What the hell is a "North American"?

[YanquiGallego]

If that´s the case then it must not just be the US citizens that are ¨misinformed¨ as you say Karla, because in Europe (Spain, France, Germany, etc) the term ¨América Latina¨ is used just as often as Latin America is used in the US to describe this region of the world. Prestigious universities even have departments of Latin American Histories & Studies.

 

[mercjoe]

I dont get it, why should everybody else "deal with it" ?
Why don't YOU deal with the fact that many people don't like to call you americans ?

YOU deal with it !!!

You're still stuck with translation issues while that's not a problem here at all. As for bradleyhale's post, I took that as a joke (it appears as a joke too, you know, United States of America in Mexico? Hahaha, or jajaja).

Again, it matters exactly squat what you or someone else thinks the name of the United States of AMERICA should be. That's what the name is, deal with it. People of the United States of America are called Americans, deal with that too.

Anyone in the Latin American world has a problem with that, well...freakin' deal with it!

Even Israelis are okay with calling Arabs in Gaza and West Bank "Palestinians" and the Argies think they have a point?

PUHLEEZE!

 

[mercjoe]

Oh, absolutely. But many of those universities and those departments actually know what "latin" means, something really far from the US definitions of "latin", "latino" and even "hispanic" which for the average US citizen mean brown people speaking spanish.

If that´s the case then it must not just be the US citizens that are ¨misinformed¨ as you say Karla, because in Europe (Spain, France, Germany, etc) the term ¨América Latina¨ is used just as often as Latin America is used in the US to describe this region of the world. Prestigious universities even have departments of Latin American Histories & Studies.

 

[KarlaBA]

There was one independent country, The United States of America, and then a whole bunch of colonies under European flags.
ONE INDEPENDENT COUNTRY among a host of slaves & subjects of European Empires.
And in the years that followed, every group of people in the Western Hemisphere would look to that one nation for guidance and would hold them up as an example. That country was the American dream. That country was America.


If that´s the case then it must not just be the US citizens that are ¨misinformed¨ as you say Karla, because in Europe (Spain, France, Germany, etc) the term ¨América Latina¨ is used just as often as Latin America is used in the US to describe this region of the world. Prestigious universities even have departments of Latin American Histories & Studies.

The first free country in the Western hemisphere was in fact Haiti in 1804. The US was not a free country until 1865.
The US was certainly NOT admired by all other peoples in the Americas as model. There were millions of people who left the US to escape its particular model.
Early persons of the USA were not in fact called 'Americans'. They were called the American Colonists BY THE British. The French had another name for them, as did the Spanish. The english-speaking people in what is now Canada called them 'Republicans', 'traitors' and 'thieves'.

'Latin America' is not a geographic term for Latin America studies in universities. In that context "Latin America' means the culture of those people who speak Spanish and Portuguese AND who also happen to live in America. This includes people in the USA. The high brow use of the term 'Latin America' by the run of the mill US citizen means 'all people south of the US/Mexico border". This is obviously nonsensical as there are entire nations in said geographic zone which speak no language derived from Latin. Sadly the conventional use of the term 'Latin Americans' by run of the mill US citizens means 'brown skinned people who speak spanish'. You must understand why this is derogatory term - it is analogous to 'negro'.

 

[citygirl]

The first free country in the Western hemisphere was in fact Haiti in 1804. The US was not a free country until 1865.

Huh - 1865? Who knew. Guess that whole pesky 1776 thing didn't count

And I believe this thread is pointing out that just b/c most Argentines would like to reserve the right (if not to exercise it) to call themselves Americans, the fact is, American is in fact a globally used term for people from the US. It is not used to describe citizens of other countries geographically located in the Americas (North, Central or South).

 

[KarlaBA]

Huh - 1865? Who knew. Guess that whole pesky 1776 thing didn't count

And I believe this thread is pointing out that just b/c most Argentines would like to reserve the right (if not to exercise it) to call themselves Americans, the fact is, American is in fact a globally used term for people from the US. It is not used to describe citizens of other countries geographically located in the Americas (North, Central or South).

1776 thing didn't change anything if your skin was black. It actually made the chance of freedom even less.

'American' is not a term used globally for US citizens. It is a term used in the ENGLISH Language and Anglo-US culture for US Citizens. The ignorance of philosophy of language is devastating in this thread.

 

[John.St]

... The concept of 'Latin America' is a US term - a particularly negative one to be frank.

Not at all.

I explained the French origin of "Latin America" in this post: http://baexpats.org/expat-life/20286-what-hell-north-american-2.html#post150551

 

[KarlaBA]

Not at all.

I explained the French origin of "Latin America" in this post: http://baexpats.org/expat-life/20286-what-hell-north-american-2.html#post150551

Wikipedia is a wonderful tool, though understanding the words makes it even better. Origin is irrelevant to contemporary meaning. The contemporary meaning of the term in question as used in the ENGLISH Language is a US version.

 

[Gringoboy]

I'm a Brit and if I had a penny for the amount of times Argentines have asked me:
'So what part of the States are you from?', I would be nearly wealthy.
It doesn't bother me at all, but I often wonder why they immediately assume that I'm from the USA.
Scratches head, nervously.

 

[citygirl]

Ahh.. another pugnacious poster out to educate the great unwashed mases.

Funny your assertion that origin is irrelevant to contemporary meaning of the word Latin. Is that the contemporary meaing you yourself have assigned to it? Because I'm pretty sure that the courses offered at any universitiy (European or American in Latin American Studies would in fact argue against that.

And in re languge, I have heard ameriano/americain/etc used by people in France, Spain, Colombia, Venezuela, Brasil, etc when discussing someone or something from the US. So again, it's not restricting solely to English or to use in the Anglo-Saxon world.

But please, fee free to continue to condescend to the unwashed masses. A pedant needs her pulpit.

ETA - I actually avoid this entire discussion when asked where I'm from or what I am by identifying myself by my city. Eliminates the entire discussion. Of course then I have to spend 15 minutes explaining why I chose to leave NY to move here.