Compadre

The compadre (Spanish: [komˈpaðɾe], Portuguese: [kũˈpaðɾɨ], [kõˈpadɾi], literally "co-father" or "co-parent") relationship between the parents and godparents of a child is an important bond that originates when a child is baptized in Iberian and Latin American families. The abstract noun compadrazgo (Spanish), compadrio (in Portuguese), both meaning "co-parenthood," is sometimes used to refer to the institutional relationship between compadres.

From the moment of a baptism ceremony, the godparents (godfather and godmother, padrino and madrina in Spanish or padrinho and madrinha in Portuguese) share the parenting role of the baptised child with the natural parents. By Catholic doctrine, upon the child's baptism the godparents accept the responsibility to ensure that the child is raised according to the dictates of the Catholic faith and to ensure the child pursues a life of improvement and success (through education, marriage, personal development, and so forth).

At the moment of baptism, the godparents and natural parents become each other's compadres (the plural form compadres includes both male and female co-parents). The female equivalent of compadre is comadre (Spanish: [koˈmaðɾe], Portuguese: [koˈmaðɾɨ], Brazil: [kuˈmadɾi]). Thus, the child's father will call the child's godmother "comadre," while she will call him "compadre," and so on.

Traditionally among Iberians and Latin Americans, this relationship formalizes a pre-existing friendship which results in a strong lifelong bond between compadres. In its original form, the compadre relationship is among the strongest types of family love soon after one's nuclear family. In many Latin American societies, lifelong friends or siblings who have always spoken to each other informally (using the informal Spanish second-person, tú) may mark their new compadre relationship by using respectful or formal speech (using the formal Spanish second-person, usted).

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