I love the smell of coffee in the morning. I hate to sound like a Folgers advertisement but there is nothing like waking up in a house with a big pot of coffee brewing in the distance. If you add cooking bacon to that smell, I go nuts.
Yes, I am North American. And more specifically ‘I am American’. I have often been curious why we (the United States) are allowed to call ourselves American, yet no one in the America’s are.
One reason, which is perfectly valid, is that we actually have the word America in our title ‘The United States of America’, shorten it and we live in America. Therefore, I am American.
Argentina actually has a little claim to being upset about this because their official name is United Provinces of South America.
Where did they get Argentina from again? (Still researching this one.)
In Canada, they refer to themselves as North Americans. I felt silly that I never thought to include myself with Canada before. We the people of the United States can be such secluded snobs. And being here with my Canadian friends had made me realize how similar we are culturally. We have many similar habits and experiences. So I have taken on the habit of being North American.
But in Spanish they have a word for a United States Citizen. It is Estadounidense. It directly transcends from my county's name The United States, in Spanish which is Los Estados Unidos. We can say ‘Soy Americana but we can also say ‘Soy Estadounidense’. The lather is more difficult to say and there is no direct translation besides American or United States citizen. Which is why everyone, in Spanish still says ‘I am American’. However, all of us from the major U.S. cities almost always introduce ourselves as being from that city (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles…)
At the end of the day, I am from Chicago. I love my town. I love the music. I love the people. I love the language. I love the food. I love the lake and the buildings. I feel extremely blessed for being from there and I can’t imagine being from another place. I love you Chicago and if I decide to live somewhere else, I will always visit……in the summer. xo
Argentina, from Latin argentum, is like the English adjective 'argentine' which means 'silvery' or 'made of silver'. The name comes from a poem about these lands written in the 1600s by one of the conquistadors. The poem was titled 'La Argentina'. It's said that President Derqui was the first person using the word Argentina as a name for this country.
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