No Soy Gringo

This week I have another new maestra (teacher), Rocío, and I really like her teaching style. We have discussion most of the time (for about the first 3 hours) and then she breaks down some grammar for me during the last hour. In our conversation today the history behind the word “gringo” came up. I don’t use it much, because of the negative connotations behind it, though I’ve heard the word on several occasions and have been referred to as such in various places.

Well, the etymology of the word is actually English, not Spanish, a combination of the words “green” and “go.” Supposedly it was first used in Panamá, perhaps around the time of the Panama Canal period or sometime after its construction when U.S. troops where stationed in and around Panama City. Local Panamanians would chant at the U.S. troops - who wore green fatigues - to go home. The chant “Green-Go” became “Gringo.” I guess the U.S. troops wouldn’t have understood “Verde Va.”

Anyway, the catch phrase/word spread and today in certain Latin American countries it has more of a negative stigma attached to it than in some others. For example, in Panamá, it is really meant as a slur (this perhaps sheds some more light on some of my experience in Panama City). In Ecuador, the term is more of a label and not so much meant to cut someone down. La Mariscal for example is nicknamed “Gringolandia” (haven’t been to that part of town once yet this trip).

To wrap up, I’ve heard the word a few times on the basketball court and in other places. I’ve also been referred to as “white boy” in the states when playing ball, though I’ve gotten the opposite of that at times too if people want to associate my skills with my “darker” ancestry. Though I can’t stand any of these labels, there’s partial truth in all of them.

This weekend when playing ball in Quito, some people said that they thought I was Brazilian or Argentinean. I guess when you spend 12 hours of the weekend playing ball and hanging out with folks in el Parque de la Carolina (the biggest park in the city), people here don’t really associate that with how most “gringos” like to spend their time. Funny thing is, I was glad when I was (mis)taken for being from South America.

In the end, people may try to label me how they want, but I refuse to fit myself into their boxes and let them constrain me. As Audre Lorde said:

“If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies and eaten alive.”