Cultural Identity & Intercultural Communication: Buenos Aires (YO)

Stereotypes. In their simplest form stereotypes are no more than oversimplified generalizations of people, places, and things. Then again, discussing stereotypes and watching them in action are two completely different beasts. It has been said that stereotypes can sometimes be used as useful resources to navigate through unfamiliar situations. I disagree with this 100%. If anything, stereotypes cause us to have unrealistic expectations that hinder us from learning about or appreciating the new situations, surroundings, and company we sometimes find ourselves in. Interestingly enough, even though I maintained these sentiments about stereotypes long before my trip to BA, I never stopped to wonder if there were any stereotypes that I was applying to the world. Well lo and behold! After a conversation with my host family I soon discovered the generalizations that I had been making too.

For this blog post, I had to interview Argentines (or porteños as they refer to themselves here) and gain an understanding of their views of people from the United States and me as a citizen of the U.S. as well. As soon as I knew that I would be interviewing people that are not from the U.S. about the U.S., I pretty much assumed the worse. (Now the key word here is assume so make sure you hold onto it ;). I believed that it really did not make a difference who I talked to from here. Everybody would say something along the lines of people from the U.S. are self-absorbed. They do not care to learn about other countries or their cultures. They are entitled and think they have the right to tell the rest of the world what to do just because the U.S. is a superpower. Furthermore, I assumed that porteños would say that even though all those things do not apply to me, it does not make them any less true. I would simply be an exception thereby still justifying these very broad generalizations. 

Yet to the contrary, my porteño family proved me to be immensely wrong. Even though my host family is well in tune with the culture of the U.S. and keeps up with its politics, they reserve all their judgments about its citizens through the personal experiences they have had with them. Suffice it to say that they have had many experiences since they have been hosting international students for over a decade now! As such, they view people from the U.S. as kind, very agreeable, and easy to talk to. When I asked them why they felt this way their answer was simple. Hosting students for over ten years has put them in contact with many different types of people from the U.S. Working with these students through this abroad program is not just something to do but a meaningful chance to give "chicos" (an affectionate way of describing young people) a warm, safe, and loving place to call home while they are so far away from home. While doing this they discovered that even though people from the U.S. are all unique in their own way, they are generally very considerate people with much to offer. 

I am not sure if my beautiful host family simply attracts people that are similar to them or what. Either way it is clear from our discussion that the love they give to students is the same love they have been receiving from them all these years. Making this their reason for feeling about people from the U.S. the way they do. I also asked my family if I fit into their image of the U.S. and to describe me as a person. I received an unwavering "yes" for my first question and my family continued by saying that I am a very kind, affectionate, caring, precious, and beautiful person inside and out. My host mom called me a complete "bombón" which is essentially a sweetheart or lovely person. She continued by saying that I would always be their daughter as long as I was in Argentina (cue my tears and the slow violin!) 

I also asked my family if they could share a story about me. However, it has only been about our third week together so my family could not think of any especially gripping accounts about me to regale. Even so, as being applicable to this post, I thought I could share a short story about my host mom, Marta. 

It was only my third day in BA when I met my host family. There were about 50 other students in the hotel lobby with all their suitcases waiting to meet their families. I had just stepped out of the elevator dripping with sweat from fighting with my 80 lbs. luggage when I heard "Jemy!" ( with a long "j" as only Argentines can so lovingly pronounce my name) being called from across the room. I rushed over and was welcomed by this beautiful Jewish-Argentine woman with reddish-blond hair that stands at about 5'3" with more kisses and hugs than I could count. In that moment my host mom clearly saw that I was tired, gross, and scared. I was but it didn't matter. She saw that and has made it her job from that point on to make sure that I know that I am always welcome in her home and her heart. This is one of my first memories of BA and I am so grateful for it.

Pretty soon, it will be a month since I embarked on my journey abroad. Each day really does teach me something different than the last. Yet learning the things that I am learning about myself are so much more than what I imagined. What makes it even more interesting is that some of us came down here knowing exactly who we are as individuals (more or less, after all most of us are only in our very early 20s). Still, I guess age really doesn't matter when it comes to learning. No matter how old we are there will always be more things that we don't know than we do. Now I wonder how many of us will end our trip being different people from when we started it - learning to question all the things that we think we know, especially the things about ourselves.