Mexican President responds to Trump: "North America" should be renamed "Mexican America"
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto says that if the United States wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico the "American Bay," then Mexico would prefer to change the name of North America to "Mexican America."
Peña Nieto said as much Tuesday, a day after US President-elect Donald Trump, in his first press conference since he won the election, announced he might rename the body of water.
According to Reuters, Peña Nieto did not make the announcement himself, but was accompanied to the press conference in Mexico City by a former culture minister who gave what she called a "history lesson" that included holding up old maps.
"Mexican America, it sounds good," Nieto joked, pointing to one dated 1607.
The former minister reportedly said that "Mexican America has in fact been known since the 17th century as ... the name for the North American continent." Reuters reports that "Mexico's former culture minister said the name 'Gulf of Mexico' had been internationally recognized for centuries and referenced in numerous voyages over hundreds of years."
Peña Nieto said he hoped that Mexico and the United States could maintain a strong bilateral relationship and he noted that "President-elect Trump has his own ways of communicating."
Trump's press conference took place at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. In addition to announcing his possible plans to rename the gulf, he said that Mexico had taken advantage of the US on trade and immigration issues, and that Mexico must police its borders to keep "millions of people" from "pouring into our country."