Comment from richardksa
Time: March 31, 2008, 2:13 pm

When I refer to myself as a Guiri with the Spanish I meet I get a mixed reaction. Some obviously think it perjorative, but most give it no “side” at all. But they would never say it in my presence. I usually use it when trying to extricate myself from some misunderstanding or mangled grammar.

Comment from José Miguel
Time: March 31, 2008, 2:18 pm

Guiri es mas amigable que llamar a un inglés “hijo de la gran… bretaña”.

Comment from Pepino
Time: March 31, 2008, 2:23 pm

My colleagues in my ex-office used to always refer to me as the “guiri”. To my face, when I wasn´t around, in official emails, whatever. Never bothered me in the slightest as I could see it was being used “con cariño”. Besides, I had worse names for them… I recall setting the intial password of a particular colleague as “soyunaidiotaynosequehacer” so “guiri” didn´t seem so bad after that!

Comment from Beckett
Time: March 31, 2008, 2:31 pm

Guiri, Suri. It’s all the same to me. Doesn’t bother me one bit. To me, guiri is like “yank” or “gringo.” Like you said, it can only offend if the tone of voice is less than “amigable.”

Another blogger’s take on “guiri” and where he think it comes from:
http://ccp.servidores.net/weblog/?q=node/112

Comment from chris
Time: March 31, 2008, 3:08 pm

Well, more than 10 years ago I was the co-founder of the first (short-lived) multi-lingual magazine in Barcelona. The title was just so obvious that we couldn’t resist it - Guiri Total. We took the piss out out of everyone, especially ourselves, explained basic Spanish terms (cutre, pijo etc) and, not unlike Eleena’s article, personalities that every guiri needed to know back then - Roldan, Lola Flores, Isabel Gemio.

People understood guiri to be “different” - like Michael Robinson on El Día Despues. Then, however, you could still go to the centre of BCN and actually hear Catalan and Spanish and the Boqueria was still a normal market. I think a lot of people in the Catalan capital are of the opinion that the city has been sold off to the sombrero wearing, Easyjetting hordes and the word is being used negatively again.

Me - I don’t try to fight it and I still don’t know what the problem of wearing socks and sandals is…

Comment from Parubin
Time: March 31, 2008, 3:11 pm

The term ‘guiri’ (in singurar) has not a negative connotation whatsoever, but of course it implies some familiarity or friendship with the one being called guiri, so it should be avoided to refer to someone we don’t know well enough.

As for the plural ‘guiris’ it is just the colloquial for “foreign tourists”, in this case it can be somewhat pejorative depending on the situation but not neccesarily.

I suppose the origin of the word was initially intended to refer to pale-skinned tourists (which still represent the larger group of tourists in Spain), but nowadays we can safely refer to the happy Japanese crowds in Seville as ‘guiris’ as well as any other kind of foreign tourists regardless of their whiteness.

All in all, I’d say that a ‘guiri’ is just a foreign tourist in Spain, so Ben wouldn´t qualify as a real guiri as he is no tourist, allthough I’m sure he can be mistakenly taken for one.

The term has been included in the dictionary of the Real Academia Española (RAE : www.rae.es) which is like the official ‘Bible’ of the Spanish Language.

In my opinion it is not like ‘yank’ or ‘gringo’, which I understand has more evident negative side to the term.

Comment from Neil Wykes
Time: March 31, 2008, 3:48 pm

As I’m a keen camera user and a equally keen sandal wearer I must look like a stereotypical “Guiri”, but I’ve yet to actually hear it being used to describe me. If I’m totally honest however, I have used the word whilst talking in Spanish about the accents of British people in the same bar /restaurant as us. I tend to assume the “Guiris” don’t know enough Spanish to know the the word, but might recognise “ingleses”.
One day I’m gonna get caught out!

Comment from luke
Time: March 31, 2008, 4:41 pm

I guess this is obvious to some people but is ‘guiri’ from ‘guirigay’ (gibberish)?
If so then it is similar to the etymology of ‘barbarian’ since the Greeks thought foreigners made a sound like “bar bar bar…”.

In the UK certain words are offensive if a minority group says they are offended by them; even if the user of the word is not meaning to be offensive. So according to present UK ethics, if Ben doesn’t mind that word then, in this case, it isn’t offensive. But if it turns out that the majority of foreigners do mind it then it would be deemed to be offensive.
The actual meaning of the word is not normally the problem it is its history eg. ‘Black’ is okay but a Latin derived term for ‘black’ is not or ‘Pakistani’ is okay but not in its abbreviated form.

Comment from Frosh
Time: March 31, 2008, 4:53 pm

The American musician Beck released an album called “Guero”, which is certainly a variation of the word “Guiri”. One of the themes of the album is how Beck, a blonde/blue kid, grew up in the heavily Mexican neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

That being said, I believe that we should think twice before using slang words for people that are based on their physical appearance…would we think it Ok to call people of African descent “Velcro” or something like that, because of their hair? I recall some Spaniards taking offense at ANY mention of the physical characteristics of the old farmer whose lovely photo graced these pages a few weeks ago.

Comment from Parubin
Time: March 31, 2008, 5:36 pm

@ Frosh :
‘Güero’ does not come from ‘guiri’, nor the other way around.

‘Guiri’ is only used in Spain (not in Mexico or any other Spanish Speaking country) and it is used to name a foreign tourist, regardless of his/her ethnicity (Japanese tourists would be guiris too as well as African-Americans).

Foreign tourists in Spain do not usally have the sufficient command of the Spanish language to feel offended by the word, but believe me, it is not a politically incorrect term. It is just colloquial, but not offensive.

I looked up the etymology of the term and it turns out it comes from the basque language, and it used to refer to the people of one side of the Carlist Wars (the series of civil wars that occured in Spain in the XIX century). Of course not anyone in Spain nows the basque origin of ‘guiri’.

As for ‘güero’ I didn´t have a clue what it meant untill I looked it up and it is a Mexican word (not used in Spain) which comes from pre-hispanic indigenous languages and means ‘blonde’.

Comment from Jill (la vieja de la manga)
Time: March 31, 2008, 6:23 pm

At a recent Spanish course in Cartagena our profesora invited her fellow profs to join and meet “mis guiris” at coffee break. She was a delight, we all got on so well and the term was used with much carino

Comment from luke
Time: March 31, 2008, 7:52 pm

“The etymology of the word guiri varies quite a bit. Searching Google and dictionaries one common and somewhat plausible origin is from the turbulent era of 19th century Spain. After kicking out the Frenchies, the Spaniards juggled enough governments to put Argentinean street performers to shame. This resulted in the Carlist wars, which involved two claimants to the Spanish throne. In the Carlist stronghold of Navarra and the Basque country the liberals (or those on the side of Cristina de Borbón fighting against the Carlists) were called ‘guristinos’ - which means ‘cristino’, in reference to Cristina de Borbón. They were considered ‘outsiders’, or ‘others’ - hence the possible link to today’s current usage.

Although the origin of the word itself is murky, it’s widely accepted that guiri, as it is used today, was first used during the tourist boom during the last two decades of Francisco’s regime. It came to mean blonde, tall, sunburned, bikini-wearing and decadent. Most importantly transient. And borracho de sangria.”
“Legend has it there’s a nomadic tribe of blonde sun worshippers wandering the streets of Barcelona. They subsist on a steady diet of beer and chips; when they’re feeling more adventurous they might try one of the local variants of comida. It’s said they gather in the centric neighborhoods of Barcelona and suck on the Swedish government’s teat to the tune of €2,300 a month - unemployment, that is, i.e. vacations subsidized by the Swedish government.

This is the classic example of a guiri.

They are nomadic, so they grow no attachment to the land. Come autumn, the sun is a little less toasty, and the northern lands from whence they came beckon them again. The cycle repeats the following year.

There are so many possible interpretations of the world guiri, but modern day usage almost unanimously agrees. The amalgam of wealthy, idle, blonde, and clueless is without a doubt the favored one. Guiri, pronounced girry, is a disparaging term invented by the local populace to describe what is seen as an alien population. The Swedes are a textbook example, but guiri can be applied to an American or a Brit just as easily. Just remember the key words: wealthy, idle, blonde, and clueless.

You might as well capitalize that last one: CLUELESS. Lost in the streets with their cameras …

It’s important to distinguish a guiri from an immigrant, or an expat. An Ecuadorian immigrant sending monthly stipends to a burgeoning family back home; a Moroccan balsero washed up on the shores of Ceuta; a Pakistani passing six months a year in his uncle’s market in the Raval; a Chinese citizen working in a venta al mayor on Trafalgar - all have one thing in common. They are not guiris. To the people here they are extranjeros first and foremost; behind closed doors they might be called things like moros, sudacas, or chinos.”
There’s more, these are excerpts from:
http://www.barcelonareporter.com/index.php/news/conAM_guiri/

Comment from Frosh
Time: March 31, 2008, 9:46 pm

Parubin, I am certainly not an expert on the Spanish language and do not try to appear as one. But do you really think that Guiri and Güero, which both mean, in general, blonde and fair, just happened to develop as words, completely independent of each other, and it’s just a coincidence that they are both used in the same general Spanish language? The odds of that must be 1 in 1000000.

Comment from Parubin
Time: March 31, 2008, 10:54 pm

Frosh :
Neither am I an expert in hardly anything, but just look them up in an etymology dictionary:

Güero comes from prehispanic Mexico and Guiri comes from the Basques.
The chances of one in a million is that of the ancient Aztecs having a common bakground with the tribes that occupied the north of the Iberian Peninsula before the Romans came.

And, while Güero (in Mexico) means blonde tourist or not, Guiri (in Spain) just means foreign tourist, either blonde or not.

I really don´t think both words have the same roots.

Comment from Moscow
Time: April 1, 2008, 6:10 am

Funny thing. I’ve been living already 21 yrs outside Spain. That is, perhaps, why I had never come across the word “guiri” in direct conversation with anyone - since it’s use seems to have become more widespread in the last 20 years or so. I had always thought it was some kind of gipsy word, the meaning of which was unclear to me. Be it because of my long absence from Spain, or perhaps because I am a bit of a hybrid myself (me mum is German), a few years ago, a basque acquaintance of mine (here in Russia), told me I had spent too much time amongst “guiris” - meaning, I presume, I don’t ‘communicate’ like a Spaniard anymore. That’s when I became aware of the word “guiri”.

Comment from hellothere
Time: April 1, 2008, 7:45 am

A guiri is a clueless, sometimes drunk and usually badly sunburnt tourist coming mainly from Northern European countries, the States and Australia.

I understand that one has to come from theses countries to qualify as a guiri, as, even when I started living there, I was never ever considered one.
Getting surnburnt would get me closer to the mark, though: “What have you done? You look like a guiri!”

Even if it may not be as disparaging as other terms, I cannot think of it as a very nice thing to say, no matter what context it is employed in.

Comment from moscow
Time: April 1, 2008, 8:51 am

The Mexican word “Guero” I don’t think has any relationship with “guiri”. Mexicans refer to any pale skinned person as guero, even if he is a Mexican. It applies to European looking people, in general.

Comment from luke
Time: April 1, 2008, 10:15 am

Just to confuse things on the origins of ‘güero’. Some sites say it is of native American origins but some say that it is from Celtic Spanish:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Spanish_words_of_Celtic_origin.
It seems that no one knows the definitive etymological roots of ‘guiri’ or ‘güero’.

Comment from Tom
Time: April 1, 2008, 10:49 am

Luke - it must be hard navigating those twisted ethics of the UK, huh? Why can’t we just call everyone what we feel like, irrespective of whether they find it offensive or not, right?

Personally, I’d be mortified if someone called me ‘guiri’. It’s an utterly disrespective term. I’m not sure that classifying people by race is a very forward-thinking policy.

Comment from Bill
Time: April 1, 2008, 11:36 am

@hellothere: “A guiri is a clueless, sometimes drunk and usually badly sunburnt tourist coming mainly from Northern European countries, the States and Australia.”

Please could you state where you got this from. While in some parts of Spain a guiri might typically be a clueless, drunk and badly sunburnt tourist - the term is used to refer to foreigners from westernised countries, irrespective of whether they are clueless, drunk or sunburnt.

Comment from Ben
Time: April 1, 2008, 11:42 am

Bill, agreed, it is not always this disrespectful at all.

Comment from Ben
Time: April 1, 2008, 11:57 am

Tom, the other day I met some Spanish friends by chance while wandering around Madrid. I was wearing shades and had my camera around my neck. ‘¡Que pinta de guiri tienes!’ said the husband. I could only agree! I wasn’t offended at all.

Comment from luke
Time: April 1, 2008, 12:23 pm

Last night I asked my wife (who is from Madrid) who she would class as a guiri. She laughed and said that I am a guiri. We live most of the time in London but I’m still a guiri in London. She told me that Northern Europeans are guiris. I don’t think she uses the term but said it was harmless like ‘Yank’ for an American. However, I’m not sure ‘Yank’ is a good word to describe an American? Maybe that is a discussion for another website.

Comment from luke
Time: April 1, 2008, 12:28 pm

Btw, Ben you seem to wear shades a lot, are you trying to avoid being recognised in the street as the English blogger who slagged off Spain?

Comment from hellothere
Time: April 1, 2008, 12:29 pm

Well, Bill, I got this from the Spanish people themselves.
Sorry, but, no matter how jokingly they may use it, this is, so far as I understand, what the term “quiri” evoques to them.

I am a foreigner to them, I am from a westernised country as you put it, and yet I never was a guiri, even though I was pretty clueless to begin with.
The only reference that was ever made to me with this term was, as I explained, when I would get sunburnt.

You do not have to believe me. Ask them.

Comment from luke
Time: April 1, 2008, 12:33 pm

Oh, I forgot to say that my wife said that guiris are also called ‘gambas’ because we get so pink in the sun or after too many beers.

Comment from Ben
Time: April 1, 2008, 2:58 pm

@Luke, I have a whole new appearance, though the fact that we are about to start videoblogging again screws that up!

Comment from Edith
Time: April 1, 2008, 4:07 pm

@ Parubin

I’m not entirely sure, but ‘güero’ probably comes from one of the northern Mexican Indian languages known as ‘Cahitan’: Yaqui, Mayo, or perhaps Opata.

According to the Diccionario Breve de Mexicanismos, ‘güero’ means:

güero, güera (o, por confusión, huero, huera, como en huevo huero ‘huevo no fecundado’). (De huero ‘vano, vacío, malogrado’, de huero ‘hombre enfermizo, blanco; rubio’.) adj., y m. y f. 1. De cabellos rubios (de color amarillento o dorado). || 2. De cutis claro.

BTW, some Mexican refer to foreigners in general as ‘gabachos’ instead of ‘gringos’. Is it true that ‘gabacho’ means ‘Frenchman’ in Spain, and that it’s a synonym of ‘franchute’?

Comment from American Joe
Time: April 1, 2008, 5:36 pm

So the question is, if I visit Spain, and I don’t stumble around drunk and sunburned, and I don’t wear tennis shoes and jeans and I don’t carry a fanny pack and camera everywhere, am I still a guiri? My skin is dark enough that I could pass for Spanish. Or is there no escaping the label?

Comment from chris
Time: April 1, 2008, 6:19 pm

Hi Edith,

Gabacho certainly is a typical name for the French here in Spain, and it’s not usually used in a flattering way…

Comment from Edith
Time: April 1, 2008, 9:11 pm

Hi Chris.

Which makes me wonder: do the French have a similar epithet for the Spanish?

Comment from hellothere
Time: April 2, 2008, 7:24 am

Hi Edith,

No we don’t.

Comment from Parubin
Time: April 2, 2008, 8:44 am

@ Edith :
“Gabacho” and “Franchute” mean the same. It would be the equivalent in Spain for the English “Frog” : A despective name for the French.

It has an evident negative connotation that ‘guiri’ hasn´t.

Comment from Bill
Time: April 2, 2008, 9:06 am

@hellothere It might be that it depends on in which region of Spain you ask. Or maybe you personally don’t have any non-Spanish characteristics except for when you are sunburnt. Certainly all the Spanish people I know in Madrid, along with most of the other comments in this thread, say that the word guirri is used to refer to someone with non-Spanish characteristics. The classic one being wearing socks inside sandals. My Spanish girlfriend’s family call her a guirri when she speaks in English. I’m called a guirri for being blond and 6′3″. If you think it is an offensive term then you are implying that practically all the Spanish are offensive to foreigners since they all regularly use the term.

Comment from luke
Time: April 2, 2008, 9:14 am

@American Joe. The gospel according to my Spanish wife said you’d still be a guiri but if you were African-American she doesn’t know…dangerous territory, I’m confused. But one thing I know is if you come to the UK don’t call your bag a ‘fanny pack’!!

Comment from frank
Time: April 2, 2008, 9:23 am

“But one thing I know is if you come to the UK don’t call your bag a ‘fanny pack’!!”

Yes, had to explain to our American boss once, when he was talking about his kids going to school. Had to tell him it’s more advisable to use “bum bag” here.
I asked my Spanish friend about the use of guiri, and he said he doesn’t like the word, but then all of his clients are guiris!

Comment from hellothere
Time: April 2, 2008, 1:26 pm

@ Bill

Bill, I am sure we can discuss this no end and never agree

I also lived in Madrid for a few years.
Guiri is not about being non-Spanish in general: a guiri has to come from specific countries in order to be one.
To a Spaniard, I am not a guiri, not because I have any Spanish characteristics whatsoever, but because I do not come from a “guiri” country.

And yes, that’s fine, your Spanish friends can laugh and joke about it and they probably mean it in a rather affectionate way indeed.

In any case, the thing that should matter to you is how you accept this term personally, and if you are happy with it, I guess it is fine, then

Let’s just say I have my reasons to be wary of any term used to generalise about a group of people based on their origin. And guiri, like it or not, is one of them.

If you have some time, I have found this on the subject: http://www.ub.es/geocrit/sn-94-58.htm
It is a rather long essay but I think it is an interesting point of view.

Comment from Urgellenk
Time: April 2, 2008, 5:24 pm

I would say that most Spaniards do not use the term guiri in an offensive way. Yet, I would not consider it flattering either. I think it refers to foreigners who are not there to stay, which excludes all immigrants, and it therefore implies someone who is more or less clueless and who does not fit in really well. Calling someone a guiri is a way to emphasize that he/she is not and will never be one of them, no matter how hard they try. Then, of course, it may be also used in some cases to describe a foreigner who is perfectly integrated in a sarcastic manner.

I also agree that güero and guiri are not related at all. All fair-skinned people are called güeros in Mexico, the term “blonde” being much larger there as it would be in other parts of the world. Guiri is unheard of in Mexico and güero is not used in Spain.

Comment from American Joe
Time: April 2, 2008, 8:25 pm

Thanks for the advice, although I don’t wear one of those things, whatever you call them! And be sure you guys don’t talk about smoking a “fag” when you’re here in the States.

Comment from hellothere
Time: April 3, 2008, 7:28 am

Hello Ben,

Sorry, this may not be the right place to post this, but yesterday I posted an answer here to the attention of Bill, with a link that I thought might be of interest to him.

I do not know if my reply is being held because of this link, or even if links are allowed at all in this page…

If you could have a look into this matter, that would be great. Thanks a lot in advance.

Comment from Ben
Time: April 3, 2008, 8:16 am

hellothere - found it, it had been caught in the spam filter, probably because of the link, though links do not always get caught - it’s a bit of a mystery but it is very useful most of the time!

Comment from hellothere
Time: April 3, 2008, 8:30 am

Brilliant! Sorry for the bother, Ben, and thanks again for your help!

Comment from Edith
Time: April 3, 2008, 9:27 am

Fanny bags, bum bags and fags: this is why learning English never gets boring!

Comment from Edith
Time: April 3, 2008, 12:06 pm

Could we consider ‘guiri’ to be the Spanish equivalent of ‘gringo’ as it is used in Latin America, particularly Mexico? According to some people, though, ‘gringo’ only refers to Americans. Any thoughts on this subject?

Comment from Julie
Time: April 4, 2008, 7:29 pm

@Edith
I’m not sure about this. I’ve worked in América Latina for five years and have never been called a “gringa”, probably due to the fact that I’m from Ireland, with an Asian grandmother.

I suppose “guiri” (usually not disparing at all, as we established already) is en par with “Krauts”( now, that the majority don’t hold a grudge against the Germans anymore, it can be affectionate/ironic). Or equivalent to to “barang” in South East Asia. It certainly isn’t as pejorative as “Jap”.

“Fanny bags” omg, I wasn’t aware that’s the term for hip bag in US…reminds me of my colleague who, on entering a pub in Minnesota, loudly said something about intenting to “bum a fag”. We broke out in carcajadas, but somehow the “yanks” didn’t get it.

Comment from Edith
Time: April 4, 2008, 9:41 pm

@ Julie

So this ‘gringo’ thing is about Americans after all?
P.s.: sometimes people think I am part Asian too, due to the fact that I have straight dark brown hair, and eyes which appear to be slightly slanted. Someone in Honduras actually asked me what kind of mix I was!

Comment from Julie
Time: April 7, 2008, 8:39 pm

I think “gringo” has undergone a change of meaning, though I haven’t made up my mind whether for the better or worse. Anyway - in México it’s mainly about Americans and in the rest of the hispanohablante world where the term is used it seems to refer to any fair skinned foreigner.

Comment from Aloriel
Time: April 10, 2008, 2:52 pm

It really depends on the context, so if you call someone «guiri» it can be an insult or just another adjetive.

I’ve seen many foreigners calling themselves «guiris» without problems, although «gabacho» is really despective.

However I’ve also seen a French guy saying «Sí, soy un puto gabacho de mierda» the first time I met him. He spent so much time with Spanish people :o)

Comment from marc
Time: May 9, 2008, 12:12 am

Guiri is primarily about style, not facial features or complexion. Most Spanish might physically look as through they are from any number of European countries, however, Canadians, Americans, et al definitely do not act or dress like Spaniards. For that reason it would be difficult to consider the French, Italians, etc… guiris. Culturally and aesthetically they are quite close to the Spanish.