Why does Argentina's President have a non-Spanish name?

[Some Moran]

Nestor Kirchner?! WTF?

[RobertSeattle]

1. Europeans just didn't emigrate to US and Canada

[SiobhanClancy]

2. Why did a former president of Peru have a Japanese name?

:shrug:

[meegbear]

5. I've always wondered that myself

[absyntheNsugar]

29. Alberto Fujimori was an immigrant

From Japan. In fact, he held dual citizenship (something that came out after he fled from corruption charges back to Japan.) Apparently it is illegal to have dual citizenship and be President of Peru.

There is a sizeable Japanese community in Lima, Peru...and there are sizeable pockets of Asian communities in other Latin American countries (Central America has a lot of Chinese, Paraguay has one of the largest Korean communities in South America...etc.)

[plurality]

3. because their 'Democracy' is the same as every other one

The masses get the 'choice' of which moneyed elites will have the honor of shovelling their money to other moneyed elites. It's just more recognizable in Latin America because most of their moneyed elites didn't bother with changing their names to sound like they were 'of the people'. Plus there was always the ever useful SOA trained military to deal with any malcontents that had a problem with it.

[doppledang]

14. Hate to interrupt your feelings of oppression...

No, it's because MOST Argentinians don't have Spanish names.

[radwriter0555]

4. Germans fled by the thousands to South America....

There are still a number of german/swiss actual towns in parts of South American, with the gingerbread woodwork and all.

[damnraddem]

6. Why do many Americans have non-English names?

Argentina was a major recipient of immigrants from Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Now, consider the name of the first president of Chile: Bernardo O'Higgins. That was earlier and was the legacy of an earlier migration, that of European soldiers (particularly Irish) from Europe after the Napoleonic Wars, enlisting in the ranks of the liberation armies in Latin America, as they fought for independence from Spain. But Latin America was not the only recipient of such immigration; even Spain was (or especially Spain, given that a good deal of fighting took place there during the Napoleonic Wars. For example, the last Spanish viceroy to Mexico was named: Juan O'Donohugh.

(Don't trust the spelling of the names, but the ethnicity should be clear.)

[funkyflathead]

7. Aren''t his parents Croatian?

Just a thought.

[SharonAnn]

8. I´m in Chile at the moment and Chile and Argentina are close to 100%

European. It is said that there are more Italians in Argentina than anyplace else in the world. Also, many Germans migrated to the USA, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay for free land (homesteading farms).

There are virtually no indigenous peoples left in Chile, don´t know about Argentina. Both countries had HUGE waves of European immigration in the 18th and 19th centuries. From Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, England, etc. And of course, earlier migrations from Spain.

[UTUSN]

9. Plus Irish All Over n/t

[SiobhanClancy]

10. The Irish are everywhere...

and isn't it grand?:)

[absyntheNsugar]

28. Yup....in fact if in Mexico look for the name 'Lira'

It's the Mexicanization of the name 'O'Leary'

[Bridget Burke]

11. Former President Carlos Menem....

Was of Syrian descent. Many immigrants to Spanish speaking countries in the Americas came from other countries than Spain.

[doppledang]

12. Don't buy into easy stereotypes

Because Argentina's demographics are almost identical to ours. Spanish are predominant only in MesoAmerica and along the Carribean. A couple Andea regions are still heavily "indigenous" (i.e., Bolivia). The rest of South America's people look more like Illinois or Massachusettes than Mexico.

[absyntheNsugar]

13. Argentina is about as diverse as the US

Much of the population came from Italy as well as Spain when settled...and many Germans fled to Argentina both before and after WWII (it was a good place to flee military service.)

Also, Argentina was one of the few countries to accept European Jews during the holocaust (South Africa being the other.) Despite this, Argentina was an Axis power.

[Some Moran]

18. Why would they protect Jews then?

And South Africa?

Why the Hell would a bunch of Boers who practically sucked Hitler's dick protect Jews from slaughter?

[The Magistrate]

21. South Africans Fought Rather Well In World War Two

As Commonwealth soldiers under English command: they were then part of the Empire, after all. There was always an appreciable Jewish community in the Rand, and, in general, whites there were so desperate for more Europeans to arrive that very little else counted.

It was only after the war there was much partiality to former Nazis.

[Some Moran]

22. I understand...

Thank you for clarifying this to me. How were Jews treated under Apartheid?

[The Magistrate]

24. Jews Were White, By Local Standard

There was the usual sort of "not quite our kind" exclusion, certainly, but no more than was ordinary for the time. People have rather forgotten how pervasive Anti-Semitic social practice, and bizarre beliefs of financial control, were in the West, before the Hitlerite excesses made people embarrassed.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

15. There's a great historical S. American hero with an Irish name

Name escapes me. Anyone?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

16. Bernardo O'Higgins was one, but there's a more famous one.

[Hep]

17. Look at Peru back in the day.

The guy had a Japanese name. But that was because of immigration. A lot of Japanese immigrants in peru apparently.

[Cat Atomic]

19. Lot's of Germans in South America.

I was in Bolivia not so long ago, and it surprised me that the most common food was Italian and German. I was somehow expecting Mexican food, but nobody even knew what a burrito was.

[David Zephyr]

20. 1/3 of the Names in the Buenos Aires Phone Book are Italian.

I lived there for nearly 3 years as an adolescent. The Portenos (as the folks in B.A. call themselves) speak castellano with an Italian flare. There is somewhere near 200,000 or more British expats living there as well. Lot of Jews, too. I love B.A.

Great country. We are truly considering retiring there.

[LoneStarLiberal]

23. It's More European Than South American

Argentina is more of a European country than a South American one.

Strong connections to European countries of origin are not uncommon amongst Argentines that have been in Argentina for over 100 years.

There's a reason Eichmann was bagged in Argentina by the Mossad; there's a reason why Nazi hunters have paid so many visits to Argentina over the years.

Argentina is European.

Unfortunately for their favorite national sport, they play soccer with all the selfish flash and lack of teamwork as any other Latin American/South American team combined the criminally-digusting lack of sportsmanship and constant weeping and bad acting of the Italians, topped off with the indifferent machine-like ruthlessness of the Germans.

Sometimes being European isn't such a great thing when taken in combinations of the worst qualities.

[Swede]

25. There are lots of Spanish and Portugeses names in India

Fernendez is common there.

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. Argentina has a very strong European base.

In fact, it's so strong that few latin americans consider it a latin american country and the Argentinians like it that way.

[Minstrel Boy]

27. South American countries aren't racially homogenous

Argentina has huge English and German communities.

Peru used to have a President Fujimori, and Uraguay, Stroessner.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

30. Latin America is multi-ethnic from top to bottom

We look at Mexico and think that all Latin American countries are like that--a mixture of Indian and Spanish heritage. But even Mexico has received immigrants from Germany, and why do you think the president of Mexico is named Vicente Fox?

Panama and Nicaragua have significant populations of English-speaking descendants of former African slaves. Costa Rica has almost no Indians. Even Honduras once had a dictator named Kjell Laugerud, and I've sometimes wondered whether he didn't come from a family associated with the Norwegian Nazi Vidkun Quisling.

Brazil is a melting pot, with a huge black population, lots of Japanese and Germans, and even the descendants of disgruntled Confederates who moved down there after the Civil War because the country still allowed slavery until the 1880s.

Peru has lots of Japanese, too, as well as a large black population.

When I lived on the East Coast, I puzzled over the Cuban-Chinese restaurants I saw in New York. A native New Yorker finally explained that these restaurants were owned by the descendants of Chinese laborers who were brought to Cuba to work on the sugar plantations. They were among the first to leave when Castro took over.

One shouldn't be surprised to find any surname in a Latin American context.

[kaitykaity]

31. Locking.

Please see rule #2 here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=463744

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"WTF"