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I have heard the following sentence in the Narcos TV series:

Mírame a Pablo convertido en santo.

Context: Two of Pablo Escobar's hitmen are looking for a woman in her house. One of them sees a poster with a drawing of Pablo Escobar depicted as a saint in the wall and says the sentence above.

What does the pronoun "me" mean in the sentence?

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    Alan, how about an episode number, a time stamp, and the lines before and after? Also, how certain are you that you heard it correctly?
    – aparente001
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 4:34
  • The characters in Narcos definitely abuse dativos superfluos... I would never say me in that sentence.
    – wimi
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 11:52
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    @aparente001 I have double checked what I have heard with the Spanish subtitles. The context that I have provided in the question is enough to understand the sentence, the rest of the dialogue does not add anything relevant.
    – Alan Evangelista
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 17:01
  • The hitman used it to add some emphasis. It is his Pablo, the one he knows, not another Pablo. Moms use this kind of sentences when kids grows and changes.
    – Erick Silva
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 18:05

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In:

  • Mírame a Pablo convertido en santo.

"me" is a dative, of a possessive or ethical type.

It might be possessive because Pablo is one of his hitmen, and ethical because of the emotional involvement. The speaker expresses surprise and some sarcasm at the idea of an evil person being presented as an honorable man.

This use of the verb "mirar" with a superfluous dative is colloquial. In the imperative form, it is usually accompanied by a duplicate direct object.

  • Míramelo a Pablo convertido en santo.

Lots of examples can be found on the Internet with míramelo/s and míramela/s (miramelo/s or miramela/s in dialects where "vos" is used for 2nd person singular).

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    I'd say more than sarcasm, it's friendly complicity. To me that me is the spoken equivalent of the speaker poking his companion with an elbow to call his attention to this ironic fact so that they can smile/smirk together.
    – pablodf76
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 10:34
  • @pablodf76 Yes, you're right. In Spanish we could also say something like: ¿Quién iba a decir que es el mismo Pablo que conocemos? or ¿Quién lo ha visto y quién lo ve?
    – Gustavson
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 11:34
  • Pablo is the boss, the hitmen are the ones talking.
    – rsanchez
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 13:14
  • @Gustavson I didn't understand "it might be possessive because Pablo is one of his hitmen". The sentence is said by one hitman to another and they are talking about their boss Pablo Escobar.
    – Alan Evangelista
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 14:08
  • @AlanEvangelista In that case, the possessive meaning can be justified among colleagues (Look at him, my partner).
    – Gustavson
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 16:25

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