The Names Of Central America Explained

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SOURCES AND FURTHER READING

[great]

As someone from El Salvador we don’t mind the name Guanacos we actually take quiet a bit of pride to it. Also I’m glad you added that intro when I was in high school I got tired of my teacher including Central America as part of South America 🙄

[NameExplain]

Who's watching from Central America! I so badly want to visit this part of the world, any recommendations of where to go?

[mariovf]

Almost every central american nation got a nickname
Guatemala: "chapines"
Honduras: "catrachos"
El Salvador: "guanacos", "cuscatlecos" or "cuscatleños"
Nicaragua: "pinoleros" or "nicas"
Costa Rica: "ticos"
Panamá: "canaleros"
And sometimes people form Spain call everyone from central america: "centracas"

¡Saludos desde México!

[Nellysa]

I'm from Mexico, but when you said "the love these countries deserve", I truly felt that~

[marcoromero_]

I'm from Honduras and I'm amazed that you actually knew that we shorten our capitals name to Tegus, hahaha!

[Supertomiman]

I'm from Costa Rica, but I know a fun story about Guatemala. There is a gorgeous colonial era city there called Antigua, which means ancient/former. And they named it that because that used to be the original Guatemala City, but it got hit with so many earthquakes that at some point they got sick of it and decided to move the capital elsewhere. So after that, the city was known as Antigua Guatemala (Old Guatemala/Former Guatemala) for a while, and eventually just Antigua.

We have a city in Costa Rica called Cartago, and it's nickname is La Antigua Metrópoli for similar reasons. That used to be our capital city during the colonial period, but when news of our newly found independence arrived unexpectedly a civil war broke out to decide whether we should be annexed by the newly minted Mexican Empire or remain fully independent. In any case, the side Cartago was on lost the war and they moved the capital to San José in the aftermath, needless to say the pro-independence side won.

Anyway, I love your videos. Cheers!

[JafetRuiz]

When you talked about Belmopan (the capital of Belize) you showed a picture of San Salvador 🤭

Greetings from San Salvador.

[cerka]

I’m from El Salvador and Guanacos is a term I’ve always heard used to refer to us. It’s not used as a negative since all Central American countries also have a nickname. So I can say, I’m a proud Guanaco.

[spencersholden]

I loved going to Costa Rica. It was the best ten days of my life.

[marcogarrido]

2:25 Just as a note, Nahuatl is not an indigenous language of Guatemala, that was the lingua franca of the Aztec Empire (nowdays Mexico), and is the name the Tlaxcaltecas gave to the city to the Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado.

[walterhernandez]

Honduras had many other names given at the time of the discovery: Higueras or Hibueras and Guaymuras, As a native from Honduras we don't mean insult when we call salvadorians GUANACOS, just as we don't take offense when being called CATRACHOS, I guess the same apply to guatemalans being called CHAPINES, nicaraguans being called NICAS or Costa Ricans being called TICOS. Now there is a funny fact about Honduras and El Salvador... The name CATRACHOS is a derivation of the name of Col. FLORENCIO XATRUCH, whom in 1855 lead de Central American Army against William Walker. Now, the Central American Army was multinational, there were Guatemalans, Salvadorians, Hondurans, Nicaraguans and Costa Rican soldiers, but the salvadorians and hondurans troops were led by Florencio Xatruch... The other nations soldiers identified the hondurans as CATRACHOS, and the salvadorans as... SALVATRUCHOS... Now you may have heard this second name often lately... It is the name of the most violent gang in Central America and it was originated from salvadoran immigrants living in Los Angeles after the 1970 to 1980 civil war.

[jp]

My mom is from el salvador and they usually just like to go by salvadorian.

[MrCubFan]

4:35 The US state of Iowa has something similar. Iowa City used to be the capital of Iowa, but then the capital was moved to Des Moines (presumably because Des Moines is more central).

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Costa Rica is such a beautiful country, filled with biodiversity

[ericmolinoferrer]

As a Panamanian am happy this was researched and explained very accurately

[kivol.]

fun fact: 90% of Americans discover that Central America is not Mexico

[evavirginiaarevalorivara]

Greetings from a Guatemalan here. Slight correction worth mentioning on the origin of the name "Guatemala" .

While Nahuatl was spoken in Guatemala after colonization (and might still be spoken in certain areas according to some reports), it was not native to Guatemala at the time the name of the conquered city was decided (which later became the name for our country). Nahuatl was the language of the Azteca/Mexica culture, which inhabited Mexico, not Guatemala.

The conquistador Pedro de Alvarado conquered Guatemala with the help of Tlaxcaltec allies (who spoke Nahuatl). When the Spanish officials inquired about the name of the region, the Tlaxcaltec warriors used the name for the region in Nahuatl, which the Spanish officers then used as the official name for the region. The name is believed to also have been used to refer to its inhabitants, the Kaqchikel people, one of the indigenous Maya peoples from Guatemala. The exact word in Nahuatl is still contested, but is believed to be Quauhtemallan (differences in spelling are common for nahuatl references).

The name of the conquered city in Kaqchikel before the conquest was Iximche, which means "land of corn" in Kaqchikel. Elites leading the country ignored the etymology of the name and believed it to have come from one of the many mayan languages in Guatemala; and so it was never changed, even after independence.

Some scholars suggest that the name in Nahuatl, might have roots in the Quiche language, another mayan language, as was the case for the names of several other cities in Guatemala whose name in Nahuatl was inspired by the name in Quiche. The Quiche people referred to the kaqchikel people as "Gagchequeleb", or "those of the red tree/those of the fire tree", in relation to a red stick given to the kaqchikel people by the Quiche people in recognition for not subduing to Tohil, a Quiche God (according to a myth from the Popol Vuh mythology).

The etymology of the name is still the subject of research, but is definitely quite interesting and full of history.

References:

[jesusmarquez]

The rest of the countries also have nicknames:
Guatemala: Chapines
Honduras: Catrachos
El Salvador: Guanacos
Nicaragua: Nicas (Mainly, they are others)
Costa Rica: Ticos

Belize and Panama don't have them due to their heavy British (Belize) and American (Panama) controls. Even though they're in Central America, the other countries see them as distant relatives.

[eduardoramirezjr]

Panamanian here. We tend refer to all other countries as “Central America”, and Panama itself as the “Isthmus” since we’re part of Colombia until 1903. Rarely do Panamanians, if ever, refer to being part of Central America.

[Haunted_Rose]

My family is from Belize. This is honestly one of the only videos that talk about this small country. Thank u for this😁🇧🇿 One issue tho, the pic that was shown for Belmopan showed San Salvador instead