THE VERY ELEGANT "GENTE DE POCO MÁS O MENOS"

 

Yesterday, lying down with eyes half-closed, my roving mind paused to reflect on the sort of politicians that have befallen Spain. The phrase gente de poco más o menos - so elegant, so descriptive, and used by Cervantes, Ricardo Palma, Galdós, and Ignacio Aldecoa - came to me. “People below the salt,” “two-bit people,” “people of little account,” “the ragtag and bobtail,” “the riff-raff” - all seemed apt translations. Politicians in Spain, and many of their American counterparts, are not wicked or malicious; they are merely ignorant, gente de poco más o menos - simply below the salt. O tempora, O mores! as the Afghans, no doubt, are fond of saying.