When you're a gringa living out of the country, you get stared at. All the time. As of now, it doesn't bother me tooo much, just sometimes. When I was in Queretaro to visit like a year and a half ago, I went for a short walk by myself. I was wearing jeans and a sweater, the same kinds of things the other girls my age wore. But everyone stared at me. I walked past the bus stop, and people did double-takes. It's not as if I were dressed differently, and I wasn't speaking so they weren't hearing a different language. I don't think we stare at hispanic people here who are dressed in west coast modern clothing. Maybe if they're speaking spanish people might stare, but not normally. If we stared at every latino we saw here, we'd now be staring at 1/3 of the people we see aroung town (more or less depending on if you are in North Salem or South Salem).
When I go to La Dispensa Familiar in Loarque (Tegus) to buy chicharones or CocaLight, the cashier doesn't talk to me, but kind of stares. The waiters at Pizza Hut...... Holy moly, they STARE. I'm sure it doesn't help to be THE white girl with a group of Luisa and 5 or 6 obnoxious rich guys. So why am I the one picked out of that group to be stared at??! David and Franciso are GIGANTIC TWINS and no one gives them a second look.
Then there's Ciudad Delgado El Salvador. If you don't like to stand out in a crowd DON'T go there while white. Lots of people from Chimaltenango there - the white people of El Salvador. That sounds like I'd stick out less there, but I have yet to see any Chimaltenangan who has hit the 5'3" mark. Elsy told me that people should stare less if I always spoke in Spanish because they might think I'm just from Chimaltenango. But I'm a bit large, I said. We died laughing! I stopped a soccer game in Delgado just by walking past one time. There were about 8 boys (like ages 10-14) playing, and all of a sudden the game stopped. They all stared at me and whispered. I can still distictly remember hearing the words "gringa" and "giganta."
So, I hear that the things that bother you a little bit will bother you a lot more when you actually move out of the country. I'm thinking this will be a big one for me. On one hand, I like it when people want to meet me, only having noticed me because I'm different. I feel like I can start up a conversation more eaisily, as we can always talk about how life is in the States, things I don't know about their culture, and english. Just as long as no one asks me how many cars we have at my house. (My house isn't too big, so I was able to tell the Delgados that their house, even without the grandma's section, is bigger than mine, but I always avoid the car question.) So there are pros and cons to being different. I want to learn to love it!!
Elsy and I in El Salvador. Her dad is from Chalentenango, he is the same height as her.
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