THE POLITICS OF STAYING PUT IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH

Political parties, like other organizations, have a curious tendency to become more autocratic with time. Even parties that loudly condemn dictatorships are not necessarily immune to the temptation to keep their own members firmly in line. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, the PSOE, is a case in point. It has long been associated with the wonderfully evocative expression: El que se mueve no sale en la foto - roughly, “Those who move do not appear in the photograph.”

The meaning is clear enough: toe the party line, stay where you are, and you remain in the picture. Step out of line, dissent, or become politically inconvenient, and you may find yourself excluded from the official family portrait.

This is hardly a new idea. English has the old expression move (or shuffle) your feet, lose your seat, while Spanish has el que va a Sevilla, pierde su silla. Neither is an exact equivalent, but all three convey the same rather unattractive principle: deviation from the expected position may have consequences.

ABC Electrónico (29/06/1997) provides a nice example of the expression in its political habitat: “Los partidos políticos tendrán que tener una estructura interna democrática y, sin embargo, el que se mueve no sale en la foto. "There is, of course, something deliciously contradictory about the idea of a political party having a “democratic internal structure” while warning its members that anyone who moves will disappear from the photograph.