THE Spanish Prime Minister’s second surname is Zapatero, which means shoemaker or cobbler (just like the seven-times Formula 1 motor-racing champion from Germany, Michael Schumacher, incidentally).

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s socialist government’s Plan Español, their strategy for combating the recession and unemployment, has been nicknamed the Plan Zapatero. Zapatero’s nickname is Mr Bean, by the way. Check out the photos to see the resemblance to actor Rowan Atkinson! The Spanish premier’s political enemies see him as a clown, too, which makes the nickname very apt!

A female shoemaker is una zapatera, and both zapatero and zapatera are also used for a shoe rack. The murdered Spanish poet Federico García Lorca wrote a play called La Zapatera Prodigiosa, about an initially loveless marriage between a 50-year-old shoemaker and an 18-year-old girl with dubious morals.

Una zapatería is either a shoe factory or a shoe shop, depending on the context.

Un zapato is a shoe, una zapatilla, a slipper or training shoe (ie small shoe) and un zapatón is an overshoe or galosh in Latin American Spanish. Una zapata is a half-boot. Zapatas de freno, meanwhile, are the brake shoes on a vehicle. Zapata, as in the slogan ¡Viva Zapata! was Emiliano Zapata Salazar (1879-1919), a military leader during the Mexican Revolution.

Zapatear is the verb to tap dance, so un zapateado is a kind of flamenco tap dance.

There are a number of sayings related to shoes, including estaban como tres en un zapato (lit: they were like three in a shoe, ie they were packed in like sardines); meter a alguien en un zapato (lit: to put someone in a shoe, ie to bring someone to heel); saber donde aprieta el zapato (lit: to know where the shoe is too tight, ie to know the score).

The word “Cobblers!” in English, by the way, is a vulgar word for testicles or bollocks. The equivalent in Spanish is ¡cojones! Slightly less offensive is ¡chorradas! as in !no digas chorradas! (Don’t talk drivel!).

Keep listening and learning, but be careful!

© Don Pablo

Don Pablo is Paul Whitelock, a graduate in Spanish and German, a retired Ofsted school inspector and former UK languages teacher. He now lives with his German wife near Ronda and is a freelance journalist, translator and interpreter. Paul can be contacted by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by telephone on (+34) 952 87 40 38 or (+34) 636 52 75 16. www.a1-solutions-spain.com 

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Don Pablo: What a Load of Cobblers!
Thursday, 01 July 2010
THE Spanish Prime Minister’s second surname is Zapatero, which means shoemaker or cobbler (just like the seven-times Formula 1...

© 2012 - Secret Andalucia - Guadiaro Valley, near Ronda

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