White confusion over ese was memorably parodied in a 2007 episode of the TV show South Park. It became more a general term of address by the 1980s, though ese remains closely associated (and even stereotyped) with Chicano culture in the US.Įse is notably found in the Chicano poetry of José Antonio Burciaga and Cheech & Chong comedy routines (Cheech Marin is Mexican-American.) Or so the story goes.Įse is recorded in English for a “fellow Hispanic man” in the 1960s. Ese is the Spanish name for letter S, which is how the gang members referred to each other. One goes that a notorious Mexican gang, the Sureños (“Southerners”), made their way from Mexico City to Southern California in the 1960s. There are some more elaborate (though less probable) theories behind ese. Ese literally means “that” or “that one,” and likely extended to “fellow man” as shortened from expressions like ese vato, “that guy.” Maybe the next time somebody asks me, "Where are you from?" I will be able to answer, "I am a gringa," and everybody will understand.Ese originates in Mexican Spanish. Maybe one day more people will use gringo in the way my grandma uses it - as a name for Latinos in the U.S. Which individuals and groups get labeled gringo will evolve as the demographics of the U.S. Whether it is a traveler, a person whose language is unintelligible, or a person of foreign birth like me, gringo denotes the idea of otherness. Namely, that it has historically been used to refer to a foreigner. Regardless of the actual origin of gringo, there is a common thread behind all the origin myths and theories. "Está hablando griego, " ("he is speaking Greek"), as in the figurative expression, "It's all Greek to me." Meanwhile, William Sayers of Cornell University traces gringo to the Andalusian word for pilgrim, peregrino, and the Romani word for foreigner. Corominas believes it may have evolved from the Spanish word for Greek: griego. Joan Corominas, an etymologist of Spanish and Catalan, gives us another theory behind the origins of the word. Spaniards used it as a name for people who could not speak Spanish, he said, or who spoke Spanish with a heavy accent. military to leave: "Green, go home!"īut the 1786 Castilian Dictionary by Esteban Terreros y Pando traces the use of the word back to 1700s Spain. In all three of these stories, the message is the same: Mexicans and Latin Americans came up with word because they wanted the U.S. According to him, the word refers to the color of the U.S. military occupation of various Latin American countries. My sixth-grade Spanish teacher claimed that the word was coined by Central and South Americans during the U.S. This particular story claims that the word was a reference to "Green Grow the Lilacs," a song the U.S. She also mentions the folklore that Mexicans coined the word in the 1800s. Varela explains many of the myths surrounding the word, detailing the flaws in the theory that it comes from the words "green" and "go," with "green" being phonetically spelled as "grin" in Spanish. When he complains about a meal we say, " Ese se cree gringo" ("he thinks he's a gringo").īeatriz Varela wrote the chapter "Ethnic nicknames of Spanish origin in American English" in the book Spanish Loanwords in the English Language: A Tendency Towards Hegemony Reversal. My mother and I call my brother a gringo because he doesn't eat gallo pinto, the traditional Nicaraguan dish of rice and beans. Gringo is also sometimes used as a name for Hispanics who are not in touch with their Latino roots, or for any person who is ignorant of Latin American culture or history. It can also be used to refer to Hispanics who speak very little or no Spanish at all. I've heard the term used as a name for people who don't speak Spanish. I've also heard it used as a term for Europeans. Gringo can be used to broadly and inoffensively refer to a group of U.S. Most people think "gringo" is only a derogatory epithet for white Americans, and they incorrectly assume that any use of the word is inherently offensive. I have no concrete ties to Guatemala or its culture. But my grandmother knows that even though I was born in Guatemala, I am a foreigner in the place of my birth. My mother is Nicaraguan, and my father is Guatemalan. I speak Spanish at home, and my last name is Ramirez. since I was 2 years old, most Americans would find it strange to hear my grandma occasionally call me media gringa - a half-gringa. Regardless of the fact that I have lived in the U.S. I may have been born in Guatemala, but I was raised in Florida. I gave him the long answer: I was born in Guatemala, but my mother is from Nicaragua, and I have lived in the U.S. graffiti that reads "Gringos out" in Spanish.Ī college classmate asked me, "Where are you from?"
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