dlowan wrote:What's a Caudillo?
According to the DRAE (Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy) a caudillo is 1. "a man who heads, commands and guides people into war", 2. "A man who directs a guild, community or body".
According to the DUSAE (Dictionary of the use of Spanish in the Americas and Spain), a caudillo is 1."A man who holds the supreme command, both military and civilian"; 2. "A person who commands and guides a group of people, usually a group of armed people".
The DUSAE goes further: "The Caudillo is different from the leader... He's, by definition autocratic and impositive, guides himself by intuition... and has always the last word. While the leader shares power and decisions, the caudillo tends to be solitaire, but loves and promotes the personality cult."
Caudillo derives from the latin capitellus (small head) and appeared first in the Covarrubias Thesaurus (1611) with only its military meaning.
While the only head of State who named himself Caudillo is Spain's Francisco Franco ("Caudillo of Spain, by the grace of God", was his official title), it applies more often to Latin American despots.
