Which Reminds Me

Yes, I vaguely remember that one of the first words of the Spanish language that I ever learned was "gringa." That is because the Mexican children who I had met playing on the street had given me that label, and I was sort of OK with being dubbed an outsider "gringa." The term dates back to the Mexican-American War of the 1840s, or so I was told, so that really does not have anything to do with me personally. The Mexican children seem to cherish the delusion of white girl as a soldier from the enemy front, so, yes, there is a context where I could argue about that, but also why expend the emotional energy necessary to fight about these deeply entrenched cultural points. I just have other ways of thinking about that.