How To Avoid Being An “Ugly American”

"I wish I didn’t have to write this."

Today marks exactly one year since my husband, me, and our two dogs crept across the Texas/Mexico border in the early morning hours, our two-door Honda battered by flying beetles and the sun streaming across our faces.

I’ve written several blogs about what led us to make the decision to emigrate. Chief among them was, simply put, “Americans.”

I use quotes because everyone from both American continents is American, but in typical egocentric form, the United States of America has co-opted the term and failed to translate the more accurate Spanish word Estadounidense.

Yes, this is paradoxical. I was born and raised in NY, and subsequently lived in the DMV area and Florida.

I am an Estadounidense. A gringa, even.

And yes, I wanted to get away from the majority of people from my homeland.

I knew that moving to a destination that is popular with tourists meant that this wouldn’t be wholly achieved. For our purposes, that’s ok. We still encounter obnoxious tourists and self-labeled “expats,” but it’s rare and unlike in Florida, they do not hold power.

Nevertheless, some of the behavior and attitudes of US-ers who we have encountered here on the island of Cozumel, as well as in online social media groups for people who have emigrated from or spend significant amounts of time out of the US, makes me cringe. Hard.

It’s not news, of course. The term “Ugly American” is literally in the dictionary. And before you get bent out of shape over the use of the term “ugly,” in this context it refers to abhorrent behavior. And trust me, we’ve earned it.

So, with one year under my belt, I figured I’d put out some recommendations for how you, US emigrant, can avoid being a witless, obtrusive trope.

And yes, our family abides by this list and seeks other ways we can be better (follow-up article to come).

Read the rest of the article here