Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025 | 2 a.m.
Earlier than President Donald Trump, probably the most high-profile name to vary the identify of the Gulf of Mexico got here from Stephen Colbert, who joked on his Comedy Central present in 2010 that the physique of water must be known as the Gulf of America within the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill as a result of “we broke it, we purchased it.”
Virtually 15 years later, it may have been worse: Trump may have decreed the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of MAGA. (Don’t anybody give him any concepts!)
However Trump’s arrival at altering the identify to the Gulf of America retains not one of the jocular tinge of Colbert’s sarcastic suggestion.
When William Nericcio first heard about Trump’s government order to just do that, the San Diego State English professor dismissed it as “an enormous publicity stunt to masks extra nefarious stuff.”
It definitely was obtained that method within the weeks main as much as Inauguration Day, when Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reacted to information of Trump’s plans by suggesting the American Southwest, which belonged to Mexico till the 1848 Mexican-American Struggle, be renamed “América Mexicana.”
The laughs continued as Trump talked about the Gulf of America throughout his inaugural deal with, then signed the become regulation together with 25 different government orders that included a ban on birthright citizenship, withdrawing from the Paris local weather accords and ending all federal range, fairness and inclusion, or DEI, applications.
Rebranding the physique of water bounded by the U.S., Mexico and Cuba because the Gulf of America — which Trump justified by stating in his order it “has lengthy been an integral asset to our as soon as burgeoning Nation and has remained an indelible a part of America” — was seen as a random piffle, particularly as a result of cartographers and governments world wide have used “Gulf of Mexico” for almost 475 years.
However the extra Nericcio thought of a gesture he felt was “straight out of Barnum & Bailey,” the extra he started to fret.
He’s the writer of “Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the ‘Mexican’ in American,” a hilarious but insightful 2007 e book abut the historical past of anti-Mexican sentiment in the USA. It tracks the depiction of Mexicans in common tradition by postcards depicting the Mexican Revolution, Hollywood stereotypes, racist songs and extra — efforts Nericcio argued have fueled anti-Mexican legal guidelines and sentiment on this nation for many years.
“The talking of the Spanish language on Mexican soil can set off probably the most jingoistic attitudes,” Nericcio informed me, “so why not pave over 5 centuries of historical past and name it the Gulf of America?”
He fretted as Trump declared Feb. 9 to be Gulf of America Day, saying it was a part of restoring “American satisfaction within the historical past of American greatness,” and because the U.S. Board on Geographic Names formally complied with Trump’s order and introduced all federal companies had been “presently within the means of updating their maps, services to replicate the Gulf of America identify change.” Nericcio groaned when the White Home blocked Related Press reporters from the Oval Workplace in retaliation for the information group — whose fashion information is thought to be the gold normal in American journalism, asserting they’d proceed to make use of “Gulf of Mexico” in tales whereas acknowledging Trump’s identify change.
However what put the prof in full despair mode was when Apple and Google up to date their map providers in order that American customers now see “Gulf of America.” The choice prompted the Mexican authorities to jot down a letter to Google stating that “below no circumstance will Mexico settle for the renaming of a geographic zone inside its personal territory and below its jurisdiction,” and threatening a lawsuit.
Nericcio is often fast to a bon mot, however his worrisome tone after we talked was one thing I had by no means heard within the 15 years we’ve identified one another.
“We all know the historical past of America is empire, however that is America dropping its pants and exhibiting its empire tattoos,” he stated. “It’s bald, bare imperialism, and it’s on the order of Stalin.”
It’s straightforward to dismiss Nericcio as a wild-eyed educational wokoso, however he’s not improper in any respect.
The identify change isn’t a punchline or bizarre Trump quirk a la ketchup on steak or his weak-salsa YMCA dance. It’s indicative of a commander in chief hellbent on persevering with his efforts at a modern-day Manifest Future in opposition to our final frenemy in any method, form or type. Trump is satisfied the American public will largely settle for something he does in opposition to Mexico, as a result of guess what? It’s simply Mexico.
Critics and supporters have lengthy stated to take Trump at his phrase, and few issues have proven this to be more true than his vendetta in opposition to the nation of my mother and father. It was proper there within the speech asserting his first profitable presidential run a decade in the past this June, when he descended down a golden staircase at his Manhattan tower just like the decrepit but omnipotent Padishah Emperor within the “Dune” franchise.
Inside the opening three minutes of his speech, Trump uttered the road: “When Mexico sends its individuals, they’re not sending their finest. … They’re bringing medicine. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And a few, I assume, are good individuals.”
That’s the viral a part of his anti-Mexican screed. However there was extra.
Trump talked about Mexico 13 instances in that speech, his pronunciation dripping with disdain each time. He promised to construct a “nice, nice wall” to seal it off from us, and labeled our southern neighbor “the brand new China.” He whined that Mexico is “laughing at us, at our stupidity. And now they’re beating us economically. They don’t seem to be our good friend, consider me. However they’re killing us economically.” A lot bile in opposition to our second-largest buying and selling accomplice and the ancestral nation of tens of millions of Americans — and but the gang cheered him on.
Trump has saved to his saber-rattling phrases. He has by no means ceased to explain individuals crossing into this nation from Mexico as an “invasion,” and is vowing to severely restrict authorized migration and deport immigrants within the nation with out authorized documentation in a method this nation has by no means seen. He’s nonetheless threatening to impose steep tariffs in opposition to Mexico, whereas his staff is salivating on the concept of channeling their interior Gen. Pershing and launching army incursions into the nation below the guise of combating drug cartels. Final month, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth informed Fox Information that “all choices can be on the desk.”
Wiping off the Gulf of Mexico from U.S. maps isn’t a lark; it’s a promise of extra to return. It’s a transfer out of the Latin American strongmen which have lengthy plagued the Western Hemisphere however now have an keen copycat at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
I requested Nericcio to discover a silver lining in all this, or not less than recommendation on the way to struggle again. “We don’t personal the engines of legitimacy and energy — sadly, he does,” Nericcio replied. “We’re talking previously tense, Gustavo. It’s performed.”
He laid out the next state of affairs: The subsequent time American schoolchildren need to do a geography project involving the Gulf of Mexico, they’ll search for the maps of Google, Apple or web sites run by the federal authorities. “They’ll see Gulf of America and assume, ‘Oh, that’s the appropriate reply for my homework as a result of the web says so. And voila, you now have a complete technology calling it by a reputation with no historic foundation.”
Nericcio sounded forlorn. “What will get me is the anemic pushback. Anemic. Virtually like, ‘Sure, daddy.’ It’s like watching a film with a supervillain who retains profitable and profitable, and I don’t assume this one’s going to have a contented ending.”
Gustavo Arellano is a columnist for the Los Angeles Instances.
