Mexican People's names and their relationships to each other (warm, Polish, to work)

[Deaglan1]

I have started reading the book "Narcoland" by Anabel Hernandez. One thing that immediately causes me difficulty is trying to work out relationships of individuals based on their names. As an example, can anyone explain to me how Don Neto, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, is stated as being the Uncle of Amado Carrillo Fuentes. The common denominator is "Carrillo" but with my very simplistic understanding of the naming of persons in Hispanic cultures, I cannot work out the Uncle-Nephew relationship here. The position of Carrillo in their respective names seems at odds with an uncle-nephew relationship.. The best I can come up with would be First Cousins or because of their generational difference, First Cousin Once Removed. Maybe...probably!!! I am super dumb but I would be very grateful for a clarification.

[SenorChip]

Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo.

The first is the name, the second the father surname, the third is the mother surname.

So Ernesto is uncle of Amado because is cousin of Amado father.

[Deaglan1]

Thank you SenorChip for your response. It is very helpful. From what you say, it would seem to me that the definition of "Uncle" may vary in different cultures. Where I come from, an Uncle would usually only apply to the brother of my mother or my father or the spouse of an Aunt (i.e an Uncle-In-Law). But the term Uncle would not apply to a man who is a cousin of my father or a cousin of my mother.

[SenorChip]

Originally Posted by Deaglan1

But the term Uncle would not apply to a man who is a cousin of my father or a cousin of my mother.

Really, how is in USA? If he´s cousin of your father is your cousin?

[slowlane3]

Originally Posted by SenorChip

Really, how is in USA? If he´s cousin of your father is your cousin?

Yes, my father's cousin is called, in English, my "first cousin, once removed." And my father's cousin's children are called my "second cousins."

[saibot]

This is interesting. SenorChip, are you saying that basically that any relative of my parent's generation would be called "aunt" or "uncle" by me?

In English we usually reserve "aunt/uncle" to mean the literal sibling of a parent, or the spouse of a parent's sibling. My father's cousin would not be called aunt/uncle.

Of course in some families, if the father's cousins have a warm relationship with his children, they may be called aunt or uncle. Especially if they are much older than the children. But even a close family friend can be an "honorary" aunt or uncle in this sense. We understand that we are using that term out of respect and not because they are really aunt or uncle, and many families don't use those words in this way.

[deb100]

Spanish dictionaries define "tío" as being exactly the same thing as "uncle" in English.

[saibot]

Originally Posted by deb100

Spanish dictionaries define "tío" as being exactly the same thing as "uncle" in English.

However, dictionary definitions often don't include details about usage, and words don't necessarily have one-to-one correspondences across languages.

[SenorChip]

Here´s the definition by RAE (Spanish Real Academy):

https://dle.rae.es/t%C3%ADo

uncle, second:

1. m. and f. Cousin of a person's parent.

[malcorub16]

SenorChip 100% is right, my mom's aunt has offspring my age (40ish) and although I call them prima
and primo (here in US they are my second cousins), in Mexico they are my tios/tias. It bugs my mom's aunt that we refer to each other as PRIMOS because in Mexico they are really my tios/tias, but we're in the US and we are second cousins. I guess I will refer to them as "TIOS" if we do ever see each other in Mexico but the point is that in Mex there is no concept of "SECOND COUSINS."

Another peculiarity is that in Mexico my drivers licence and passport name is reversed.

US = First Name, Maternal Last Name (usually reserved for a middle name but I don't have one), Paternal Last Name.
Mexico = First Name, Paternal Last name, Maternal Last Name.

My four kids who are half gringo all have the same Polish last name for their "middle names" here in the US. People in the US find it odd, but I guarantee you when they are older the kids will be more proud of that maternal last name as their middle name than some random name like Sue, Michael, Jane, James or whatever as a middle name.