A few nights ago I was having dinner with my host mom and a bunch of her friends when one of her friends’ husbands started talking about a Japanese man who lives here in Los Angeles. Apparently this man is doing research about the area and has been living here for a little over a year. As the husband and my host mom’s friends talked about this man and all of the “funny” things he does and wears, they continually pulled back the sides of their eyes and made jokes about being Chinese. As I said before, this man is Japanese. But that’s beside the point. I wish I could say that this was an isolated event that shocked me, but unfortunately this is something that I’ve seen over and over again here in Chile.
The Chilean idea of a North American is generally a lighter skinned, blonde haired and blue eyed person. More generally, Chileans tend to picture North Americans as Caucasian. Given American media, I can’t really blame Chileans for having this image, but it has led a fair number of people to question whether or not I am in fact estadounidense, which literally translates to “United Statesian” (South Americans use “American” to describe themselves as well, while estadounidense is used to describe people from the U.S.). Many people have asked me where I’m from since I obviously stand out, and when I respond that I’m from the U.S., more often than not people will ask me, “but where were you born?” When I continue to explain that I was born and raised in the U.S., as were my parents, they’ll press with more questions about where my grandparents are from, wanting to know why I look different than the “United Statesian” they have in their heads. Once they discover that I’m part Chinese, probably 99% of the time they’ll then pull back the corners of their eyes and either try to “speak” in Chinese or just say something along the lines of, “ah, I could tell were Chinese because your eyes are so small!”
While this type of reaction would be considered offensive in the states, Chileans generally respond with laughs of encouragement. I had been warned ahead of time that this would probably occur, yet despite those cautions I still felt extremely uncomfortable the first few times it happened. Cultural diversity is pretty much nonexistent in Chile, aside from the few indigenous groups that still remain. Without exposure to cultural diversity, cultural sensitivity is understandably lacking. People don’t mean to be offensive, they just don’t know any better. I’d say that direct exposure and education are two of the best methods to increase awareness, and what do you know? I’m a Chinese American teacher! During my lesson on family a few weeks back I included a picture of my whole family (grandparents, cousins, etc.). Because I have a mixed Chinese/Caucasian family, I was able to incorporate some talk about cultural sensitivity as a prepared response to students pulling back the corners of their eyes after seeing my family photo (I anticipated this happening, which it did, in every class). We discussed a range of things, from diversity in the U.S. to how my grandparents ended up in California to how my students would feel if someone teased the way they looked. Overall they were really receptive, and in the end what interested them most was just seeing my family and getting to know a little bit more about my life and where I come from.
Issues of race and culture are global concerns, and if anything these uncomfortable encounters have been a much needed reminder for myself that most of the people in this world don’t grow up in populations as diverse as where I was raised (the San Francisco Bay Area). I grew up surrounded by neighbors and classmates of many different ethnicities and backgrounds, and perhaps because of that, one of the characteristics of the U.S. that I value most is its melting-pot quality. I am happy to share that aspect of what it means to be “United Statesian” with my students, colleagues, and friends here in Chile, and I hope that once I’m gone my students will remember that there’s a lot we can learn from people who are different from ourselves. And, of course, I hope they keep with them the new knowledge that we gringos aren't all blondes!
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