Talk:Sancho Panza
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We know that the English word "quixotic" means romantic and impractical, and that there is an equivalent Spanish word "quijotesco". There seems to be a related Spanish word "sanchismo", for which there's no English equivalent. What's the exact definition of "sanchismo"?
In the text of Don Quixote I'm reading Sancho Panza is spelled Sancho Pança. Which is the spelling Cervantes used?
Sancho Pança. The Panza spelling was used after Cervantes had died. I think his daughter and other translators used Panza instead of Pança. Sandy June 21:36, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Sanchismos, Pança
Sancho is the not-so-dumb if realist peasant; his practical wisdom, in the form of clever and bitterly ironic refranes, are sanchismos. A refrán is loosely what a proverb is in English. Examples on the Spanish proverbs wikiquote page. The çedilla in Pança is archaic/pre-reform spelling; it is what Cervantes used. It's sound is a soft "th", like in 'the' or 'that'. The 'z' is a hard 'th', like "thud".
Insofar as sanchismos and quijotexco/quijotismos, you need to take into account that Cervantes wrote during the beginnings of the Enlightenment, when the main direction politics and science were taking was under Calvinism and Protestant Europe. He was well aware of the fact that all that became "science" came out of medieval Spain (Universidad de Salamanca, Toledo, Valencia) from the scholars left over from the Moorish occupation. ( He, and Goya later on, were extremely sarcastic about the Enlightenment 'fad' that swept Europe, and enraged by the political shifts going on in France and Germany, primarily due to the accession of the house of Hapsburg.) Cervantes was ridiculing the French romances as vulgar and weak (at the time), not the Spanish ones. The romance actually began in the court of Aragón, then spread into France and Germany via Naples and the French absorption of Gascony, which was Aquitaine and the upper extent of the Basque kingdoms (Navarra) until the 11th century.
Cervantes was, in my opinion, really commenting through the voice of Sancho, not Quixote.
~~Plasticdoor
"Don Quixote pokes gentle fun at the great Spanish hero El Cid, a protagonist in Le chançon de Roland"
Le Chason de Roland, 'The Song of Roland,' has nothing to do with El Cid; to the best of my knowledge, he is never mentioned. It would be an amazing feat, as it was sung well before its officially dated composition in 1080, and was about the historically murky battle of Roncevaux Pass (it is not known who attacked Charlemagne's vangaurd, either the traditional enemy Saracens or Basque peoples) around 780; El Cid died in 1100, and the peak of his fame was around 1090. So, as to Sancho Panza being a caraciture based on El Cid's characterization in the Song of Roland, I am highly suspect.
