A Gringo Immigrant Community in Latin America

When you go to a few major cities in Latin America, you might find a "China Town" somewhere.

As I wrote here, it might not always be full of Chinese or even Asian people like in the case of Buenos Aires but it does have some semblance of Chinese culture and perhaps some Asian people here and there. 

When you go to Barranquilla of Colombia, you will notice some Arabic influence in the city due to all the Arabs that immigrated there decades ago. 

Same with noticing the influence of Arab culture in Mexico also.

When visiting São Paulo of Brazil, you can easily find some Japanese influence in the city due to the fact that it has the highest amount of Japanese heritage people outside of Japan.

When you go to some parts of southern Patagonia, you might find cities with English sounding names like Puerto Williams due to the influence of foreigners there like you can see here.

Puerto Williams Chile

And we could go on forever and ever.

You will always see influences of other immigrant groups in various parts of Latin America.

However, there is a group of people that also has influence here in its own way but doesn't seem to be as strongly acknowledged.

At least not as immigrants.

That is the gringo "immigrant" group.

While I normally use the word "gringo" in the context of all foreigners (mostly white) from countries commonly considered "the 1st world," I am going to use the word in this article to mean primarily from the US.

Other word we could use is "American" even if it pisses off the 0.1% of Latin Americans who insist they are American too despite never calling themselves as such.

In this article, both words will be used interchangeably.

Now, to be fair, you do have obvious histories that you can read up on regarding the American influence in Latin America.

Quite often though, the influence people discuss the most is that of the government having a hand in overthrowing local governments down here, establishing trade agreements that are not always equal, immigration and drug trade related discussions, etc.

This article isn't about that because I am not part of the US government. I am an average person who has spent 7 years in Latin America with a long term plan of staying down here.

You can call me expat. You can call me an immigrant.

As I wrote here, there is nuance to what the proper word should be for someone like myself and other Americans who live down here.

I don't care personally which word you think is most appropriate for me.

There is a part of me though that sometimes wishes I was seen more as an immigrant by the locals but, as I wrote in that article, I know I will never be seen as such for various reasons (such as how most locals are not accustomed to the idea of the "1st world immigrant").

And, to be fair, quite a few would critique the Americans for, in their eyes, not acting in a way they see as typical of immigrants.

That being to do with assimilation and not living in a bubble.

Though, when you look at other immigrant communities in the world, they tend to live in their own bubbles too.

On an individual level, you could argue easily a lot of Americans have had a "detached" way to living in Latin America though.

As expats or "immigrants" if you prefer to call them that.

And this has been going on for over a century and more in hot spots of Latin America that sometimes change with the times.

Be it Mexico City or Buenos Aires historically.

Or places like Havana that used to be an American favorite until the Revolution or how Cancun or Puerto Vallarta were not always an American favorite but are now.

Though I would argue that living in your own bubble is more of a sign of immigrants than not.

If you look at the behavior of immigrants in the US, that is very much the case.

People hanging out with their own kind for various reasons.

Those reasons, depending on the person, could be more serious like wishing to "fly under the radar" while being an illegal immigrant that still wants friends with someone like that.

Or, even if not illegal, just wanting to be with others who are like you because you have more in common.

And, regardless of who you are friends with, you have that typical immigrant characteristic of not speaking (or learning at all) the local language and bringing with you your own cultural customs and, to whatever limited degree, adopting some of the local cultural customs in the country you moved to (in many cases, none at all).

And Mexicans in the US are definitely not innocent of the last characteristic.

As you can see here, there is a study done by Pew Research showing Mexicans to be the WORST immigrant group in the US for English language skills.

“Immigrants from Mexico have the lowest rates of English proficiency (34%), followed by those from Central America (35%), East and Southeast Asia (50%) and South America (56%). Immigrants from Canada (96%), Oceania (82%), Europe (75%) and sub-Saharan Africa (74%) have the highest rates of English proficiency.”

Now I can already see the mental gymnastics you are doing.

You will use the "privilege" argument to argue that it is different because Americans come from privilege to live in Mexico and Mexicans come from poverty to live in the US.

Though, having lived in the same dorm room in college and known immigrants from many other backgrounds, I would argue that most immigrants, even if they come from enough money to afford 50,000 a year in college tuition, still prefer to mostly (almost entirely) only hang out with other people from their same cultural background.

Be it Pakistanis, Chinese, Indians, Brazilians, etc.

Those were some of the richer foreigner groups in the college I went to in the US. I knew some of them and hung with some of them.

Most did speak English well due to the better education at a young age (though not always like in the case of the Brazilians) but they all mostly (or only) hung out with others like them.

So I would argue that the American way of being in Latin America is not entirely different from those who choose a live in America.

The characteristics, despite why they are how they are for each group, are very similar.

Another common characteristic is, ironically enough, the hate that SOME people of each group have for members of their own group.

As I wrote here, you have Mexicans who hate other Mexicans in the US.

In Latin America, as I wrote about here for example, there's no shortage of gringos who hate other gringos.

In this case, I would argue there are differences in why the hate exist depending on the person (of course).

The Mexican might hate other Mexicans because he came from money and doesn't like poorer Mexicans giving him a bad name.

The gringo might hate other gringos because he jerks himself off to the idea of being a mini Christopher Columbus blazing trails where he believes no other gringo has been before in Latin America.

Among other issues the Mexican or the gringo have.

But, despite the different (and sometimes similar) reasons for the hate, both groups again share the same characteristic of being happy they were allowed a new life in a new land but hating the next wave of patriots from their same country showing up to enjoy the same.

In many ways, there are some very serious differences in the life experiences between the American immigrant and the Mexican immigrant but they both share many similar characteristics also (even if the root cause of their characteristics is, at times, different).

Those differences should not be ignored and definitely not the life experiences each carry.

But I would argue that, given the numerous similarities, we are not as different as we imagine.

Though, more importantly, the argument here is that, at least for the gringos establishing deeper roots than a 4 month trip doing remote work in Mexico City, there should be a priority among us to establish more consciously and strategically a gringo immigrant community.

Such an idea will never be taken seriously though among most gringos for various reasons.

We will discuss why I believe that to be the case and why we should have a gringo immigrant community.

Let's move forward first by defining a gringo community.

A Gringo Community?

To be fair, there is already a semblance of a gringo community.

However, for reasons, it is framed differently online and understood differently in a social context.

It also is not the same as it is for other immigrant groups typically.

As we will cover soon, sometimes the "gringo immigrant community" is more of an ideological community to promote libertarian belief systems (or any other ideology) in their own bubble full of other Americans.

Among other examples.

But we should define it first and see the examples at hand.

First, what do I mean by "community."

I'd say any community is as it sounds -- a community.

Where gringos are close to each other, speak each others language, celebrate things from back home, introduce aspects of their own culture to society here, stand up for their interest, being part of the broader community, etc.

Now, to be fair, gringos are good at most of that except "standing up for their interests" and it is questionable at how good they are at "being part of the broader community."

On the second point, it largely depends on the gringo.

Some do truly just live a "pleasure" lifestyle down here where they take and take but never give back.

On the flip side, you have plenty of gringos, like you can see here, who give back to the community by joining local volunteer groups supposedly (among all the other posts you see occasionally online).

I wouldn't argue "giving back" is necessary for a gringo (or any immigrant group) community to form but it's the right thing to do, I'd argue.

Why the hell not?

If you can, do something positive.

You should live this world -- despite your imperfections -- to give back however you can (without being a doormat). 

But, on the flip side, it's not necessary for an immigrant group to have their own community.

They could live entirely in their own bubble and never give back at large but I would argue that is more harmful.

One, it's a waste of opportunity to not do good in the world when you can.

Second, it makes your community looks worse (and we know people in any country love to shit on all immigrants by taking the worst examples).

Third, it improves our standing in the community in the eyes of the locals and, on top of that, gives us more opportunity, depending on the context, to spread our own culture and customs locally beyond our bubble.

When it comes to the "standing up for our interests" though, gringos are shit at that.

Arguably one of the worst immigrant groups for doing that.

At least in other countries like the US, you have Mexicans who march for their own interests.

And part of the reason for that might be obvious -- we gringos don't have as many struggles as the average Mexican immigrant to the US who isn't some white Mexican rich dude that owns a big business in Jalisco or some shit.

Because not all Mexican immigrants are poor either.

But it's true -- we have less to struggle for and so we don't have anything to stand up for usually (except maybe against police demanding bribes, correcting Mexican ignorance about us and whatever else). 

I would argue though that, despite that, gringos should be conscious of promoting their own interests.

You already have the mile. Aim for 10 miles.

 To our benefit, we do come from one of the most powerful and influential governments in the world that doesn't always stand up for our interest but, by the nature of coming from said country with said government, we get benefits.

Like having a passport that is stronger than a majority of countries on the planet where we don't need a visa as often and where our currency is one of the strongest and most valuable on the planet.

Still, despite the benefits, there should be some consciousness among us that we are a community and that's where I'd start with "standing up for our interests."

We'll get to that at a later point in the article.

Anyway, outside of those two issues, gringos do pretty well on everything else when it comes to being part of a "gringo community."

Many of us obviously speak English to each other (even though you have those who want to turn every conversation with another gringo into Spanish to "practice the language").

We've even informally forced the Europeans to speak our language to us where they don't even demand we speak theirs (French, German, etc).

So we're doing good on the language front!

In terms of being our culture down here, sometimes gringos do that but I think quite a few don't.

As I wrote here, it's not terribly uncommon for gringos to celebrate Thanksgiving down here or, as I wrote here, for them to have "4th of July" parties.

Those are good signs.

On top of that, we do have at times our own collective spaces where we hang out.

Sometimes though that means picking a neighborhood, raising rents and kicking out some of the locals to make room for our own.

You call it gentrification and can cry about the upper class white Mexicans in Condesa all you want.

They'll be OK. They can go live in Anzures.

I call it making our own "barrio gringo" like the Chinese have "barrio Chino" supposedly.

Despite the difference in history in how both areas were formed, gringos do and are good at that detail also: picking areas to move lots of their own into.

Granted, immigrant communities of all backgrounds are good at that as people tend to stick together.

The main difference is we have more money than most immigrant groups and so that sometimes means kicking out upper class locals that bitch about feeling like the poor locals they shit and piss on and sometimes it unfortunately means kicking out poor locals if the upper class ones haven't done so yet by the time we arrive.

Outside of that, we make our own spaces in our other ways (though we often don't realize it).

It could mean a bunch of gringos making some local volunteer/NGO group like I wrote about here where most of them participating are foreigners from "the first world."

Or it could mean making Facebook pages for "expats" or "digital nomads" like you can see here, here, here or here for Mexico specifically.

Though, in those examples above with the NGOs and Facebook groups, those are more for "first world" foreigners in general and not people from the US specifically.

We are not as good at having our own NGOs/volunteer groups and Facebook groups for just Americans.

In many ways, the expat and digital nomad life blends everyone from "the first world" together.

Even in the neighborhoods we live in like Condesa of Mexico City, not everyone is American and so you can't call it "barrio americano" or "barrio gringo" (using the word gringo by the Mexican and not the South American understanding).

So, when it comes to "spaces" for the gringo immigrant community, we have some semblance of it but it is shared with other groups and not really specific to our people.

So, when it comes to knowing what an immigrant community is, obviously there's way more that could be discussed with a lot more specifics but I think you get what just some of the foundations are.

And also that, while there are areas heavy with foreigners, they don't represent truly to a T an actual gringo immigrant community because of the relative lack of cohesion compared to other immigrant groups in other countries.

And part of the lack of cohesion is also because of the mentality of the gringos themselves that think along among the following lines, including 1) laugh at the idea of such a community, 2) be confused because they never saw themselves as immigrants for various (and often legitimate) reasons, 3) are left-leaning and would see it as "colonialism" and 4) hate seeing other gringos in their self-declared "own corner" of Latin America.

Among other reasons for why there isn't a real social consciousness among gringos for a "gringo immigrant" community.

Let's break all of that down.

Reasons for the Lack of a Gringo Immigrant Community

There are numerous reasons for why I think gringos tend not to think of themselves as an immigrant community and don't consciously even try to form one (even if sometimes their behavior has similarities to one).

First, most are not coming to live here forever or even try to.

Some digital nomad kid who is going to be here for a year or two and then move on?

He doesn't see himself as an immigrant.

Even other countries don't see them as true immigrants policy wise.

Like Costa Rica, as you can see here, passing a digital nomad visa that will be good for, at most 2 years basically.

They don't see them either as forever immigrants.

Two years and get the fuck out!

And they are happy to get the fuck out!

But, like I said, they do form their own communities naturally in real life and online but they call them "digital nomad" instead of "immigrant" and, in their case, I would argue they are right.

They aren't immigrants.

And, regardless of if they call themselves "digital nomads" or not, I think a high percentage of foreigners from "the first world" don't see themselves as true immigrants because they truly don't come in with the plan of living here long term and definitely not forever.

Second, you have others who do want to stay here until they kick the bucket but many are retired ol' farts that will die in 15 years anyway through their retirement.

They may or may not contribute to the community in other ways but are not leaving behind any genetic legacy beyond them such as children.

Their legacy might include both 1) buying and making super nice a house by some beach and 2) donating to the local animal shelter.

But no children that will feel that American-Mexican (or American-x Latin country) identity and promote it within society as a citizen of said society that can vote someday.

And so that the many other expats who don't have children here (retired or not) will not have a genetic legacy beyond the winds that carry their last farts after they die and sent to the grave (regardless of age but older expats guilty of this for more obvious reasons due to less liklihood of reproducing in said Latin American country).

If more Americans did have children here in the millions, obviously that'd resemble more the millions of Mexicans in the US (but only if they chose a country like Mexico and were not scattered everywhere in the region).

There are a few million Americans in Mexico though but most are not having and raising children (some do though).

And many do pick select places like Mexico City or Puerto Vallarta but many of them are not reproducing locally and that is necessary for any long lasting community.

Third, going off what I just said, a lot don't see themselves as immigrants because they come from the first world.

They might not try to rationalize why that is.

They just hear others using other words like "expats" or "digital nomads" and roll with with those terms instead because everyone else is using them.

Most of the expats or digital nomads I see using the term "immigrant" online are those left-leaning types who just want to pander to social justice issues.

It's their way of sitting on a high horse with some moral issue that only they care about and the supposed victims don't actually give a fuck about but they can sit on that high horse and bitch about others not using the word "immigrant" and how they do use the word "immigrant" as a way to feel superior.

Putting that aside, there is an oddity to someone from the "first world" self-identifying by such a term.

And we all know plenty of the locals would be equally confused at some blonde hair, blue eyed dude from Sweden or the US self-identifying as an "immigrant" to the locals.

Some of them even have a hard time understanding that some of us do live here long term and the reasons for it as I wrote about here (regardless of if we use the term immigrant or not).

So, because of this social context in how people process the word immigrant, I think that's one of the bigger reasons why gringos don't consciously call themselves an immigrant and have specifically a gringo or American "immigrant" community that they work within for their own interests.

Fourth, speaking of interests, a lot of gringos don't really have as many interests to fight for nor as much discrimination as other immigrant groups necessarily.

Granted, I don't think this necessarily stops gringos from self-identifying as immigrants but I think it has an importance.

I've never been though an immigrant to the US from a community that experiences struggles so what I'm saying is that I am only guessing this to be a difference and what seems most logical.

If you are part of a group of people in another country that experiences struggle or issues that need addressing, you naturally come together to address such issues in whatever way you can.

On the other hand, if you are a bunch of gringos who come in with laptops working online from home, earning USD, can do perpetual visa runs, find it easier for local women to suck your cock and generally have a relatively easier life than back home, you might not identify too many issues that people like you need addressing.

That isn't to say that gringos have absolutely 0 issues that come with living down here.

They have the same cultural and linguistic issues that any immigrant group would have.

They do have legal issues in that a lot of gringos (though not all) are relatively poorer from back home and don't have enough money to qualify for legal residency down here in whatever country of Latin America.

With visa runs also being cracked down on.

They get fucked over like Mexicans with police wanting bribes, concerns about safety, etc.

And they also do have locals that are biased and racist against them.

Dealing with ignorance that Mexicans have about people from the US (which they have no shortage of).

But they do have it easier than the stereotypical Mexican immigrant that had to cross a fucking river and desert (and maybe died doing so.

And, as I referenced in other articles, it goes both ways.

You got no shortage of locals who kiss our asses because they see our white skin, assume our foreign nationalities, might want the money they sometimes ignorantly think we have (and don't always), want to practice English with us, maybe fetishize us and fuck us easier than women back home (at least with the gringo hunters), assume we are more educated and so on.

So on and so on.

But, like I said, there are issues we do face (that Mexicans face also to be fair).

And there are likely other issues that gringos that are miscellaneous that I'm not even aware of when it comes to living down here.

Like what it's like to raise a kid with a foreign cultural background from his dad.

Does he face discrimination at school? In Mexico, I've heard some discrimination can exist in public schools against white students (though, if you were a gringo, hopefully you aren't one of the poor ones who can't afford a private school then).

What about identity issues?

What about wanting your kid to be at least "in part American."

I've known several gringos who did have children down here and are raising them here.

Is it an issue? I have no idea.

Maybe you have deeper issues with buying home and getting a loan in a country that you have no credit score in (just like with immigrants in any country)?

So on and so on.

These obviously aren't issues as severe as some of the shit that immigrants from poorer (and sometimes illegal) backgrounds have to face in other countries (though not having it as bad doesn't nullify the concerns presented). 

And many of the issues discussed (like how to raise kids in a multi-cultural background or buying a home) are ones immigrants in any country face.

But they are still things that gringos would probably want to be mindful of when living in another country.

And that's where, again, I'd emphasize the need for a more cohesive community.

Still, going back to what I was saying, due to the relatively less severe issues than what other immigrants have to face on average per person, one could see this as a possible reason for why gringos don't consciously see themselves as immigrants socially.

However, richer (or relatively better off financially) immigrant communities do exist in countries throughout history.

From my limited understanding, it seemed like there were plenty in the Lebanese community in Mexico that wasn't too bad off as you can see here and here (though plenty of others in that group also faced a lot of xenophobia and were relatively poorer).

"Mexican national identity is built around the idea of mestizaje, which describes Mexican culture as the product of Spanish and indigenous peoples mixing and thus excludes the contributions of immigrants as well as African Mexicans. As a result, many immigrant groups have instead portrayed themselves as successful foreigners while not assimilating to mestizo Mexican culture. They function as relatively wealthy - and relatively secluded - social groups that do not mix too far outside their own community and institutions."

I always heard that some of the Asian immigrants that came to the US were, compared to other groups, better off financially as you can see here.

But, like with all those groups, I'm sure they faced challenges in some aspects to life despite having more money on average per person or eventually seeing a rise in prosperity in their group. 

Regardless, I would bet that the relatively easier life that the average gringo has in Latin America contributes to the lack of a cohesive identity among gringo immigrants to form such a community beyond something as broad as "digital nomads" or "expats."

Fifth, as I wrote about here or here, you often have these gringos who hate seeing or interacting with other gringos.

I'll keep this brief as I wrote about it before but some of the reasons include but not limited to:

1. They see said gringos as fucking up "their corner" of Latin America by raising the cost of living for them, making them less exotic for the local women to fuck, invite more hustlers, etc.

With these gringos, they don't see themselves as ever wanting any gringo immigrant community. They just want to be left alone on a beach somewhere in Costa Rica that gringos haven't found yet, fuck as many hookers as possible (though they'll claim they were 8s from Tinder) and have a cost of living low enough for their 1,250 a month in social security.

2. You have gringos who hate seeing other gringos because they want to feel they want to feel like a mini Christoper Columbus and hate it when enough gringos found their area and they no longer get to feel like some adventurous foreigner in some exotic jungle like in "Heart of Darkness."

For the last two groups, it's pretty retarded that these types talks about their stories online with location specifics and/or tried to encourage other gringos to give them money (ebooks, substack, Youtube etc) for this information if they don't want more gringos showing up. I guess it'd be more of a legit concern if said gringo had millions of clicks like Roosh. It's also retarded that their followers don't make that connection and wonder how genuine their beliefs are. 

3. You have those gringos who were legit losers back home and the sight of other gringos reminds them of back home. Any sight of white women who wouldn't fuck them back home and loud gringos laughing with big dick energy make them uncomfortable as they are reminded of the life of being considered a social retard in their home country.

4. You also have left-leaning gringos who just hate other gringos because they tend to be white, are from a richer country and want to feel superior to them based on some moral high ground where they consider all the other gringos to be colonizers while oddly and ironically enough being gringos themselves with more money than the locals (even if brown, they are still from the US like the white ones they hate but DON'T TELL THEM THAT!).

Which, as a side point, is ironic because Latino immigrants going north are called invaders by people critical of them (even by Mexicans below as you can see here). So they get to be the invaders and we the colonizers? Fair enough.

"Diputada de Morena considera "invasión" el ingreso de inmigrantes a México"

Therefore, with these gringos, you couldn't pay them to be part of some "gringo immigrant" community because they'd revolt at the idea.

And, given they are American, they'd probably shoot you too.

Sixth, there are likely many other reasons for why gringos hate other gringos but one other one that I'll include but felt like adding as a separate point is that some gringos want an "authentic" Latin America.

They have this idea in their mind of what Latin America is supposed to be like as I wrote here (despite not being from Latin America and most likely not even Latino).

Imagine if some Chinese dude came some random part of the US and yelled out "THIS ISN'T THE REAL AMERICA!!! I CAME IN WITH A SPECIFIC IDEA OF WHAT AMERICA IS AND THIS ISN'T IT!! FUCK THIS PLACE!!"

The arrogance.

Regardless, these gringos want a very specific adventure where they live the life of some writer who visited Latin America in the 1940s or when the fuck ever where there is exotic fruit hanging from trees, hot women in bikinis walking around all day who will fuck them on command, where cigarettes cost a penny each, constant sun, rent is 5 dollars a month, etc.

And who the fuck doesn't want that?

I do!

I can't blame them.

Sounds awesome as fuck.

But any deviation from that is where the place is "not real" Latin America in their eyes. 

And, especially if it has a lot of gringos, then obviously it doesn't feel like "real" Latin America despite being in Latin America.

Regardless of what you think of these types, I can't hate it entirely as I get it and vibe with what they want.

Ultimately, they don't usually give a rats ass about Latin America or any long term future in the region beyond just having fun.

They might not even plan on living in the country they are in long term (read: decades).

They mostly see it as their playground to fuck bitches, live a life that is cheap, drink, do drugs, visit the beach, etc.

And more gringos only increases the cost of all of that and makes it seem "less authentic."

Though, to be fair, sometimes I see these gringos going the opposite direction after they've had enough fun where they might have a kid down here, get married, pursue citizenship, etc.

I have a friend named Blayde who was all about hooking up, partying, doing cocaine, etc.

Now he's more calm, pursuing citizenship, starting a business and thinking of a future down here.

When gringos go from one to the other like that, I see a lot of them acting very typically gringo by judging the new gringos coming in for not learning Spanish, sticking to the bubble, not knowing "the real Latin America," not having as much money, etc.

Which is ironic because someone like Blayde -- only a few years ago -- was relatively poorer and living on 500 bucks a month.

But now, like Roosh V, he's becoming more religious, always talking about how hard he worked today, etc.

All the while looking down on the gringos he was no different from just a few years ago.

So they just revert back to a previous group of gringos mentioned that hate gringos for other reasons and you can tell that the reasons are likely bullshit and they're just looking for a reason to not like gringos because they 1) want to feel better about themselves and 2) not want their corner of Latin America becoming "inauthentic."

It's like Latin Americans bitching about gringos being poor and then bitching about us being rich and gentrifying everything as I wrote here. Above all, they are bullshit reasons someone gives because admitting the real issues that bother you would not be good optics because you'd look stupid. 

And the result is the same: no hanging around gringos and forming a community in a country that, ironically enough, they are becoming immigrants too (even to the point of being naturalized, having children that share their heritage and will be racial minorities most likely, etc).

And yet, for whatever reason, still can't understand how it'd be to their benefit to have a more solid gringo community if they are actually immigrating here with all those roots. 

Above all (regardless of if they party a lot or not), they link "too many gringos" with not being "real" Latin America and then you won't see them looking to form "gringo immigrant" communities nor identify as an immigrant (unless they are left leaning gringos who just want to pander to social issues).

Seventh, here is a cultural argument I have heard about gringos before.

Where we always critique ourselves and put ourselves down as much as possible to ourselves on top of that.

And are always focused on "privilege" and, if one carries "privilege," then their story, history of their group and issues are no longer relevant in the eyes of believe this.

That's definitely true for some Americans (and maybe other nationalities like Canadians).

At any rate, I think there might be something to this.

A lot of gringos are self-hating for sure against their own culture and people.

And many do go to the point of labeling themselves as colonizers and bitch about themselves while still living down here despite being the "colonizer" they say other gringos from the same country are.

It's mostly pandering.

But would said gringo really stand up for a gringo immigrant community (even while bitching at gringos for not using the word immigrant for social media points and pandering)?

Probably not.

And, on top of that, there is a certain humbleness that sometimes comes across as condescending among other gringos.

Who recognize the better opportunities they have in life and so, as consequence, see themselves as "guests" and not necessarily immigrants where, in practice, a guest should never speak up and mention what is bothering him.

And they're not necessarily trying to be condescending about it to the locals or trying to pander for social media points like the left leaning sociopathic gringos are.

But they can sometimes come across as condescending in terms of how they talk about Latin Americans as if they see all of them as helpless retards that can't wipe their own ass and, because of their situation relative to ours on average, we are just guests that should never speak up and identify as a community since we have relatively more privilege than the average Mexican immigrant trying to go to the US. 

And, while the Latin Americans don't usually focus on the word choice of immigrant or expat (though some upper class reddit types do), most do see the condescension from these types also and roll their eyes.

So, with that said, you aren't seeing these gringos either forming any gringo immigrant community and they make up a noticeable percentage of gringos out there.

Eighth, some gringos choose to live in areas that don't have many gringos.

They have their own reasons.

It's not necessarily that they hate other gringos.

Maybe they did want to get off the gringo tourist trail perhaps.

Maybe they found love in some area like Iztapalapa or Cali, Colombia and that's why they chose to go to said area (not necessarily live in but at least visit).

So on and so on.

Still, if you are the only gringo living in said area, I can see why you aren't arguing for a gringo immigrant community.

What fucking community are you speaking of?

There's no other gringos!

It's like the Latino that was born and raised in small town Iowa and doesn't have as much of a community to connect with as the one who is literally living in Miami, Texas or California. 

There are gringos like that who do go "off the gringo path" for whatever reason -- not necessarily for those discussed above -- and so they obviously won't call themselves immigrants nor identify with any larger immigrant community of people from the same country or even "collection of countries" (like when they use terms like "the west," "1st world" or whatever else).

Ninth, another reason why I think sometimes gringos fail to properly form their own communities down here more cohesively is because of the early history and recent extra "diversification" of our country.

Our country is still fairly early compared to most countries in Europe, Asia, etc that have more well-defined cultures.

The idea of "what it means to be American" is still questioned by many and in contest between different groups up north.

But it's also a relatively very young country.

At any rate, I'd wonder how much of an impact this plays when it comes to the characteristics and self-identifying nature of the groups that form by Americans and other immigrant groups abroad.

Obviously, a country with a longer history is going to have a more solid idea of what it means to be from that country and, when they move abroad, are probably more likely to form a more cohesive community if I had to guess.

Here's some examples in Latin America of immigrant groups that dominated specific sections of the region and are still strong to this day due to that cohesiveness from culture, demographics, etc.

Either way, I'm not entirely sure how important it is as there are probably other countries that are young and have diversity that form immigrant communities abroad.

Though, even in the case of Mexico for example, you see friction where the idea of a "white Mexican" is not entirely accepted in the US among both non-Latino Americans and Mexicans up there.

So, with diversity where not everyone looks the same, you could see friction there as well in terms of forming a cohesive community and, for perhaps a variety of reasons beyond discussed here, there is inconsistency in said community (to say the least).

Still, I know there are plenty who do understand that "white Mexicans" are Mexicans too.

And, going back to the US, one could argue that, given the more "empire nature" of the country that just accepts countless immigrants from so many different cultures compared to most countries currently, it is harder to pin point what exactly is "American culture" or the thing that unifies us all.

There are talking points that politicians and low IQ people will reiterate after hearing them on the TV.

That isn't to say though that you don't have "American culture" or that it can't be defined. There are key characteristics of American culture without question.

And sometimes, as you see in this article here, they get exported abroad to the point of you have "Americanization" of cultures of other countries.

"Americanisation, Fourquet writes, has profoundly transformed France. Although 27% of French people have visited the US at least once, every second person among the wealthy has done so. The upper classes are fluent in English — Macron voters were the most proficient in this language, while Le Pen voters were the least — and consume mostly American media.  

The less fortunate have their own cultural markers of Americanisation. Again, Fourquet analyses names. The Maries of French tradition were replaced by Kevins (after Home Alone) and Dylans (after Beverly Hills 90210). The map of these American names coincides with the places where Marine Le Pen can count on her firmest support. Many National Rally activists bear names such as Jordan Bardella, today the number two in the party, or Davy Rodriguez, who headed its youth organisation. More phenomena of this kitschy low-status Americanisation include the immense popularity of country music clubs, vintage US cars, and pole dancing across France, as well the spread of the Buffalo Grill restaurant chain in hundreds of locations."

Among other examples that the article gave.

The point though is that, given the higher degree of diversity, one could wonder if that makes it harder for some Americans to connect with each other and sometimes resort to hanging out with those most like them in some cases.

Like black American expats hanging out with mostly other black American expats.

Or how, as you can see here, you have "Little LA" in Mexico City full of deported Mexicans that are very Americanized and who, in many cases, really are American and not so Mexican.

In some other cases, you also have Americans coming together under an ideological commonality like with anarchism, libertarian philosophy, etc and more as you can see here with an example in Chile.

Not really a fan of the Young Turks but this is one of the few videos I could find.

From what I've seen, you also have some other "expat communities" in gated areas like you can see here.

So on and so on.

So it's not like you don't have Americans forming their own communities but it seems to be divided, at least in part, between race, ideology, wealth, etc.

Though, when it comes to wealth, you see similar divisions in a lot of immigrant groups like the Lebanese to Mexico long ago.

And, on top of what I was saying, every country has diversity and regional varieties and one could argue that the nation state project in most countries is meant to unify people of many different backgrounds that don't TRULY have that much in common on a cultural level.

Like how Mexicans insist "en Mexico somos mestizos" when, as I wrote here, that's not true for every Mexican and there is an historical reason why that idea was formed after the Mexican Revolution. 

So, with that said, the US isn't, in my opinion, that different from so many countries on this topic.

Mexico has its own regional and racial diversity too.

Only that, with the extremes to which the US has taken it while on its mission to continuing as a global empire (with the population numbers needed supported by immigration), the following has to be asked:

Could that explain, at least in part, the relative lack of cohesiveness that you see among American immigrants abroad in the modern era (at least when compared to Mexicans in the US for example and definitely a group like the Chinese)?

It's just a theory of mine though as I'm throwing ideas out there to ponder to explain the relative lack of cohesiveness among "American immigrants" versus immigrants in other countries.

Having said all that, there might be other reasons why some gringos wouldn't naturally be inclined to think about having a more cohesive immigrant (and NOT expat or digital nomad) community among us Americans living down here perpetually.

But there are reasons why they should that we already referenced and will cover briefly.

The Argument for the Gringo Immigrant Community

This article is a bit long already and I have a bit of vodka by now so I'll keep this simple. 

Why the fuck wouldn't you want your culture and the interests of your people even better represented abroad?

Not saying we are oppressed but that we should stand up, as a community, for our own culture, not hate seeing other gringos but be happy to see them in our area and to always push for more benefits to our people down here.

Why the fuck shouldn't we?

When you ordering tacos, why wouldn't you tell the waiter for extra cheese or extra salsa?

When you getting a blowjob, why wouldn't you tell her to "not forget the balls"?

There is need for humility. Sure.

Don't be a complete asshole.

But don't forget to get what you can.

And so people might say "well, we come from privilege, shut up."

Fuck no.

We come from a powerful ass country. Fuck yeah. I got privilege.

Now don't forget those balls, bitch.

But I don't know how else to explain it to you.

You're just too low IQ if you don't get it.

You demand every mile you can get for you and people like you.

Because if there wasn't people like you, then it's just you and you are weaker without others like you in your community.

We should be happy then to see other gringos down here.

But, more importantly as for now, there is the question of how to improve our standing down here.

I feel like, given the broad generalities that I have to speak in given I am speaking for all of gringos in all of Latin America (including the context even those in gringo heavy areas live in), then I have to say the following:

1. Drop the bitch ass cuck mentality of "we aren't a community" or "I don't like seeing other gringos" or "I don't like hearing English" or whatever the fuck else.

Pull your panties up, stop being a bitch about how you were a loser back home and get the fuck out of here.

2. There isn't much we can do politically or policy wise to argue for our community. We can't vote down here. Writing the US embassy to ease growing restrictions on our legal time down here (like Mexico cracking on visa runs or Peru doing the same a decade ago or having Argentine drop the reciprocity fee a decade ago) won't change much.

You can try though.

Why not?

We should encourage more gringos to move here that are serious about long term living.

That'll only increase our influence in the select areas we move to and, as Americans, it should be our desire to increase our influence.

In the same way it should be in your DNA to get women pregnant and spread your seed.

It goes from biology to nationality and culture.

People of any country and culture should, if they aren't self-hating losers, want to spread their heritage also. 

Spread everything about you as far and wide as possible and don't forget to tell the bitch to lick the balls too.

3. As I said, we should be arguing for more gringo immigrants in the area. The only legitimate reason you wouldn't argue for that is because you want to keep feeling like a mini Christopher Columbus who is in his own corner with nobody else and all the benefits of that.

And, like I said, I get why some of you don't want certain types of gringos who push too much retard politics down here, jack prices up, bring in hustlers, etc.

I think you could bring in more gringos who don't do the above if they knew how to behave.

Like not overpaying for shit or whatever else.

But then they'd have to act like actual immigrants and not just tourists spending 3000 a month for a place that'd rent out normally at 500 a month.

Among other changes.

The irony though in that is some of you richer gringos bitch about poorer gringos because you need shit to feel superior about to compensate for shit but it's the poorer gringos who ain't raising prices in nothing.

Though it is sometimes the poorer ones who argue for retard politics down here but not always. Richer expats escaping Cali do the same down here like they want to do in Texas.

4. One reason gringos don't have as much of a community or influence here is because lack of children like I said already.

If you don't have a legacy down here, you give less fucks about the community.

You got no kids who'll have to live down here or, if you do, maybe you'll bring them up to the US or they can at least get citizenship through you and move up north someday.

Nothing wrong with bringing them up north.

But, like I said before, the aspect to it does hinder the growth of any gringo immigrant community.

Obviously having kids with our bloodline, heritage and nationality down here can improve our influence in the region.

Those kids will grow up to be able to vote someday.

Be part of whatever "gringo immigrant" community or whatever.

Among other things.

5. Contributing locally to the community and participating does help.

Yeah -- learning Spanish, volunteering, donating and whatever else.

Don't be a doormat to the locals but I do think that more gringos adding to those who already do the contributions we make does increase our influence in the region down here.

In whatever city you move to.

7. Other cultural influences?

Plenty of Latin Americans already try to learn English and force their English practicing obsession on us.

Plenty already try to learn music from our countries like The Doors, Tool, Pink Floyd, etc.

We have that covered as long as our countries continue to be important and produce good shit.

Fuck, even if they produce bad shit like the pop stuff you hear in the radio from home, they still play it down here and some Latin Americans eat it up.

That's all covered.

That's one other (among many) differences between the "gringo immigrant" group and other immigrant groups is that the countries we come from are more influential in many ways (including cultural) and so some of our music more easily makes its way down here without us even needing to be here.

Not even with just culture but with everything else like food (hamburgers, hotdogs, etc that you see everywhere in Mexico City).

Versus other immigrant groups that would need to bring their food to countries like Mexico or invent them here for Mexicans to eat them (like tacos al pastor that was invented by Middle Eastern immigrants but has become popular).

I doubt Lebanon had that much cultural influence worldwide to introduce that food to Mexico back then. It was the immigrants that did the heavy work as you can read here.

Still, putting aside the advantage we have from coming from first world countries to export our culture, I'm sure we can do more.

Like maybe teaching locals to show up on time and forget mañana time.

Or perhaps opening up restaurants introducing soul food, Southern food, whatever the fuck else that is not as common as hamburgers, hotdogs, etc.

Shit like that.

And, more importantly, breeding their women and having children who will know the importance of America.

That's the best way to own the locals and insert America into their countries -- get their women pregnant and produce children with pride for their American heritage. 

Ideas for that include perhaps having more foreign bride agencies to get gringos to more easily find a Mexican to marry and whatever the hell else that'll help gringos who don't know at all with no contacts down here to find someone more easily to marry.

If we keep reproducing and stealing their women, our numbers will get bigger and our community even more influential.

But, above all, the second step is just solidifying that we have a community and taking it from there with all the other steps mentioned above.

We already have characteristics of any immigrant group like I said but one of the main issues is most folks from back home don't want to acknowledge it (or not acknowledge it for obvious reasons like they wouldn't be part of it for reasons already mentioned).

But you have to first acknowledge that there is an American immigrant community before building on it.

And so some of the basic advice I give above is just obvious shit to begin building on it after such acknowledgement by enough people in specific cities of Latin America (wherever it might or might not happen).

We must have balls in hand though, flex our muscles, and be like....

YEAHHHHH BOOOOOOOOY

Public Enemy yeah boy

And exert our influence on the region.

When bitches be sucking your dick, do you forget to tell her "don't forget the balls?"

Don't be a bitch.

Of course you tell her.

It's time for us Americans to form a real immigrant community.

And leave our foot on the world on an individual level from city to city and country to country.

You might say we already have influence from our government but it shouldn't stop there.

And dump the retard behavior that tells us to not identify as an immigrant community that is permanent.

Any other behavior from someone who is here for years or decades is just bitch ass shit from cucks who can't beat their chest and feel proud to be AMERICAN.

We are here FOREVER and YOUR bitches are now OUR bitches and they are NOT forgetting the BALLS.

YEAH BOOOOOOOOOOY!!!!

Final Thoughts

As of right now, that's everything that comes to mind.

Personally, I think some gringos should be more conscious of forming their own community down here.

Especially as times are changing.

If we were discussing gringos living down here in the 1990s, it wouldn't make as much sense due to the mentioned reason of not enough gringos for such a community.

But, with remote work becoming more common, it is something to consider as you will have more and more coming to live down here.

Another influence is that you will have, as I wrote about here, more coming due to perceptions that their own countries are going to shit due to political, social and economic reasons.

Sometimes I think these gringos are full of shit as you have plenty of problems down here also and these said gringos are too retarded to realize that and do indeed live in their own bubble.

Still, with the US facing ever increasing problems (among most countries in the world), I can see that motivating more and more to leave.

Among other influences that could drive more "immigration to the south."

But it is what it is!

Regardless of the extent to which it happens, I do think it will become ever increasingly so.

There will be more limitations imposed on those making the move after too many do in my opinion for various reasons (but that's another topic).

And, above all, for the reasons discussed, gringos should stop being self-hating bitch ass cucks against their own culture and people and actually have a conscious effort to form a more cohesive community that represents our people, culture and country down here.

I always lose respect for the self-hating cuck gringo that says any of the following:

1. I hate the West (or exaggerated bullshit like the West is Dead)

2. Fuck the US (or Canada if you are Canadian). 

3. Any hate against white people and, for the loser gringos who couldn't get pussy back home, white women specifically (though I equally find it as distasteful when I see Latinos hate against their own or any other group).

Can't you just skip all the bullshit and tell us your a retard loser with no respect for his own heritage from back home?

After all, you never forget where you come from and, as I wrote here, I can only say from my own experience living abroad so long that I have grown a greater connection to my own country.

While I enjoy living down here, there is something about living away from home for so long that triggers something inside of you to feel more connected to your roots (especially as you get older also).

But no real gringo community beyond gated expat communities and ideological islands is likely to ever form too seriously.

For all of the reasons mentioned, basically nobody will likely ever take seriously this proposal of "the gringo immigrant community."

Even those left leaning gringos who are disingenuous or insecure locals that like sitting on a high horse to lecture other gringos for using the term "expat" would never take this idea seriously either.

Because, for them, it isn't about actually about having any real gringo immigrant community but instead just a way to feel better about themselves and feeling clever like they came across an "original" idea.

Fight Club Airplane Meeting Tyler Scene

"How's that working out for you? Being clever?"

Which is the greatest irony of all because -- as you can see here -- there's no shortage of those who are just trying to be "clever" like this local chick here.

Because, for even some of the locals who argue we should use the term "immigrants," we all know that, deep down, they wouldn't want an actual gringo immigrant community because 1) it'd resemble some of the steps mentioned above that I think gringos would need to take and 2) most people in the world don't want too many outsiders in their community.

"A few are OK but not too many and not too quickly" is the mentality of most people in the world regardless of nationality, race, ethnicity, etc.

In the same way Mexicans come up with bullshit reasons to complain about the Americans already here as I wrote here that we know most don't give a fuck about or inaccurately blame us for and instead are just BS reasons instead of saying what really bothers them (too many people not like them in the area).

To them giving the same anti-immigrant talking points against other Latino immigrants in their countries that Americans use against Mexicans as you can read here or here.

Or how, like mentioned before, you can see here of an example of Mexicans also calling massive groups of migrants an "invasion" like gringos up north do.

And so if the locals were to stop half assing their attempts at being clever to distract from their minimum wage job in an OXXO in Chalco for just one second and gave this idea some thought, they know they'd hate it if gringos actually were more socially conscious as a immigrant group within society. 

Our role in society, to those bitching the most (which doesn't represent most Latin Americans), is to be nothing more than foreigners they can practice English with for a week while we spend thousands in Cancun as tourists. 

Above all, even they truly do not take the idea seriously.   

Which is why I wrote this as it's nothing more than a thought experiment as to this topic.

I stand by the words here but I know nothing will happen as far as I see it in the near future (but, with the mentioned changes regarding remote work, it does increase the possibility for maybe some select cities but I have my doubts). 

Though, as I hinted at in the beginning of the article, that doesn't stop gringos from forming their own communities in other ways ("expats" or ideological communities for example) and having at least some impact locally in the community in various ways like actual immigrants would (sometimes good, sometimes bad).

Which, in practice, does already resemble in many ways an actual immigrant community but there are some very key differences already referenced and also, above all, the terminology isn't taken seriously by anyone (even those who insist we use it).

At any rate, it's all I got to say for now on the topic.

If you got anything to add, drop a comment below.

And follow my Twitter here.

Thanks for reading.

Best regards,

Matt