Gulf of America: America’s renaming of the gulf of mexico

photo credit: Kenzie Carder

A recent controversial change of the name of the Gulf of Mexico has sparked a dispute between the United States, Google and Mexico. On Jan 20, recently inaugurated, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to formally rename the barrier islands, formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico, according to apnews.com.

The decision resulted in the name “Gulf of America” with the president claiming his decision was made to “Restore American Pride,” according to nbcchicago.com. This conclusion has received a lot of push back from individuals feeling that the gulf should maintain its original name.

“It has been named the Gulf of Mexico for forever. There’s already a bunch of states that America took from Mexico, so now they want to take the name of it even though it would still be the Gulf of Mexico,” senior Jenny Huaracha-Arellanos said.

Many have argued if the United States even has the right to rename the gulf. However, according to nbcchicago.com, considering the United States territorial rights over the gulf, they can rename its territorial waters.

“It’s President Trump’s efforts to keep ‘America first.’ He’s saying, ‘it borders so much more American coastline and why disregard that, why allow it to be named for another nation’s state.’ That’s sort of his idea behind doing that,” AP Government Teacher John Carmichael said.

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum has expressed a great deal of disapproval and criticism over the renaming and is said to have written a letter to Google requesting a name compromise according to thedailybeast.com. Three countries: The United States, Cuba and Mexico all border the gulf so no country technically owns it leaving much room for debate.

“A significant part of it borders on US states so from Florida all the way over, including Texas. [So] because of that significant portion of coastline being sovereign US territory, we control, that’s why he (President Trump) did that,” Carmichael said.

The renaming has certainly brought up some debate, but the issue will hopefully resolve in time. It is interesting however to get to watch history being made in present moments like this.