Come and tell the origin of Uncle Sam and the word ‘gringo’. I’ve also been asking myself the same questions for a long time, so now I invite you over for a cup of coffee while we tell the story.
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Over the years, and in view of the interest these issues arouse, people all over the world have come to mind many legends and falsehoods about both subjects. To get started and get to know the real truth, let’s start by carefully examining what happened to the term ‘gringo’.
It turns out that it was the year 1836, almost two centuries ago, when an army of settlers from Texas, in the United States, invaded the border with Mexico in an attempt to preserve some of its territory. That time the Mexicans won.
That’s where popular mythology comes in. Since then it is said that the invaders wore a colorful green uniform and so the Mexican people shouted against them in the middle of the fighting in English: “Going green.” Green, meaning ‘green’, is pronounced grin, and go is a verb that translates to to go. Consequently, “Green, get out” was supposedly what they were shouted against.
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On the battlefield of El Álamo, that myth was born, so widespread and repeated, according to which the word “gringo” comes from “green, get out”, converted by Mexicans into a burlesque expression.
¿Uniform the dollar?
For starters, and in one fell swoop, the most reliable testimony of the time tells us that the Texan soldiers’ uniform was not green, but blue. So from the beginning everything collapses. The whole display case collapses.
But the fact is that there are other tests of a different nature that destroy that mythology. We will see them as we proceed. For now, let me remind you of another similar legend.
It has been said with similar content that the term ‘gringo’ actually originated from US banknotes. Because the dollar is, and always has been – although lately some have appeared with the numbers in blue -, There was no lack of the embelequero that made the unwary people believe that ‘green go’ originally meant ‘go green’, but not to refer to an army or uniform, but to secretly announce a shipment of money between smugglers, without the knowledge of the police.
That deception is worse than false than the previous one. Neither uniform nor dollars. Neither originates in English words. None of that. Now you will see the amazing truth that the most serious researchers have found. Maybe they are just as baffled as I was when I found out.
Pure Spanish
As is often the case in these cases, the strongest evidence found to disprove those legends we’ve just seen is related to the dates.
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This evidence is devastating: if the word ‘gringo’ was born to refer to a banknote that did not appear until the end of the eighteenth century, or, worse, between the roaring cannon shots of a frontier war that took place in the nineteenth century, Why, then, has it been used in the Spanish language since the 16th century?
Gringo: word used in Spain since the 1700s to name people who do not speak Spanish or who speak it with a strong foreign accent
As you can see, the word is an invention of our language. The old and excellent dictionary of Terreros y Pando, published in 1786, already had this definition at the time: “Gringo: a word used in Spain since the year 1700 to name people who do not speak Spanish or who they speak it with. a strong foreign accent ”.
In a similar vein, Professor William Sayers, a renowned researcher at Cornell University, in the United States, he traced the origin of the word until he discovered that it is Spanish, of Andalusian origin, and that it was used initially as a synonym for ‘pilgrim’ and then ‘foreigner’.
From Greek to gringo
At this point in the game, you have every right to ask yourself: if the word ‘gringo’ is purely Spanish, what is its origin, its origin, that is, its etymology?
Let us see what a real authority says, such as Joan Corominas, the great Spanish philologist, whom we have spoken of earlier in these chronicles, and who is the author of an incomparable etymological dictionary of about fifty volumes.
Corominas confirms that the word ‘gringo’ has been used in Spain since 1700 and that it was indicated with “On a language that cannot be understood and, by extension, on those people who speak a language other than Spanish.”
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Gringo, according to Corominas himself, comes from the word ‘Greek’, which the Andalusians of the time used to refer to very complicated vocabularies, such as the classical ones they spoke in Greece.
Do you see it? The word ‘gringo’ does not come from English or from a uniform or card. It is of purely Spanish origin, authentic and authentic.
What about Uncle Sam?
The time has come to devote ourselves to that person who is recognized all over the world, a gray-haired man with wild hair, a top hat and a star on his forehead, who has a frown, a long chivera and pointing his finger at us points.
To all humanity Uncle Sam symbolizes the United States, is its representative and its emblem. What people don’t know is when it was born or why, or who the author is.
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Let me tell you that 103 years ago that image first appeared before the eyes of men, which would become the most recognized and widespread cultural reference in the United States, for better or for worse, as some still consider it a symbol of dominance. roof rack.
It happened like this. The year was 1917. The world was shocked by the noise of the First World War that raged in Europe, But then it went international because the United States declared war on Germany and several other countries decided to engage in conflict.
It is then that the image of that frowning and bad-tempered old man first appears, who is part of a story so unusual that anyone could mistake it for the imaginary script of a movie.
The Elder’s Barrel
Uncle Sam is also born legends, myths and half-truths. The same thing that happened to the green uniform and the contraband. But the truth alone is just as staggering, and you don’t have to make up anything.
It turns out that England declared war on the United States in 1812 because that former colony tried to take over Canada from her. To feed his troops on the battlefields, The US government hired the services of a New York butcher named Samuel Wilson, who would send them meat and other food packed in wooden barrels. Grateful for him, the soldiers affectionately called him “Uncle Sam” (Uncle Sam), and Mr. Wilson not only embraced the nickname, but also began to use the first two letters, US, to mark his walk.
Those barrels became so famous that people eventually believed the US was referring to the United States’ famous English initials. This is how the story of Samuel Wilson and his marked barrels became a source of admiration. According to a document from the National Museum of History in Washington, the two ideas, that of elderly Sam and his US, eventually merged into one idea.
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Uncle appears
Pictures and stories about the butcher Wilson began to circulate across the country. He became an object of admiration.
A hundred years passed, until, as I just said, we reached World War I, and in 1917 the US government decided to go into battle. The first problem the military faced was that young people did not want to join the military ranks. There was no way to get more soldiers.
The barracks looked empty and gloomy. Until the Washington government came up with various publicity campaigns to encourage the boys. One of them was commissioned by the cartoonist James Montgomery Flagg, who was very famous in the advertising media for the commercial promotions he had made.
Flagg, who was also a soldier in his youth, was well acquainted with the history of the barrels of Samuel Wilson, the former butcher, and decided to draw a stern drawing of his face. Then the stern face of the old man with his top hat, the star on his forehead, the white goatee and the wild hair appeared everywhere.
To make the poster’s promotional message strong, Flagg put a very effective phrase in it: “I need you in the United States military.” It was aimed right at the guys pointing his finger. What he did was nurture patriotic sentiment in times of international warfare.
Epilogue
The appearance of the drawing caused a positive stir across the country. Nothing else was talked about. Bars, shops, schools, streets, family homes, churches were decorated with the Flagg drawing. The famous Washington Post newspaper said the work represented “an air of national dignity.”
Years later, Flagg himself would admit that at that time of the war he was in such poverty that he could not afford a model and that he had to pose for the drawing himself. He became a self-model.
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It seemed that this drawing worked wonders in the hearts of people. Young people started arriving in waves to enroll in military service. “Wake up, United States” was the slogan they used to spread the poster in every corner. Then the famous drawing went all over the world. Well, from that point on, the custom of calling the United States Uncle Sam was born.
And so, for better or worse, the truth has been told. There are parts where they say “Uncle Sam imperialist and insulting.” And in others they treat him as a savior of mankind. The world has always been like this. Since Adam.