NO VOLVERÉ by José Villacís, a Spaniard and academic, and I leafed through this novel and what I read here and there made me go to the beginning pages and breeze through it. Academics are usually prigs who write for other prigs. This is not the case here, God be praised! I recommend this work of fiction to the American bilingual discerning reader who will have a taste of excellent contemporary Spanish narrative.
José Villacís, NO VOLVERÉ, (Madrid: Entrelineas, 2010).

APRENDER Y MANEJAR UN IDIOMA MÁS

Aprender un idioma y dominarlo bien, con soltura y a todos los niveles, incluso el propio no es cuestión baladí. Pero ya nos decía Spinoza que todo lo bueno es difícil de conseguir. De no ser así, todos seríamos políglotas. Pero, como siempre, muchos son los llamados y pocos los elegidos... simplemente porque unos hacen el esfuerzo y otros, la mayoría, no se molestan.
Aprender un idioma bien, incluso el propio, es posible... y nos abre las puertas a nuevas maneras de pensar, de acceder a otras culturas, a otras aventuras educativas o espirituales. La inversión de tiempo vale la pena.
Hagamos ese esfuerzo todos y dediquemos unos minutos cada día a mejorar y adquirir más francés, inglés, castellano, urdu... el idioma que sea. Saber dos idiomas redobla nuestras posibilidades. Hablar tres las triplica.
¿Vamos a intentarlo?
Ánimo.

MAGABUSINESS - Intereconomia business TV

Check this:
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.intereconomia.com%2Fprograma%2Ffilologo-excelencia-del-magabusiness-delfin-carbonell&h=9f498

Chasing the American Dream

The great lexicographer Hugh Rawson who, by the way, favors me with his kind friendship, has started a new career as a blogger (whatever that may mean) and I would like to suggest you visit his place at
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hugh-rawson/chasing-the-american-drea_b_782503.html.
Chasing the American Dream is a very good essay on this subject. My last visit to the States made me think that a nightmare is looming somewhere in the background... but I am getting old and, as you now, old people dote and have foolish impressions of reality.
Let me know what you think.

Lapsed ito forgetfulness

I have lapsed into forgetfulness, almost oblivion, I admit, but recent books have kept me very busy. Books are not difficult to write, but they take time. But excuses begone! I will be in touch again from now on.

JOSÉ MARÍA CARRASCAL / JOSÉ ORTEGA Y GASSET

Ortega y Gasset was and is, I think, one of the most important thinkers of the last century. It is well known that Spaniards are not much given to write about themselves, to publish memoirs, autobiographies or collected letters, unlike the English who love to expose their private lives and those of their friends. Ortega tried to start some sort of an autobiography but gave up after the second page. José María Carrascal has just written Autobiografía apócrifa de Ortega y Gasset, Marcial Pons, 2010, where he tries to show the inner Ortega as he appears in his own writings. This book is so recent that I have not yet had a chance to read it. But I wanted to let you know because both are fascinating characters. I am sure it's going to become a must-read. I'll keep you posted.

PEDRO ÁLVAREZ DE MIRANDA

I am sorry to inform my American friends that this guy Pedro Álvarez de Miranda has been elected to the Real Academia Española, on the sole merit of having written one book, up to 2006. One, only one: Palabras e ideas: el léxico de la ilustración temprana en España (1680-1760) and published by the Academia itself, where he was working as a printer's devil or something of the sort.
Have you ever heard of a painter who cannot produce a single painting to show his art? Here we have a wordsmith who's never composed a dictionary and yet he is considered a lexicographer.
You have guessed right: I own it I have a bone to pick with this servile sycophant, this flunky, this fawner.

Dr. John Simpson - Editor-in-Chief, OED.

FOREWORD

By John Simpson
University of Oxford

My introduction to Spanish proverbs occurred when I was working on the letter A for the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. The earliest piece of evidence I had for the proverb It takes all sorts to make a world came from Thomas Shelton’s seventeenth-century English translation of Don Quixote: ‘In the world there must bee of all sorts’. I think the information has stuck with me all these years because I wasn’t expecting the first reference to an English proverb to come from a Spanish source. I’m not sure why I wasn’t expecting this: after all, English (at least since the Norman Conquest) shares much of its proverb heritage with the countries of continental Europe. But following the trail of many words, I imagined that we would find early references to English proverbs in Latin, or in French, rather than in Spanish.

But this European heritage of proverbs is strong. Many exist in parallel in a number of European languages, as the records of these languages show. Proverbs often arise as a response to the trials and tribulations of human existence, and the European experience meant that a proverb that was relevant to Spaniards, or to the French, may well be equally relevant to the English. It took me several years more to realize that proverbs often arise from adversity. They are often a traditional, stoic response to something that has gone wrong. ‘Oh well, don’t worry: it takes all sorts to make a world’. Not always, but often enough for the proverb to have a significant role in consolation.

Delfin Carbonell’s careful review of the modern proverb in Spanish and English investigates the history of our proverbs, and elucidates their meaning (which is not always as clear-cut as one might expect). Proverbs date from the earliest documentary records and have survived right up to the present-day. They still have a function in contemporary society (how often do they crop up in newspaper headings or in chapter titles, for example?). They connect us with our past, with the thoughts and emotions that our predecessors experienced in situations curiously similar to ours today. And Dr Carbonell is right to draw our attention to the need to work from primary source material. There is a bad old tradition in dictionary writing whereby proverbs are handed down from lexicographer (dictionary-writer) to lexicographer, and this dictionary record can in some cases outlive the existence of the proverb itself in actual speech. By concentrating on living testimony to the proverb (whether in modern books or newspapers, or even on the Internet), today’s editor can highlight those proverbs which are really current today, and can screen out (because of lack of evidence) those proverbs which have drifted out of use and into obsolescence. This necessity to cite real, contextual examples underpins all proper scholarly work in lexicography, and informs sound popular texts based on these. Readers often do dictionary-makers the honour of believing what they write, and so it behoves the dictionary-writer to get things right in the first place.

I shall be interested to see what success the present editor has with his unialphabetical system. As far as I am aware, it is an innovation in bilingual paroemiology (as pedants call proverb study). Any system which forces information on us in a new way is worthy of consideration. Advances in knowledge come from breaking the traditional bounds, and seeing links where they have not been recognized before.

John Simpson
Oxford
April 2004

Unialphabet – Sample Entries

THE NEW DICTIONARY OF CURRENT SAYINGS AND PROVERBS, SPANISH AND ENGLISH

with citations from all English-speaking countries

APPLE

An apple a day keeps the doctor away – una manzana al día de(l) médico te ahorraría.

— “A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play: The sing-song slogan, so similar to an apple a day keeps the doctor away, was discarded by Mars after 40 years...” Independent, Aug 2, 2004. UK. || “Routine chores: I view using Defrag on a Windows machine as the computer world's equivalent of an apple a day to keep the doctor away.” Palm Beach Daily News, FL, Aug 2, 2004. US. || “She also wrote that while eating an apple a day might keep the doctor away, eating an onion a day would probably keep everybody away.” The Southern Illinoisan, IL, Jul 29, 2004. US. [a Dicho muy popular en inglés que tiene un poso de verdad ya que la manzana es una fruta muy saludable. La equivalencia castellana que ofrezco aparece en varios refraneros pero es, como se ve en MANZANA, traducción del inglés. La coletilla añadida al refrán por el Southern Illinosian es de Graffitti: Two Thousand Years of Wall Writing, 1971.]

The rotten apple injures its neighbors – la manzana podrida pierde (pudre) a su compañía.

— “But one bad apple can spoil the whole barrel.” D. McKenzie, Raven Feathers his Nest, 1979. UK. || “We do have blighted properties in a given block -- and blight, like a rotten apple in a basket, can spread. You've got to nip it in the bud.” CNI Newspapers, WI, 16 Jan 2004. US. || “School. Many students choose to excel in academics or sports. A few rotten apples do not always spoil the whole bunch.” Henderson Daily Dispatch, NC, May 24 2004. US. [a De origen latino: “pomum compuctum cito corrumpit sibi junctum.” Existe cita de 1340. Su uso ha decaído aunque existen variantes, como la de la segunta citación que se aporta.]

APRENDER

Nunca es tarde para aprender – never too old to learn.

— “¿El magisterio? No es que me vea dando clases a niños dentro de unos años, pero creo que nunca es tarde para aprender.” El Correo Digital (Álava), 13/12/2003. Esp. || “El disco tiene su música como banda de sonido, es más orgánico. Nunca es tarde para aprender.” El Tiempo, 14/8/2004. Colom. || “Nunca es tarde para aprender, puede ser el lema del mexicano Juan José Ortiz Montuy, quien a sus 86 años obtuvo una maestría en Ciencia Política...” La Nación, 15/8/2004. Venzl. || “... de su edad, sabe ya que con voluntad, decisión y dedicación, es posible retardar la natural involución del cerebro, que nunca es tarde para aprender y que...” Revista Cambio, 1/8/2004. Esp. [a Séneca, Epistolae LXXVI “tamdiu discendum est, quandiu nescias: si proverbio credimus, quandiu vivas...” Older people are always whining about their incapacity to learn. It’s probably a question of laziness more than age.]

► LORO Loro viejo no aprende a hablar

APRENDIZ

Aprendiz de todo, maestro (profesional) de nada – Jack of all trades, master of none.

— “Trata en lo personal, sin esforzarse demasiado, de mejorar al leerse la imagen interior que tiene de sí. Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada, no se empeña en buscar giros ampulosos y alambicados.” Augusto Roa Bastos, Vigilia del Almirante, 1992. Para. || “No es admisible un superfedatario omnipresente, conocedor de todo y maestro de nada.” El Mundo, 22/11/1994. Esp. || “El reportero es un aprendiz de todo y un maestro de nada.” El Mundo, 15/3/1996. Esp. || “Raphael es un aprendiz de todo y profesional de nada, siempre que se me ve he logrado ser un poco mejor que la ocasión anterior...” La Prensa, 5/6/2004. Nicar. [a Those who try to learn many trades end up being masters of none.]

APRETAR

► ABARCAR Quien mucho abarca, poco aprieta

APRIL

April showers bring forth May flowers – marzo ventoso y abril lluvioso traen a mayo florido y hermoso.

— “April showers may or may not have brought May flowers. In case they haven't, why not plant a few yourself?” Cleveland Plain Dealer, OH, 9 Jan 2004. US. || “... stop raining? Who can care that April showers bring May flowers, that there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?” Washington Post, DC, 2 Jan 2004. US. [a Una variante es “April showers bring May flowers”, ya desde 1560 y que sigue muy vigente en la actualidad. Existe en varios idiomas europeos. Tras la adversidad viene la buena fortuna, las flores y el buen tiempo.]