Comments on: Why Not “A Gringa in Lima”?

By: Christine Cardenas

Christine Cardenas — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 23:55:09 +0000

Dear Ms Drake,

Do you know if a person can get a loan here in the US to buy a condo or house in Peru?

By: Oscar

Oscar — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:16:24 +0000

The word “gringo” is not an insult in Peru.
I call US citizens “norteamericanos”

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:08:07 +0000

Gringo, directly means foreigner. Also, to the person who said they never use words like Cholo, gringo, and negro in their family. Negro is the established word and their is nothing derogatory about it. It is the context in which any of these words are used that can cause a problem. Usually those types of words usually countries with european influence have a more casual usage in conversations between friends, it is almost more of a nickname than a racial slur. You don’t go up to a stranger in Peru and call him Chino. Of course that is flat out inappropriate, but if your talking to a friend all those words are understand as not having any malice. example, visto el Chino? when you are referring to your Chinese friend.

By: Sergio

Sergio — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 03:24:57 +0000

In Peru the word “gringo” is not an insult and refers those tall, blond and blue eyed people from United States.
Although nor me neither my family call them gringos never, we prefer to use the word estadounidense. No problem with that.

Greets!

By: Nano

Nano — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:00:38 +0000

Saying that people from the US are the ‘real’ Americans and that the rest are either Central Americans or South Americans is rather insulting, as if we were some kind of backyard. We’re all Americans. Americo Vespucci arrived in Venezuela. America is the New World, as a whole.

Gringo, at least in Peru, is not an insult.

Cheers!

By: Gabriela

Gabriela — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:22:50 +0000

My canadian husband gets called “gringo”as well. He hates it!
Even though “americana” is not geographically appropriate, I would keep it if I was you , “estadounidense” or “gringa” wouldn’t sound very well.

By: Barb

Barb — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:32:34 +0000

Mind you, seems the only status nationalities in peru are german and swiss. A reflection of foreign investment?”

Maybe. I do meet a lot of Germans in Peru, and many of them are involved in good, forward-thinking projects. It seems that Germans have been in Peru for many decades…

By: Sarsparilla

Sarsparilla — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 23:15:07 +0000

I hate that word gringo. Equally, my (peruvian) partner gets really rattled if I call him ‘americano’, and refuses to be included in the category.

Mind you, seems the only status nationalities in peru are german and swiss. A reflection of foreign investment?

By: Miguel Fuentes

Miguel Fuentes — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:09:06 +0000

So I pretty much everybody. And, there are also people like me and my family who prefer not to use those words as well

By: Miguel Fuentes

Miguel Fuentes — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:08:00 +0000

I know pronunciation must be very bad for English speakers because it’s a very long word with many syllables.

About the ethnic/racial labels, most people say it in a non despicable way, and it’s mostly a cultural way to describe someone with certain traits. So mostly it’s not racist.

But, like everywhere else, there are also people in Peru who can be racist, and this people can be Caucasian Peruvian, Hispanic Peruvian, Amerindian Peruvian, Afroperuvian, Asian Peruvian. and mixed Peruvians.