Gringos

T-2 days until departure. Something else came up for me in our preparations. It made me think about our society and the meaning we attach to words, like “Gringo”. While we are in Guatemala, we are going to be working with local high school students. We are supposed to call them chapines and they will call us gringos. I immediately was taken aback, as I had NEVER heard this term used in a positive way and most often heard it used in a negative way.

Having recently read the book Uprooting Racism: How WhitePeople Can Work for Racial Justice, I automatically think twice about anything that is said and make sure I speak up about it rather than brushing it under the rug. I immediately said, “I take offense to that. I don’t want to be called a gringo.” They informed me that it was very neutral in Guatemala and will be used in a neutral way. I was skeptical, but they repeated over and over that it doesn’t mean anything. When I got home that night, I talked to my girlfriend about it and she said she had mostly heard it used negatively as well.

I did some checking to see what the internets had to say about it. Here’s the link to Dictionary.com where many sources are referenced. Here’s the link to UrbanDictionary.com, usually reflects the way a word is used more accurately. This led us to a wider discussion of what other terms are used for someone from the USA (whether positive, neutral or negative). Here’s the list I found: bule, cracker, gub/gubba, gweilli, haole, honky, redneck, roundeye, seppo/septic, ugly, whitey, yank, ofay, peckwood, dink, merkin. If you’re anything like me, you’re familiar with some of these and not with others. Some are obviously meant to be offensive, and others are purely neutral.

I will go with the advice of my fellow-travelers and not take offense to the term while I am on this trip, but I am reserving the right to express my opposition in the future.