Before starting on The Pact for México (next post, I'm pretty sure) I would like to point out to President Obama and others who live north of the frontera that Mexicans and Canadians and indeed Central Americans and South Americans and I imagine those on islands in the Caribbean all are Americans and that at least in México, Mexicans notice when people from the US call themselves Americans and their country America. Here, people from the US are called estadounidenses (small e: nationalities aren't capitalized)(or, yes, gringos). As someone from New York City, I used to be startled when I'd say I was from New York and people would ask where in New York, meaning NOT what borough, for example, but what part of the state. Of course New York Cityers were not beloved by people from the rest of the state. I kind of see both sides of the problem since it would be awfully hard for me to call myself a former New York Cityer.
In my posts, I have referred to us as USAers. Richard Grabman on his Mexfiles blog I think calls us USAners. Obama in his address at the National Museum of Anthropology used America and Americans. I never really thought about this till we moved here. Now it seems to me that it probably would be the politic thing for the President of the United States who in hia address to (mostly) Mexicans claimed to be doing away with old stereotypes referred to his country as the United States and to her citizens as citizens of the United States. That shouldn't be too hard. I'll stick with USAers for now.