‘Mer-cans as far as the eyes can see

"Pregunta del Dia by Esther J. Cepeda"

"P-d-D" translates from Espanol into "Question of the Day" and today’s comes from Julia, a faithful Carbondale, IL, reader who emailed:

Q. Last week I hosted my annual Group Study Exchange Team through Rotary International. Over the past few years I have hosted teams from Germany, Italy, Philippines, India and the latest was from Brazil.  I usually have one of the team members stay in our house.  This year I had two young women from Brazil (both age 24 and lawyers) and they told me something that I had not heard before. 

It seems that other citizens of the Americas (North or South) think it is somewhat arrogant for people in the US to refer to themselves as "Americans." Their view, if I understand it, is that all of us in the Americas are Americans and people in the US shouldn’t have title or a patent on the designation. 

I wondered if you were aware of this and had a opinion, comment, etc. My question was "If you don’t call people in the United States ‘Americans’, then what do you call them… "Unitarians" ?!!!!!

A. Ahh, Julia – oceanchild, seashell eyes, windy smile – you’ve stumbled into a particularly prickly point of contention. This one goes into the same bucket as "don’t call me Spanish, I’m not from Spain," but I’ve digressed.

My best pal, Wikipedia, defines the Americas thusly: "the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, consisting of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. The Americas cover 8.3% of the Earth's total surface area (28.4% of its land area) and contain about 14% of the human population (about 900 million people). The Americas may alternatively be referred to as ‘America’ however, ‘America’ may be ambiguous, as it can refer either to the entire landmass or to the United States of America."

Here’s another one for you, our neighbor to the south? Well, down there it’s officially, as well as commonly, known as "los Estados Unidos Mexicanos," according to mami Cepeda. Yep, "the United States of Mexico." I won’t bore you with a wobbly recitation of all the states that make up that union or, as an additional example, those of the Republic of the United States of Brazil.

Take away Mexico and you still have approximately 34 million Canadians, 40 million Central Americans, and 371 million South Americans sporting all manner of non-U.S. American pride.

Let’s join hands, Julia, we’re all Americans!

And, yeah, it bugs the heck out of many, many of those 445 million Americans who don’t live somewhere between L.A. and New Yawk that "United States of America" citizens – known globally as believing that they alone are the center of the universe – don’t know or care enough about their continent-mates to know that Americans come in all different languages and cultures from across countless borders.

But don’t fret, there’s no need to revert to something as inartful as "Unitarians"! It’s been my experience that people in other countries of the Americas don’t want Americans to stop calling themselves "Americans," they just want Americans to know that there are plenty of other Americans out there and a great many of them love mami and apple flan, or Écouter and pomme tarte, even if they do get teary-eyed at something other than the "Star Spangled Banner" at sporting events.

Capice!?

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Comments

[aadchgo]

Esther, i have been thinking about the fact that citizens of both Canada, Mexico and points south are as American as I am for some time. For this reason when I fill in the arrival card on returning to the USA I answer the question of citizenship? with what I am reasonably certain is the correct answer: United States citizen.
Andy

[Steve Porras]

In my experience, residents of Mexico call residents of the U.S.A., when being polite, either "norteamericanos" or "estadounidenses." Literally, North Americans or United States-ers. Not exactly very accurate geopolitically, but I know what they mean.

When in Mexico, I generally refer to myself as a Tejano (Texan), as it solves many problems at once: country of birth, what part of the U.S.A. I came from, and what my background is. Again, not very accurate geopolitically, but generally they know what I mean. I've never asked, but I think they may appreciate the fact that I've answered their questions without staking a claim to all of the Americas. It's worth a try, no?