April 14 – Pan-American Day

nPostednon April 14, 2016

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n WhennI was a kid, we sometimes talked about “Pan-American” issues innschool.
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nSincenthe prefix pan– means “all” or “involving all thenmembers of a group,” Pan-American is an adjective that refers tonthe all the countries in North America, including Central America andnthe Caribbean, and South America. n

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nIndon’t think this word is used as much anymore. When I see the entirentwo continents’ worth of land and peoples referred to, these days, Insee “the Americas” or even “the New World.”

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nStill,nthere are the Pan-American Games, the Pan-American Highway, and anvariety of organizations such as the Pan American Band InstrumentnCompany, the Pan American Health Organization, the Panamerican KaratenFoundation, and the now-defunct Pan Am Airlines.

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n(Inthink that the super-power status of the U.S. makes any termnincluding the word “American” a bit liable to be misunderstood,nbecause “American” – by itself – almost always refers tonsomething or someone from the United States of America.)

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nSo,nsupposedly all the nations in the two American continents should bencelebrating Pan-American Day today. (Do you know how many nationsnthere are in the Americas? Answer below.) But in most of North andnSouth America, the holiday is barely acknowledged. Honduras does listnthe day as a public holiday, but this year Díande las Américasnis being celebrated on Monday, April 18!

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nHondurasnis one of the poorest nations in Central America, and one of the mostnviolent. Its murder rate is the highest in the world! Still, therenare amazing and beautiful things to see there:

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nCopannMayan ruins

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nChachauatenn

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nRoatannIsland n

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nPulhapanzaknWaterfall

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nDiamondnCay

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Learnnmore about Pan-American Day here. And learn more aboutnHonduras here.

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nANSWER: There are 23 independent nations in North America: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States of America. (Islands such as Bonaire, Aruba, and Curacao are dependent territories or countries rather than independent nations.) And there are 12 independent nations in South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

nThat makes a total of 35 independent Pan-American nations.

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nAlsonon this date:

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