Wrapping Up

When I began writing this blog, I wrote it with the purpose of showing that everyone all over the world, regardless of race, ethnicity, or cultural differences, are essentially the same. Underneath everything, we are all human, sharing basic needs such as family and friends, and desires, such as wanting to belong to a community. However, the more I remembered my experiences in Guatemala and the Guatemalan bakery and the more I reflected on the U.S. culture that I was used to in comparison to the Guatemalan culture that I knew, the more I realized just how different they really are. From differences in driving, to playing soccer (or fútbol), to social interaction, Guatemala and the U.S. as I know it can at times seem worlds apart. I did learn that both countries are in fact similar in how people can categorize one another as "others" based on phenotype and culture. This thought finally lead to me to realize that as we all have the capacity to be "others", we are all indeed different, due to our diverse races, ethnicities, heritages, and cultures. Perhaps true cross cultural experiences not only serve the purpose as showing us that deep down we are indeed similar but also that at the same time we are unique, that there are indeed differences among cultures and there exists a need to respect that diversity. So, in hind sight, being a gringo amongst Guatemalans has shown me that culture is to be seen through its own perspective from living within it in order to fully understand it, to understand culture as a whole, and to respect cultural differences which in the end confirm my initial theory: if we are all diverse, then we are not so different after all.

Cultural Limbo

So I finally realized for myself what a difference aspects of phenotype such as skin color can affect the manner in which people perceive you, even in my own country of the U.S. My Guatemalan co-workers had been learning this lesson since their arrival in the U.S. and for some of them, skin color also affected how they were perceived back home in Guatemala. The bakery owner's wife told me that in Guatemala, she is considered an American, "una gringa" (a female gringo), due to her skin being lighter or "whiter" in comparison to some other Guatemalans. On the flip side, in the U.S., she is not considered an American but rather a Hispanic and sometimes even an indigenous Hispanic due to her dark or "darker" skin when compared to some other Americans. If she is American in Guatemala and Guatemalan in the U.S., being both and neither at the same time, then what exactly is she? She has been caught in cultural limbo, stuck between two nationalities, two worlds, and two cultures, without being fully accepted by either. Her cultural limbo is much like what the Ladinos of Guatemala experienced that Daniel Wilkinson talked about in his ethnography "Silence on the Mountain". The Ladinos themselves had experienced being stuck between the European and Indian communities and never being fully accepted in either group. The Ladinos' story and the story of the bakery owner's wife is one shared by millions of people globally, who live within multiple cultures whose people consider them as "others" due to phenotype and cultural differences, estrange them by these distinctions, and place them in cultural limbo.

So White

I was a busboy during my internship at the Guatemalan bakery, sweeping floors, washing dishes, and taking out the trash. It never failed to amuse me when I brought the trash to the outside dumpster and was met with the stares of passerby. Here I was, a gringo in a white apron taking the trash out of a Guatemalan bakery, performing the stereotypical tasks of an Hispanic immigrant and seemingly switching stereotyped roles with my Guatemalan co-workers. I soon realized how much I stood out when I was working behind the counter one day with the owner's wife and a female customer entered the bakery, presumably Hispanic by appearance and Spanish speech. After engaging in small talk in Spanish, the lady asked me with a smile if I was the owner's wife son. When I said no, she laughed and said, "No puedes ser, eres tan blanquito!" (You can't be, you're so white!) I realized right then that in that bakery, I was a foreigner. Although the Hispanics who were immigrants were considered foreigners in the U.S, within this Hispanic community, I was the foreigner, I was the immigrant. Despite my connection to Guatemala, despite my previous visit to the country, despite often wearing my Guatemalan jacket bought in Guatemala, despite being able to speak Spanish, due to the color of my skin, I was labeled as a white American. I now realize that I had experienced what every racially or ethnically diverse Hispanic encounters: being an "other". Many Hispanic immigrants in the U.S., due to their skin color, whether blanco (white), negro (black), moreno or mulatto (brown and/or tan), mestizo (mixed), café con leche (coffee with cream), are often considered as "others", as they all can be considered "immigrants" and not "real Americans". Whether these Hispanics are indeed immigrants, whether or not they have come to the U.S. legally or not, they are considered as foreigners due to their skin color. Even if these Hispanics have white skin, then they can still be considered as an "other" due to accent or origin of birth or heritage. In total, I got a taste of what many Hispanics experience everyday, living in the eyes of the public as an "other", all because I was "so white".

Social Interaction, Guatemalan Style

Being a part of the Guatemalan church service opened my eyes to see that social interaction varies according to cultural site. In north eastern U.S. culture that I had experienced, there were certain social norms such as avoiding meeting people's gazes and not talking or even acknowledging others when walking down the street or in sitting in a bus or train so as not to bother others or make others uncomfortable were foreign in Guatemalan culture that I had experienced. I became even more aware of this when I visited a Guatemalan bakery near Wheaton College that I would later work at as part of an internship. The owner warmly greeted me and began talking to me interchangeably in Spanish and English about who I was, where I was from, and about my connection with Guatemala. This open and friendly conversation was one of many that I experienced within this particular Guatemalan community. When I began interning, I witnessed how the bakery workers interacted with customers, whether they be Guatemalan, Hispanic, or not and whether they knew them or not. They would call out loud and friendly greetings and, breaking with the north eastern U.S. norm of sticking to small talk, engaged in long and diverse conversation of work, food, families, and friends. These conversations were not part of a business routine of being polite, but rather part of a cultural norm of having conversations that were genuine, as the people involved were sincerely interested in what the other had to say. I learned that social interaction within this Guatemalan community was very personal and intimate, the concern of making others uncomfortable never an issue, as it was a social norm, rather than avoiding it, to acknowledge others and to engage in friendly and sincere conversation.