I have come to learn by living here some of the reasons why the world hates the USA. One of the reasons is that you say that you are an American! What? How is that bad? Well people in Latin America, South America, hell even Canada are all Americans. Why do people from the United States believe that America means United States? I don’t know I believed the same. I now realize how pompous it is though.

Another misunderstanding that I had that goes along with the point above is that we mistakenly called Latin Americans… well we call them Mexicans. If you grew up in the south, you probably would say the same (maybe northerners would too?). Latinos are very offended if you call them Mexican, unless they are from Mexico. Understandably, would you like someone calling all white people French? Well actually I wouldn’t care, but I do see their point of view.

So when you come to Puerto Rico make sure you call them Puerto Rican. In Spanish they call them selves Boricua.