Mexicans calling me "guero". WTF?

The BBQ Pit
41

I think more than one has explained why you’ve received a label.

I, though a mexican, have had the term applied to me more than once (and, usually, by people I have never before seen in my life). It’s a simple term with which to address one, and usually has no real meaning behind it.

However, you mention you’ve been labeled a “gringo” as well. That, my friend, is a derogatory term and means you’re without a doubt a foreigner. It’s not meant to be insulting (AFAIK); however you are by definition an outsider.

42

I forgot to mention: IMHO, mexican society is far from an inclusive one, in racial terms. Don’t even try to apply U.S. political correctness in Mexico.

43

Like guero, gringo is in a class of words that is not derogatory by nature but can be used that way. It is certainly much more apt to be used in a derogatory way in Mexico than in most other places in Latin America.

Here in Panama, gringo is used by both my American and Panamanian friends as a simple slang term for American. No insult or exclusion is implied. I refer to other gringos that way all the time in conversation with Americans and Panamanians.

Now, if someone who knew your name constantly referred to you just as “Gringo,” that could be a bit disrespectful. However, I am quite used to be referred to as “the gringo” when people don’t know my name. (I found out recently that the security guards at my apartment building had a list of tenants in which my apartment was simply labeled “gringo.” And once when I picked up my car at a mechanic’s shop I found that the key had been tagged “Jeep/Gringo.” :slight_smile: )

44

Actually, I haven’t been to Panama and I am not familiar with the “dialect” of spanish used there, so I can’t dispute your point.

The OP referred to Mexico, and in Mexico City at least I haven’t found an instance where the use of gringo isn’t used in a derogative manner. I must admit that in certain instances even I have used it in that sense.

45

Actually, so have I. :slight_smile:

There are a lot of damn gringos around now buying up land all over Panama. I was happier when I was “the gringo” rather than “a gringo.”

46

Long ago, one of my ex-girlfriends found herself a new boyfriend. He was from Mobile and proud of it.

We started off on the wrong foot, so we didn’t get along too well for quite some time. I started calling him “Alabama” every chance I got. I even added a deep Southern twang to the word. And yes, I was trying to get under his skin. It worked.

Eventually, though, we got to know each other better, and “Alabama” was just what I called him sometimes, and that was cool all around.

After half a year or so of not seeing the guy, I ran into him unexpectedly, I said, “Hey! Alabama!” He turned around, grinned, and replied, “Whatcha want, East Texas?”

We went out drinking.

47

I had a Mexican friend at the Restaurant I worked at that would sometimes call me *Cabrón. I knew it had a dual meaning and was a term of endearment rather than an insult, so it didn’t really bother me.

Seems like you are in a similar situation Rigamarole. If I were you, I’d consider it a badge of honor and acceptance. It’s a familiarity, not an insult.

*[From Answers.com] Cabrón- (literally “large goat”), in Mexico and Puerto Rico, implies a prick or a motherfucker. It may also imply that one’s significant other is unfaithful and even worse they are aware of the fact and they’re either too weak or stupid to do anything about it. Among close friends, the term is often inoffensive; however, it is not a word to be used casually with strangers (analogous to the African-American usage of “nigga”). As an adjective it is equivalent to “tough” as “it is tough” (está cabrón). In Panama, it is used as an adjective to mean something/someone very annoying (that pisses you off); it comes from cabrear (to piss someone off). In Peru cabro means faggot, hence cabrón is its corresponding superlative (lit. big faggot). In Spain and Puerto Rico it additionally refers to a husband who has a cheating wife and hence has “horns” like a goat.

48

In Spanish it is actually pretty common to refer to people by color or by origin. It’s more common if there’s confidence… and yes, confidence sucks.

My SiL, who is from Zaragoza, used to adress everybody as “maño”. The term means “someone from Zaragoza, or, more generally, Aragon” because it happens to be what they call each other as an American might say “dude”. Whenever she called my (non Aragonese) brother “maño”, his response was “no dear, it’s you who’s the maña here”. Now she only calls maño those who actually are maños (or everybody if she’s back in Zaragoza, but that’s just her “home accent” comnig back).

One of my coworkers is black. His nickname, of course, is Rubio (blonde). He shares it with another guy whose lastname is Moreno (lit. “black hair”).Calling the first one “negro” would bring the PC Police running. Chiquitín (“little one”) is about 6’4".

In some Latin American countries, lovers call each other “negro” and “negra” no matter what color they are. It’s just completely unrelated.

I’ve had people from Spain, several Latin American countries, France and Italy come asking for me as “where’s that navarrese gal?” or “where’s the spanish girl?” Usually they just couldn’t remember my name; some of them ended adressing me as “Navarrica” (woman from Navarra, with a diminutive to indicate affection, and the diminutive is the one used in Navarra instead of the one used for example in Madrid). One of my Tico customers sometimes threatened with Navarrititica :slight_smile: - Costa Ricans got their “tico” nickname because they pile up the diminutives, Navarrititica has 3.

49

Christ no. See, when a Hispanic wants to phonic English, we write the w as “gu”. As in “güiski” (whiskey). There is a ¨on the u to indicate that it’s pronounced, güero also has one, if you spell it properly in Spanish.

If it was a hard G, it would be spelled juero instead of güero.

50

These people obviously have no respect for what your people have been through…
:rolleyes:

51

By hard “g”, he means a plosive G (as in guía), not a fricative (as in general).

52

… o-k… if that’s the “hard” one, what would the soft one be? That fricative J is about as “jard” as Spanish phonetics get.

Anyway, matt gave me an excuse to add this little guide I’d left out. Thanks! :slight_smile:

j = always fricative

ga = plosive
ge = je = fricative
gue = plosive, u not pronounced
güe = plosive, u pronounced
gi = ji = fricative
gui = plosive, u not pronounced (except in the acronym GUI, where many people pronounce it; people who treat the acronym as a “real word” don’t pronounce it)
güi = plosive, u pronounced
go = plosive
gu = plosive

53

And now you know why phoneticists don’t use terms such as “hard g” :slight_smile: Seriously, though, English speakers use the expression “hard” to mean that a letter is realized as a plosive rather than a fricative, so a hard “c” is one that’s pronounced like /k/, as in caught.

54

Lifetime South Texan here.

Let me emphasize: “Güero” is SO-O not a slur. In fact, it’s invariably affectionate. It simply means “fair one” or “Blondie”.

It has no ugly connotations to it whatsoever. None. It almost surely dates back to the Old Wild West days of the 1800’s, probably even earlier.

I am Anglo-Saxon, white-skinned, but have black hair, and I have often been called “güerito”, in Mexico and throughout South Texas.

To take offense to it is ridiculous. In fact, for you to impute meanspiritedness to it is a bit of an insult to the person who called you that, and makes you look like a prissy prig. Because I guarantee, no pejoration was intended. Let’s face it, if you are not Hispanic, it is likely you DO look different from most Mexicans.

Interestingly, the Mexican word “negrito” to describe a Black person is also NOT a pejorative, not a hateful slur at all. It’s the word they use to describe a Black person. Pure ‘n’ simple.

There is a famous— and much beloved— boxer in Mexico who has white skin, freckles, and sports a thick shock of naturally red hair. His nickname, on TV and in the papers, is “El Canelo”. “The Cinnamon-Colored Guy”. El Canelo is positively worshipped in Mexico, and his nickname is a badge of the great affection and esteem in which he is held by the Mexican people.

In this situation, you need to be bighearted, cosmopolitan, and roll with it. They wouldn’t call you “güero” unless they liked you and felt comfortable around you. Get over it! Some versions of modern PC-ism are petty and ludicrous, truly.

55

But would a zombie find it insulting?

56

This thread’s so old, it’s post-modern. :smiley:

57

Or post-mortem.

58

As I pointed many years ago, it does depend on the context. I do remember that a term like “El Negrito” does refer to a black person and can be used affectionately, but it can turn rapidly into a slur when said in anger as it can mean in English: “The little back boy”.

A very bad thing to say as one Honduran political leader found out when he in anger told that to Obama; when the Honduran attempted to justify the removal of an elected president in Honduras and the Obama administration, as well as virtually the whole world, pressured the Honduran government for free elections ASAP.

59

I know this thread is old. But somebody had to set this guy straight, and teach him to roll with these affectionate Mexican nicknames.

60

Obama was so cool, so genial, so magnanimous… I’m sure privately he just smirked and rolled his eyes at being called “el Negrito”.

It’s not like Central Americans have ANOTHER word for a Black person. They don’t.

There was a lawsuit in San Antonio awhile back: a Black hairdresser worked in a hair salon where his fellow cutters were Mexican-American. He got all up-in-arms because they would sometimes call him “el negrito”. The Black man thought this was tantamount to being called a “nigger”.

FAR from it. “Negrito” is the word— the generic word— they use to describe an African Black person. “-ito” is not a pejorative suffix… it’s a term of endearment affixed to any noun. Abuelita= my dear sweet grandma, etc.

Unfortunately, the black hairdresser won the lawsuit and I forget what penalty was imposed upon his “horrible” co-workers.

All this is truly PC-ism taken to a ludicrous extreme. We all need to get over ourselves with some of this extreme, nitpicking PC stuff.