# Slums



## Christopha

Hi I recall reading that Mexico has a large slum population.

I'm interested to hear any information about this. Anything at all.
What parts of Mexico have the biggest slums?

Is there a correlation between the parts of Mexico that are most violent and the parts that have the most poverty?

Do you think there is any relation between the drug cartels and the slums? (Well you wouldn't think so as there is supposedly no money in the slums but do you think drug activity could be preventing aid getting to the slums or the slum dwellers getting ahead?)


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## TundraGreen

Christopha said:


> Hi I recall reading that Mexico has a large slum population.
> 
> I'm interested to hear any information about this. Anything at all.
> What parts of Mexico have the biggest slums?
> 
> Is there a correlation between the parts of Mexico that are most violent and the parts that have the most poverty?
> 
> Do you think there is any relation between the drug cartels and the slums? (Well you wouldn't think so as there is supposedly no money in the slums but do you think drug activity could be preventing aid getting to the slums or the slum dwellers getting ahead?)


Mexico has a lot of people with little money. And the Mexican government does not have a lot of money. Consequently, there are lots of places that are run down and in poor repair. But I would not call them slums. The only place I have seen anything that might be called by that term would be in the outskirts of Tijuana. Apparently a lot of people migrate toward the border. Not all of them cross and many end up living around Tijuana. There are neighborhoods there with shacks with no running water or sewer connections. 

There is a connection between poverty and violence. Areas where there are the least opportunities make great recruiting grounds for the cartels. Watch the movie "El Infierno" for a very graphic and honest portrayal of the situation in a lot of small towns.


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## chicois8

Any body seeing a pattern developing?


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## RVGRINGO

I look for them here and under bridges. I think I see one now!


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## conklinwh

I think that there is a big difference between poverty & slum. To have what I would call an institutional slum such as one would see in Rio or Mumbai, there must be a real difference with the rest of the city. I would guess that Mexico City might have slums but most places it is just poor people trying to get along. When I went to China in early 1994, the per capita income for China & India was about equal but never found what could be called a slum in China. As one of my Chinese friends said, just about everyone is equal, nobody has anything. I sort of look at most places in Mexico outside expat havens in a similar vein. Hard to have a slum if everybody about the same.
The base question I guess is why the question?


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## Isla Verde

conklinwh said:


> I think that there is a big difference between poverty & slum. To have what I would call an institutional slum such as one would see in Rio or Mumbai, there must be a real difference with the rest of the city. I would guess that Mexico City might have slums but most places it is just poor people trying to get along. When I went to China in early 1994, the per capita income for China & India was about equal but never found what could be called a slum in China. As one of my Chinese friends said, just about everyone is equal, nobody has anything. I sort of look at most places in Mexico outside expat havens in a similar vein. Hard to have a slum if everybody about the same.
> The base question I guess is why the question?


Perhaps to get some sort of reaction from the other posters?


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## conklinwh

I thought maybe looking for a very cheap way to live in Mexico!


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## TundraGreen

conklinwh said:


> I thought maybe looking for a very cheap way to live in Mexico!


All of his/her other posts were in one thread last October about looking for work in Mexico. So it didn't look like it was a troll just trying to stir up reaction, but who knows.


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## Guest

I've never heard the word "slum" used in Mexico. I have heard some areas called "poco feo" (kind of ugly) but words never used that would be considered insulting. 

Women in Mexico (whether in "slums" or not) are considerably better looking than a typical girlfriend in some other countries. I'm not sure if this is a "slum dweller" there or not, because I can't tell if she's got any nasty tattoos, or what her home and neighborhood looks like. Also can't tell if she's from New Zealand because she isn't displaying her passport:


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## Christopha

Awesome thanks. I'll take a look out for it.


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## Christopha

The movie I mean. Thanks.

I can assure you that I am not trying to troll or stir up any kind of trouble and I apologise if the word slum caused offence. The reason I ask is because it concerns me a lot the way wealth is unevenly distributed in the world and how the majority of people are happy to go about their lives buying up big TVs, fast cars, and turn a blind eye to the many people who struggle just for life itself.

I am not a wealthy man by NZ standards but I am comfortable compared to people who have no sewrage system or running water and I don't want to be like the people who turn a blind eye.


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## sparks

Most big cities where the money is have slums. People from the country with no money move there. You can find plenty of articles including those that live in of near garbage dumps and salvage for a living. The question is what can the average person do about it. I'm not extravagant is all I can say

Since there are very few zoning laws in Mexico you'll find shacks next to mansions almost anywhere. There are squatters in the National Parks around Mexico City. Poor towns in the mountains with no electric or school where their only cash crop is growing marijuana.


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## Christopha

Thanks Sparks. Yes I had heard / seen footage of these dumps where the kids rummage through looking for items they might make money off. And what you say also confirms what I read elsewhere, that people unable to make a living off the land move to the cities in hope of a better life, ending up in the slums.

Are you aware of any aid agencies working in these areas?


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## conklinwh

Christopha, going back to your original comment on Mexico & slums. I wouldn't say that Mexico has a significant amount of slums in the category of the Philippines/Manila, India/Mumbai, Kenya/Nairobi but certainly an oligarchy with an uneven distribution of wealth. What impresses me is how positive and energetic the people are and their ability to make lemonade out of lemons in a lot of difficult situations. I also think that maybe for the 1st time ever, there is a growing middle class. I think the downturn really hurt Mexico in terms of remittances but a lot of people have returned that no longer want to settle for the status quo and at least in our little town that has caused a real positive burst of activity with a lot of new businesses and projects.


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## canyankerocha

As I understand it many people are leaving rural areas to find work in cities. Cities are growing faster than governments ability to build infrastructure. Families have occupied land surrounding cities with out permission and so have no services. It is a no mans land of shacks, dirt roads, borrowed electrical lines strung up like spaghetti and open sewers.

Still lives go on - many children live in these unofficial neighbourhoods. You asked about organizations: I volunteer for an organization called Cada Niño Una Sonrisa. This month we worked on a school in one of these areas of Veracruz - we built girls and boys bathrooms, repaired the roof, got a modem and two computers, did general landscaping. I had a team of boy scouts, The teachers and several parents worked their butts off and, yes, there were several teens outside the fence drugged and belligerent. It made me realize what the kids go through to come to school each day.


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## sparks

I saw a documentary on a dump near Mexico City but don't remember where - might look on YouTube

Here's a group in Vallarta
Families at the Dump - Families of Hope Road P.V. - Dear Couz...

Here's one


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## DebMer

sparks said:


> I saw a documentary on a dump near Mexico City but don't remember where - might look on YouTube


Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl, If I remember correctly.


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## Christopha

Thanks. I haven't forgotten about this.


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## FHBOY

Good that you haven't. I suppose if you went looking for slums you could find them anywhere. Unless you or I have a ghastly sense of the "interesting" it is not something to do. I lived my entire life in the USA and can show you slums, by USA definitions, then I could could show you [from two weeks of visiting in Japan], housing that made USA slums look palatial. So, I suppose that there are slums in Mexico, but like anything else, they are a matter of degree.

If you have chosen a place to line in Mexico, then your concern is valid and you should investigate further into how they will affect your life. If this is a sociological question only, and a legitimate one, then I suppose you will find masses of info on the web and the library.

Four Hundred years of industrialization and the evolution of cities and town have invariably created underclasses of those who can't afford "decent" housing, I cannot see that Mexico would be immune to this, after all London, Paris, Buenos Aires, Detroit, Saudi Arabia, Cairo - there are slums everywhere.

Just a thought.


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## Christopha

Thanks. I guess I just want to go to South America.
I was on a course yesterday 'Health Studies' where we have been looking at some WHO documents and the Ottawa Charter. We've learned that, sadly, the 'social gradient of health' is a fact - that those higher up the wealth scale and with higher positions at work live longer healthier lives. Each year 20% of people born low on the scale will move up and 20% will move down (perhaps a NZ statistic). 
Our tutor said that governmental policies that help the lower classes will be detrimental to the higher classes. As the higher class has the power of the vote, policies that help the lower classes won't get voted in. But do initiatives that help those who are struggling the most really work against the most well off? Wouldn't an improvement in conditions for the poor have a positive spin off effect for the wealthy?
I guess there's only so much wealth in this world - so many resources. So if the poor within a country get a bigger slice it has to come from somewhere, or from outside the country. Unless there are resources that are yet untapped, then it's about being sustainable.
It's something I need to think more about.


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## Isla Verde

Christopha said:


> Thanks. I guess I just want to go to South America.


And not to Mexico?


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## Christopha

Mexico, Brazil, Chile. Somewhere there.


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## Isla Verde

Christopha said:


> Mexico, Brazil, Chile. Somewhere there.


I was confused by your post since Mexico is not in South America.


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## FHBOY

A common error - few realize that Mexico is a part of North America - the that the OP tutor has a very good thesis. One must realize that from what I learned about the practice of medicine in Mexico, it takes it out of "3rd world' classification evolving upward.


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## Isla Verde

FHBOY said:


> A common error - few realize that Mexico is a part of North America - the that the OP tutor has a very good thesis. One must realize that from what I learned about the practice of medicine in Mexico, it takes it out of "3rd world' classification evolving upward.


That may be true, but I don't know anyone in the States who thinks that Mexico is in South America. However, in the UK, I heard many people say that Mexico is in South America. Different concepts of geography, I think. 

FHBOY, I have trouble understanding the rest of your post. Please explain!


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## FHBOY

The OP took some time a few posts back to talk about what he'd learned about lower vs. upper classes and I extrapolated it out to health care, my error in reading so quickly.

His NZ tutor seems to be speaking in terms that parallels socialist thinking and in this case not a pejorative. I'd like to disagree with this tutor, but using the current USA as an example, that is difficult.

The OP then espouses a cry we heard during the "99% era" of the USA - that eventually a dearth of resources in the lower classes will affect the upper class as the lower classes will no longer have the resources to buy the goods and services produced by the upper class and getting prices/production/labor into that spiral we all hear about. In the US, this is more a middle class problem than a lower class one.

People like Warren Buffet and other progressive "1% ers" know that this is true - eventually an anchor that drags down one end of the ship will drag down the other. 

BUT
How this applies to a forum on Mexico escapes me, though.


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## ptrichmondmike

FHBOY said:


> I lived my entire life in the USA and can show you slums, by USA definitions, then I could could show you [from two weeks of visiting in Japan], housing that made USA slums look palatial. So, I suppose that there are slums in Mexico, but like anything else, they are a matter of degree.


That is so true. The city I live in currently, Richmond California, is both violent and filled with "slums," from the American perpective; people look at me with pity when they learn I live here -- even though I actually live in one of the really nice parts of town. Yet compared to the ring of really distressed housing which surrounds places like Mexico City and Tijuana, the infamous Richmond "slum" called The Iron Triangle is a lovely middle class neighborhood of parks and bungalows.


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## Christopha

Indeed Mexico is North America, sorry.
I guess it could appy to a forum on any part of the world to a greater or lesser degree.


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## mickisue1

If what you are looking for is a way to make a difference in the world, you need to start by narrowing your choices.

What skills do you have that can be of assistance to someone or a group of people living in poverty?

In the US, we have the Peace Corps. My son and his wife will be leaving for Asia in June; their skill is that they've taught English in two different Asian countries, so have shown that they can teach AND that they are adaptable to the cultures in those two, very different countries.

They were told that, if someone REALLY wants to be of use in a country with a lot of poverty, the single best skill is a degree in civil engineering, with a hydrology sub specialty; potable water is the absolute greatest need, everywhere.

Neither teaching nor engineering may be your skill, but I guarantee that you have one that can be of use. Nobody else will ferret it out, though. You need to do that.

Then start investigating organizations that use skilled people to assist populations in poverty. Remember that, no matter how little people have, they still have dignity and pride. Wanting to help is wonderful, but being more specific is better.

As is being more specific about where you want to go. Mexico is in North America. Chile is in the southern part of the western side of South America, and, in general, temperate to cold. Brazil is in the northern part of the eastern side of South America, and, in general, sub tropical to tropical. All three are very far from each other.

You have a lot of learning and thinking to do, but go into it with that good heart that you seem to have, and an attitude that says "What do I need to learn to be successful at this?" and you will achieve your goal.


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## Christopha

Thankyou so much.


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## sag42

Christopha said:


> Indeed Mexico is North America, sorry.
> I guess it could appy to a forum on any part of the world to a greater or lesser degree.


According to the geography that is taught in all schools from Mexico all-the -way down to the tip of Argentina, Mexico as well as the USA, Canada, and all of the South American countries are in the continent of America. No North America or South America, only America.


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## RVGRINGO

"Somos Uno," seen on the back of a parade float.


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## Isla Verde

sag42 said:


> According to the geography that is taught in all schools from Mexico all-the -way down to the tip of Argentina, Mexico as well as the USA, Canada, and all of the South American countries are in the continent of America. No North America or South America, only America.


Interesting. Then why do many Mexicans refer to me as a "norteamericana"?


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## FHBOY

sag42 said:


> According to the geography that is taught in all schools from Mexico all-the -way down to the tip of Argentina, Mexico as well as the USA, Canada, and all of the South American countries are in the continent of America. No North America or South America, only America.


True, but then do you realize there is only one ocean? We may give this body of water all different names, but it is still only one ocean. And in the end, does it matter.


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## RVGRINGO

Isla Verde said:


> Interesting. Then why do many Mexicans refer to me as a "norteamericana"?


Maybe it is easier to pronounce than 'estadounidense', or because they aren't sure if you are from the USA or Canada. Anyway, there just isn't an easy word for what we are; and no word at all in American English, since 'American' can be anyone from Tierra del Fuego to the North Pole.

Quiz: What part of France is in America?


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## sparks

RVGRINGO said:


> Quiz: What part of France is in America?


French Guiana y possible Quebec


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## Isla Verde

RVGRINGO said:


> Maybe it is easier to pronounce than 'estadounidense', or because they aren't sure if you are from the USA or Canada. Anyway, there just isn't an easy word for what we are; and no word at all in American English, since 'American' can be anyone from Tierra del Fuego to the North Pole.


Sometimes I am called an "americana".


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## RVGRINGO

sparks said:


> French Guiana y possible Quebec


50% score. Quebec is part of Canada.
Keep trying!


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## Isla Verde

RVGRINGO said:


> 50% score. Quebec is part of Canada.
> Keep trying!


Aren't there a few islands in the Caribbean that are French? 

French West Indies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## mickisue1

Isla Verde said:


> Aren't there a few islands in the Caribbean that are French?
> 
> French West Indies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Curacao, right?

If not, please tell us.

The suspense is killing me.


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## makaloco

Guadalupe and Martinique for sure ... although they're islands, and I don't know how strict RV is going to be about "America".


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## Isla Verde

mickisue1 said:


> Curacao, right?
> 
> If not, please tell us.
> 
> The suspense is killing me.


Nope. Curaçao is Dutch. 

Click on the link I provided a few posts ago for details about the French Caribbean.


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## RVGRINGO

Everyone forgets about Saint Pierre et Michelon, French islands just off the coast, but in 'America'. Look them up.


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## canyankerocha

RVGRINGO said:


> Everyone forgets about Saint Pierre et Michelon, French islands just off the coast, but in 'America'. Look them up.


Hope you are recovering well! I lived in St Pierre for 4 months as part of the French program at my university - Memorial U of Newfoundland. Beautifully rugged, totally French right down to the fantastic bakeries. Absolutely recommend a visit if anyone ever finds them self on the south shore of Newfoundland. ...Hard to get much more remote.


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## jasavak

Christopha said:


> Hi I recall reading that Mexico has a large slum population.
> 
> I'm interested to hear any information about this. Anything at all.
> What parts of Mexico have the biggest slums?
> 
> Is there a correlation between the parts of Mexico that are most violent and the parts that have the most poverty?
> 
> Do you think there is any relation between the drug cartels and the slums? (Well you wouldn't think so as there is supposedly no money in the slums but do you think drug activity could be preventing aid getting to the slums or the slum dwellers getting ahead?)






No , there is no direct relation between poverty and violent crime . Also , the cartels definitely don't create slums . 

The few "slums" by your definition that I've seen were created by squatters . In Mexico we use the word " paracaidistas " which translates to paratroopers . 

The problem is that these folks never invest in constructing any quality construction or infrastructure because they don't own their property and they never know if or when the police or military will come and give them the boot .


French Territory ? 
Clipperton Island is off the southwest coast of Mexico and is still considered a French territory . No people live there , but the area is frequented by sport fishing boats from San Diego, California and has world record fishing for Yellow-fin Tuna .


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## Mr. P Mosh

sag42 said:


> According to the geography that is taught in all schools from Mexico all-the -way down to the tip of Argentina, Mexico as well as the USA, Canada, and all of the South American countries are in the continent of America. No North America or South America, only America.


In our geography we consider "the Americas" just like America, but that doesn't mean we don't do the sub-continent differenciations (North, Central and South America), and we consider ourselves part of North America.



Isla Verde said:


> Interesting. Then why do many Mexicans refer to me as a "norteamericana"?


Many of us avoid using "Estados Unidos de América" so they preffer "Estados Unidos de Norteamerica" hence "norteamericanos", still ambiguous.

Personally I use "estadounidenses".

"Americanos" use is mostly due to the American series and movies influence, dubbers usually use "americanos" for "Americans" cuz "estadounidenses" doesn't fit the lip sync well, also the Mexicans that come back from the US use it a lot.


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## jasavak

Mr. P Mosh said:


> In our geography we consider "the Americas" just like America, but that doesn't mean we don't do the sub-continent differenciations (North, Central and South America), and we consider ourselves part of North America.
> 
> 
> 
> Many of us avoid using "Estados Unidos de América" so they preffer "Estados Unidos de Norteamerica" hence "norteamericanos", still ambiguous.
> 
> Personally I use "estadounidenses".
> 
> "Americanos" use is mostly due to the American series and movies influence, dubbers usually use "americanos" for "Americans" cuz "estadounidenses" doesn't fit the lip sync well, also the Mexicans that come back from the US use it a lot.



If you think about , the U.S. doesn't even have a name . It's a description of a group of states in North America . Mexico could be described the same , because it also is a group of states in north America .


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## FHBOY

On the same basis, the waters of the oceans and non-inland seas of the Earth are all the same body of water, it is just that for convenience humans have given the areas different names. Just a point.


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## RVGRINGO

It just hasn't been the same since Pangia broke up! All this divisiveness!!


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## FHBOY

jasavak said:


> If you think about , the U.S. doesn't even have a name . It's a description of a group of states in North America . Mexico could be described the same , because it also is a group of states in north America .


Since posting here I've become more aware of trying to define people who live in the 50 United States. It is why I refer to these people as USAer's and not Americans, because the reality of it is that the entire piece of earth from the north to the south pole that contains the USA is America - and if it wasn't for Vespucci it could be called "Fred".


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## stilltraveling

Isla Verde said:


> Interesting. Then why do many Mexicans refer to me as a "norteamericana"?


To differentiate you from the rest of the Americans. Most people in the Americas take offense to the fact that gringos have commandeered the word American to only apply to themselves. Another term growing in popularity is Usanos. 

Canadians are referred to as canadienses, not norteamericanos.

Incidentally, South Americans are referred to as sudacas. This can be derogatory or not depending on the adjective attached and the tone of voice of the person saying it.


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## stilltraveling

Mr. P Mosh said:


> Personally I use "estadounidenses".


I use "******". It's short and concise and leaves no room for ambiguity. I also refer to myself as black and not African-American for the same reason.


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## stilltraveling

jasavak said:


> If you think about , the U.S. doesn't even have a name . It's a description of a group of states in North America . Mexico could be described the same , because it also is a group of states in north America .


Mexico's official name is "Estados Unidos Mexicanos." 

I think the reason why there is no name that encompasses all gringos is because before people started moving all over the place in the early 20th century, most gringos identified with their state (Texan, Californian, Buckeye, Cracker, etc.). The civil war kind of narrowed that down to regions, but once the big move west was fully underway, people started having more of a national outlook.


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## Mr. P Mosh

stilltraveling said:


> To differentiate you from the rest of the Americans. Most people in the Americas take offense to the fact that gringos have commandeered the word American to only apply to themselves. Another term growing in popularity is Usanos.


Yup, but it's still ambiguous. 

Usanos? I've never heard or read it around here, the one I've read is "usenses", but it looks really weird.



stilltraveling said:


> Canadians are referred to as canadienses, not norteamericanos.
> 
> Incidentally, South Americans are referred to as sudacas. This can be derogatory or not depending on the adjective attached and the tone of voice of the person saying it.


Sudaca is always degoratory.



stilltraveling said:


> I use "******". It's short and concise and leaves no room for ambiguity. I also refer to myself as black and not African-American for the same reason.


Well, I use "******" as well, but I meant in a serious or formal way.


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## stilltraveling

Mr. P Mosh said:


> Usanos? I've never heard or read it around here, the one I've read is "usenses", but it looks really weird.


It's from the name of the country ... U.S.A.nos. Like most things in Mexican Spanish, it's doble sentido. 



> Sudaca is always degoratory.


My Ecuadorean girlfriend disagrees. Or maybe it's like the "N" word. They can use it but we can't??


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## Mr. P Mosh

stilltraveling said:


> It's from the name of the country ... U.S.A.nos. Like most things in Mexican Spanish, it's doble sentido.


 Well, I'm Mexican and I've never heard or read it, not even as an _albur_.



stilltraveling said:


> My Ecuadorean girlfriend disagrees. Or maybe it's like the "N" word. They can use it but we can't??


Well, it might be accepted now, but Mexicans and Spaniards would only use it as derogatory, as far as I know they don't use it among themselves... but who knows... language is always evolving.


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## stilltraveling

Mr. P Mosh said:


> Well, I'm Mexican and I've never heard or read it, not even as an _albur_.


I only hear it from chilangos. I spent my first ten years in Mexico up north (B.C., Chihuahua, Hermosillo and Monterrey) and I never heard it there either. They often referred to gringos as gabachos, but down here they use that term to refer to any white foreigners, be they gringos or Europeans. 

Aint language fun?!?!


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## Mr. P Mosh

stilltraveling said:


> I only hear it from chilangos. I spent my first ten years in Mexico up north (B.C., Chihuahua, Hermosillo and Monterrey) and I never heard it there either. They often referred to gringos as gabachos, but down here they use that term to refer to any white foreigners, be they gringos or Europeans.
> 
> Aint language fun?!?!


Chilangos can make an _albur_ of anything. 

Yup, gabachos... I've Spanish friends and they told me they use gabachos as well... but meaning their northern neighbors, the Frenchs. 

Definitely language's fun.


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## stilltraveling

Mr. P Mosh said:


> Chilangos can make an _albur_ of anything.


Indeed!


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## Isla Verde

stilltraveling said:


> I only hear it from chilangos. I spent my first ten years in Mexico up north (B.C., Chihuahua, Hermosillo and Monterrey) and I never heard it there either. They often referred to gringos as gabachos, but down here they use that term to refer to any white foreigners, be they gringos or Europeans.
> 
> Aint language fun?!?!


I've been living in Mexico City for several years now and have spent lots of time here over the years and have never heard anyone say Usanos to refer to my fellow countrymen and women. Could it be because I'm a woman and Mexican friends wouldn't use that word (with its definitely nasty other meaning) in front of me to be polite? Or perhaps the Mexicans I hang out with just wouldn't use that word to begin with?


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## stilltraveling

Isla Verde said:


> Or perhaps the Mexicans I hang out with just wouldn't use that word to begin with?


I don't know. I've been living and working here for over 20 years, so my expat experience is a little different than most. My Spanish is fluent enough and my skin is brown enough that most Mexicans assume I'm Panamanian or Colombian or Cuban or ... anything but a gabacho! I can say with confidence that I'm thoroughly camouflaged in Latin America. When I tell them I'm from the States, the first thing everyone says, without fail, is "hablas muy bien el español". 

You know the old saying, if you speak three languages you're trilingual, if you speak two languages you're bilingual, and if you speak one language you're a ******. 

I think you may be getting the filtered version of those around you. Mexicans are the most polite people I've ever met, so that may be playing into it.


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## Anonimo

"Usanos" sounds like "gusanos", or worse, a form of "anos".


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## stilltraveling

Anonimo said:


> "Usanos" sounds like "gusanos", or worse, a form of "anos".


True story. When I first came to Mexico, speaking only the level of Spanish of a typical So Cal ****** (as in, burrito, cerveza and "donde esta el baño"), I was at a New Years party in La Paz. As the clock struck 12 and everyone was yelling Happy New Year! for my benefit (being the only ****** there), I began what became my decades-long journey into the Castillian language by yelling FELIZ ANO! FELIZ ANO! 

They let me go for about 10 minutes before someone corrected me.


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## Isla Verde

stilltraveling said:


> I don't know. I've been living and working here for over 20 years, so my expat experience is a little different than most. My Spanish is fluent enough and my skin is brown enough that most Mexicans assume I'm Panamanian or Colombian or Cuban or ... anything but a gabacho! I can say with confidence that I'm thoroughly camouflaged in Latin America. When I tell them I'm from the States, the first thing everyone says, without fail, is "hablas muy bien el español".
> 
> You know the old saying, if you speak three languages you're trilingual, if you speak two languages you're bilingual, and if you speak one language you're a ******.
> 
> I think you may be getting the filtered version of those around you. Mexicans are the most polite people I've ever met, so that may be playing into it.


Since I'm short and before my hair turned silvery, it was brown, I don't come across as obviously gringa. My Spanish is fluent, but after all the years I've spent in Mexico and Spain, I still have an accent. So on the street, depending on where I am in the city, I kind of blend in with the rest of the population. But anyone who speaks to me realizes that I'm not Mexican. I still wonder if words like _usanos_ are commonly used among all strata of Chilango society. After all, the language used in neighborhood cantinas is not the same as the Spanish my Mexican friends speak.


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## stilltraveling

Isla Verde said:


> After all, the language used in neighborhood cantinas is not the same as the Spanish my Mexican friends speak.


The first place I heard it was in the doctor's lounge at the Seguro, so one would assume it transcends social strata. However, now that I think about it, the guy who said it was a surgeon (a very uncouth lot).


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