President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla.
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla.
WASHINGTON — The Maya called the Gulf of Mexico “Chactemal,” referring to its reddish hues at sunset.
It was Spanish mapmakers after Hernán Cortés in 1519 conquered the land now called Mexico who started linking the water body with the Mēxihcah, which is what Aztecs called themselves.
Initially, the Spanish called the Gulf “Mexican Sound.” By the 1600s, most maps said “Golfo de México.”
Spain controlled almost all the lands from Cuba, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Mexico that bordered the 218,000-square-mile oceanic basin. Even France in 1717, the year before New Orleans was founded, referred to it as the “Golfe de Mexique.”
President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday he would change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”.
“What a beautiful name, and it’s appropriate,” Trump said during a news conference.
Renaming the Gulf came during comments about acquiring Greenland and the Panama Canal — he didn’t rule out the use of force — and turning Canada into the 51st state, policies that attracted a lot more attention worldwide. But not in Louisiana or Mexico.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum mocked the idea.
Spain, then Mexico, owned Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California for 400 years before ceding territories to the United States in 1848 after a war.
She recommended renaming the continent “América Mexicana,” which was how North America was then commonly referred, pointing to a document from 1814.
“It sounds pretty, no?” Sheinbaum said.
Some Republican politicians echoed the spirit of Sheinbaum’s comments.
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, favored the “Gulf of Louisiana.”
“We produce energy there,” he said. “We make our livelihoods there. We fish there. We should call it that.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, wrote on social media he’d prefer “Gulf of Texas.”
“If we are going to rename things … this is the move,” Abbott wrote on X.
The “Gulf of America” idea first emerged in the 2012 Mississippi Legislature. State Rep. Steve Holland, a now-retired independent from Tupelo, introduced legislation that never got out of committee to rename the waters off the state’s three coastal counties — a move he called a satirical response to a bill aimed at restricting Latin immigrants in the state.
Trump’s suggestion drew some more serious-sounding partisan fire as well.
“Donald Trump is in over his head,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said Wednesday on the Senate floor. “So, he’s doing what he always does in times like this, distract America with crazy ideas. Renaming the Gulf of Mexico may be a zany new idea, but it isn’t going to help people save money at the grocery store.”
Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, agreed.
“Louisianans didn’t send me to Washington to rename the Gulf of Mexico. I’m here to lower the cost of living for working-class families, create good-paying jobs and make our communities safer,” he said.
The name change has now gone beyond just Trump’s comment.
MAGA loyalist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, introduced a House bill to compel the Board of Geographic Names to change the name on government documents and maps once Congress agrees. Fourteen House Republicans have signed on as co-sponsors.
Under international law, the U.S. and Mexico own 12 nautical miles out from their respective coasts but can enforce laws up to 24 and can exploit natural resources up to 200. Louisiana is about 600 sea miles from Cancun.
Changing the name in the U.S., which wouldn’t necessarily mean the rest of the world would go along, starts with the Board of Geographic Names. The board is composed of representatives from the Department of State, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Library of Congress, among other agencies. It operates under the Secretary of Interior, who will be North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, if he’s confirmed.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, said he hadn’t seen Greene’s bill so he couldn’t comment. He said all he was going to say on the issue when stopped in the hall by a Politico reporter: “The Gulf of Mexico is the base of my district, and it’s in America. Let’s call it the Gulf of America.”
Others in the Louisiana delegation kept their judgments to themselves. Newly elected U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, had no opinion. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
U.S. Rep. Julie Letlow, a Republican whose northeast Louisiana district includes the parts of Baton Rouge around LSU, said: “We can call it whatever we want. I’m just glad we will soon have a president who is serious about drilling and lowering energy costs.”
Email Mark Ballard at mballard@theadvocate.com.
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