QUEDARSE PARA VESTIR SANTOS - OLD MAID ON THE SHELF

 

Believe it or not, there was a time when society was crueler than now and language reflected that cruelty with expressions that today we would find hurting. Those expressions are no longer in use simply because we have made forward strides in gender equality, but there was a time when the expression "old maid on the shelf" ("vieja solterona") was applied to women, girls really, who had not gotten married by the age of, approximately, 20. It was understood that they had remained single not by choice but because they were ugly, or their fathers did not have a pot to piss in or such circumstances. The Spanish language came up with the expression: "quedarse para vestir santos" because unmarried girls would spend their time in church, either praying or helping around with the "santos." In English, the old maid was always supposed to be "bitter", "amargada", and had a terrible temper. Luckily, such language is no longer heard but can be read in literature prior to 1980. Language mirrors society, not otherwise. 

Mario Vargas Llosa, Premio Nobel, en su novela de 1977, "La tía Julia y el escribidor" nos dice: "Era una gordita cariñosa, risueña y parlanchina y yo tomaba su defensa cuando en la Familia, a sus espaldas, comentaban que se estaba quedando para vestir santos."