El Graduado
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Note: This post was removed by the moderators from the Cozumel sub-forum where I originally posted it. I posted it there as a response to posters on that sub-forum who use the word gringo . I posted it on that sub-forum because that is the only sub-forum I read or post on and I thought it was very appropriate. Apparently, the moderators did not.
I would like to discuss the use of the pejorative word, “gringo”. I am sure many of you will quickly say, “It is not meant to be an offensive word, it is simply another way to label an American." I beg to differ. The word has always been a slur. It has always been used in a derisive manner, sometimes more so, sometimes less so. Using the word gringo to identify an American or Canadian is no different than using words like wop, kike, spic, kraut, Polack, paddy, yid etc., to describe some European. Saying it with a smile does not make it a nicer word. This is what lexicologists call the “non-cancellability of a slur’s derogatory content”. No matter how you say it, it is NOT a term of respect or friendship.
If confronted over the use of the word, a Mexican might say they don’t mean it in a disrespectful way. But, that’s like an American calling his Mexican friend a beaner and then saying they don’t mean it as a put-down. Gringo is and always has been a racial slur; just because it is used frequently by Mexicans in “polite society” doesn’t change its connotation.
Mexicans often say norteamericano or estadounidense are words that are just too big to use. They say they need a shorter word, but they don’t seem to have a problem using the word Quintanarroenses when they speak of residents of Quintana Roo. They say they can’t use American or Americano as a demonym, because everyone is an American in North and South America. That, to me is a spurious argument. Nobody in Mexico or other countries to the south of Mexico call themselves Americano. Nobody. Mexicans call their country Estados Undidos Mexicanos. They call themselves Mexicanos. Americans call their country United States of America. They call themselves Americans, as does the rest of the world.
The Collins Español a Inglés Dictionary says:
“The word gringo is a derogatory term used in Latin America to refer to white English-speakers, usually Americans, especially in the context of alleged economic, cultural and political interference in Latin America”.
The Diccionario de Cambridge Inglés-Español’s entry reads:
“Gringo, noun, informal-disapproving; used in Latin American countries to refer to people from the US or other English-speaking countries”.
The Associated Press style guide says it's a derogatory term for foreigners and advises its use only in quotes.
Sure, you can find dictionaries that don’t mention whether it is a derogatory term or not, but that does not mean it isn’t.
In Mexico, the use of disrespectful epithets is institutionalized through schools, television, popular literature, newspapers and the culture in general. Kids grow up believing it is perfectly fine to call people by derisive nicknames; Gordo, Feo, Flaco, Morena, Negrita, etc. Mexicans use derisive nicknames and epithets so frequently that they become inured to their meanings. One Mexican wrote on a blog: “As cruel as they may be, the truth is that nicknames are chosen to draw attention to the physical defects or morals of the people, and let's be honest, most of the time they cause much laughter. In this habit, we Mexicans stand alone. Applying cruel nicknames has been part of our popular culture for many years and we know how to do it well.” Another Mexican wrote online: “It is sad and heart breaking how we have internalized and integrated racism into language and defend it as part of our definition of culture. We can be better than this as a people.”
When I was a kid growing up in the South, disrespectful epithets were used on a regular basis by me, my family, my peers, and my elders. Hell, everybody was doing it so it must have been OK, right? Once, my best friend in second grade and his mom came over to our house to visit. When she heard me call her son by his schoolyard nickname, “shorty,” she blew a fuse. My friend was born with hypochondroplasia, a mild form of dwarfism. As a seven-year-old, I thought nothing of calling my friend by his nickname (indeed, the only name I had ever heard him called except when the teacher called roll), but his mom set me straight. When I grew older, I realized no matter what your intentions, words like shorty, cripple, retard, niggra, red-neck, and the like were all hurtful words. Saying “But, I (or they) didn’t mean it in a bad way” is just putting lipstick on a pig.
Gringo isn’t the only ethnophaulism many Mexicans apply to Canadians and Americans. Güero, for instance, does not just mean fair-haired or fair-skinned. It comes from the Spanish term huevo huero, or a fertile chicken egg that died during incubation. From there it came to mean pallid and sickly. From there it came to mean pale, thence into American. It is not a neutral term, like “blonde.” It is more like the contemptuous term some black people use to describe white people: Whitey.
Gabacho is another derogatory term Mexicans sometimes apply to Americans. Gavach originally meant a goiter, but it became a slur applied by the Spanish to the Francophone inhabitants of the Pyrenees. When France invaded Spain in 1808, it became a Spanish slur for a Frenchman. When the French occupied Mexico during the 1860s, the Mexicans called the occupying French army gabachos. When the Americans invaded Mexico in the Mexican American War, the Mexicans started calling the American troops gabachos. After the American troops left, the term remained and Mexicans began to apply the slur to any American. The term now includes more than just those occupying troops it originally described, similar to the evolution of the word Nazi, which at one time only included members of the Nazi Party and now is used by certain members of the far left to label certain members of the far right.
Pocho is not meant by Mexicans as a flattering nickname for people of Mexican heritage living in the US who don’t speak Spanish well and who have assimilated into American culture. It is meant as a put-down.
And what about Americans or Canadians who refer to themselves as gringos? I would lump them together with the black Americans who call themselves and other black people niggas. That is a pejorative epithet, regardless of the skin color of the person using it. Saying “I mean it as a term of endearment” or “it doesn’t mean the same when I use it to describe myself or my friends” does not change the fact that the word is a slur. You can’t cancel a slur’s derogatory content by denying you meant it as a slur.
Where did the word gringo originate? Not during the Mexican-American War, as is often reported. The old myths that say it derives from the lyrics “Green grow the Lilacs” or the green uniforms of the American soldiers (Green Go) are incorrect. It was a racial slur as far back as 1787 when it first appeared in the Diccionario castellano con las voces de Ciencias y Artes, published in Madrid, Spain and was listed as a colloquialism that meant “a foreigner who could not dominate the Spanish language”. It is, by design, derogatory. The very best you could say for the word is what one modern dictionary said; that the word gringo is “used with a lack of affection”.
Regardless of what the people who use the word might say to defend themselves for using it, gringo is a term of disrespect. It should disappear from use, but I know I’m tilting at windmills. Uniformed people will continue to say uncivil things.
But, now you have been informed, so I wish people using it would stop.
I would like to discuss the use of the pejorative word, “gringo”. I am sure many of you will quickly say, “It is not meant to be an offensive word, it is simply another way to label an American." I beg to differ. The word has always been a slur. It has always been used in a derisive manner, sometimes more so, sometimes less so. Using the word gringo to identify an American or Canadian is no different than using words like wop, kike, spic, kraut, Polack, paddy, yid etc., to describe some European. Saying it with a smile does not make it a nicer word. This is what lexicologists call the “non-cancellability of a slur’s derogatory content”. No matter how you say it, it is NOT a term of respect or friendship.
If confronted over the use of the word, a Mexican might say they don’t mean it in a disrespectful way. But, that’s like an American calling his Mexican friend a beaner and then saying they don’t mean it as a put-down. Gringo is and always has been a racial slur; just because it is used frequently by Mexicans in “polite society” doesn’t change its connotation.
Mexicans often say norteamericano or estadounidense are words that are just too big to use. They say they need a shorter word, but they don’t seem to have a problem using the word Quintanarroenses when they speak of residents of Quintana Roo. They say they can’t use American or Americano as a demonym, because everyone is an American in North and South America. That, to me is a spurious argument. Nobody in Mexico or other countries to the south of Mexico call themselves Americano. Nobody. Mexicans call their country Estados Undidos Mexicanos. They call themselves Mexicanos. Americans call their country United States of America. They call themselves Americans, as does the rest of the world.
The Collins Español a Inglés Dictionary says:
“The word gringo is a derogatory term used in Latin America to refer to white English-speakers, usually Americans, especially in the context of alleged economic, cultural and political interference in Latin America”.
The Diccionario de Cambridge Inglés-Español’s entry reads:
“Gringo, noun, informal-disapproving; used in Latin American countries to refer to people from the US or other English-speaking countries”.
The Associated Press style guide says it's a derogatory term for foreigners and advises its use only in quotes.
Sure, you can find dictionaries that don’t mention whether it is a derogatory term or not, but that does not mean it isn’t.
In Mexico, the use of disrespectful epithets is institutionalized through schools, television, popular literature, newspapers and the culture in general. Kids grow up believing it is perfectly fine to call people by derisive nicknames; Gordo, Feo, Flaco, Morena, Negrita, etc. Mexicans use derisive nicknames and epithets so frequently that they become inured to their meanings. One Mexican wrote on a blog: “As cruel as they may be, the truth is that nicknames are chosen to draw attention to the physical defects or morals of the people, and let's be honest, most of the time they cause much laughter. In this habit, we Mexicans stand alone. Applying cruel nicknames has been part of our popular culture for many years and we know how to do it well.” Another Mexican wrote online: “It is sad and heart breaking how we have internalized and integrated racism into language and defend it as part of our definition of culture. We can be better than this as a people.”
When I was a kid growing up in the South, disrespectful epithets were used on a regular basis by me, my family, my peers, and my elders. Hell, everybody was doing it so it must have been OK, right? Once, my best friend in second grade and his mom came over to our house to visit. When she heard me call her son by his schoolyard nickname, “shorty,” she blew a fuse. My friend was born with hypochondroplasia, a mild form of dwarfism. As a seven-year-old, I thought nothing of calling my friend by his nickname (indeed, the only name I had ever heard him called except when the teacher called roll), but his mom set me straight. When I grew older, I realized no matter what your intentions, words like shorty, cripple, retard, niggra, red-neck, and the like were all hurtful words. Saying “But, I (or they) didn’t mean it in a bad way” is just putting lipstick on a pig.
Gringo isn’t the only ethnophaulism many Mexicans apply to Canadians and Americans. Güero, for instance, does not just mean fair-haired or fair-skinned. It comes from the Spanish term huevo huero, or a fertile chicken egg that died during incubation. From there it came to mean pallid and sickly. From there it came to mean pale, thence into American. It is not a neutral term, like “blonde.” It is more like the contemptuous term some black people use to describe white people: Whitey.
Gabacho is another derogatory term Mexicans sometimes apply to Americans. Gavach originally meant a goiter, but it became a slur applied by the Spanish to the Francophone inhabitants of the Pyrenees. When France invaded Spain in 1808, it became a Spanish slur for a Frenchman. When the French occupied Mexico during the 1860s, the Mexicans called the occupying French army gabachos. When the Americans invaded Mexico in the Mexican American War, the Mexicans started calling the American troops gabachos. After the American troops left, the term remained and Mexicans began to apply the slur to any American. The term now includes more than just those occupying troops it originally described, similar to the evolution of the word Nazi, which at one time only included members of the Nazi Party and now is used by certain members of the far left to label certain members of the far right.
Pocho is not meant by Mexicans as a flattering nickname for people of Mexican heritage living in the US who don’t speak Spanish well and who have assimilated into American culture. It is meant as a put-down.
And what about Americans or Canadians who refer to themselves as gringos? I would lump them together with the black Americans who call themselves and other black people niggas. That is a pejorative epithet, regardless of the skin color of the person using it. Saying “I mean it as a term of endearment” or “it doesn’t mean the same when I use it to describe myself or my friends” does not change the fact that the word is a slur. You can’t cancel a slur’s derogatory content by denying you meant it as a slur.
Where did the word gringo originate? Not during the Mexican-American War, as is often reported. The old myths that say it derives from the lyrics “Green grow the Lilacs” or the green uniforms of the American soldiers (Green Go) are incorrect. It was a racial slur as far back as 1787 when it first appeared in the Diccionario castellano con las voces de Ciencias y Artes, published in Madrid, Spain and was listed as a colloquialism that meant “a foreigner who could not dominate the Spanish language”. It is, by design, derogatory. The very best you could say for the word is what one modern dictionary said; that the word gringo is “used with a lack of affection”.
Regardless of what the people who use the word might say to defend themselves for using it, gringo is a term of disrespect. It should disappear from use, but I know I’m tilting at windmills. Uniformed people will continue to say uncivil things.
But, now you have been informed, so I wish people using it would stop.
