From the moment that Donald Trump was inaugurated to become the President of the United States, he did not waste time. In fact, during his first week in office, he signed an executive order demanding that the gulf surrounded by not only the US, but Cuba and Mexico as well, be renamed. Officially, Trump changed the name from the long lasting Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. In addition to renaming a body of water, he also demanded to rename the Alaskan mountain whose former name was Denali back to Mount McKinley, named after the 25th US President: William McKinley.
As enthusiastic as Trump and his staff are for this change, not all Republican government officials are in favor of this decision as many have taken into account the rich history that lies within these geographical features. For instance, according to the Republican Senator of Alaska, Lisa Murkowski who commented on CBS News, “the mountain was named 10,000 years ago by the Native people, the Abascans, in the area, and it is called Denali, which means great one” which is why she will continue to discuss this situation with the President; especially since changing the name can also cause the mountain’s history to fade away. Ironically, the 2015 President, Barack Obama, was the one who officially renamed the Alaskan mountain as Denali, since it is in fact, the original Native Alaskan name.
Meanwhile, the Gulf of Mexico is a vast resource to the continent as it is considered to be one of the largest, most important bodies of water in North America; and, it is the ninth largest body of water in the world,expanding over 600,000 square miles. It is an extremely profitable body of water in which commerce mainly occurs for half of the U.S.’s petroleum refining and natural gas processing (according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and accumulates 40% of the nation’s seafood (calculated by the Environmental Defense Fund). Therefore, it is considered a privilege to even be surrounded by this resourceful body of water; and thus, persuaded Trump to rename it as one of the country’s own.
Even though a legislation to retitle the Gulf of Mexico has been drafted, guaranteeing its effectiveness on federal maps and administrative policy, it does not mean that other nations are required to call it the Gulf of America. Therefore, on Google Maps, it will only appear as the new name for the people who are living in the United States. However, internationally, it will continue being known as the Gulf of Mexico, which has been the original name since the 1550s. Mexico has argued that this change is not even legally possible as according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, it states that a single country’s sovereign territory only expands up to 12 naval miles from their coastline. Mexico’s leader, President Claudia Sheibaum even strictly criticized Google’s official change, as the company should not serve under “mandate of a country” to alter the title of “an international sea,” according to BBC News.
Therefore, the argumentative question is: to which country does the gulf actually belong to? According to the U.S. State Department, the naval border in the Gulf of Mexico starts at the center of the mouth of Rio Grande and continues in a fixed line. For those who do not know, the Rio Grande forms partially in the border between the two countries and is therefore shared between Mexico and the U.S. through a series of treaties; therefore, the agreement is that each country has their own authority over their portion of the gulf.
From now on, the United States will act as outcasts and refer to the gulf as the Gulf of America but for the rest of the world, especially for its neighboring country, Mexico, it will continuously live as the Gulf of Mexico.
