A U.S. tourist reads the Gringo Gazette in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico.

The Gringo's restaurant in Stafford, Texas.

Gringo (feminine, gringa) is a Spanish and Portuguese word used in Latin America to denote foreign Spanish- and foreign Portuguese-speakers (regardless of race), especially English-speakers from the U.S., and Canadians, Britons, Australians, and Kiwis, and some Latin Americans. ^[1][2][3]

Hispanophones disagree whether or not gringo is derogatory. The American Heritage Dictionary entry classifies gringo as "offensive slang", "usually disparaging", and "often disparaging". ^[4] The usages of gringo sometimes are derogatory, paternalistic, and condescendingly endearing, especially when a foreigner condescends to the people and culture he or she is visiting. ^{[2][3][2][3][5][6]} The enunciation of the word communicates connotation, insult or not. ^[1][2][3] Like many derogatory terms, gringo has been co-opted; drummer Randy Ebright, of the band Molotov, dubbed himself El Gringo Loco (The Crazy Gringo). ^[7]

Meanings

• The Anglosphere: Latino migrants to the USA occasionally use the term as a more derogatory synonym of Anglo.
• Mexico, Central America, the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, certain countries of South America: In these areas the word may mean specifically a citizen of the United States.
• In Central America, the word is not pejorative, merely used to refer to a person from North America. In Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua) the term refers to U.S. citizens^[1] . In the Dominican Republic it also means a non-free range store bought chicken (pollo gringo). In Puerto Rico, the term refers to U.S. American Citizens in the U.S. mainland.
• In the countries of South America where this term is used, the word is not pejorative. In some countries it may be used to refer to any foreigner who does not speak Spanish, but in other countries it is used just or especially to refer to U.S. citizens; it may also be used to describe a blond or brunette white native person with soft facial features and light colored eyes. For instance, it is a popular nickname.^[1]
  • In Uruguay and Chile, apart from being used to refer to citizens of the United States, it can be applied to European people; particularly those who conform to the physical stereotype (blond hair, blue eyes, fair skin).
  • In Peru the word gringo is used all over the country among white and non white population. It is used to refer white Europeans, U.S. citizens and also blond local people. It is not pejorative although creole.
  • In Bolivia, Honduras, Chile and Nicaragua gringo is also used to refer to blonde white local people, not only to U.S citizens. It is not pejorative^[1].
• In Ecuador the word gringo can be used to refer to foreigners from any country, not only the United States, though the likelihood of being described as a gringo increases the closer one's physical appearance is to that of a stereotypical northern European.^[2]
• In Brazil the word is used for north Americans and European citizens (less Portuguese). The word is not pejorative and is not related to eye and hair colors, because blond and light eyed people are common in Brazil.

Etymology

According to the Catalan etymologist Joan Coromines, gringo is derived from griego (Spanish for "Greek"), the archetypal term for an unintelligible language (a usage found also in the Shakespearean "it was Greek to me" and its derivative "It's all Greek to me"). From referring simply to language, it was extended to people speaking foreign tongues and to their physical features - similar to the development of the ancient Greek word ???????? (bárbaros), "barbarian".^[8][9][10] Still, scholars are not in agreement about the correct origin of this word.^[3]

Folk etymologies

There are many popular but unsupported etymologies for this word, many of which relate it to the United States Army in some way or another.

Mexican-American War

A recurring etymology of gringo states that it originated during the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. Gringo comes from "green coat" and was used in reference to the American soldiers and the green color of their uniforms (U.S. Army uniforms of the time were blue). Yet another story, from Mexico, holds that Mexicans with knowledge of the English language used to write "greens go home" on street walls referring to the color of the uniforms of the invading army; subsequently, it became a common habitual action for the rest of the population to yell "green go" whenever U.S. soldiers passed by.

These explanations are unlikely, since the U.S. Army did not use green uniforms until the 1940's, but rather blue ones, and after that brown (early 20th century including World War I).^[11][2]

Another assertion maintains that one of two songs – either "Green Grow the Lilacs" or "O Green Grow the Rushes" – was popular at the time and that Mexicans heard the invading U.S. troops singing "Green grow..." and contracted this into gringo.

However, there is ample evidence that the use of the word predates the Mexican-American War.^[3][8][2][9]

Green uniforms worn in other wars

A Brazilian version refers to the U.S. Army base near Natal during WWII. Supposedly, the American soldiers in green uniform were commanded: "Green, go!" by sergeants This "green go" etymology also exists in Panama, originated when the U.S. Army occupied the Canal Zone, Panamanians would chant Green Go! and "Yankee go home!" when protesting U.S. occupation of their country.

Other "green" derivations

In the Dominican Republic it is said that the term was a mispronunciation of the words "green gold", referring to the green color of U.S. currency, as well as the corruption of the exclamation: "green go!", said to have voiced local opposition within the volatile context of both U.S. military interventions to the Island. Another interpretation makes a generalized character judgment of Americans: "they see 'green' (money) and they 'go' (after it)".

Yet another version, also heard in Brazil, claims that when the British were building the railroads in Brazil in the beginning of the 20th century, they would instruct the locals on how traffic lights worked: red, stop; green, go. The British were thereafter known as gringo.

Other uses

In Mexican cuisine, a gringa is a flour tortilla taco of spiced pork (carne al pastor) with cheese, heated on the comal and then served with a salsa de chile (chile sauce).

In the 1950s, the blue Fifty Mexican peso bill was called an ojo de gringa ("gringa's eye"). ^[12]

Gringolandia

The word Gringolandia (Gringoland) is a mock, single-word name for the United States of America. A possible origin is that the U.S. has no single-word name other than the sometimes ambiguous "America". Gringolandia derives from the compounding of the words "gringo" and "-landia" (land of) into this term.

Quotations

• "Goodbye, if you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. To be a Gringo in Mexico – ah, that is euthanasia!" – Ambrose Bierce (last words of his final written communication, a letter to his niece, Lora, in December 1913.)

See also

• Anglo
• Bolillo
• Farang
• Gabacho
• Gaijin
• Goy
• Güero (disambiguation) (Huero)
• Gweilo
• Old Gringo
• Pakeha
• Pocho
• Use of the word American
• Yankee

References

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