[1] Count of the White Whiskers. There are many such titles among the Spanish nobility, dating from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when royalty often bestowed titles referring to personal peculiarities.
[2] The wife in Spain, from the Queen downwards, merges her identity in that of her husband when they are spoken of together, and we have los Reyes, the Kings, instead of the King and Queen; los Duques, the Dukes, instead of the Duke and Duchess; and so on down the whole gamut of society. The practical convenience of this abbreviation is so obvious that I make no apology for adopting it.
[3] As the use of their surnames by Spanish wives is confusing to a foreigner, it may be well to explain that both men and women use the family name of the father and the mother. Thus Antonio Lopez marries Maria Garcia, and his children’s family name is Lopez y Garcia. One of his sons marries Luisa Ramirez, and his children are called Lopez y Ramirez, and so on. A married woman keeps her maiden name. Thus if Maria Garcia y Perez marries Antonio Lopez y Rodriguez, she will be described in formal documents—a will, for instance—or in an announcement of death, as Maria Garcia y Perez, esposa de Antonio Lopez y Rodriguez, although her acquaintances speak of her as La SeÑora de Lopez, or more shortly, La de Lopez. Until they get well on into middle life, women, married or single, are always addressed by their Christian name without any prefix, even by men on a first introduction.
[4] To Spaniards “America” means Spanish America: the inhabitants of the U.S. are always Norteamericanos or Yanquis.
[5] These garments, which are commonly worn by the peasants, are merely a kind of divided apron of leather, covering the front of the body from the waist to the feet.
