Know what?
The country where Barack Obama is president has no name. Or, a name of no significance.
Yes, you say. I does too. It's USA. United States of America.
No, I say. America is one continent made up of two main land masses: North and South America. A lot of people even consider themselves living in another continent in between the two. Central America. And the guy that gave name to those two continents, Amerigo Vespucci, never even visited North America, nor did he know that there was a North America. He thought the South was big enough.
Ok, you say. America is bigger than USA. But my country consists of a number of United States, hence its name. So United States of America is unique.
Well, surely these four words in combination are reserved for the BO nation. But their notion is not unique. Just south of USA is...yes Mexico. If you look in the CIA Factbook on Mexico, or anywhere official, you'll find that the formal name of that nation is...yes, United States of Mexico (usually in espanish: estados unidos de mexico). And as fas as I know, Mexico is located in North America. So it's the United States of and in America, even North America, just as much as the GWB nation. Canada is in a similar position, except I'm not sure of their formal name.
The other interesting name heard in this neighborhood is "Latin America". Now, last time I looked, there was a lot of Latinos in Miámi, and the country is littered with Colorado's, San Francisco's, Florida's, Sacramento's and Sierra Nevada's, just like the rest of Las Americas south of the Rio Grande. I'd be hard pressed to label Miami as outside Latin America. Even Nueva York has a bit of a latin flavor at times. Montana has less, while its name would suggest otherwise.
This would all be fine (maybe) if the process of unification of the Americans (inhabitants in North and South America) had stalled. But it hasn't. NAFTA, MERCOSUR and other trade agreements and conferences have made Americans out of the Latin Americans. Canada has a most active trade with South America. Migration is needed and booming, and sooner or later Americans will need a term to describe themselves just as Africans and Europeans. I guess the two peoples that will resist calling themselves Americans the longest are Brazilians and Canadians...and maybe people from Venezuela...but still.
SO: there's a number of terms that are unclear or will be increasingly unclear:
Americano: from USA or Peru?
Norteamericano: from USA or Canada? Or Mexico?
Estadunidense: From USA or Mexico?
Latino: Not from Miami? I think not :-)
SO: the country where BO is president needs a new name. It can't become a kingdom (even though succession to the throne is already achieved, and could even have been running in the family if Hillary had kept it up), while the name "United Kingdom" is already taken.
SO: I propose a little competition: what shall we call the drunken sailor? Please send in your proposals as comments to this blog. The competition ends September 30, 2010, and the winner may, just may, become president. Spread the word.
