Gringo - Meanings

Meanings

For most Latin Americans the word has only very mild pejorative connotations, or none at all. Typically, the word is simply used to describe someone from the UK or the US. The other three options would be either "Estadounidense" (Unitedstatesan), which is unwieldy, "Americano," which many Latin Americans begrudge, since all inhabitants of the Americas are Americans, or Yanqui (Yankee). However, there is variation between individual Latin-American countries in how the word gringo is used:

• In Mexico, El Salvador, and Venezuela, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic, the term applies to U.S. citizens, and is widely accepted as a colloquial demonym. Depending on the context, it may or may not be pejorative.
• In Puerto Rico, the term refers to U.S. citizens from the U.S. mainland.
• In Cuba the term Yuma is also used with the same meaning.
• In Honduras, the term is used to refer to any English-speakers, but mainly people from the United States.
• In the Dominican Republic the term is also used to refer to non-free-range store-bought chicken (pollo gringo).
• In Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil, the term is applied to Italian settlers and their descendants).
• In some places the term may be used to refer to any foreigner who does not speak Spanish (or, in Brazil, Portuguese) as a native language.
• In Ecuador the term can be used to refer to foreigners from any country (mainly US or European), especially light-skinned blond-haired people.
• In Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Argentina, and Peru the word refers to light-skinned, blonde haired people, whether local or foreign. There may or may not be a pejorative connotation depending on the context of the sentence. For instance "La Gringa" is the nickname for Sofía Mulánovich, a blonde Peruvian surfer.
• In Venezuela the term "Musiú" (Moo-see-oo') is applied to European foreigners, a corruption of the French "Monsieur."