WANTED

So today I saw a couple of interesting things.

First of all, in the middle of WASP-central Lincoln Park, I saw a sign in front of a restaurant that read:

Se necesitan cocineron con experiencia

That's it. No translation. Which means, what the restaurant was looking for was a cook that spoke Spanish. A hispanic cook. Which isn't a big deal when you realize that any place you go to in Lincoln Park has Mexicans the other hispanics in the kitchen.

The thing that struck me is that it wasn't in English and Spanish, just in Spanish. Whether it's for lower wages or some other reason, this place was specifically looking for a Hispanic (short order) cook.

Is this a case of a stereotype molding to reality or just reality further escalating the stereotype? I don't know, but a few minutes later I walked into McDonalds (also in Lincoln Park). McDonalds here in Chicago are either Hispanic or Black, in my experience. This one happens to be Hispanic with the odd black person thrown in. The cashier in the line I was in was black, and he was having a hell of a time understanding the Asian man in front of me in line. I couldn't understand him either. Part of it was language, part of it was culture, and part of it was age—the man was a little out of it.

But after placing my order (and having a little trouble of my own understanding the black youngster behind the counter), I heard the other, hispanic cashier as the next customer what she wanted.

In a heavy accent: Can ah jelp nest custmer?

Customer: (Slight pause, as if to see if it's OK) Si, me da una quesoburguesa doble por favor?

Cashier: Quiere el menu o solo es sandwiche?

And the transaction went on as it normally would, in Spanish.

None of this should surprise anyone whose been paying any attention for the last ten years, but still. In the middle of Lincoln Park, to see this, made an impact on me.

What if I didn't know Spanish? How would it feel to walk around and have no idea what half the people around you are saying?

I guess now Americans can even get the experience all of use enjoy when we travel abroad right here in their own WASPy neighborhoods.

Wait, is that good or bad?

Apartment Hunting

So the whole gist of this blog and of what I'm trying to get across is what it's like to be foreign in a place where I don't look foreign.

Over the past two weeks, Mindy and I have been looking for an apartment for us to move into for the first time. It's been very stressful and I'm glad it's over—we're both excited about living in a high rise right on Lake Shore Drive. So that's good.

But as September got closer and closer and we didn't have a place yet, we both started getting a little antsy. We were sending a ton of emails to a bunch of different places and we usually didn't hear back. I don't like talking on the phone, so I was happy to send email after email telling people that we were looking for an apartment.

Here is what I've learned:
- Saying you are engaged and the both of you are moving in together is a HUGE plus. They love it and it'll give you a better chance to get the apartment.

- People may or may not be racist. I never felt this way until weeks went by and my emails went unanswered. Then at the end of every email I sent I got a queasy feeling when I signed my name, "Thanks, Carlos P."

I began to feel a little queasy—now I was a full-fledged Hispanic. Forget about what I look like, how I was raised, where my mother is from—Carlos P is as Hispanic as they come. The reason I didn't write out my last name is because Portocarrero will just scare everyone away.

I felt awful and wanted Mindy to send all the emails from then on. Instead I began to call everyone and leave messages: "Hello, I'm calling because I'm interested in the apartment you listed on Craigslist on Lake Shore Drive. Ummm, I'm just wondering if it's still available I guess and when my fiancee and I could come see it. Ok, thanks, and have a good day. Bye bye."

Now here was a Carlos that is fully American. No trace of an accent, not even of a second-generation Hispanic. And the calls began flooding in, all but a few returned my calls.

I haven't really been able to think about it since I was so focused on just getting a place at whatever cost, but via email there was nothing I could do about how people perceived my name and what it meant to them. Now it's got me thinking about other places where my name is out there and not much else, like my resume.

It's a worrying thought and it makes me question myself about it. If I was subletting my apartment and got an email from a Rodrigo or a Jose Miguel, would I feel any different towards them compared to other applicants? I can't lie and say it wouldn't, but I would also judge every single applicant by their name, their words, what they're like on the phone, if they can spell or not in their emails.

I just read a bit in the book Freakonomics where a correlation was found between how Hispanic contestants were treated in the game show The Weakest Link. In the show, contestants want to have strong competitors in the early going (to accumulate more money) but weaker players towards the end (so they can win the accumulated money). Turns out that black people weren't treated any differently (that is, they were voted off just about the same as non-black players that were good or bad competitors). According to the book, it's because people don't want to appear as racist. But when it came to the elderly and Hispanics, players showed a different feel.

Older contestants faced "taste-based discrimination, which means that one person discriminates simply because he prefers to not interact with a particular type of other person." In other words, "contestants . . . simply don't want the older players around."

Hispanics face taste-based discrimination. This means that "contestants seem to view Hispanics as poor players, even when they are not. This perception translates into Hispanics' being eliminated in the early rounds even if they are doing well and not being eliminated in the later rounds, when other contestants want to keep the Hispanics around to weaken the field."

Sounds horrible, despicable, racist, doesn't it? It is what it is and complaining about it won't change people's perceptions. This is one of those things that just has to take it's course until one of two things happen: It finally "wears off" as people become more familiar with Hispanics and realize they have nothing to fear. Or we enter into a politically correct phase where the fear of offending or seeming to be racist keeps people in check.

Mohsin Hamid's Article

Here is a great article by Mohsin Hamid, the author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist. I finished the book last week and today I literally stumbled into this article in yesterday’s Washington Post via Slate.

He’s exploring the question of “why they hate us” and in so doing he puts into words how many foreign people feel. But he also shares with us his duality—that part of him is pissed off at how his “other” country means so little to the average American.

It’s really a great article and the bit about the difference in Chapters in history is a great analogy. Read the whole thing, here’s a snippet:

Part of the reason people abroad resent the United States is something Americans can do very little about: envy. The richest, most powerful country in the world attracts the jealousy of others in much the same way that the richest, most powerful man in a small town attracts the jealousy of others. It will come his way no matter how kind, generous or humble he may be.

But there is another major reason for anti-Americanism: the accreted residue of many years of U.S. foreign policies. These policies are unknown to most Americans. They form only minor footnotes in U.S. history. But they are the chapter titles of the histories of other countries, where they have had enormous consequences. America's strength has made it a sort of Gulliver in world affairs: By wiggling its toes it can, often inadvertently, break the arm of a Lilliputian.

America makes you fat

An interesting article about how US-born hispanics have poorer health than those that come from abroad.

David Hoon Kim

So I've been slowly catching up on my New Yorker subscriptions and I finally got through the Fiction Issue. There's a really good story on there by a guy named David Hoon Kim, who is part Asian, part French, part American. It's his first-ever published piece and he's got other stuff in the pipeline I guess.

The story itself is really good and it deals with some of the issues of looking like one nationality while really not feeling that way. Check out the story for yourself. Also check out the interesting interview on the site, where he talks about language and writing.

Guatemalan Soccer

So last week Guatemala lost to Canada to end their run in the 2007 Gold Cup. The next day the papers in Guatemala thrashed the team for it's ineptitude. The real reason people got so worked up though was because they had been given hope, again. And, again, they felt bamboozled.

The gist of the comments in the paper (and by readers) was this:

"Here we go again. One more time the National team shows they are nothing but amateurs playing against professional athletes."

Lately they haven't been blaming the coaches, which used to be SOP. But our last two coaches have been pretty good—the one thing everyone agreed on.

Now the only thing people agree on is how slow, weak, and underskilled our players are when they play real teams.

It's an argument that has been made for a long time. Our players aren't professional athletes, they are guys who are getting paid a little bit of money (just enough) to play a sport they've played since they were kids. In a poor country like Guatemala, these guys' priorities have nothing to do with sports. It's about getting yours and providing for your family. It's the same thing that happens in politics—when anyone that isn't rich (and even those who are) get to a position of power, they go into self-preservation mode. Only they take it to an extreme. Once they realize the amount of money they can take (which everyone else is taking), they figure they better get in on in too or else they'll miss their chance at having a little bit of comfort in their lives.

It's poverty, it makes things like morals and values something you can't afford to think about, and never do.

That is all.

Presidential Candidates in Guatemala

My father will be voting "Nulo" in Guatemala's upcoming presidential elections, which is a surprise if you know the eternal optimism of my dad (something I believe I've inherited). Word from my mother is that he'll go, vote, do his civic duty, but he won't vote for any of them. There isn't a candidate worth voting for.

Not a good sign for the country.