Inauguration of Donald Trump | Why change the name of the “Gulf of Mexico”?

In his inauguration speech, President Trump announced that the United States would now refer to the “Gulf of America” ​​instead of the “Gulf of Mexico.” Can the US president unilaterally change the name of a place?

Q. Where does this intention to rename the “Gulf of Mexico” come from?

In his inauguration speech, President Trump announced that the United States would now refer to the “Gulf of America” ​​instead of the “Gulf of Mexico.” He had already mentioned this intention on January 8. This large body of water located in the south of the country, bordered by five states (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas) as well as Mexico and Cuba, is sometimes nicknamed the American “third coast”. In 2012, elected officials in Mississippi proposed a law to rename the portion of the Gulf that touches the state “Gulf of America” – the proposal was rejected. The comedian Stephen Colbert, recalls the Associated Press agency, proposed the name “Gulf of America” in 2010 following the oil spill caused by the – American – Deepwater Horizon oil platform.

Q. Does the United States have the authority to unilaterally change the name of a place like this gulf?

In fact, their authority in this matter stops at their borders – they cannot force other countries to use the same name, says geography professor Claude Comtois, of the University of Montreal. World toponymy is rather the responsibility of the “United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names”. In addition, in the case of bodies of water, the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), to which the United States and Mexico belong, is working on the standardization of nautical charts.

Q. Are there other examples of place names whose naming is the subject of political debate?

There are several. The river that flows across the border between the United States and Mexico is called Rio Grande on the American side and Rio Bravo on the Mexican side. In Asia, the “Sea of ​​Japan”, officially named in 1928 by the International Hydrographic Organization, is rather called the “East Sea” in South Korea and the “East Sea of ​​Korea” in North Korea. In the South Atlantic, the archipelago to the east of the Latin American continent is called “Falkland Islands” by the British, who occupy the territory, and “Falkland Islands” by the Argentines, who claim this territory. The Persian Gulf is known as the “Gulf of Arabia” in the Middle East.

In 2020, to try to escape this type of very thorny debate, the members of the IHO decided to replace the names with… numerical identifiers.

Q. How did the Mexicans react?

When Trump mentioned this intention to rename the name of the Gulf on January 8, the Mexican president was sarcastic. The “Gulf of Mexico,” she said, has had that name since 1607. Meanwhile, she added, North America should be named “Mexican America,” since it is this name that was used in old documents…

For Professor Claude Comtois, this dispute over the name of the Gulf should not make us forget the more important issues surrounding it.

“If Donald Trump wants to change the name of the Gulf in the American atlases, great good to him,” says Professor Claude Comtois. “It’s a somewhat futile debate. The important thing is not what we name a place, but rather how we manage it,” says the professor. “How many people know the extent of the damage caused by the Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010? How many know that because of the amount of fertilizer flowing into the Gulf from the Mississippi River, some areas of the Gulf are not only toxic, but there is no life in them? »

Sources: AP, International Hydrographic Organization