Talk:Vecino

Don't delete
It has been proposed that this article is a dictionary definition and should be deleted; I have removed the delete tag.

If we are concerned only with the present-day definition of vecino, it is exactly the same as neighbour, dictionary definition, no problem.

However, the early use of the term is totally different. The closest that I am able to come is freeman. In documents from around the fifteenth and sixteenth century people are pointing out that they are vecinos of a place and legitimate offspring of their parents. "…Josef. Victor Rios morisco originario y vecino de este Jurisdicion hijo Legitimo de Luiz Rios y de Maria Antonia Guerra espanola con Maria Luiza Moia espanola hija Legitima de Josef de Jesus Moia ya defunto y de Maria Gertrudis Maldonada originaria de Serralbo y vecina de esta Jurisdicion de tres anos de esta parte…".

If this were the whole story and freeman were an exact translation, then a redirect to freeman, and a brief mention there that the Spanish equivalent was vecino, would be the best course of action.

But there is more to it than that. I've just been reading it up in Spanish Wikipedia and have found things I didn't know. The meaning was subtly different in different parts of the empire. And that's why it's not just a dictionary definition and needs an article&mdash;no objection has been raised in Spanish Wikipedia.

I haven't added any material from Spanish Wikipedia because it's unreferenced there and doesn't match what I know of the term (it speaks of the old use of vecino as being a family unit rather than a person; I'm only familiar with the American usage, a fairly high-status person). Pol098 (talk) 08:32, 12 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Second the motion. It deserves more explanation as this was a social class that shaped the Spanish empire.Asiaticus (talk) 09:42, 12 November 2010 (UTC)
 * A vecino is just a resident of certain place. So, instead of saying "John Doe, a San Diego Resident" in Spanish it would be "John Doe, vecino de San Diego." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 148.87.1.167 (talk) 02:06, 1 June 2011 (UTC)
 * The previous remark covers one of the two contemporary uses of vecino; it's either resident or neighbour, dictionary definition. It certainly doesn't cover the general early use of the term, particularly in America. Spanish Wikipedia goes so far as to call it an aristocratic title (título nobiliario) in the Provinces of the River Plate. Even the dictionary definition referenced in the as yet very incomplete article documents that the previous assertion is far from the whole story. Pol098 (talk) 22:53, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

An English analogy is the word "gentleman", which is (or was until recently, it is rarely used now) the polite word for any "man" (as in "ladies and gentlemen" for any audience). Historically being a gentleman was as important as being a vecino, and conferred privileges; only a minority qualified. "Gentleman" and "vecino" have lost their cachet. Pol098 (talk) 08:52, 2 June 2012 (UTC)