Culture —– The Spanish John and Jane Doe, Who are They?
In English (in the United States), when we’re composing a letter that will be used as an example in business or in a textbook, we usually address it with, “Dear John” or “Dear Jane.” And then, at the end of the letter we usually sign it, “Sincerely, John Doe” or “Sincerely, Jane Doe”.
John and Jane Doe, who are obviously married and model citizens here in the United States, also have their names on government and employment forms as they show us, by their perfect examples, the correct way to fill out those difficult forms. Some of us tend to get frustrated as “John” and “Jane” seem to be the epitome of perfection in our society, and we are just the “average Joe” never quite able to reach their high level of perfection.
By the way, “John and Jane Doe” have a less than perfect son named “average Joe”. Joe despises filling out forms and got “Bs” and “Cs” in school rather than “As”. Like his parents, however, “average Joe” also seems to be everywhere in the United States. Whenever we give examples to people about common things that occur in life, we refer to “the average Joe”. We say things like “Let’s consider ‘the average Joe’ in this certain situation”, and so on. Like his parents “John” and “Jane”, he is also very popular in our American culture.
Changing the topic a little, when I was living in my first Latin American town, I always heard about a man named “Fulano” [foo-lawn-oh]. Everyone seemed to know him, but I never had the opportunity of meeting him. After a little while, I learned that his full name was “Fulano de tal” (Fulano of such). As time went on, and I lived in several more cities, everyone still talked about this “Fulano” guy. After some time of being immersed in my new language and culture, I finally realized that “Fulano de tal” is a long lost relative of “John and Jane Doe” and their son “average Joe”. I think he is their third Latin American cousin twice removed whose parents fled from America in the late 1800s after the Gold Rush. He has since traveled throughout Central and South America and seems to have the genetic makeup of all three of his distant American relatives.
I also learned that “Fulano” has two brothers named “Mengano” and “Zutano”. They just so happen to be first cousins with “Tom”, “Dick”, and “Harry” from the United States. So, when people refer to any “Tom, Dick, and Harry” in the United States, they can also refer to their cousins “Fulano, Mengano, and Zutano” in Latin America.
It was fun to learn that “John and Jane Doe” and “The Average Joe”, exist in Latin America in the form of “Fulano”. Just out of curiosity, for international blog readers, is there a “Fulano” type character in your country?
Moral of the Story: Next time you are talking to someone in and they mention “Fulano”, you will know that they are talking about “The Average Joe”, “John or Jane Doe”, or just plain “so and so”.
Sneak peek at next week: “Provecho / Servido – Manners While Someone is Eating”
¡Que tengan buena semana! (Have a Great Week!)
David S. Clark — President / Director
U.S. Institute of Languages
Click here to learn Spanish.
Your mention of how mañana is used both to refer to tomorrow and to morning was interesting. I just returned from a couple of weeks in Honduras, where I was intrigued by the phrase mañana mañana to refer to tomorrow morning. This appears to have been their short version of “mañana en la mañana”.