Como esta usted? Como estas tu? Como estan ustedes?

Greetings and respect amongst New Mexicans that has gone by the wayside as we lose the ancient language of our forefathers and transition over to English.


I recalled the differences in the then and the now while reading the book titled "Canones, Values, Crisis, and Survival in a Northern New Mexico Village" written by Paul Kutsche and John R. Van Ness and published by the University of New Mexico Press in Albuquerque in 1981.


Here the authors state that "The rules for using tu and usted are clear, and still observed. Children call each other tu, adults call children tu, very close friends call each other tu with an important exception noted below. Strangers and casual acquaintances call each other usted. But usted carries another shade of meaning which over rides familiarity, it is a term of respect. Thus, compadres address each other as as usted no matter how close their friendship or degree of kinship may be , because they are required to show respect for each other, in fact, they may have called each other tu before becoming compadres and have to shift to the respectful term therafter".


 I clearly recall this. I did not even understand the reason for this at the time, but I recall what these folks write in this interesting book. My mothers brother baptized me, he was my padrino and his wife my madrina. As such they were not just my mother's brother and sister in law, they were also her compadre and comadre. And as such she refered to her brother as "usted". She used the same term for her comadre. Como esta usted! Instead as  the usual "como estas tu" that she used with her sisters and other brother.


All of this is going by the wayside. It is going, if it is not already gone. A sad chapter in our always transitioning culture.