\n<\/p>\n
After Altair Jaspe moved from Venezuela to the Colombian capital, Bogot\u00e1, she was taken aback by the way she was addressed when she walked into any shop, cafe or doctor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
In a city that was once part of the Spanish empire, she was no longer \u201cse\u00f1ora,\u201d as she would have been called in Caracas, or perhaps, in her younger years, \u201cmuchacha\u201d or \u201cchama.\u201d (Venezuelan terms for \u201cgirl\u201d or \u201cyoung woman.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Instead, all around her, she was awarded an honorific that felt more fitting for a woman in cape and crown: Your mercy.<\/p>\n
Would your mercy like a coffee?<\/p>\n
Will your mercy be taking the appointment at 3 p.m.?<\/p>\n
Excuse me, your mercy, people told her as they passed in a doorway or elevator.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cIt brought me to the colonial era, automatically,\u201d said Ms. Jaspe, 63, a retired logistics manager, expressing her initial discomfort with the phrase. \u201cTo horses and carts,\u201d she went on, \u201cmaybe even to slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut after living it,\u201d she went on, \u201cI understood.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
In most of the Spanish-speaking world, the principal ways to say \u201cyou\u201d are the casual \u201ct\u00fa,\u201d and the formal \u201custed.\u201d But in Colombia there is another \u201cyou\u201d \u2014 \u201csu merced,\u201d meaning, \u201cyour mercy,\u201d \u201cyour grace\u201d or even \u201cyour worship,\u201d and now contracted to the more economical \u201csumerc\u00e9.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n (In some parts of the Spanish-speaking world there is yet a different \u201cyou\u201d employed \u2014 the hyper casual \u201cvos.\u201d)<\/p>\n In Bogot\u00e1, a city of eight million people nestled in the Andes Mountains, \u201csumerc\u00e9\u201d is ubiquitous<\/a>, deployed not just by taxi drivers and shopkeepers to attend to clients (how can I help your mercy?), but also by children to refer to parents, parents to refer to children, and (sometimes with tender irony) even by husbands, wives and lovers to refer to each other (\u201cwould your mercy pass the salt?\u201d or \u201cyour mercy, what do you think, should I wear these pants today?\u201d). <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It is used by the young and old, by urbanites and rural transplants, by Bogot\u00e1\u2019s most recent past mayor (\u201ctrabaje juiciosa, sumerc\u00e9!\u201d she was once caught on camera<\/a> yelling at a street vendor, \u201cget to work, your mercy!\u201d), and even by the front woman for one of the country\u2019s best-known rock bands, Andrea Echeverri of Aterciopelados.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Spanish founded Bogot\u00e1 in 1538 after a brutal conquest of the Indigenous Muisca people, and the city soon became a center of colonial power. <\/p>\n \u201cSumerc\u00e9\u201d is indeed a relic of that era, and scholars have documented its use as a sign of courtesy in institutional relationships (a letter from the governor of Cuba<\/a> to the conquistador Hern\u00e1n Cort\u00e9s in 1518); a sign of respect in families (one brother-in-law to another<\/a> in 1574); and, in particular, as a sign of servitude from slaves or servants to their masters.<\/p>\n But modern-day advocates of \u201csumerc\u00e9\u201d say that its current popularity lies in the fact that it has lost that hierarchical edge, and today signifies respect and affection, not reverence or a distinction of social class. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ms. Jaspe said she eventually came to see \u201csumerc\u00e9\u201d as a casual term of endearment, as in \u201csumerc\u00e9, qu\u00e9 bonito le queda ese sombrero.\u201d (\u201cYour mercy, how lovely that hat looks on you.\u201d)<\/p>\n After Colombia gained its independence from the Spanish in the early 1800s, \u201csumerc\u00e9\u201d hung on in the department of Boyac\u00e1, a lush agricultural region in central Colombia, just north of Bogot\u00e1.<\/p>\n Jorge Velosa, a singer-songwriter and famous voice of Boyac\u00e1 (he once played Madison Square Garden<\/a> in the region\u2019s traditional wool poncho, known as a ruana) recalled that in his childhood home \u201csumerc\u00e9\u201d was how he and his siblings referred to their mother, and their mother to referred to them. <\/p>\n \u201cSumerc\u00e9,\u201d he said, was a sort of middle ground between the stiff \u201custed\u201d \u2014 used only in his house as a preamble to a scolding \u2014 and the almost overly casual \u201ct\u00fa.\u201d<\/p>\n Eventually, \u201csumerc\u00e9\u201d migrated south along with many Boyacenses, to Bogot\u00e1, becoming as much a part of the lexicon of central Colombia as \u201cbacano\u201d (cool), \u201cch\u00e9vere\u201d (also cool), \u201cparce\u201d (friend), \u201cpaila\u201d (difficult), \u201cqu\u00e9 pena\u201d (sorry) and \u201cdar papaya.\u201d (Literally, \u201cgive papaya,\u201d but more figuratively, \u201cact oblivious.\u201d As in: \u201cYour mercy, don\u2019t act oblivious in the street, you\u2019ll get robbed!\u201d). <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n For the most part \u201cyour mercy\u201d has remained a feature of central Colombia, and is rarely used on the country\u2019s coasts, where \u201ct\u00fa\u201d is more common, or in cities like Cali (\u201cvos\u201d) and Medell\u00edn (\u201ctu,\u201d \u201custed\u201d and sometimes \u201cvos.\u201d)<\/p>\n But in the capital and its surroundings, \u201csumerc\u00e9\u201d is emblazoned on hats, pins and T-shirts and incorporated into the names of restaurants and markets. It is the title of a new documentary<\/a> about Colombian environmental activists. And it is celebrated in songs, podcasts and Colombian Spanish lessons across Spotify and YouTube. <\/p>\n \u201cAt this point it marks no social class,\u201d said Andrea Rend\u00f3n, 40, of Bogot\u00e1. \u201cWe are all sumerc\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A recently released music video<\/a>, \u201cSumerc\u00e9,\u201d by the rapper Wikama Mc, embodies the folk-cool status the phrase has achieved. <\/p>\n In a house party scene that could be set almost anywhere in the Colombian Andes, the artist sports a ruana while celebrating the \u201cColombian flow\u201d of the female object of his affection, who he brags \u201cdances carranga\u201d \u2014 folk music popularized by Mr. Velosa \u2014 and also reggaeton, modern party beats popularized by international megacelebrities like J. Balvin. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cTalk to me straight, sumerc\u00e9,\u201d he raps, before offering his girlfriend a cordial tip of his traditional felt hat.<\/p>\n The song has attracted more than 18,000 views since it was uploaded to YouTube in December. Impressive, considering the artist has 500 followers on the platform.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ms. Echeverri, the rock star, linked her use of the phrase to a punk aesthetic, which seeks a \u201chorizontal\u201d relationship with everyday people. (In a recent video interview<\/a> she used it to draw the program\u2019s host closer, speaking of a remake of one of \u201cthose songs that maybe your mercy has heard so many times.\u201d)<\/p>\n Sumerc\u00e9, she explained in a separate interview, \u201cis affectionate, but also respectful.\u201d<\/p>\n Not everyone sees it that way, of course. Carolina San\u00edn, a well-known writer, has criticized those who argue that \u201csumerc\u00e9\u201d is so ubiquitous in Colombia that it should be embraced, uncritically, as a cultural norm. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Even in a region known for its pronounced inequality<\/a>, Colombia\u2019s class divisions remain particularly entrenched. It takes the average poor Colombian 11 generations to reach the national median income, according to<\/a> the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, two more than in Brazil, three more than in Chile and five more than in Argentina. <\/p>\n Decades of violence have reinforced these barriers, allowing a small group to amass capital and territory. To some, \u201csumerc\u00e9\u201d can feel like a perpetuation or even a celebration of these hierarchical relationships.<\/p>\n