If you follow Johan Santana on Twitter — which you should, because it’s Johan Santana — you may have noticed that he recently changed the “name” part of his profile to say “El Gocho believe it!”

Santana also has “El Gocho” embroidered in script on his glove.

So what does it mean? Technically it comes from a word for pig. But a brief Internet search reveals that it was the nickname of former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez, and that it is Venezuelan slang for a native of the Andean parts of Venezuela from which Santana hails. In fact, by this list Santana is the only active Major Leaguer from Merida, Tachira or Trujillo, the nation’s Andean states. He comes from Tovar, a town of about 33,000 in Merida.

The term “Gocho” has its own page on the Spanish-language Wikipedia, and using Google Translate reveals it is at least vaguely controversial. Some people believe it has a derogatory connotation and suggests that Andean Venezuelans are less sophisticated than their urban compatriots. Others claim to say it with love.

I guess a decent comp in American English would be the word “hick,” since plenty of people use it dismissively while others proudly self-identify as hicks. Santana probably uses it with a touch of irony, since he’s undoubtedly a smart dude, and you’ve got to be pretty sophisticated to pull off a vest like that.

Another fun fact revealed from a Johan Santana-related Wikipedia tangent? Santana was discovered and signed by Astros scout Chance Partin, the brother-in-law of Cheech Marin.