G for GRINGO.

A very controversial word. Everybody speculates about the origin and also about the intention. Is Gringo an insult, a pejorative way to talk about the Americans as is when Americans use the word “Mexicans” instead of Latino or Hispanic? Or maybe it’s just a colloquial term to avoid to use "Americans" because some Americans are also Hispanic and some Hispanic are also American? When we use gringo, do we actually talk about any American or a specific way of being American? What way is the gringo way? 

Usually you use Hispanic or Latino. What do you use when you have to refer to the rest? How do you make comparisons? Do you use the “General Market”, the “Non Hispanic”, the “Non Hispanic Whites”, the “Anglos”? Are these just euphemism to say GRINGO or can you really tell the difference? Are there African American Gringos or Asian Gringos? Do you think Gringo should be used to talk about someone or to talk about something?

I’m sure you have something to say or to show about it. In English or Spanish. In words, pictures or videos. 

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My parents who were born in Mexico, close to the border, would always tell me that Gringo was actually "Green Go".  The green referenced the uniforms that the Border Patrol men/women used. The Mexicans wanted the "green" to go.  AKA, leave them alone and let them cross the border.  I heard that growing up so I am sure some of the details are blurred. 

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The term is frequently used in Mexico and other Latin-American countries to describe a person born in the US (not necessarily still living there), white, and that doesn’t speak Spanish fluently (if at all). It can also be used as a to describe typical day-to-day activities that are different from Latin-American countries (esto es una “gringada”). Whenever I go back to Mexico and greet a woman with a handshake instead of a kiss, my folks would say “Este ya se hizo gringo”. Other names often used to call “Americans” or American products” are “gabacho” used in Mexico, and “yankee” used in Argentina (i.e. Estos zapatos son gabachos.)

In Mexico we may generalize all white Americans as “gringos”, most Asians as “chinos”, regardless whether they were born in China, Japan, Corea, etc., and white skin colored as “gueros” or “bolillos”. I don’t believe the term “gringo” by itself is derogatory. I think that whenever a person hears this term and is not sure about what it means, then they assume it might be bad. It’s just as when you speak Spanish around a non-Spanish speaking Americans; they think you’re being rude because they assume you’re talking about them and you don’t want them to understand what you’re saying –in most cases, this is far from true. 

AMM

I meet with some "incubators/instigators" last Friday to talk about gringo and this is the stuff that came trough: 

- gringo is about the nationality = americans.

- gringo is a word in Latin American countries that usually refers to something that is "guero" or blonde, for instances, the sun (peru)

- gringo is a derogatory word to talk about americans, a reaction to the ugly names for chicanos and mexicans in the USA: wetbacks, beaners, greasers, etc...

Without being derogatory, gringo is not the same than american. American is someone from the north. Gringo is someone that represents gringolandia. Obama is American and Bush is Gringo.

But more than just people gringo is about things and thinking: a way to behave and think (attitudes and believes) that is gringo. Actually you can "decline" the word gringo: agringarse, gringada, etc... as a way to qualify these stuff and the people that has this specific attitude that is the gringo way.

What's the gringo way?

- narrow minded, inability to imagine something different form their way to be (that doesn't mean intolerance)

- personal space is sacred, don;t touch me, don;t talk me, don;t come to my home. One American in the group said that is very gringo don;t say hello in the elevator to people that works in the same office but to say hello in the distance to perfectly unknown people when you are in a boat in the middle of a lake. One Latino observes how gringos never shared their food with others and are germfobic.

- formality, norms, labels that help to move socially into very specific codes. For instances to see in agendas for a professional conference in the beach: resort casual, resort business, business casual, cocktail casual-resort, etc... it's like social skills are not learned from your family and you don;t feel comfortable and socially capable by nature so you need all these stuff. 

- corporate world, what was before the egg or the chicken? corporate cultures doesn;t matter if the companies are american or not are usually very gringas.

- predectibility, the happy hour, the party will have x number of people and will last 2 hours. This is the dress code and this is the food and this is the alcohol... everything that moves away from a predictable esqueme becomes dangerous and the scare starts. Scare is very gringo too.

- excess, obscenity, don;t contain yourself. To drink too much to liberate yourself and to feel legitimacy to be by your own. To become drunk as the only way to escape from the numerous norms and codes you, as a gringo, created to contain yourself. Los gringos (and specially las gringas) no saben beber. Also the excesses in the aesthetics of hollidays, excesses in decoration and consumption of specific stuff.

To be continued...

La Maja

A Gringo Definition.

Take a look at the blog where I found it:

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Aldo Quevedo

The origen of the word Gringo, and urban legends:

Myth:  Gringo comes from "green - go" as in "vete verde."

Mythbuster:  What was green here.  The uniforms?  The paper money (dollars)?  Well, the word Gringo appeared in Mexican newspapers during the Mexican-American War of 1846-48.  During that period in history, Uniforms were blue and paper money was any color you could imagine.  Paper money was issued by banks, counties and states; therefore it was easy to counterfiet and distrusted.  Coins (gold & silver) were what people used and trusted. 

Another point:  Why would Mexicans use the English word "green" instead of a Spanish word....?

Likely origin:  Gringo comes from the Spanish word for a Greek:  Griego.  Griego when used in Spain meant any foreigner.  Likewise, the Spaniards use the word Gabacho to refer to the French and, funny enough, the Mexicans long ago transfered the same word Gabacho to refers to those from the USA.  It is not unlikely that the soldiers fighting in the Mexican-American War learned the word Griego from their officers, most of whom descended from Spain.  Many of the common soldiers probably spoke Spanish as a second language and originally spoke an indigenous language.  The native accent could easily take the IE diphthong and turn it into IN.  Griego became Gringo, and the second word sounds much more hilarious than the first. 

Just how offensive the word is will vary.  It also depends who uses, how they use it and where they use it.  It would not go over well at the UN (ONU), but in Salinas, California, it could be funny.    I personally find the word funny.  It reminds me of Sylvester the Cat chasing Speedy Gonzales and always losing.  (You have to like old, classic cartoons to understand this fully, but the stereotypes of a Gringo chasing a Mexican mouse are there.) 

Now in response (or addition) to other comments on Gringo, I once heard the word used in a purely cultural and non-race-related way.  I also died laughing.  A Mexican who had recently crossed the border in the Arizone dessert was telling us how he did this and whom he met along the way.  His friend, who took the trip with him, heard him mention some Indians who found them and let them spend the night in their garage.  His friend, who wanted to clarify, injected, "Pero estos indios eran gringos!"  So for them, it was a nationality.  They happened to be Mexican Indians and so the one felt the distinction between them and American (US) Indians was important.

Nat Pendleton