Eleena’s recent article (9 Famous Living Spaniards that Every Guiri Should Know) got me thinking more about the G-word.
Guiri is a word applied by Spanish people to foreigners in Spain, but not to all foreigners, mostly just those from Western European countries, the States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand… you know, us palid blondies 
There is a definite element of looking like a total tourist involved too (sunglasses, sunburn, camera round neck, silly sunhat, sandals), though this isn’t essential.
A question that worried me for a long time was whether or not it is actually a bad thing to be called a Guiri. I remember how Marina’s sister once called me Guiri not long after Marina and I had started going out, and I took huge offense.
Yet at a party on Saturday night old friends of Marina’s were bandying the word around all evening and it didn’t bother me at all. In fact, I’ve started using the word quite a lot myself to talk about my fellow foreigners.
Being called a Guiri, I’ve discovered, is only a bad thing if it is said with spite (which is only about 20% of the time). Usually, however, it’s a friendly kind of a word, not nearly as demeaning as the way us Brits used to call the French ‘frogs’.
I think I am a bit of a guiri (despite my best efforts to Spanishify myself), especially in summer when I don much of the requisite kit (camera, shades, silly hat), but nowadays I really don’t mind in the least. Does the Guiri label bother you?
Notes: Frikipedia, something of a Spanish Urban Dictionary, has a great Guiri rundown in Spanish. Other classics include Gilipollas. As for the Urban Dicationary, see the entry on Spain, e.g.: “Spain: Builds SEAT cars, which are cheap but fun – Has gypsies who live in caves furnished with TVs, fridges, etc – Sells beer in McDonalds – Has awesome food and wine, making one realize the necessity of a siesta.” No comment.
Beckett
20 Jun 08 at 10:18 am
@er guiri,
Regarding your postscript, the actual idiomatic expression in Spanish is “tener mucho morro“, with two r’s.
A “morro” in Spanish is actually the snout of an animal, not a person of North African or Muslim origin (“moro”).
When someone says that another person “tiene mucho morro” it means that they have got a lot of nerve, that they are being cheeky. It is not an insult to say this expression in Spanish and it does not refer to any one’s religion or ethnic origin.
ValenciaSon
24 Jun 08 at 4:26 pm
If a spaniard is in a foreign country, does that person consider themself a guiri?
Ben
24 Jun 08 at 5:16 pm
@VS – yes, I have Spanish friends that refer to themselves as Guiris when on holiday abroad.
dui attorney
12 Sep 08 at 8:23 pm
when i mentioned this word when i was in Barcelona, the local i was talking to didnt know what it meant. but then again, my spanish isnt very good, he may not have understood many things i said.
acosta
12 Sep 08 at 9:55 pm
So myself being light skinned and from US could be a Guiri but my wife from the Caribbeand and is Mixed (mulata) would not a be a Guiri?
Ben
14 Sep 08 at 9:10 am
She would be too if she is a tourist here.
raytibbitts
14 Sep 08 at 4:42 pm
A few years ago, when my wife and I were visiting my parents in California, my wife overheard my mom calling the cats in for their supper.
Now, I grew up thinking it was the most common thing to yell, in a high, shrill voice, “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty!” To call for cats, seeing how it always seemed to work for our cats. (And our dogs, and strays, and sometimes racoons.)
Well, my wife was quite startled by the sound, and she also found it to be absolutely hilarious, and she chuckled and choked on her drink.
She thought it was a pretty good idea, though, and sometimes she will call out for ME saying, “Here guiri, guiri, guiri!”
This same trip marked her first experience with hummingbirds. We were sitting quietly on the porch and a rather large one came buzzing up to her, pretty close to her face. I heard it coming, and was thinking about how peaceful and lovely everything was, and how I wished I could return to the innocence of my youth.
She stood up and ran screaming to the other side of the porch.
She thought she was being attacked by some enormous mutated insect.
We all tried not to laugh too much and to comfort her and show her how elegant and graceful they are. Of course, no sooner than my dad had filled and set out the hummingbird feeder, but another, larger male showed up and started attacking the guy that had startled my wife, seeming to confirm her suspicion that they were, in truth, aggressive and possibly dangerous.
El Gabacho
31 Oct 08 at 6:26 pm
for Edith and hellothere : Yes we have one word in french for spanish people : Espingouin, wich is a contraction of spanish (espagnol) and penguin (pingouin).
Spain
2 Dec 08 at 1:51 pm
Guiri is not an offensive word n yea thats how we call northern europeans especially brits n germans cuz those are mainly the tourists that visit Spain the most.
Spain
2 Dec 08 at 1:53 pm
Eh no its not the same as gringo or yankee we arent mexicans we are white people thank u very much.
Spain
2 Dec 08 at 2:08 pm
Just because we call them guiris we dont consider them less or different from us.We like guiris what we dont like is ragheads n beaners..yea ive said it.
"we dont consider them less"
18 May 09 at 5:45 pm
I got here while looking up the definition of “quiri”, a word written in a review (the author, a British woman, didn’t get it right despite complaining she was called that all the time while visiting Spain).
The term “guiri”, offencive or not, can be extremely annoying because most people aren’t amused to be repeatedly referred to by a foreign word they hardly know what it means.
I’m Portuguese and I didn’t know the expression.
We do have some expressions to “label” some foreigners but these have been coined in a specific historical context (eg. during war or past conflicts) and they usually are not used to refer to a group of tourists, even among our selves.
However, we do have something similar to “guiri” – Nordic tourists can sometimes be called locally “camones” (from the English Come on, don’t really know why) but never directly to any person or group – not because it’s pejorative (means simply someone who, as a rule, is a tourist from Northern Europe, I guess because of their different attitude and different looks) but because for us it’s just not polite nor good hosting.
I have travelled around Europe; with the following example, I don’t mean to slag off all Spanish people but some can be quite rude not to mention unprofessional towards tourists, whom are basically their livelihood.
I was recently in Cordoba and happen to be wearing a t-shirt with “Canada” printed on. I remember someone shouting out at one point “Inglés hijo de puta” clearly in my direction. “Good thing I’m not English”, I thought…
"we dont consider them less"
18 May 09 at 5:47 pm
I got here while looking up the definition of “quiri”, a word written in a review (the author, a British woman, didn’t get it right despite complaining she was called that all the time while visiting Spain).
The term “guiri”, offencive or not, can be extremely annoying because most people aren’t amused to be repeatedly referred to by a foreign word they hardly know what it means.
I’m Portuguese and I didn’t know the expression.
We do have some expressions to “label” some foreigners but these have been coined in a specific historical context (eg. during war or past conflicts) and they usually are not used to refer to a group of tourists, even among our selves.
However, we do have something similar to “guiri” – Nordic tourists can sometimes be called locally “camones” (from the English Come on, don’t really know why) but never directly to any person or group – not because it’s pejorative (means simply someone who, as a rule, is a tourist from Northern Europe, I guess because of their different attitude and different looks) but because for us it’s just not polite nor good hosting.
With the following example, I don’t mean to slag off all Spanish people but some can be quite rude not to mention unprofessional towards tourists, whom are basically their livelihood.
I was recently in Cordoba and happen to be wearing a t-shirt with “Canada” printed on. I remember someone shouting out at one point “Inglés hijo de p*ta” clearly in my direction. “Good thing I’m not English”, I thought…
Erika
14 Dec 09 at 5:25 am
As a Spanish colleague explained it to me, the term ‘guiri’ isn’t necessarily pejorative. For instance, she explained very sweetly, she could say, “I love spending time with guiris!” or “Look at the guiris sitting in the sun!”
However, if you substitute, let’s say, the term ‘black people’ (a race-based, non-culture-specific term) for ‘guiris’ in the same sentence you begin to see the term for what it is.
I love spending time with black people!
Look at the black people sitting in the sun!
Even in what Spaniards believe to be the most benign context, the term ‘guiri’ reduces a diverse, complex group of individuals to mass novelty with a given set of behaviors.
The fact is, it is impossible to generalize and reduce others to novelty without limiting our humanity.
The term is offensive. No matter how much cariño you inject into it. No matter how hard you try to convince yourself otherwise.