Rosie Reay Rosie Reay | The Ebrovoice S A L A Z A R -an enticing name

…one full of mystery and unfolds historical tales of intrigue.

The name smacks of evenings spent around the food stalls of Marrakesh in Morocco, where one’s senses are tantalized by the aromatic spices and enticing food dishes crisscrossing into a crescendo of sheer culinary delights.

Not so, it is a name assigned to a new restaurant https://salazars.es/ in a small friendly seaside town called l’Ampolla in southern Catalonia -the gateway to the Ebro Delta rice lands and nature reserve of over 365 protected bird species. ( The flamingoes are my favourite!)

Yet, the etymology of the name intrigues me further…

Salazar is a surname commonly found amongst the Chinese community in Peru. Why not elsewhere -or is it, as the case may be? The surname means C H E N Hmm!, ascertaining to a date pre-B.C. a Zhou dynasty state, one of the southern Dynasties, literally meaning to exhibit or to explain. Curious that it states the surname is related to Zen.

A more recent notation refers to an old hall from “Sala” and the Basque in the far NW Spain implying Z A H A R as ‘old’. Thus, originated in the Middle Ages from the town blessed as S A L A Z A R in the Northern Burgos region, Castile, Spain. During the 10th century A.D., there is even a Salzar Valley written about.

However, during the 15th century, Lope Garcia de Salazar ( a famous writer) took part in the Reconquista of Cuenca. there he was granted a ‘Fief’,

https://www.britannica.com/topic/fief and founded a noble family.

Evidently, some of his descendants took part in the Conquest of the Americas by intermarrying the name spread across the Americas. More so closer to home with noble wedding partners in the Iberian Peninsula.

Moving on, the Roma people https://www.gitanos.org/la_comunidad_gitana/gitanos_hoy.html.en used to only call themselves by their first name, even though they are ‘fully right citizens, in Spain and in the European Union‘. However, the advent of numerous censuses in the Kingdom of Castillo forced all citizens to record a first name and two surnames. So many of them assigned themselves with names like Mendoza or Montoya even Heredin and the popular choice was Salazar.

Currently, you see fictional characters or villains in the film, “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Dead Man Tells No Tales”. More recently, Salazar Slythern – founder of the Slytherin House, “Harry Potter”, is one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ramon Salazar video game “Resident Evil 4”. King Salazar, the main antagonist of the animated film “Wakko’s Wish”. Rosario Salazar is from the TV series “Will and Grace.”

Zalazar (Hispanic) altered form of the Basque Salazar, whereas in Colombia the Shephardi-Jewish heritage name also belongs to many non-Jews from Basque.

@theebrovoice