With United States President Donald Trump’s quick flurry of executive orders came an onslaught of wild ideas and actions, and one to contend with the most unexpected has been his attempt at changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Along with this national change comes companies like Google who through their software, Maps, utilize and conform to the national government’s names for its locations.
Due to this, there has been an extremely vocal outcry from the Mexican government and people detesting this action all the way since Trump introduced it. When he first brought up this idea Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum responded with a suggestion that they should rename the U.S. to “América Mexicana” or “Mexican America.”
Now with Google announcing that it would move forward with the name change on its platforms, we see Sheinbaum striking out again. Threatening to write a letter to Google to discuss the issue with them moving forward with this decision.
“… it [Google] will also know which organization is the one that gives the name to the international seas and what would correspond in any case to the continental shelf,” Sheinbaum said.
Along with this sarcastic attitude, the president has remained adamant that despite what their neighbor to the north says and does, the gulf will remain in the same name it has since the 1600s. That despite what the U.S. claims the name is, the Gulf of Mexico has remained with that name to the people of Mexico and the world.
The people seem to share this sentiment, with many responding in the same attitude of outrage and anger at the preposterous decision coming from their thought to be an ally. Some just citing this as an outrageous move, while others mimicking their president’s idea and calling for the renaming of the U.S. to something akin to “Mexican America.”
Within a Mexican Newspaper, “El Universo,” the legal expert Mario Melgar-Adalid advised the Mexican government that, “Mexico must firmly oppose this interference, otherwise the next step could be that instead of the United Mexican States [Mexico’s formal name], as established in our Constitution, they will begin to call us Old Mexico.”
This shows a sentiment of not only caution in the country but also fear of the unpredictability coming from the United States as claims ranging from the Panama Canal to Greenland seem to be coming out more and more frequently.
Name differences are no stranger to these two different countries, for even the river dividing the countries border at Texas is referred to by two different names, however this is still more than just a simple name change to these people and their president.
Still, the specifics regarding the change, however, has stated that they don’t go into effect until 30 days after the executive order has been signed, and as February continues to roll in, we will have to wait and see how widespread this change will be accepted. It seems for now, Google has not gone through with their change towards the Gulf of Mexico, and so we will have to wait and see how these companies handle the pressure coming from not only the government that houses them, but also the people that use their services.
