Hello NewsFromTheRoad community. Finally after months of searching for a qualified place to lay my haphazard ramblings I have been sagaciously led to this web site. If you’re like me and prefer the nomadic lifestyle, a site like this is the perfect opportunity to log updates of my deer dance with danger, while deftly keeping out of it. I have learned that constant updates are essential if I want to keep worrisome relatives and friends from organizing search parties.
The latest in my excursions was a five month circumambulation of Central and South America. Although in the case of South America it was just the tip. Starting in Guatemala, and ending five months later on the Caribbean coast of Colombia I came to a comfortable relationship with the pseudo-derogatory term Gringo. Sometimes the word was used in a joking manner, while at others it could only be construed as an attempt to start a drunken brawl for the entertainment of all. The term is used on anyone that appears to be of foreign origin or exhibits a dumbfounded expression upon being asked even the most basic of questions, alluding to their ignorance of the Spanish language.
However the term has its roots in the militaristic imperial policies enacted by the United States throughout the 19th, 20th centuries (policies that are evidently still impacting the efforts of independence and self government). Probably the most notable of these policies, with the Contras in a near second, was the US backed secession of northwestern Colombia, commonly known as Panama. When Colombia told the US that they could not have the permission to build the Panama Canal the US intervened and a decade later the nation of Panama was officially recognized. What the Panamanians probably didn’t realize at the time was that the US never had intentions of leaving the newly founded country, and was going to assume control of a 10 mile strip of land that came to be known as the Canal Zone. Throughout the 20th century there was a constant clash between the people of Panama and the US military. There was the constant call for the US to go home, and because the military was routinely clad in the greens of fatigues, the liberating cry became “Green Go!” A term that due to hispanicization, transmogrified into “Gringo.”
Whether or not I spoke with people I am sure that I earned this classification upon entering a room. On one night at the bars, a pasty friend of mine approached a local girl only to be shot down with an admirably sardonic rejoinder: “You’re so white I can see your liver and kidneys.”
Still, I accept the epithet with subdued gusto.
I am now back in the US, only to return to the worst economic times of my life. On many levels I am therefore a misplaced soul.
Whenever I happen to be in front of a computer I will log some stories of the last five or six months.
Editor’s Note – Our otherwise trustworthy correspondent Matt is in error as to the origin of the nickname ‘Gringo’. The term was actually a product of the war between Mexico and the nascent state of Texas, which was struggling for its idependence at the time. Captured Texicans would constantly sing the popular ballad “Green grow the lilacs.” during marches and while imprisoned and the first two words were bastardized into a nickname.
