United Statians

A polemical term used to describe people from the United States of America. For historic and cultural reasons, people from the States refer to themselves as "Americans", whereas in all of Latin America, the word "américano" refers to anyone from the Americas. Therefore Latin Americans refer to people from the States as "estadounidenses" (United Statians) rather than "americanos".

Due to Americans obliviousness of this issue of transcendence in Latin America, a Chilean group has even written a song that describes American mentality when thinking of Latin America. It is entitled: “Latin America is a town south of the United States.”

Many Latin Americans would like to change the English term "American" to "United Statian" and the word "American" to refer of all people from the Americas (North, South and Central). It is an issue heatedly discussed in many forums on the internet.

Nick: Why do Latin Americans want to call us United Statians?
Jen: I think they´ve got a bit of an inferiority complex, I´ve never had a Canadian challenge my definition of "American".

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