What the hell is a "North American"?

[marksoc]

My conclusion is that the operative cultural imperative here is "yo". Yo, yo, yo, yo. No vos. Yo soy mas importante que vos. In every example cited this is at the core. A shameless assertion of self-importance permeates the culture from inter-personal to inter-national.

An American (he) criticizing the "me me me" mindset?

And btw: upper-class Argentineans are upper-class people. Of course some of them will not want to have a relation with people they consider to be "inferior". That does not speak of most of us (what we generally call "el pueblo").

 

[genialf]

It is just a completely different cultural mindset, while in the US they teach them there are 6 continents, in latin america they teach us that there are only 5. I am Mexican and I grew up there, and we only learned Europa, Asia, Oceanía (the Australia continent), África and América. They always referred to the US as "Los Estados Unidos" and added "de Norteamérica" when utterly necessary. We were taught the north/central and south is only a subdivision. The continent was named America after Américo Bespucio (Sp?) after he drew the first map of the whole thing (from Alaska to Tierra de Fuego). We latin americans feel as though we were being discriminanted when we're denied to be called "americanos" even though we were born in América (that which we were taught when little - again, totally different mindset). Actually, there is people from the US that place Mexico in Central America -not north-, and it also feels discriminative.

This kind of thing also happens when a capital city is called the same as the country (México, Panamá, Guatemala). In Mexico there is a city AND a state called Mexico. People from the country are called Mexicanos, people from the state are called Mexiquenses, and people from the city are called capitalinos ("from the capital"), or Chilangos (bad name people from other cities usted to call us but now we adopted it) or defeños (derived from DF - Distrito Federal). But sometimes, when they ask you "Where are you from" and you answer "de México" (referring to the city) they get angry ( but then again, when they go to Mexico city -for shopping or Something - they say "Voy a México" and not "voy a la ciudad de México".

So, I think people from the states are kind of correctly called Americans (and North Americans and "estadounidenses"), but Argentines and Mexicans and Brazilians are also americans.

 

[citygirl]

I have never heard any of my friends from any of the countries in South or Central America call themselves Americans. And I would not say that means that much but I would ask anyone on here if they have heard an Argentine/Brasilian/Mexican/Venezuelan/Colomiban/Ecuadorian/Costa Rican/etc/etc say "I'm American?" I would bet no.

So while Argentines might get upset about people from the US using the term, it seems a bit ridiculous since they themselves don't use it.

 

[genialf]

We don't go around sahino we're american, but we do consider we are. Ask around.

 

[steveinbsas]

We don't go around sahino we're american, but we do consider we are. Ask around.

Just who shall we ask?


It's really a matter of which language you are speaking!

NO ONE FROM THE USA (when speaking Spanish) SAYS "SOY AMERICAN."

NO ONE FROM THE USA (when speaking English) says I'm a North American."

It's only an issue of insecurity (or feelings of inferiority) for Argentines.

unless they are just farking with you in the first place..

cause I've never heard an Argentine say (in English) "I'm an American"

The whole issue is a load of crap. When Argentines post about it here they are just shovelling their own on us.

 

[citygirl]

We don't go around sahino we're american, but we do consider we are. Ask around.

Well, given 90% of the people in my life here are local, I can assure you not one of them would ever say "I'm American" when asked their nationality. They very proudly identify as Argentine. (In fact, I'm pretty sure all of them would rather die than have someone think they were anything other than Argentine)

Really, tempest in a teapot.

 

[mercjoe]

My friend, that depends on who you are talking to and whether they have read a single book in their lifes instead of watching US movies or tv shows.

You know, some people don't share your concept of latino as a brown kind of indian/native american looking person speaking Spanish. Splitting the word "latin" from europe is rather a peculiar US concept. And please, I'm not implying there are many people in your country who have never read a book in their lifes.

Around here, those who say I'm latin and those who say they are not are usually both wrong.

I have noticed they don't like it so much when the zapato is on the other foot. They do not care much for being referred to as "Latinos" rather than Argentinos, as if there is no difference in an Argentino and a Boliviano.

 

[mercjoe]

I wonder what if there was a country in europe called united states of europe.


Anyway.

As a kid I used to get mad about those people calling themselves "americans". But when I started thinking about what optons did they have I found myself a little relief

United stateans ? United states of americaneans ?

We don't go around sahino we're american, but we do consider we are. Ask around.

 

[steveinbsas]

I wonder what if there was a country in europe called united states of europe.

Actually, there is (sort of), but it's about to fail.

 

[nicoenarg]

Actually, there is people from the US that place Mexico in Central America -not north-, and it also feels discriminative.

I don't know what Americans you've been talking to but I have never heard of Mexico being in Central America. Mexico = North America along with a bunch of other countries.