Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Wednesday July 25, 2007

This morning we had an interesting lecture about immigration, racism, gender issues, and fertility issues in Chile. I unfortunately am getting exhausted and had a hard time focusing despite the fact that I am intensely intrigued by the subject. I thought paying attention in college was difficult. When it takes 100% of your brain focused solely on what the speaker is saying, complete comprehension yet alone note taking because near impossible.
We then watched Machuca, a great Chilean film made in about 2005 about Allende’s government and the resulting (US backed) military coupe from the eyes of a child. Highly powerful and incredibly entertaining. I recommend it to all of you if you interested in learning more about the social impacts of the Chilean government.
This afternoon our tutor gave us the seemingly terrifying task of talking with complete strangers in Plaza Armas. (I’ve talked about it before, when I went to see Harry Potter: Sat. July 14.) We got into partners and were told to simply go up to people and ask them about anything we were interested about in Chilean society, government, etc. We’ve learned so much in class that we had a lot of ideas of what we could discuss, but I was absolutely terrified. My partner Nick (from St. Louis!) and I first talked to a couple around our age. It was a good warm up for us while they told us about President Bachelet, where they stood politically and how that compared to other kids their (our) age. The girl told us that her parents are “of the right” and therefore she agreed. She complained about President Bachelet and the new public transportation system TranSantiago. It was interesting to speak to a young person who considers themselves rightist.
We then approached an older couple and an old lady all sitting on a bench. They were all nicely dressed and seemed well off. We again asked them to tell us what they thought about Chile’s current government and the sweet old man (named Enrique, or Henry as he gleefully explained) went on a 20 minute monologue/tirade about how if you have money are you on the right and if you don’t’ have money you are on the left. And no one on the right wants to change but all they do is exploit the workers. All they care about is money and they use they’re power to get more money. The poor people are on the left because they are sick of being exploited and want social and economic change to improve their situation. On and on. It was pretty amazing.
We than talked about women in power and working outside the homes; about how women are better in power because they are more honest, loyal, think about saving money for the future, etc. while men are rash, greedy, power hungry etc.; about racism in Chile (according to Enrique, the reason the US has some much money about power is because of all the Jews. Apparently Jews control all the wealth in the world. (This was the only think I didn’t really agree with…)) When we asked Enrique about immigration and Peruvians, he said that they are less cultured and less educated than Chileans. He spoke in a demeaning but not condescending tone of voice.
When we were getting ready to find other people to talk to, Enrique told us about his wife’s family being from Croatia and Russia (when I noticed her blue eyes, she seemed very proud). He then told us that his grandfather came over from Spain. Immediately, the woman next to them (who had been listening but had yet to say too much) let us know that her father was from Spain. Amazingly, just this morning we had a talk about immigration into Chile and about how the people are always very very proud of their European descent and pretend their indigenous descent never happened, despite the fact that 86% of the Chilean population is mestizo (mixed indigenous and European descent).
Next we spoke with two Peruvian women sitting outside on the side of the Cathedral (the Peruvians are known for congregating around churches and our tutor told us to go there if we wanted to find some to talk to!) They came to Santiago to work. Because the economic situation in Peru is very bad. There are many Peruvians working and living in Chile (very similar to USA/Mexico immigration, including Enrique’s perspective about Peruvians). The women were very nice and willing to speak to us yet they seemed shy and (this may be a bias on my part, but…) and less educated that the Chileans we had spoken to. They told us that the only jobs for they can find are as Nanas, nannies/maids for wealthy people. We asked them if it was hard to find work and got two different answers. One woman told us that you could find work but it didn’t pay well, but it was better than nothing. She also said that she liked living in Santiago. The other woman wasn’t as optimistic. She said it was difficult to find work and that she hated living in the city. Nevertheless, they both hoped and planned to one day return to Peru. Goes to show that you can never fully understand a situation because everyone has a different perspective.
((I sat and talked to the happier, more optimistic woman for a while. She has three children in college back home. I asked her if she was Catholic (because she was sitting outside the Cathedral) and with a big smile she told me she wasn’t Catholic but that she loves God.))
Nick and I had about 15 minutes left and had talked to each type of person our tutor had recommended. We started looking around the plaza for someone different when we saw with three black men sitting on a bench. We approached them and started chatting. Two of the men were from Columbia and one from Equador (!). They were living and working in Santiago (for various lengths of time) but they wanted to go to Europe. The friendliest man explained to us that is easier to get to Europe from Chile and that he can study here to learn English. He wants to work on Cruise ships but has to learn basic English first. It was a very interesting conversation and it poignantly displayed the vast array of the Spanish accent (the Columbians and Ecuadorian were much easier to understand). A few interesting points: 1) one of the men from Columbia said he never wanted to go back. The other, who had only been in Santiago for one month, said he hoped to return. 2) They asked Nick and me where we are from in the US. Nick said Missouri, and then explained that it was close to the Mississippi River. The man recognized the word Mississippi and stated “There aren’t many people like us in Mississippi, right?” We tried to explain that there were many black people in Mississippi but he told us that he has a friend in NYC and that there are many “negros” there. 3) At the end of the conversation, the man told me that he and I should help each other: He could teach me Spanish and I could teach him English. I politefully told him I appreciated the offer but that I would be very busy with classes.
While we were talking to the black men, a well dressed older man came up and sat down right next to them. I continued talking to them but the older man pulled Nick down to speak to him. Later Nick told me that the man (in perfect English but with an accent) explained to him that Chile, historically, has been a very racist country. Apparently in the early 1900s there was a huge immigration of Asian people to Chile. The Chilean government used the pretext of preventing the spread of disease to limit/forbid immigration from many Asian and African countries. This makes sense seeing the extreme homogeny (racially) of the Chilean population.
At 8 pm, Calli’s mom threw her a surprise party for her birthday. 5 of us joined Calli’s family, and some extended family for the delicious food and comical communication. Calli’s mom is a licensed chef and takes pride in her food, which I enjoyed! Afterwards we went to a fun part of town called Bella Vista (“Pretty View”: its right next to the mountains) where we stumbled upon an amazing Salsa/Meringue bar. Between the great singer, the Chilean Happy Birthday Song on stage, and a class of Chilean wine, everyone had a great time. To top it all off, we met a dance instructor and one of his students who taught us all how to Salsa and Meringue. Calli has danced for years, including in college, and embarrassed us all. When the dance instructor, Rodrigo, and Calli danced, everyone stopped to watch. Amazing. But I had a great time dancing with the student, Glen, who was actually a dentist whose hobbies include learning to dance and learning English! Meringue is essentially Cajun dancing and was easy for me to follow. The steps for Salsa are a bit harder and apparently I didn’t move my hips enough, but by the end of the night, Glen said he was very impressed! We are going to a free dance class with Rodrigo on Monday night and this might become a weekly event!