Little White Girl

The other day I was walking with a couple of my photography students (ages 11-13). We passed a group of tall, blond girls who are volunteers from Denmark. Our city is the training base for a Danish NGO. Their volunteers learn spanish here and then go off to another central or south american country for their service. While I do participate in the training of these Danish volunteers (I give them a lecture on understanding Latin America through its art), I had not yet met this newest group.

What follows is my conversation with my photo students as we passed by the Danish volunteers on the street:

STUDENT: "¿Amber, quienes son ellas? ¿Son de los Estados Unidos?"
Amber, who are they? Are they from the US?

ME: "No. Son danesas. Son de Dinamarca."
No. They´re danish. They are from Denmark.

STUDENT: "¿Son gringas?"
Are they gringas?

ME: "Depende. Si ´gringa´ significa una persona de los Estados Unidos, no. Si ´gringa´significa alguien que es blanca, sí."
It depends. If "gringa" means a person from the US, then no. If "gringa" means someone who is white, then yes.

(The definition of "gringo" is a little difficult. Some people think that only Americans are gringos. But, then if you ask them if African Americans are gringos, they say "no." Then others say that gringo just means "a white person" from any country. Either way, the term itself is not an insult.)

STUDENT: "¿Las conoce?"
Do you know them?

ME: "No, no las he conocido todavía."
No, I haven´t met them yet.

STUDENT: "Pero... ¿no es la verdad que conoce todos los gringos?"
But ... isn´t it true that you know all gringos?

This is the common misperception. All white people must know eachother. Not only do children think this, but many adults do too. I once met a person who knew someone in the states. He asked me, "Do you know Kathy? She lives in Nevada."

The term itself -- gringo or gringa -- is not controversial. Calling people by the color of their skin color is very common here, even among Salvadorans. Someone might refer to another person by not saying his name, but rather saying "el moreno" or the "the dark-skinned guy."

People here invariably call me "chelita" at the market, on the bus, on the street, anywhere. "Chelita" literally means "little white girl." I am so used to hearing this that it doesn´t phase me, but then I think about how strange that would be to hear in the U.S...