NICKNAMES FOR PEOPLE IN MORENCI

"There were people that had nicknames. Many people did not know what their names were, their true names, because we knew them by their nicknames." Pedro Gomez, 98 years old

It seems like everybody in Morenci had a nickname. Some nicknames were acquired by people's personal traits such as "El Violin "because he was tall and skinny and "La Patona" because she had big feet. Others were a play on their names or the diminutive such as "Rica"for Ricardo and "Tavito" for Octavio. Other individuals may have received their nickname for something they did or wore, such as "Santo Claus" because his grandmother made him wear a long stocking cap with a pom pom on the end. Sometimes a member of the family acquired a nickname and it was given to the whole family such as "Los Violines," "Las Patonas," "Los Chickens," and "Las Cheladas." In some cases the diminutive form of the nickname was given to a younger brother or sister such as "Hueso's" brother was called "Huesito" and "Caca's" brother was "Caquita." Octavio (Tavito) Marquez, gave me a list of nicknames which grew and grew as I conducted the interviews. Some of the participants knew the person by their nickname but couldn't remember their real name. The following list is the result of interviewing numerous people. If the name is underlined, click on it for that person's interview.