Thread: Gringo. ¿Que signífica?

Originally Posted by vicente

2

P.S. What would you call a community in Argentina (or elsewhere) that is a mixture of Europeans and North Americans? (a bunch of gringos? )

No vicente... en Argentina los gringos (al menos en la provincias) son los Italianos o descendientes de Italianos que trabajan el campo... "Es un gringo del campo" se escucha normalmente. Los que trabajaban los campos al principios del 1900, con la gran inmigración eran los italianos, todos italianos rubios.... Por eso a los rubios también se les dice gringos...

En esta zona, si vinieras a visitarnos, NADIE te llamaría gringo por ser Americano, en todo caso se referirían a vos como yanki, sin ningún ánimo de ofensa

Originally Posted by vicente

But you don't call a European yanki...do you? I thought that word was only for United Statians (OK, I know that statians is not a word)

A European is "un Europeo" but we use the different nationalities: un Español, un Suizo, un Inglés, un Portugués, etc...

For a United Statian jajaja we say "un Norteamericano" or "a yanki" as I told you before.

Originally Posted by vicente

Do you have a word that would describe an entire community of people from countries other than Spanish-speaking countries?

... No... "son extanjeros" I guess

Hi Vicente!

Mmm, I don't know if we have such communities...

Usually we use some geographical terms, but depending the context (or the voice tone) can be offensive. Like: "Tano" for the Italians, even when it´s a spin-off of "Napolitano"; "Gallego" for all the Spaniards and not only for the Galician people; "Turco" for all the Arabians whether they come from Turkey or not; "Ruso" for all the people coming from the Slavic countries without mattering if they come from Russia or any other country of the region and also for the Jewish.

I suppose the only word likeness of Latino or Hispanic would be "Orientales", that we use to call people coming from far Asia, to avoid mistake a Chinese with a Korean for instance.
And also we call Orientales with affection our brothers from Uruguay.

This thread gets more interesting every time.

creo que se ha ampliado bastante la pregunta puntual original (el uso de "gringo") pero es cierto que el debate sí que se ha puesto interesante... creo que hay varios subtemas que no habría que confundir:
1) cómo les decimos (los de cierto país/región) a los de otro país o región; i.e., "gringos" en Argentina, nada que ver con gringos en EE.UU.; en algunos países de Latinoamérica, me comentan, a los argentinos nos llaman "che" (como a los nacidos en Guatemala se les dice "chapines", a los costarricenses "ticos", a los nicaragüenses "nicos", etc.) con o sin intención de ofender, según cada caso;
2) cómo nos consideramos (por ejemplo, nosotros: ¿latinos? ¿hispanos? ¡definitivamente no somos todos iguales!) y cómo nos llamamos a nosotros mismos: así como los de EE.UU. se llaman "Americans", aunque otros del continente no lo aprueben (y creo q ya se ha comentado que es un uso legítimo, porque parte del nombre del país "United States of America", y como señaló Vicente no existe "Statians");
3) otro subtema (parte del primero) es el uso de esos gentilicios por afecto ("gallego" a cualquiera de España), o con burla o incluso desprecio (por no mencionar ninguno que usamos nosotros, menciono "sudacas", como nos dicen en algunas regiones a los sudamericanos, y sabemos que no es amable...); la intención en sí sería un tema más para un ámbito psicológico o sociológico, ya que se le puede llamar a alguien del mismo modo con un tono muy peyorativo o muy casual, y la intención variará según el hablante;
4) las cuestiones culturales (irse a vivir a un país extranjero, elegir un tipo de comunidad u otra, como mencionaba Vicente) y el hecho de que simplemente te atraiga (o no) un cierto tipo de gente y su cultura (arte, literatura, música)...

(continuará...) (¿continuará...?)

One small point.... Nicaraguans refer to themselves as "nicas" not "nicos" whether they are male or female. As opposed to Costa Rican people who are either "ticas" or "ticos".
As to the use of the name "gringo" in Nicaragua, it can be friendly or offensive depending on the conversation and the intent of the person using it. It generally refers to people from the USA but many times it includes Canadians and Europeans especially if the are blonde and blue-eyed.
I, personally have been called gringo by many and various small children who were being playful and affectionate with me at the time. I have also been called gringo by young punks who were looking for trouble or telling me to go home! But my favorite use of the word is when my Nicaraguan wife makes "gallo pinto" for me. I ask her to add some scrambled eggs, tomato and peppers to it to suit my taste and she calls it "gallo pinto gringo". And I love it!

Also in Nicaragua and in Costa Rica, it is often a term of endearment to call someone after their appearance. For example, if a person is bit fat (chubby as we say in the USA) they might be called "gordito/a". If they are thin they might be called "flaco/a". Or if they are dark skinned, "negrita or morenita". All with much affection and without offense. Me, I have grey hair and they often call me "chele"! As they do many men with grey hair or are light skinned.

Nice comments, JackMcG!

In Argentina it's the same with "gordito/a" (we even use a unisex "gordi"), "flaco/a", "negro/a/ito/a".

I don't know "chele", and now I'm curious! By association, I guess it has to do with "leche" (milk)? (Maybe it's just our "lunfardo" way of reversing syllables...? Like "dogor" is also common here, the reverse form of "gor-do", or "grone"... you can guess that one, right?) Funny but we don't have a name for a white/grey-haired person... We do call "pelado" (bald) a man with no or little hair... All of the above mentioned without offense.