"Wabbish country"?

[asterroc]

I've been reading the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card, and he keeps referring to a region of the US as "Wabbish country". Any clue where he means? I mean, New England's a real place in our reality, and it's not too hard to figure out where he means by "Appalacia", but "Wabbish"? I'm guessing the upper-Midwest, but if anyone knows better, let me know.

Comments

[marquiswildbill.livejournal.com]

If the author or the character speaking are from California (especially SoCal) they are referring to an area with a high hispanic population. Wab is a derogatory term for a hispanic, especially an illegal Mexican immigrant. Otherwise this is a new part of American speech to me, or maybe it's slowly spreading.

[seekingferret.livejournal.com]

Possibly this? http://maps.google.com/maps?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=wabash&um=1&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=title