Traveling abroad is the best way to confirm your sense of self and heritage. Home becomes a powerful concept when you are 9 hours ahead and eating nothing but Iberian Ham morning, noon and night (Yes, its novelty wore off after the second breakfast).
The unnerving part for me was everyone’s ability to peg me as “American” on first glance. Granted I am 5’11, fair skinned with light brown hair and blue eyes, but still. Couldn’t I be German? Austrian? Scandinavian? English? Australian? Heck, even if they heard me speak couldn’t I be mistaken for Canadian?
No. Apparently not.
Bugger.
So what is it about me that makes me so identifiably American. I wasn’t wearing white tennis shoes, my wool coat was conservatively fashionable, I am relatively fit and thin, and I wasn’t draped in red, white and blue. What was it? My un-dyed hair? My lack of multiple facial piercings (I do have my nose pierced)? My posture? My facial expressions? My non-descript suitcase? What? What?!?
I guess I am just not Euro-Chic enough.
And, the reaction was always the same, a mixture of apathy regarding our presence and a sort of “I figured as much” kind of look. We had to acknowledge the fact that being two twenty something, American girls was going to get us nowhere. Being American was going to get us less than nowhere. Face it. The American dream and the American dollar just aren’t what they used to be in Europe.
Sing with me: Oh Ca-na-da!
2 comments:
It would be interesting to talk with someone from Europe to find out what the "giveaway" is. I've often wondered if I could blend in myself. Most likely not.
Hi Beth.
Maybe your confession of "eating nothing but Iberian Ham morning,
noon and night" hints at why every Spaniard can identify you as
American... A leg of Iberian Ham is a very appreciated present in
Spain in Christmas, but I can testify that our passion for Ham don't go as far as that!
Now seriously, making American our first guess when meeting you (or
anybody with your physical description) makes a lot of sense to me, just on probabilistic grounds. America is a big country, and their citizens travel quite a lot for business and tourism. Of course most Spaniards cannot tell the difference between an American and an English or a Canadian just at first sight but, how many Canadian visit Seville each year? Chances are you will not bump into one of them.
It is more difficult to explain why apathy seems to have been the
unanimous reaction to your presence. I think that is the result of the combined effect of two damaging forces. First, the grossly distorted image of the Americans portrayed by a majority of the European media. Americans appear frequently in the news (which is bad, as a vast majority of the news are bad news) and most of the time is in connection with wars and local crime. Secondly, Hollywood films do not convey a much better image of your fellow countrymen.
Obviously, it is ridiculous to pre-judge all Americans by these
cliches... but remember that Spaniards don't travel much and most of them have no direct experience of real Americans (maybe with the exception of tourists).
Very few people is free from those prejudices... I must confess
(with painful embarrassment) that I was surprise when you told me in
the train (remember the high-speed Sevilla-Madrid train?) about your
interest in the Spanish language, traditions and history. That's not
what you expect from an American! And, by the way, I am very sorry
if I looked apatic. I can say (now that nobody is listening :-)) that it was a most delightful conversation indeed. I would really like to
know whether you visited Toledo ...
Cheers!
Alfonso
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