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I am not the least bit offended by any of these terminologies, or labels. I think we spend much too much time in this country looking to be offended by anything. If we don't develop some thick skin, we are going to implode from within.
I decided to see how the online translator "Babel Fish" handles "white person" - and guess what - "persona blanca!"
My comprehensive Eng./Span. dictionary lists "gabacho" as meaning a person from France (french man/french woman).
Your dictionary is likely Castillian Spanish, not New World Spanish. In Spain the word does refer to someone from France, but that's not the case in Mexico...though it's origins are obviously the same.
It's a slang term, so you're probably not going to find it in main line dictionaries...kinda like Babel Fish's unuseable translation.
For some fun, refer to writer Gustavo Arellano's column Ask A Mexican. A non-politically correct, often hilarious and sometimes outrageous column from the Orange County Weekly that's syndicated all over. I don't think it appears anywhere in or near LC.
Here's his brief glossary: (but read the columns too )
The link is to an Albuquerque weekly
Doesn't the article say just the opposite? Says that's the more supportable theory if I'm reading it correctly.
I think the wiki article calls the origin in Los San Patricios ( Irish Catholic immigrants who took up the Mexican side) as a proposed etymology, and there's probably some truth to it. It may well have popularized the already existing slang term.
This would be similar to all-American cowboy (caballero) slang adaptations like buckaroo (vaquero), lariat (la reata) etc.
The fact remains, though, that gringo is documented as being used well before the time of the Mexican American war.
In Mexico, by the way, Los San Patricios are considered national heros, something not often granted to foreigners. Stone monuments and everything.
Another word: I'm sometimes (usually in a friendly teasing way) lumped in with people from Mexico City when I'm out in the countryside with the term: Chilango. (another word you're not likely to hear in Santa Fe, Towanda
It really means people from DF, usually more Spanish than Mestizo, but is often used to designate "people (usually white) not from hereabouts" out in the middle of nowhere.
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