I've been asked by many friends over the last few months what exactly the name "San Chonino" means. I remember when I first started reading BlueDev's blog (being the stupid younger brother that I am) it took me forever to figure out what the name meant. So I thought I'd share the origins of the name.
As some of you know, I served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in New Mexico. That's where I learned Spanish and fell in love with the culture and the beautiful city of Santa Fe. But I started out in Albuquerque, and my second partner was a kid named Sergio Vargas, whose parents were from Guadalajara, Mexico. During this time, he always pronounced my last name, Jones, with a purposely silly spanish accent, "Ho-nes". And this caught on with many of the members of the congregation - they thought I was a funny white kid who for some reason could speak really good spanish and they loved the chance to give me some crap about it.
But one day, Vargas started calling me "Chones" out of the blue. At the time, i just thought it was him being his silly self. Until one day, he called me "Chones" in front of the Ramirez family, and hermana Ramirez thought it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. I asked her why, and she explained to me that the word "chones" in mexico was slang for "women's panties". I was a little irate at Vargas for that, but thanks to hermana Ramirez, the nickname spread like wildfire through the entire congregation, and I eventually accepted it as my name.
Eventually, also thanks to Vargas, it became "Chonsote", which means "BIG women's panties". And again, I took it to heart, and made it my name.
Fast forward ahead about a year. Now I was in Santa Fe, the prettiest city in the southwest, and my partner at this time was a kid named Jesus Arredondo. He liked the nickname "Chonsote" but thought it lacked the gusto it needed. And seeing as how we were living in the city of "Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís" (Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi, for those of you who don't know spanish) he believed I merited the use of the word "San", or saint.
And I became San Chonino - the patron saint of women's underwear. Not the most flattering name, but it stuck just as fast as the others. Many times I'll get calls from acquaintances in New Mexico and they'll always call me an iteration of one of my names. And I've come to love it. It's just me - I'd feel odd under any other name.
But now the question arises - where do many of your nicknames come from? Many of you go by your names, but those of you with pseudonames (pseudonyms! PSEUDONYMS! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!) should share the origins of the nickname . . . at least to sate my bubbling curiosity.