There seems to be some confusion as to how the folks living in Mexico refer to their own and other countries, both using full names and abbreviations. Previous writeups here (most now gone) have had different opinions, and one stated that the good ol' U S of A is EUA (for Estados Unidos de America)
I, however, have on many different occasions seen EEUU used as Mexico's canonical abbreviation
for its northern neighbor.
I once asked my
Spanish teacher why it was EEUU rather
than EU as one would expect (for Estados Unidos). I was rather amazed that he
didn't know, but he said he would find out.
The next week, he told me that the doubling of each letter
simply indicated that the word it stood for was in the plural.
I could believe that, though I've never seen any other that
followed that rule. (Not that I know a lot of Spanish abbreviations.)
I was even more amazed when, after reading previous writeups in this node,
I decided to go find out what the actual name of Mexico is. I had always
thought it was The Republic of Mexico. Venturing onto
various websites purporting to belong to various arms of the Mexican
gobierno, I first seemed to be vindicated by one page that
referred to that selfsame republica. Thinking the issue was
settled, I kept on tiptoeing through the web, and quickly came upon another
site that claimed to be the offical voice of
los Estados Unidos Mexicanos -- the United Mexican States --
on all
matters informational regarding the federal government.
It had a seal and everything.
It was time to go to the horse's mouth. Figuring I
couldn't go wrong, I called the Mexican consulate in Sacramento.
I asked the lady who answered the phone what the official name of
Mexico is. She said, "Mexico". (Was that a bit of derision I heard in
her voice?) I said that I had heard both the la Republica and the
los Estados stories, and was she sure it wasn't one of those?
This caused her to reconsider, and after a pause she asked me to hold
while she consulted a colleague.
A mellifluous voice assured me that
Your call is very important to us.
She returned after a short lacuna, and said it was actually the
United States of Mexico. I thanked her and returned to work.
Given all the uncertainty about a question I thought would be simple,
I decided at lunchtime to check her answer.
This time, I called the consulate in
San Diego, and after navigating through an excessive menu system,
finally spoke with a lady in Cultural Affairs. I asked her the
stumper, and, as with Ms. Sacramento, she immediately answered "Mexico".
(This time the scorn was quite evident.) As is my occasional wont,
I wimped out and didn't continue that conversation.
So, it looks like los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
is the winner. But I still think La Republica Mexicana must be appropriate
in some context.
Addendum, July 2015. Los Estados Unidos Mexicanos must be official, because I see that it is on the front cover of a Mexican passport, and on coins from La Casa de Moneda (government mint).