Meaning of Mayoral | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A Spanish-speaking overseer of a bull ranch.
2. A surname.
3. A Spanish-speaking overseer of an estate’s slaves.
   historical

Equivalents

Examples

“A thrust of the lance, and the mayoral says bullring or slaughterhouse.”

“The mayoral was dressed in much the same fashion as the other men but instead of a lance he carried a short braided quirt to emphasize his almost feudal authority. As overseer of the ranch, his commands were limited to monosyllables; more frequently, he merely gestured with the quirt.”

“From the moment the owner and the mayoral decide to call him to the plaza the bull’s life becomes a long succession of shutters and chutes; […]”

“The mayoral who oversees the band, / Before me now is standing, whip in hand, / The straw-hat slouching o’er his olive face, / Sturdy in figure, active in his pace; / Nor coat nor waistcoat incommode his breast.”

“All mayorals of this country, wear a sword about four feet long; and ride about the estate on horse back. […] The counter mayorals are only allowed a whip. They, too, as soon as promoted, with whip in hand assume a bearing and deportment towards their fellows that are cruel and sometimes barbarous; always singing out at the top of their voice. ‘Apresuran! Apresuran!’ (hasten, hasten,) and afterwards laying the whip on the backs of those that do not work as they think they ought.”

“When the denunciation shall have for object to reveal a talking together, or the project of some attempt by a slave or free man against the owner, his wife, son, parents, administrator or mayoral of the estate, the owner is recommended to use generosity towards the servant or servants who have so well fulfilled the duties of faithful and good servants, on account of its so much interesting them to offer a stimulus to fidelity.”

“Wurdemann gave an interesting account of the consequences of a suicide which he witnessed in mid-nineteenth-century Cuba. A Cuban doctor left a suicide note with the mayoral of the estate which Wurdemann was visiting, then drove off the estate and killed himself. Although the suicide note absolved the mayoral of any guilt in connection with the doctor’s death, the mayoral concealed the note from the public officer so that he would not be brought within the clutches of the law.”

“Kenneth Routon (2006) shares an interview with a Brillumba practitioner who speaks about the history of the Rama: […] A black Congo slave from the Carabali tribe, in a moment of rage killed the mayoral. He was tired of his abuse and so he took his machete from him and severed his head.”

CEFR level