About

Soldado Caído (Eng: Soldier Down) is a Spanish expression used on social media in reference to videos and images where rejections were spotted before there was any request to be a couple, discussion in public, or other scenarios in which a love interest rejects a person. The term was popularized in many Latin American countries and Spain around 2013, resurfacing every year around Valentine's Day.

Origin

While the actual origin date of the term "Soldado caido" ("Soldier down" in English) is unclear, one of the first examples of the meme being used comes from a May 28th, 2013 post on Memedroid^[1] by the Costa Rican randall0505, in which a girl is asking on Facebook for a boyfriend and a guy comments that he would like to help her with that but she laughs and calls him a friend.

Spread

In 2013, several other memes were uploaded on social media mocking people being rejected by a love interest. The Twitter^[2] post uploaded by @EdwardQuintero5 on September 10th, 2013, shows a Facebook conversation between a girl and a boy exchanging affection until the girl says "I love you best friend." The tweet received 10 likes in 10 years.

Soldados Caídos San Valentín

The expression got more popular through the years on social media, as people assimilated "Soldado Caído" with ​a person who suffers some kind of rejection, disappointment or is ignored after delivering a gift for Valentine's Day or making a romantic proposal on this date. On October 20th, 2020, YouTube^[3] user OFC Portugal uploaded a compilation video with the best "Soldado Caído" memes. The video garnered 158,449 plays and 4,700 likes in three years (seen below).

Various Examples

un minuto de silencio por otro soldado caido pic.twitter.com/P24KN8wySV

— flantasma (@Flantasma1) December 7, 2017

F soldado caído ❌✝️ pic.twitter.com/BdTsyC2FOe

— URBANIAN (@urbaniancom) November 4, 2019

Search Interest

External References