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"Ticos and Gringos"

Shakespeare's Juliet spoke true when she said, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet". But she must have meant only names passed on to us by parents and ancestors. For what we choose to call ourselves or what others choose to call us is a different matter. To understand what really lies behind a name, it is useful to look at etymologies - the origin and history of specific words.

Many of you may already be aware that the origin of "tico" - the affectionate name for Costa Ricans - comes from the diminutive (an ending applied to a word to make it smaller) "ito" applied to the ending of a to/ta word like gato/gata ("cat"). Most often, in order to say "little cat" or "kitten", a speaker of Spanish will say "gatito". Another option (among many) is to say "gatico".

At one time this ending was used so extensively by Costa Ricans that they came to be known as ticos. It's an endearing term, free of the sarcasm and prejudice of racial slurs. It's what they call themselves. Rather like the Oregonian who refers to himself as a "webfoot", a Costa Rican is proud to be a Tico.

But what about the word "gringo", the name Ticos give North Americans? Incidentally, they haven't always called us gringos; some 30 years back, we were simply "machos" (another word worthy of discussion, since only in Costa Rica does it have the meaning "blonde" or "North American". Macho in fact, can still refer to U.S. citizens, but gringo has largely replaced it. Despite the fact that in certain parts of the Americas, gringo can mean any foreigner or any speaker of English, most Ticos use it to designate only citizens of the United States.

Their sense of it just may be historically accurate. Two popular stories about its origin both involve folks from the USA. One is that U.S. soldiers, presumably during the Mexican-American War, regularly sang the song "Green Grow the Lilacs". The Mexicans began to identify the solders by the first two words of the song - "Green grow", and this evolved into gringo. The other is that it is what the Mexicans at one time called the soldiers from Texas, who wore green uniforms or as the Mexicans called them - "green coats". Spanish pronunciation naturally converted "green coats" to gringos. At first the word referred only to Texan soldiers, then to Texans, and finally citizens of the USA.

Whether either of these stories is true is anyone's guess. Some linguists believe the term is too widespread to have originated so recently, and that it may date back at least to 16th-century Spain. Whatever the truth, its presumed origins are anything but friendly, and to this day it is an insulting name in Mexico. Whether it is pejorative or not in the mouths of the Ticos seems to depend more on the attitude of the speakers and the tone in which they say it, than on the word itself. If they don't like us, it has a sarcastic edge, something hanging on the edge of, but not quite, a slur. If they do like us, and I believe a great many do, it is a convenient and sometimes affectionate way to distinguish us from themselves and other foreigners.

This brings us back to the original point: What's in a name? Ticos don't usually refer to us as americanos because after all, they, being from Central America, are also Americans. They may call us norteamericanos, but Mexicans and Canadians are also North Americans. The most correct term is estadounidense, but nobody seems to like the sound of it. What then are they to call us, if not gringos?

The real question seems to lie not in what they call us, but in what we call ourselves. We are rather like the Sioux Indians, whose word for themselves meant "The People". We don't acknowledge that other people in the Americas exist. We don't even have a word like estadounidense (Unitedstatesian?). We are simply Americans, the one and only. Probably at one time this reflected more arrogance than it does in this day of the global village, and at this point, we are simply stuck with the term. We must consider however, how our name for ourselves strikes people from other parts of the Americas.

Having become an invisible Gringa in certain circles, I was recently privy to a conversation between two Ticos in which one commented to the other: "The reason Gringos call themselves "Americans" is that they don't know that other parts of America exist. They don't even teach them in the school. They only learn about the history of their own country." Is that what we want Ticos to think of us? What's in a name? I leave that answer up to you. As for me, when people ask, I never say anymore that I'm American. I say I'm from the United States. Oh, and when I talk about my people in everyday conversation, I refer to them as Gringos. Affectionately, of course.

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