A Discourse on Gringos

It has come to my attention that not everyone reading this will be familiar with a term that I have used several times already in the course of writing these entries: “gringo”. The word “gringo” is ubiquitous in Latin America. Its meaning is somewhat flexible, though it is usually translated as “North American”, “European”, “white-skinned English speaker”, “foreigner” or sometimes just “American”. Canadians can be gringos, as can Brits, Irishmen, Aussies, and New Zealanders. Sometimes even a German or a Swede can qualify. But Americans are the quintessential gringos. I read somewhere that the term dates back to the Mexican-American War, when Mexicans angry at the US occupying army used to chant, “Green go home!” in reference to the American soldiers’ green uniforms. I suspect, however, that this explanation may be just a myth, mostly because I think that American soldiers during the Mexican-American War wore blue uniforms, not green.

If you look the word up in a Spanish-English dictionary, you will likely be told that, though not vulgar, “gringo” is usually used disparagingly. Indeed, there is some truth to this definition. If a Latin American is speaking formally about people from the USA, they will use the word “americano” (“American”) or more often “estadounidense” (roughly “United-States-ian”). A disparaging comment, like an anti-Bush slogan for instance, is much more likely to include the word “yanqui” (“yankee”) or “gringo”.

This connotation, however, only tells half the story. Simply put, disparaging remarks are treated differently here. My friends and I are called gringos all the time; my host mother will introduce me to her friends as her “gringo son”, and my host brothers ask if I’m working on finding a “polola gringa” (a gringa girlfriend). But it goes farther than that. A good friend of mine, who, I should mention, is in excellent physical shape, has acquired the nickname “chancha” from her host family. Chancha, by they way, means “pig”, with all of the negative implications that that term has in English. They even bought her a placemat with a cute little drawing of a pig on it. When my host family is not calling me gringo, they’re calling me “flaco”, which means “scrawny” or “too skinny”, as opposed to “delgado”, which means skinny, but in a good way.

A lot of you probably already know the wonders of “gringo”, so I apologize for such a dry entry. I just want to clear up any confusion; I don’t want any of my friends or family thinking that I pass every day here being bombarded by insults and racial slurs. Speaking of insults, there’s another word that Chileans will sometimes use 2 or 3 times in the same sentence. The word is “huevon”, the great Chilean contribution to the vast pantheon of Spanish vulgarity. I could never do “huevon” justice in a format like this. Ask me about it when I get back.