A Tale of Two Americas

There was an interesting article over at The Atlantic yesterday.

The author, a journalist from the U.S. living in Buenos Aires, recounts the shock and offense of her Argentine friends upon hearing the U.S. referred to as "America." Some dismiss the wording as merely inaccurate, while others argue that the term carries overtones of U.S. imperialism:

"That's incorrect," he said, sounding shocked that an esteemed publication would make such a junior mistake. "America is a region, not a country." 

Though I didn't share his reaction, as a U.S. citizen living in Argentina I had quickly learned that it was in best taste to avoid referring to myself as an "American" or the U.S. as "America." Such terminology almost always provoked my Argentinian acquaintances. "We're all Americans," some would say gently, with a smile. In extreme cases I would receive a tirade denouncing U.S. arrogance.

Many Americans (of the U.S., that is) don't realize that Latin Americans also consider themselves Americans. They insist that America is a continent, not a country; thus, the moniker americano can be accurately used to describe anyone in any of the many countries of the Western Hemisphere, but is most often reserved by those we call "Latin Americans" for themselves. Furthermore, "As one Argentine friend explained, 'Someone from the U.S. calling him or herself "American" is equivalent to people from the U.S. traveling anywhere in the world and expecting everyone to speak English.' In other words, many link the practice to that negative U.S. tourist stereotype: rude, culturally unaware and self-centered."

So where does that leave us? Spanish-speakers are lucky in that they have a convenient word, estadounidense, to describe people from the U.S. When I was in Argentina, my host mom called me Marissa la norteamericana to distinguish me from her friend who shared my name -- this is also incredibly vague, but at least it can't be misinterpreted. Unfortunately, English has no such equivalent, although some culturally-aware people have experimented with "USian" on the Internet. A former coworker once told me that she regularly used that awkward term for "of the United States" in all her college papers, and that her professors accepted it as valid.

I think that, beyond the linguistic differences, the two meanings of "America" are rooted in the narratives and ideologies according to which the country and the region have defined themselves. In the U.S., the law of the land is exceptionalism; this is 'Murica, the greatest country in the world. At the same time, while national identities clearly exist in Latin America, the shared cultural, historical, and linguistic heritage of these countries seems to have fostered more of a sense of inclusion: we are all Americans, people of the New World. This may also explain why North and South America are one continent for Latin Americans. (And unfortunately this inclusion hasn't often been extended to indigenous peoples, but I digress)

I'm not sure what the solution is, or if there even is one other than asking people on both sides to be a little more open-minded. At the very least, people from the U.S. travelling abroad, especially to Latin America, should stop calling themselves "American." Spanish teachers should stop teaching americano as the correct translation of "American." And let's all please stop referring to the U.S. as "America," wherever we are.

But as for USian...I think it's a bit like trying to make "fetch" happen.