It’s an insult to be called an American.
Perhaps he was using the old Latin-American meaning of the word “American”: From a country in the Americas, people from the U.S. are “Estadounidenses” (if we are being polite, if not it starts as “Yanqui” and goes quickly downhill from there).
My Latin and South American co-workers have long had a contingent that bristled at people from US being calling themselves American, pointing out correctly that being from the American land mass, they are just as entitled to the term Armerican as someone from the US.
Yeah my Maple syrup and Apple pie and Tequila are all in different cupboards, but they are still in the same kitchen.
Yes, this was how he was using the term. You explained it better than I did.
Also note that Bad Bunny used the word “Americano”, not “American”. As those of us familiar with multiple languages know, it’s not unusual for words to have different connotations between languages. And the context of their usage clearly indicates “resident of the Americas”.
Edited to add:
The speech by Bad Bunny at the Grammys shows plenty of opposition to Trump’s policies.
I will say for European Spanish, “Americano” will almost always be interpreted as being from the USA. I’m not sure if there’s a different connotation in Latin America. There is the more specific term estadounidense to refer specifically to people from the USA, but “Americano” would almost always be assumed to be the same unless otherwise specified.
Edit: Googled around a bit and “Americano” can have both meanings in central America, someone from the US or someone from anywhere in the Americas.
I will echo what has been said before in regards to countries in the Americas being sometimes being prickly(?) about people in the US assuming that American is only the US. There is a song by another Puerto Rican artist named Residente that is called This is not America which is kind of a rebuke on the very topic. Although I am a gringo, I don’t usually refer to anyone from the US as American, especially when writing, as I grew up in South America.
//i\\
It’s awkward because we don’t have a word in English for USA-ian
Trump and his goobers watched Bad Bunny.
Yes, we shouldn’t have to listen to foreign music with incomprehensible lyrics. We should listen to sensible, all-American lyrics like
Bawitdaba, da-bang, da-bang, diggy-diggy-diggy
Said the boogie, said up drop the boogie
Bawitdaba, da-bang, da-bang, diggy-diggy-diggy
Said the boogie, said up jump the boogie
We do, it’s “American.” Every other country that has/had “united states” in their formal title uses the rest of the place name as their demonym. That doesn’t mean “American” doesn’t also mean something else depending on context, but let’s not pretend that isn’t what citizens of the USA are called, because it is.
Of course they would. I mean if only to be able to know if something particularly reaction-worthy happened (not that their reactions weren’t already pre-scripted).
In any case he’ll just later SAY (falsely) that TPUSA’s show had amazing never before seen ratings for a competing show and insult anyone who questions that.
Right, “AmericanO” in Spanish and “American” in English are not and don’t have to be identical in denotative and connotative usage.
OTOH, a lot of Latin Americans tend to fall into the same bad habit as some USAns, and presume that everyone who is “not the USA” thinks of “America” the same way THEY do.
When BB said it in that particular line, speaking Spanish he was contrasting that first he said God Bless America and then immediaty codeswitched and implicitly added “…but to the rest of us this is America”.
and for good reason!
I prefer “Even Trump didn’t watch his own halftime show”.
“Americano” means “From America” and also “From the U.S.A.”, in the southern part of South America the first meaning was once dominant (and is now still significant).
I always wonder though, if “American” means only “From the U.S.A.” what in the hells was Monroe talking about when he said “America for the Americans”? “The United States for the UnitedStatesians?” me thinks the meaning of the word was not always so clear cut in “American” English either.
(Or the perennial favorite interpretation of the left: “America (the whole northern and southern continents) for the Americans (The citizens of the United States)” )
There are several alternatives, including USian, but none of them have caught on. Even alternatives like USian (and estadounidense in Spanish) aren’t entirely exact since Mexico’s formal name is the United Mexican States (Estados Unidos Mexicanos).
“Americans” won’t want to hear it, but it pretty much comes down to ”United States of America” is just kind of an inexact, too broadly applicable name. The only worse option would have been “United States of Earth”.
I find it hilarious that the majority of the posts in this topic are about the Bad Bunny show and are technically off topic :D.
That’s how lame the TPUSA show was.
In hindsight there should have been a dedicated thread for both SB-LX halftime shows so we could contrast and make extraneous comments, but here we are.
BTW the Anglos need not fret about the language anyway, in any given BB track his vocal style makes it hard for some of us to understand up to half of what he says on first listen.
Yes, my native Spanish-speaking friends said they had a hard time, too.