Maggie's Farm

Except for two weeks in Mexico with my family when I was a teenager, my foreign travel- all south of the border in our hemisphere- has been where I had a good to fluent command of the language. That makes a big difference.

Tourist or traveler, call it what you will. I considered myself a backpacker/mochilero. I have also worked abroad. I recommend working in a third world country for all guilt riddden liberals, as exposure to local practices makes the US look pretty damned good by comparison. Not because we are richer, but because we are more honest and give the common man more of a chance. I would also add that living abroad will divest one of the belief that the US is the most racist country on earth. By comparison, we don't look bad at all. At the same time, I was exposed to much gracious hospitality, so my comments are related to systems, not to individuals.

Over the years, I would estimate that of my time traveling on a tourist visa, about a third of the time was spent at houses of local friends, not at hotels. That would not have occurred if I didn't have a good command of the language.

The famous places are worth seeing. Perhaps because I was born and raised in the sticks, I was much more impressed by day hikes or multi-day hikes in the mountains in Latin America than I was by the famous ruins or buildings. After a while, I threw away the tour guides, either because I already knew where to go, or because I figured I would have a great time just walking around and seeing what I would see.

I would like to second faculty wife's disparaging comments about people who, because they have made a two week trip to some country, believe they know the country in depth- a belief which is even more absurd when the two-week-visitors don't know the local language. The Sandalistas making pilgrimages to Nicaragua during the years of Sandinista control come to mind. The Sandalistas had no idea about the deep roots of authoritarian government in Latin America- they assumed authoritarian governments in Latin America were merely impositions from the US. Similarly, the Sandalistas assumed that simply because the Sandinistas were against the US, that the Sandinista government was a good one.

The Sandalistas were also unaware of the continuities between the Somoza regime and the Sandinista regime. Both used mobs to enforce conformity- Nicolasa for the Somozas, turbas divinas [divine mobs] for the Sandinistas. In many cases, the Sandinista neighborhood watch person performed the same function under the Somozas. Corruption- need I say more?

The Sandalistas were blissfully aware of the Sandinista support of Soviet imperialism, which was evident well before Ronald Reagan became President. Much damning Sandinista support of Soviet imperialism has never been translated into English.

As the saying goes, you aren't just whistling Dixie.

As an example of Americans' attitudes towards outsiders compared to how Europeans view outsiders, I recall a fellow tourist- she was French- I met in Colombia in the 1970s. We spent several weeks together.

One time she told me about a fellow Frenchman's experience of being a tourist in the US. He hitched around the US- which was much more common in the 1970s than it is now. She informed me that many times when her friend was hitching around the US, the people who picked him up would invite them into their homes. That wasn't a surprise to me, as I had the same experience hitching long distance during that time. She told me that there was something sick about Americans, that they would be so hospitable to a stranger.

I made no reply. What can you say to that? It showed me there was a definite difference between Americans and Europeans. [Of course, the French had experiences in the 20th century with not-so-friendly German strangers in jackboots.]

I also knew people whose parents were both from Europe, who, having spent most or all of their lives in South America, went to Germany to study or to work. One had a German passport- his father was an expat mining engineer.They found Germans to be most inhospitable. If your family hadn't been in town for 500 years, the Germans didn't want to have a thing to do with you.

Coincidentally, my sister and her German-born husband are currently touring Germany. Visiting childhood friends and the like.