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Enviado el: miercoles, 27 de marzo de 2002 04:31 In my experiences in Mexico, most people just call me a "Gringa" (affectionately and sometimes with a tone of disapproval) in informal settings. In more formal contexts, people generally refer to USamericans as "americanos." This occurrs in both academic and non-academic contexts. When I bring up the issue, my colleagues in academia express immediate recognition. That is, they know about the debate, approve of its general sentiment, but also tend to chalk it up as another instance of the particular senstivity to language and identity in the US. When I bring it up in non-academic contexts people usually respond by laughing, as if to say, "really? but you are an American." There seems to be a general agreement that people from the US have claimed the word, and many of my friends don't seem too worked up about it. They seem to view it as typically USAmerican. Typical in that gringos are hyper sensitive about identity politics, but typical as well in that the US is a hegemon, so it makes sense that they've colonized language as well. Additionally, I've found that people in Spain, France, Holland, and Germany, that I've talked with over the years, also find this a non- issue. In my experience (and I don't claim to speak for everyone), the equation between the US and the designation "American" is either obvious and unproblematic or typical in the above sense. While the people I've encountered are more than happy to engage in a critique of USamericans on the basis of political policy, race-relations, etc., I've had to explain why the way we self-identify in language is an issue at all. Obviously, there are many people who think the issue of language is fundamental to how we conceptualize the things we designate in speech and writing. I think it is important to try to decenter the US's claim on "Americaness" in language. But I also recognize that this is an issue particular to the contemporary social and political climate in the US and the Americas. While I don't advocate language policing or some kind of ultra-political correctness that would require "scare" quotes around every word or a wholescale revision of the English language, I do think that USAmerican is a useful neologism, and that its strength lies in the fact that it is generally unproblematic for people no matter what their ideological disposition or where they locate themselves within the "culture wars". Whenever I have used it, my audience always knows what I am saying and what I mean (that is, that I am referring to people in the US). Questions do come up as to why I use the term, and this usually provides for an occasion to talk about who claims "Americanness." I've found these to be fairly successful exchanges in that no one gets mad or feels defensive, and some people actually think about the issue for the first time. On a few occasions, I've had people edit my writing by crossing out the "US" as though it must be a typo. And I have to admit, that I have yet to try this usage out in publication (I usually just opt for being very carefuly about my use of "American"), so I'm not sure how it would fly with a carefully edited journal or publishing house. Any thoughts? Mary K. Coffey, Ph.D. Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow Internship Coordinator Museum Studies Program Graduate School of Arts and Science NYU 726 Broadway, Suite 601 NY, NY 10003-9580 PH: (212) 998-8086 FAX: (212) 995-4185 mary.coffey@nyu.edu
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