I take some pride that my Thursday column marked the first time that a Tribune writer liberated the nickname of a certain Cook County commissioner from the cage of quotation marks.
On first reference to the man who will now challenge Mayor Rahm Emanuel one-on-one, I simply wrote “Chuy Garcia.” And not, as has been our custom, “Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia,” a typographical custom that carries with it the vague suggestion that there’s something odd or frivolous about the name.
As I wrote in this space last November, Chuy is a very common Mexican nickname for men named Jesus. And it no more (or certainly no longer) belongs in quotes any more than Bob belongs in quotes when we refer to Ald. Robert Fioretti, Ted belongs in quotes when we write about U.S. Sen. Rafael Edward Cruz, R-Texas, or Jeb belongs in quotes when we refer to former Florida Gov. John Ellis Bush.
