Date: Mon, 4 Aug 1997 20:23:01 -0400

From: "William H. Smith" wh5mith[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ATL.MINDSPRING.COM

Subject: Re: (Garcia) Marquez



At 10:42 AM 7/29/97 -0400, you wrote:

Alan Baragona writes:



I get annoyed when people refer

to Gabriel Garcia

Marquez as "Marquez" instead of

"Garcia Marquez."



Could somebody please explain the protocol here?



As I recall, when I lived in Mexico, people explained to me that "Garcia" was

the matronymic and "Marquez" the patronymic--and the matronymic was

frequently dropped in all but the most formal of situations. Is my memory

wrong? Or are there different practices in different parts of the

Spanish-speaking world? It seems to me that people frequently referred to ech

other by their "last" names rather than their full family names.



In Cuba, at least for my ex-wife's family, the pattern is this: patronymic,

mother's patronymic, father's

mother's patronymic, mother's mother's patronymic. Thus, Fidel Castaro Ruiz

is the son of a Catro father and a Ruiz mother. Ruiz is often dropped.

Bill Smith