Proposed Gulf of Mexico Map Stirs Controversy

What’s in a name? How much does changing the name of a body of water really matter?

These are the questions that irked U.S.-based cartographer Michael Hermann when President Donald Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” Hermann and his wife had been traveling throughout Mexico for years, and he became increasingly fascinated by the immense scope of the Gulf’s history.

While visiting Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula several years ago, Hermann — the founder of Purple Lizard Maps — had an ambitious idea. What if he tried to make a “story map” that visualized 10,000 years of the Gulf’s history, from ancient civilizations to modern oil extraction?

The idea crystallized when Trump changed the Gulf’s name on the first day he returned to the presidency. Hermann didn’t like how Trump depicted Mexico only as a place “filled with gangs and murderers and rapists.” He didn’t like Trump changing North America’s highest mountain from its Indigenous name (Denali) to Mt. McKinley.

Those actions fuel a “nationalistic narrative” with “all the overtones of white colonial power,” Hermann said this week. So Hermann launched a Kickstarter to fund his vision for a new map of the Gulf of Mexico.

“Maps tend to shape things like memory and meaning,” Hermann said. “They can tell stories, and this lets us tell a deeper story about the Gulf.”

Photo: Purple Lizard Maps

An amazing history

Trump wasn’t content with just issuing an executive order changing the Gulf’s name. He has instructed federal agencies to ban or limit the phrase “Gulf of Mexico.” When the Associated Press (the country’s oldest news organization) continued using “Gulf of Mexico” in its stories, Trump banned AP reporters from the White House.

Amid all the rhetoric, however, it became clear to Hermann that few people really understood the uniqueness of the Gulf itself.

After all, it’s the place where a meteor struck the Earth 66 million years ago, killing all the dinosaurs. It’s where ancient civilizations like the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec developed for thousands of years in the lands that eventually became Mexico. The Gulf was critical to the arrival and expansion of colonial powers from Europe.

Then it became crucial to U.S. political power, and finally an international hub for extracting the oil — created from all those dead dinosaurs.

Michael Hermann. Photo: Purple Lizard Maps

The whole story

His vision for the map includes not only markers, but also brief explanations of history and culture similar to iconic maps from National Geographic.

“People think of the Gulf from the traditional American perspective, like spending a week in Cabo,” Hermann said. “This will show the whole landscape, from the earth science and cultural side of it, as well as the modern day, with metrics of the oil and gas industry.”

It will also be printed. That may sound obvious for a map, but Hermann thinks that printing historically accurate maps is more important than ever. He pointed to the Trump administration, which has begun rewriting web pages of the National Park Service (NPS), one of several federal agencies charged with preserving U.S. history.

When Trump’s administration updated an NPS page devoted to the Underground Railroad this month, they removed a photo of Harriet Tubman and any mention of the word “slavery.” Hermann sees the same revisionist history in Trump’s name change.

“According to Google Maps’ official statement, if you’re in Mexico, it says Gulf of Mexico, and if you’re in the U.S., it says Gulf of America,” Hermann said. “So, where is the truth? We’re being fed different geographic names based on where we’re standing.”

‘Bye bye, traitor’

Despite the “political subtext” to his idea, Hermann maintains that his project is still just a map. But not everyone is stoked about it.

When Hermann promoted the Kickstarter through the email list for Purple Lizard, which mostly focuses on trail maps and outdoor recreation, it angered some of the company’s longtime fans. And when Hermann promoted the campaign on Facebook, he received lots of support — and also quite a bit of vitriol. One person called the project “an exhibition of pure stupidity,” while another labeled Purple Lizard a “liberal company that doesn’t want to sell” to conservatives.

“It’s the Gulf of America now, dips—t,” another user commented. “Your types aren’t wanted in America anymore. 77 million Americans said so. Bye bye, traitor.”

For Hermann, the pushback is more interesting than worrisome.

“The idea of this map is threatening to certain people in the population, and I find that fascinating,” he said. “When we did a map of Shenandoah National Park, we never got pushback about what we were doing. Nobody came at us with obscenities.”

An atlas devoted to Maine created by Purple Lizard Maps. Photo: Purple Lizard Maps

Project’s uncertain future

Ultimately, Hermann doesn’t know if the Kickstarter will get funded. He still has 23 days to go, but only about $12,000 of his $65,000 goal. It’s the kind of project that could normally get funded through academic institutions. But with Trump punishing universities that don’t agree with him, that option doesn’t seem viable, Hermann said.

Moreover, Trump’s name changes aren’t likely to end with the Gulf of Mexico and Denali. In his initial executive order, Trump mentioned the 250th anniversary of the U.S. in 2026 as another opportunity for “restoring names that honor American greatness.”

For Hermann, Trump’s insistence on renaming geographies has a “symbolic power” that “sets the stage for a distorted truth.”

“Purple Lizard Maps doesn’t have the ability to fight for due process, or for international students having their green cards revoked just because they’re international students,” Hermann said. “Making a map is something we can do. For many people, this seems unimportant compared to other things. But we’re cartographers. This is what we do.”

Early-bird pricing for Purple Lizard’s Gulf of Mexico map starts at $29.

This article first appeared on GearJunkie.