Why Americans instead of North Americans?

TMS PEACE JOURNALISM, 6 Apr 2026

Antonio C. S. Rosa | Editor – TRANSCEND Media Service

“Why only those born in the United States are officially called (named, labeled, known as) Americans”?

A pertinent question that bothers me for a long time since I am an American, having been born in Brazil 80 years ago.

The name of the country is United States of America–not America of the United States. Manifestation of a imperialist deep culture allied to a bullying, vain illusion that, We are #1.

Facts:

There are 35 Sovereign States in the Continent composed of South America, Central America, North America and the Caribbean. These countries are all members of the United Nations and the Organization of American States.

Break Down of Countries in the Americas

Geographically:

South America: 12 countries

North America: 23 countries (including Central America and the Caribbean)

35 Total

Linguistically/Culturally:

Latin America: 33 countries

Anglo America: 2 countries

35 Total

Population (approx.)

Latin America: 671 million

Anglo America: 437.5 million

Population of the Americas: 1.03 billion

Population of the USA: 349 million

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Any way you look, singling out those born in the USA as ‘Americans’ is inaccurate and misleading as there are over 1 billion–not just 349 million–Americans.

“It has always been like this” is not a valid argument–actually, a fallacy.

Only the descendants of Native Americans as a whole [North, Central, South], which inhabited the Continent prior to Christopher Columbus and Pedro Álvares Cabral’s arrivals in the 1500s, qualify as Americans. The rest of us are descendants of immigrants mostly from Africa, Asia and Europe.

My ancestry is composed of Native Brazilian, Portuguese and African blood–South American.

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Antonio C. S. Rosa (Antonio Carlos da Silva Rosa), born 1946, is founder-editor of the pioneering Peace Journalism website, TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS (from 2008), an assistant to Prof. Johan Galtung, Secretary of the International Board of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, and recipient of the Psychologists for Social Responsibility’s 2017 Anthony J. Marsella Prize for the Psychology of Peace and Social Justice. He is on the Global Advisory Board of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies and completed his B.A., M.A., and graduate Ph.D. work in the fields of Communication-Journalism and Political Science-Peace Studies/International Relations at the University of Hawai’i. Originally from Brazil, he lives presently in Porto, Portugal. Antonio was educated in the USA where he lived for 20 years; in Europe-India since 1994. Books: Transcender e Transformar: Uma Introdução ao Trabalho de Conflitos (from Johan Galtung, translation to Portuguese, 2004); Peace Journalism: 80 Galtung Editorials on War and Peace (2010, editor); Cobertura de Conflitos: Jornalismo para a Paz (from Johan Galtung, Jake Lynch & Annabel McGoldrick, translation to Portuguese, 2010). TMS articles by Antonio HERE. Videos HERE and HERE.

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 6 Apr 2026.

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