Don’t forget redesigning the Venezuelan flag so the horse on it looked to the left rather than to the right.
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
“Van” means “they go” – how do you get that from sugarcane?
[/QUOTE]
Sugarcane makes rum, rum makes you go. 
Who TF really cares? People with lots of time in their hands I’d wager.
Meantime I still make my living somewhere here and will continue to do till I manage to retire back to the Motherland…Al-Andalus I believe it’ll be called if we’re to believe another nutter.
[QUOTE=Little Nemo]
Don’t forget redesigning the Venezuelan flag so the horse on it looked to the left rather than to the right.
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The horse looks to the left (google “Venezuela flag”)… depending on what side of the flag you’re looking.
But he should redesign it anyway: the horse is a European import.
[QUOTE=RedFury]
Who TF really cares? People with lots of time in their hands I’d wager.
[/QUOTE]
So Chavez has a lot of time on his hands then?
[QUOTE=Gymnopithys]
The horse looks to the left (google “Venezuela flag”)… depending on what side of the flag you’re looking.
But he should redesign it anyway: the horse is a European import.
[/QUOTE]
So is almost all Venezuelan culture, including the language.
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
Since no one has provided a link yet – link
Since nothing is officially “named” Latin America in the first place, I don’t see how it can be “changed” to something else. “Latin America” is just an informal descriptor, not an actual name for anything, so it isn’t possible to “change” it. If Chavez wants to use his own descriptor, what do I care? It’s not like anybody else has to use it.
[/QUOTE]
That’s what I was going to say.
Look at any atlas or any globe, and find me where it says “Latin America” anywhere!
Short answer: it doesn’t! There are, of course, millions of people who use the term as shorthand for all Spanish-speaking nations in the Western Hemisphere. What’s Chavez planning to do- track those people down one by one and make them stop saying it?
Why not Incan America?
Latin America, Indian America, it doesn’t matter. It will still be named for a European.
[QUOTE=The Flying Dutchman]
The Term “Latin America” is not synonomous with “South America”. It defines those countries which predominantly speak a Romance hence Latin language .
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The name was created by Napoleon as a tactic to induce the population of the region to think more favorably of France (their fellow Latins), and thereby soften their loyalty to Spain and Portugal.
But there doesn’t seem to be any point to a renaming at this point.
I think it’s one of those things that makes more sense within a given context. To outsiders, it’s all Latinoamérica, Hispanoamérica, whatever. But to indios in Venezuela, they’re Indians, the Latins are the upper classes descended from invaders.
It’s a stance, not a policy, anyway.