Thursday, June 17, 2010

Mexico vs. France, and Nit-Picking about Geography

I sure hope this guy starts today versus the French. Hernández, I mean, not the North Korean.

ESPN's (presumably British) cohort of soccer writers has a habit of referring to Mexico as a Central American nation. (Only one link, but I've seen it before. You'll just have to trust me.) I'm curious as to whether this is just a different national convention regarding geographical groupings (and a not entirely unreasonable one, at that), or just a reflection of ignorance by said writers. I've generally thought that the first explanation is more likely, but then again, someone at Soccernet referred to Costa Rica as South American not too long ago.

4 comments:

malcolm beith said...

when i was a kid in England, we learned that Mexico was part of Central America (USA and Canada were North America, that's it). I asked around a few friends a while back and they vaguely recall learning the same in the US in the 70s, 80s. I have a theory that as soon as NAFTA became a possibility (and then a reality), Mexico began to be regarded as part of North America.

pc said...

That makes some sense. Nafta came into effect slightly after the halfway point in my childhood, so I've always thought of it as North American. But we're in agreement that Costa Rica is not South American, right?

malcolm beith said...

yup, costa rica is not south america. although to the brits, it's all the same. geography never was their strong point, god knows how they managed to colonize anything – probably just got lost.

pc said...

hahaha All those islands were just a place to park the boats and have some tea, I guess.