Amerrique, from which the word America is derived, is an indigenous Mayan / Lenca voice that means "the Land-where-the-wind-blows. Additionally Vespucio was not called Américo but Albérico.
Background
According to Jules Marcou, a French geographer who investigated the issue at the end of the 19th century, the word Amerrique designates the mountain range that separates Lake Nicaragua from the humid plain of the Caribbean coast. Marcou was based on A. Le Plongeon, a scholar specializing in Mayan and Central American cultures, who claimed that the word Amerrique was of Mayan origin and meant "the land where the wind blows." In the Mayan dialects, the iqqe, ik and ika endings mean, not only "wind" but also "air", "the spirit that breathes" and "life". Therefore, Amerrique may mean "the land where the wind blows," "the place of the spirit who breathes" and even "the living land." Alfonso Valle reached similar conclusions. Dávila Bolaños, on the other hand, maintains that the name comes from Amac-rique (long mountain range). It should be noted that the Sierra de Amerrique is designated as such in numerous maps, (for example in the Atlas of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, in the Larousse dictionary and others), as well as in some works and bibliographical references
A reference from the president of Nicaragua
In 1886, in a letter sent to Don Manuel Peralta and referred by Jules Marcou, the President of Nicaragua, Don Adan Cárdenas claimed that the Amerrique mountain range was inhabited by "an Indian tribe known as the Amerriques, today reduced to a small number of individuals "but that" in ancient times "this nation was" of some importance. " Cárdenas also pointed out that "these Amerrique Indians have been communicating more or less frequently with the Cape Gracias a Dios and the entire Misquita Coast."
The first mention of America related to Vespucci
The name America, explicitly awarded as a tribute to Vespucci, appears for the first time in a publication entitled "Cosmographiae Introductio", printed in 1507 at the Gymnase Vosgien in the city of Saint Dié, together with the Latin translation of the famous letters of Vespucci identified as "Quatour Americi Navegationes". The Gymnase Vosgien, a school and printing press located in a small town in French Lorraine, published documents about the "new lands" uncovered beyond the ocean. One of these publications was the aforementioned. We also remember that Saint Dié is located in one of the oldest areas of imporist tradition in Europe (a short distance from the city of Strasbourg where Johann Gutenberg had developed the first printing press in 1439, just 70 years before). The work was attributed to Martín Hylacomylus Waldseemüller (the name is also written as Ilacomylus and Waltzemüller). In the type-graphic brand of the Waldseemüller printing press it appears as M.I. (Martin Ilacomylus). According to Jules Marcou, Waldseemüller's position was as a cartoonist-cartographer, while intellectual authorship should be awarded to Jean Basin, who had also translated Vespucci's letters into Latin. The name America is cited in the said article, indicating that its use is made as a homage to Américo Vespucci.
The pseudonym of Don Albérico Vespucci
The above information seems to show that the name America does not come from Albérico Vespucci. It was also pointed out that the names Amerigo or Americo were rarely common in Florence, since they were not included in the Christian saint that was the source of all the first names used in the Italian republics of that time. Marcou's hypothesis, which seems very logical, is that Amerigo or Américo were actually pseudonyms that Don Albérico had adopted (belatedly, already in Castile) to adjust his name to the successful denomination of the former continent.
(continues)
From the book "The Lie of the Millennium" (The Mysteries of America), D. Antón, Piriguazú Ediciones.
