The other day I went to the hairdresser and she asked me if white guys looked at me. I said "No. Sometimes, but not that often". She said that she thought that happened becasue I was "exotic". She said they might think I am pretty but I am just "too much". "Too much?", I replied. "Yes. You look very different and they are used to the traditional white, blond and green eyes girl. They do not know what to do with you." I thought this behavior or way of thinking in white guys was weird. I told her she was not the first person who told me I was exotic and that sometimes I wondered what people are trying to say when they say I am exotic. She said "That is just a complement. They are saying you are pretty". I still can not understant how can this word might mean pretty. For me this interpretation is weird.
I went home after trusting my curly exotic hair on her. By the way, it was difficult for me to find someone in the city who knew how to deal with exotic, I mean, curly hear. And luckly, I found her. A woman who was aware of the racial dynamics in this city and was able to work with my exotic hear becasue she herself is African American. So, I went home thinking someone else just told me the same thing, that I am exotic. But what is to be exotic? What people try to say when they say I am exotic?
Just the other day I was telling my co workers I was in the car with my husband speaking on my cellphone when a guy in another car was literally shouting "YOU ARE EXOTIC! YOU ARE EXOTIC!" I asked to my co workers what exotic meant for them. One of my co workers said that meant I am not white. I told her the guy who told me that comment was African American. My supervisor jumped into the conversation saying that people mean that I am gorgeous. She said it is just a complement. I went home with the same question again wondering why people in the United States tell me I am exotic meaning I am pretty when there are hundreds of pretty women in the city who are not called "exotic". This is weird.
Not being satisfied with people explanations I went to the ditionary online and confirmed what I was thinking people meant. The dictionary said the word comes from the latin word "exoticus". It has three definitons. The first one is foreigner, pilgrims, specially if the person comes from a country far away. The second is when something is weird or shoking. And the third one is the definiton used in Mexico, which is a woman who dances on a cabaret. Well, the definiton is clear. I am a foreigner. I am a pilgrim on this lands expecting to go back to my country, and my country is really far away. I have to fly five hours and a half to go to Puerto Rico. For many people here, due to my features and curly hear, I am weird and provoke different reactions when peole look at me. Something would not happen if I were white. And third, I do like to dance. I love dancing and maybe I will take that further step and put dancing in a cabaret on the list of the things I want to do before I die.
The question is why people has to emphasize you are different. Or that you are pretty but different. Or that you are pretty different. People would wonder why I give so much thinking to this word "exotic". But for me, a person who comes from another country, who found herself surrounded of weird and different people, is weird to hear I am "the exotic". It is interesting to go through the street in a pretty divided white/black society (which for me is weird) and being called exotic. I would say that after being in the United States, and seeing all these wierd things you all do, "you all are exotic".
martes, mayo 29, 2007
A new deal for Puerto Rico is on the table
Here is an update of what has been going on in Congress about the approval of a bill to support that the US consults Puerto Ricans about the preference of the Island's status. I bet you did not know this was going on. Yes, that is part of being a colony. Well, is not a surprise to me that the US has never asked us what we think about them being in our land. This is not new. They have done it all around the world. And it has been with a strong pushing from some Puertorricans politicians that the debate has come again to Congress. The pro statehood and pro commonwealth party's have been doing consults in PR for the US in the past (without the US asking to do it) decades and the US has never paid attention to the results. These two parties have celebrated a couple of consults ending having the same result as always: Puertorricans are not decided yet to get into a permanent decision of what to do in terms of the status, so they prefer the current uncertain and ambiguous commonwealth. I am very pessimistic about these two bills they are proposing in congress because it is the same thing of always, Puertorricans are going to decide the same thing and nothing is going to change. What grab more my attention is how these politicians in Congress are giving opinions of how to solve Puerto Rico's status when we have to be the ones doing that. That is part of being a colony, inequality. And then, there is Fortuno, our representative in congress, who probably will run for governor in 2008. He once proposed make of PR "The great city, as Chicago and New York are" which means putting down mountains, and plant concrete and buildings everywhere. Like if we had the capacity to do that being just 100 per 35 miles big full of mountains.
Politicians think people will embrace statehood and I don't know if Puertorricans are willing to do that yet. I even do not know how important is this debate for the US legislators. I have not heard anything in the US news about it as always happens. Maybe it has been a short news that passed unnoticed for many. What is important to us, it is not important to the US. We can have an open battle to death in PR about our status, as we have always had, and that is not a big news here in the US. So maybe we are two different nations with different interests.
There are some other important things in the US list which are sending more money to the troops even though some say they do not support the war, continue or ending the war in Iraq, trying to catch all the aliens immigrants that come across south (and not north) of the border without proper documentation and approving English as the US main language, which denies the reality of a multilingual country the US is and that this bill could never be applied to PR because we speak Spanish and not English. If you did not know how this bill of English being the main language in the US would affect PR, federal laws are all applied to PR. When this bill was being discussed in the US, Puertorricans were concerned about a new imposition from the US. But they can easily excuse themselves from this imposition by saying "You Puertorricans do not complain. You are citizens, receive federal funds and do not pay taxes, so at least you are expected to speak English." In that they silence us. That is a good strategy. Don't you think? But the US government is not even thinking about PR when talking about English as the US main language. They have forgotten that big detail. Well, before continuing with my personal political statement ( I thought it was going to be a short introduction), I let you read a news about Congress and PR. Just click this link.
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