Cipayo

Early Meanings

Coming from the persian word Sipâhi, it meant a soldier. In the Ottoman Empire, the Sipâhi where elite members with land possesions, tracing parallels to the figure of the knight in Feudal Europe.

Colonial Meanings

In occupied India under British Rule, the word Sepoy was firstly employed to Muslim or Hindu soldiers without formal training. in the 18th century, the word settled its meaning to determine indigenous soldiers employed by the occupying force. It is estimated that nearly 96% of British Easy India Company was composed by Sepoys. There were also Sepoys employed by French, Spanish and Portuguese colonial forces.

Contemporary Meanings

In the aftermath of the kidnapping of Venezuelan Ex-president Nicolás Maduro, it was reported in several media channels that the Venezuelan Diaspora was celebrating the fall of the dictator and thanking the invasion of their own country by US Army forces. Certain comments on social media channels called this portion of the population Cipayos.

In a latin american neo-colonial context, Cipayo took the connotation of someone whose political inclinations support foreign countries in detriment of national interests. It is used as a derrogatory term - although not ethnical - in response to latinos supporting US-american and European imperialist policies. It is a synonym of "boot-licker", or "vendepatria" (country-seller, in spanish).