My wife and I ate at a Mexican restaurant in Georgia today. The restaurant was located in a neighborhood that seemed pretty Latino, based on the business names and other signs. In the restaurant, nearly all of the customers appeared to be Hispanic, and the waitresses all spoke Spanish to each other. We had a great meal, and our waitress was very attentive and helpful, and spoke very good English.
While we were eating, we heard a group of waitresses talking in Spanish to each other, and we heard the word “gringo” a few times. Since my wife and I were the only white people in the place, it seems reasonable to assume they might have been referring to us. Or perhaps they were referring to other non-Hispanic people. I don’t care, and I didn’t feel offended. But is the word “gringo” offensive, or intended as derogative? Is it at all similar to white or black Americans using racial slurs such as “wetback” or “beaner”? Or is it a mild perjorative, or not negative in any way?
Curious to see what people will say. I’ve never thought of it as offensive, but then, I haven’t been around a lot of Latinos. But I have spent a lot of time in a city with a local chain called “Taco Gringo.”
Not really. They probably were just gossiping about la fulana de tal’s new boyfriend.
As mentioned above, the connotation of the word gringo depends completely on context, and varies from country to country.
For example, if it’s used as direct address it can be more disapproving. But often it’s just used as short-hand in a conversation to refer to a third person, indicating that person is not of Latin American origin, but from the States.
As others have said, they would most likely have been referring to you in a descriptive way, so no need to take offense. Now if your waitress had walked up to you and said “here’s your check, Gringo”, you might want to tip less
Around these parts, “all the waitresses spoke Spanish to each other” could be true even in a Chinese restaurant.
OK, that’s pretty much what I was thinking. I don’t go around looking to be offended, and didn’t worry about it. Just curious after my wife mentioned hearing thm say “gringo” a few times. I actually gave the waitress a good tip, as she was nice, attentive, and helpful with ordering.
Interesting. I’m also curious about the status of the word “anglo” to refer to white people.
I’m white, and if somebody meant to offend me, I’d like to be aware they had some problem with me, but I wouldn’t take offense. IMHO we white people have way too many unfair advantages to get offended.
In Canada, “Anglo” isn’t an ethnic or racial term, but a linguistic one, meaning someone whose first language is English. The pair is “Franco”, someone whose first language is French. They are neutral descriptive terms, shortened from “anglophone” and “francophone”.
It is supposed to be derogatory to people who live in the states (as someone said), but personally I never found it offensive. I mean there are worse words to be called.
IMHO, ‘gringo’ is the same as ‘gweilo’ (Cantonese) and ‘laowai’ (Mandarin) in that it’s all in the context of the delivery…I spend 35 years travelling though out China for business, and several years calling on customers in Mexico…this discussion came up several times in each place and always came to that conclusion…I’ve have colleagues refer to me as a gringo and qweilo, always in a good-nature, joking kind of way, but I’ve had ‘gringo’ hissed at me on the streets of Matamoros…I was with a Chinese colleague traveling somewhere outside of Changzhou walking in a train station when a little girl pointed at me and exclaimed, “Laowai! Laowai!”…it was actually kind of funny, she just seemed excited about seeing a foreigner…I don’t know, I wasn’t insulted, maybe there’s just not a lot of laowai in that town…
EDT: If I remember correctly, ‘gweilo’ translates into ‘foreign devil’, so maybe that was more derogatory in it’s root meaning, but I never took it that way, and none of my colleagues seemed to think it was a big deal…
I self apply it when I’m trying to get a patient to slow down because my Spanish is limited. That gets no reaction or a chuckle, but I don’t think anyone’s ever acted like I said something awful.
In my experience, Caucasians don’t seem to be easily offended by words like Gringo when not part of a blatant insult or threat.
When we lived in the Western Pacific, we embraced the label haole. Around the same time, the Fighting Whites intramural team from the University of Northern Colorado were surprised to find their attempt at an insult was loved by those they wanted to hurt.
