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The use of “La” only for famous ladies.
It’s a pop culture thing to refer to famous ladies using the definite article plus her last name to convey something like “the one and only.” For example:
La Monroe
The one and only Miss Monroe. It’s like if there were no other famous woman with the last name Monroe.
La Taylor
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No other Miss Taylor as famous as Elizabeth Taylor. It doesn’t matter that there may be other famous women named Taylor, la Taylor will be the one and only Elizabeth Taylor for many more years.
La Hayek
Salma Hayek of course.
.
La Kahlo
These are just some examples. There are many more “las” than the ones I just mentioned. La López, la Kardashian, la Minelli, La Merkel? Probably!, La Windsor?…No! Not for the queen. La Madonna?, La Cher? No. It works only for ladies with a last name.
This is used mostly on actresses, writers, singers, mostly arts. I don’t think this is done for men, like there is no El Banderas, el Del Toro, el Picasso, el Cruise.
They do the same in Italy:
La Loren
In Spanish you can say La Loren too.
La Monroe
just like in Spanish.
Originally posted on 20110125. Updated on 20210304 (spanishNY.com) top
