America for the Americans: who are these Americans?

Question

Are they all the peoples from the three Americas? North, Central and South Americas?

That's another issue we have, as L.A., very present in some debates.

In your opinion, when the president of US said that, was he referring to us all or only to the USA people.


Ie - B r a z i l

Answer 1

He was refering to the ppl who live in the U.S. But you are right, americans are all of us who live withing the AMERICAN CONTINENT, yes ppl!! the continent IS America, not only the U.S., so americans is to be used on everyone who lives within the continent, and not just a country.

Answer 2

American represents the America in United States of America. It would be weird saying United States of American, so we just shorten it to American. It's not short for North American or South American. I would say a person from Canada is a Canadian and a North American, but not an American. A person from brazil is a South American, but again not an American. If there was one continent called America then I would agree with the rest of the western hemisphere and say that the USA should find another name for themselves. But North America and South America are two separate continents, and there is no America continent. Thus the term American can rightfully be used as a shortened version of American of the United States

Answer 3

In my opinion, I think the President of the US is talking about citizens of the United States when referring to Americans.

Unfortunately, there can be some confusion.

American can refer to:
A person or attribute of the United States of America
A person or attribute of the Americas, the lands and regions of the Western Hemisphere.

When looking in Wikipedia and other encyclopedias, American refers to those people of the United States of America.

We are all Americans; South, North and Central.
I wonder if a person from Guatemala identifies him/herself as a Central American at all.

For the most part, there isn't a specific name for someone from the United States other than American.

Answer 4

Quite the interesting responses so far, none of there are very good if you ask me, especially the one about Mexicans, etc being "Spanish." Only people from Spain are Spanish, not all countries south of the United States even speak Spanish.

Anyone from either the North American, South American, or Central American continents are considered Americans. There is no reason why Americans from the United States to take ownership of the word to only define themselves. I have taken several Spanish courses and this point has been stressed, especially by people that I have met that consider themselves "Americans" even though they are native to a different country other than the United States. As far as what Americans from the US can call themselves that is unique to our country is beyond me; I guess I might just call myself a "Wisconsinite."

Answer 5

I know that technically America is a continent, but we use America as a shortened way to say United States of America. If we are talking about a continent, we say North America or South America. It's not meant as an insult against anyone, so don't get your panties in a bunch!

Answer 6

While you are correct in that the term Americans could apply to people from North, Central, and South America, common, historical usage is that it applies to the United States only. Cahandians from Canada, Mexicans from Mexico, Peruvians from Peru, etc. are all the common usage terms used to denote nationality.

Answer 7

The only country refered to as America the United States of America...Had he meant to refer to a Continent he would have specified North America or such.

Answer 8

When people refer to "Americans", they are referring to people from The United States of America, and it's not only the President of the U.S. that says it. It is used world wide.

Answer 9

Unfortunately, the President was only referring to the United States when he used the term "America". Thus, by the term, "American" he was only referring to legal citizens of the United States. While he may not openly have stated such, it is commonly suspected that when President uses the term, "American", he really only means upper class, white Christian citizens of the United States.

Answer 10

you are very close,while we do not claim to be the owners of (turtle island)America,we are the original keepers of such land,there was once no borders,the others that you mentioned lived here and we live there also.at this very moment a Cherokee nation of people can be found living in Mexico.i think that is very sad to put people who have always been welcomed out.