Is Mexico part of North America or Central America?
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  Is Mexico part of North America or Central America?
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Central America
 
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Author Topic: Is Mexico part of North America or Central America?  (Read 1501 times)
Statilius the Epicurean
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« on: May 08, 2021, 09:03:18 PM »

Since apparently some people think Vietnam is part of East Asia for cultural reasons.
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buritobr
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« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2021, 09:10:31 PM »

According to US geography: Mexico is part of North America. There are 2 different continents, North America (from Canada to Panama) and South America (from Colombia to Argentina and Chile)

According to Latin American geography: Mexico is part of North America. America is only 1 continent, split in 3 different parts: North America, Central America and South America. Mexico is part of North America, like the USA and Canada. Central America includes the lands from Guatemala to Panama, and the Caribbean.
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Red Velvet
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« Reply #2 on: May 08, 2021, 10:35:04 PM »

Central America is a subdivision of North America. Mexico isn’t part of that though, so it’s only North America.

But places like Guatemala, Nicaragua are Central America and therefore, North American as well.

North America: Everything from Panama to Canada

Central America: Everything Between Panama and Guatemala

South America: Everything from Colombia to the Botttom of Chile/Argentina
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Santander
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« Reply #3 on: May 08, 2021, 10:45:40 PM »

If North America was just the US and Canada, it might as well be renamed the US and its gas station.
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John Dule
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« Reply #4 on: May 08, 2021, 10:51:47 PM »

If North America was just the US and Canada, it might as well be renamed the US and its gas station.

Yes.
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Chips
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« Reply #5 on: May 08, 2021, 10:55:46 PM »

North.
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TheDeadFlagBlues
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« Reply #6 on: May 08, 2021, 11:04:10 PM »

I think foreigners are best able to discern the various Mexican influences in the US, as Americans are unusually capable of pronouncing Spanish words, have remarkable familiarity with Mexican food and frequently vacation there, just as British people do in Spain.

If this influence is substantial, it is far stronger in the other direction. American culture is omnipresent in the typical Mexican city, which can be seen in brands of beer in "Oxxos", endless American fast food chains, the striking number of American football jerseys one sees in the streets etc. In any given ordinary Mexican family, a fair number of men who are over the age of 40 will have worked in the US at some point and just as many live in the United States today. Last, in places like Chihuahua or Monterrey, it is (was?) very common for more affluent families to shop in the US, just as Americans cross the border to buy prescription drugs. For this reason, there is a great deal of familiarity with American culture that does not exist in the same way anywhere else in Latin America.

To give more personal examples, I have a cousin whose career involves hauling migrant workers or cars from Mexico to the United States. I have another cousin who emigrated to the US and I have many distant relatives who emigrated to the US. Many of my relatives have lived in the US for a significant period of time. This is basically parallel to the Polish experience in Britain or the experience of Greeks in Germany. In the same way that these countries are "European", Mexico and the United States are North American.
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bagelman
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« Reply #7 on: May 08, 2021, 11:14:35 PM »

North America. Central America is not a continent. Brazil and Mexico are not on the same continent. Cultural differences are one thing, denying common sense is another. If your culture dictates that the sky is purple, you're not entitled to your own facts, you are wrong. The Latin American traditional definition of continents comes from the Spanish explorers, who downright ancient and totally irrelevant to modern geography.

It is disgusting to claim that Asia and Europe are separate continents while claiming the Americas are one, to invalidate the lands and seas themselves in favor of this particular course of human history that created this one particular timeline. Some Latin Americans will claim that USAmericans invented the concept of separate American continents because something something anglo supremacy, meanwhile modern engineers armed with incredible technology are rebuffed by the Darien gap with separates our two continents.

The only valid distinction is between parts of North America that are or are not in the region of Central America, which is frankly just a fancy term for Southern North America. I would say that everything south of Mexico is in this region but not Mexico itself. Culturally it certainly has more in common with Guatemala than, say, Oklahoma but this isn't the point.
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
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« Reply #8 on: May 08, 2021, 11:50:04 PM »

Geologically there are six major continents: Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Eurasia, North America, and South America. Central America isn't geologically part of either continent, being part of the margins of the Caribbean and Panama Plates. Geologically, Mexico is North American.
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Red Velvet
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« Reply #9 on: May 09, 2021, 01:54:30 AM »

It is disgusting to claim that Asia and Europe are separate continents while claiming the Americas are one, to invalidate the lands and seas themselves in favor of this particular course of human history that created this one particular timeline. Some Latin Americans will claim that USAmericans invented the concept of separate American continents because something something anglo supremacy, meanwhile modern engineers armed with incredible technology are rebuffed by the Darien gap with separates our two continents.

I think that happens more because of the name more than geographical technicalities. Europe and Asia don’t have to fight over a shared name.

Meanwhile in the Americas there are tons of different Americas claiming the name. Everyone is America but there is no consensus to what America by itself means. There’s North America, South America, Latin America, North+South America, America the country (USA), etc.

What triggers Latin Americans is less the continental divisions and more US claiming themselves to be America as if they were the capital of the two continents.

Honestly, I think it’s dumb conflict especially because the name America has nothing special and is rooted on European imperialism and white supremacy, as the name comes from a colonizer. I don’t really like it tbh, so I lack energy to claim it like fellow compatriots even if I’m also uncomfortable by US acting like they’re the capital of both continents or something.

That would be easily solved if the term America was abolished. Or just let US have it for themselves if they really want it and change the name of the two continents instead to two different independent terms.  People can come up with something respectful to the Indigenous tribes who are the true owners of this land while also ending any link between North America and South America as if they were subdivisions of one continent.

I think this renaming of the continents is more interesting to pursue than fighting with people inside the US to stop referring to themselves as Americans. If I liked the term and strongly identified as an “American”, I would be more energized to pursue that fight but it doesn’t really sound useful to me. Letting a coalition of Indigenous groups rename the South American continent if they want to is far better if the goal is to reclaim some sort of identity free of imperialism.
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Vosem
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« Reply #10 on: May 09, 2021, 02:14:46 AM »

Culturally Mexico is more similar to the countries to its south than to the US, even though the differences are still large and often underestimated, as DFB points out.

Conventionally, where North America and Central America are defined exclusively, Mexico is virtually always grouped with North rather than Central America. There are various Central American cooperation organizations and none include Mexico as a full member (and it's not like membership is that exclusive, since the Dominican Republic sometimes is included), only ever as an observer.

Geologically, virtually all of Mexico is on the North American Plate while most of the land immediately to its south is on the Caribbean Plate; its southern border is actually quite a logical place for a country to end.

This isn't the sort of thing that has an absolute answer but it seems like pretty much any definition has Mexico as part of North America rather than Central America.
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
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« Reply #11 on: May 09, 2021, 04:00:33 AM »

That would be easily solved if the term America was abolished. Or just let US have it for themselves if they really want it and change the name of the two continents instead to two different independent terms.  People can come up with something respectful to the Indigenous tribes who are the true owners of this land while also ending any link between North America and South America as if they were subdivisions of one continent.

Highly doubtful. The Americas were extremely diverse linguistically pre-contact, with tens of language families and lots of language isolates with no known relatives. It would be impossible to come up with any term that would be respectful to more than a small subset of them, even if we limited ourselves to such languages as are still in use.
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beesley
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« Reply #12 on: May 09, 2021, 10:23:09 AM »

Central America is a subdivision of North America. Mexico isn’t part of that though, so it’s only North America.

But places like Guatemala, Nicaragua are Central America and therefore, North American as well.

North America: Everything from Panama to Canada

Central America: Everything Between Panama and Guatemala

South America: Everything from Colombia to the Botttom of Chile/Argentina

Is the Caribbean another separate area in your view or grouped with another region?
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Storr
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« Reply #13 on: May 09, 2021, 10:34:59 AM »

In my opinion, Mexico is absolutely part of North America. Also, I've always considered Central America to be part of North America. Thus according to that logic, either way Mexico is part of North America. The Caribbean has much more leeway as to whether it is part of North America or not. I suppose you could look at it similarly to the Mediterranean. Cyprus is geologically Asian, but culturally European (and thus was able to join the EU).
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« Reply #14 on: May 09, 2021, 02:06:17 PM »

Do Mexicans call themselves "norteamericano"?
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West_Midlander
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« Reply #15 on: May 09, 2021, 04:17:18 PM »

North America or "Latin America."
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Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers
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« Reply #16 on: May 09, 2021, 05:17:58 PM »

It's Central, but since it shares a boarder with California and/or TX they put it in North
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buritobr
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« Reply #17 on: May 09, 2021, 06:26:24 PM »

There is the debate between the America as a single continent model and the 2 different continents model. But this debate doesn't matter for this question.
No matter which of the models you choose, Mexico is part of North America
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