ok this has been buggin me for a while now, and i know it's just a cultural difference and nobody means anything by it, but i am sick and tired of being told i don't look spanish. because clearly i don't look spanish...i'm tall, i'm white, i have short hair, i wear colors (all these hip little twenty-something spanish chicks show up in their incredibly short denim skirts with a black or grey sweater, black or grey leggings, and black or grey boots...that and i dont have looong dark hair with straight across bangs). i can accept this, because i'm not trying to be spanish. but, and here's where the cultural difference becomes obvious, i would never approach somebody in a bar or on the street and say, straight forwardly, you are not american are you? firstly, after having lived in san francisco (probably one of the most diverse cities in the world), it's just not something you say to people, firstly because most people are not from sf, let alone the us and secondly because everybody looks different (america is a melting pot, we are all descendants of immigrants, etc etc). according to my culture teacher, jesus, the percentage of foreigners in the spanish population in 1980 totalled 0.4%, and obviously these spanish are notoriously monocultural (all the guidebooks say that which i find amusing). so there it is, they dont mean to offend me, they just notice i'm different because i am. and due to their inherent practicality and directness they feel the need to tell me...repeatedly...everyday. which is all good and well but when i'm trying really hard to speak beautiful, unaccented spanish i think i could at least get some props for my efforts. jesus told me to respond to them by saying, "si, y tu no eres chino"...but like i was saying, would i ever just roll up to somebody on the streets of sf and bust out, "yeah and you're not chinese!" in the states that's what we call politically incorrect, even verging on racist.
this minor irration may or may not have been amplified by the fact that jamie and i spent the entire weekend snuggled in my bed watching american movies and eating pesto. yes we watched four in one day...and half of a season of friends. i almost forgot i was in spain. until we went to get a tapas and asked the cute (and incredibly brittish looking) camarero "de donde eres?". obviously he said england and then continued with, "you two most certainly are not spanish" despite the fact that this entire exchange was in spanish...
i may be able to get used to eating lunch at 3 oclock, having all the stores close until 5, having my dinner at 10 and partying until dawn, but let's face it, i'm an american and i do how americans do and we just dont go calling people out on their obvious differences, its rude. and even though i know they mean no harm, i cant help but cringe every time i hear it. what's worse is feeling annoyed by it just further highlights that fact that i am clearly not spanish. i'm trying to be zen, a woman about the world...
so yeah, i don't look spanish...what else is new?
1 comment:
Oh Wavey, don't you know you look Dutch?
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