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Two centuries after independence from Spain, many Colombians still use “sumercé,” which means “your mercy,” as an address.
By Julie Turkewitz
Photographs through Nathalia Angarita
Report from Bogota, Colombia
After Altair Jasper moved from Venezuela to the Colombian capital, Bogota, he was surprised by the way he addressed himself when he walked into a store, a café, or a doctor’s office.
In a town that was once part of the Spanish Empire, she was no longer “señora,” as she would have been called in Caracas, or perhaps, in her youth, “muchacha” or “chama. “”young woman. “)
Instead, around her, he gave an honorific name that seemed more fitting for a woman dressed in a mantle and crown: Your Mercy.
Would you feel sorry for a coffee?
Will His Grace make the appointment in the afternoons?
“Excuse me, mercy,” other people would say to him as they passed a door or an elevator.
“It took me back to colonial times,” said Jasper, 63, a retired logistics manager, expressing his initial discomfort with the expression. To horses and chariots,” he continued, “perhaps even to slavery. “
“But after experiencing it,” he continues, “I got it. “
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