Tag: Community Empowerment

By rmattiola

Last Sunday, after the earth briefly shook beneath my feet (my first experience of a tremblor), I found my own thoughts and opinions shaken up a bit as well. A week ago, the program director Brian informed me that there is a strong movement amongst the Aymara (indigenous to northern Chile) to assimilate. At the time, I couldn’t understand why.

Over the past few days, I’ve been asked if I was Chilean or not—if I was a student from the US or one of the host siblings. Of course, I was ecstatic to be asked this. Blending in in a different country or culture is something that I consciously work towards and assign importance to. But why do I feel this way? Why am I happier in my dark, dark, Mediterranean skin than my porcelain American skin? Why is it that I’m almost ashamed of the attention attracted by my American body and accent? The reason is now clear: I have a preconceived notion that Americans are perceived as gluttonous, rude, obnoxious and uncultured. I am aware of my own feelings and attempts to blend in, yet I’m shocked when I hear that natives are trying to assimilate because I feel they have a history and a culture to protect.

In reality though, I’m sure they feel (and have felt for many years) just as I do now; happy to blend in and ashamed to be associated with a poorly connoted group. The indigenous live this struggle their whole life, while I will only experience it here for 4 months. So what should be done and thought about indigenous assimilation? What is ethical? Should we ignorantly allow the indigenous to assimilate so they can transcend discrimination? Should we push for measures that facilitate the maintenance of cultural ties? Or should we establish a system that enables self-empowerment and diminishes the pressure to assimilate? It’s interesting how quickly your opinion can change when you put yourself in someone else’s shoes.

Over the last week, classes have really picked up speed. We don’t have homework assignments or true exams, just readings, essays and projects.

...continue reading "Assimilation or Empowerment: to blend in or to stick out"

By rmattiola

Arica is called the city of Eternal Spring, but it has become evident that their Spring is very different from ours. We don’t continuously sweat from 9am to 8pm everyday during Spring, and we’re typically wearing rain boots, not sandals. Here in Arica, you can count on a nice breeze from both the desert and the sea to wick some sweat away, but there is no air conditioning. Regardless, I must say that everyone in the group has been content with sweating and not complaining. However, because it is summer and up to 5 degrees warmer than the rest of the year, even the locals still say “hace mucho calor” (its very hot out) during all parts of the day. The nights are a bit cooler and with the sun covered, and many locals exercise around the soccer stadium.

There are various types of soccer fields outside the stadium, as well as a track around the nice grass field inside. When I take the short-cut through the stadium and the university to my house, I pass many practices and casual games and yearn to join in. I was able to play some soccer on the beach with 2 boys about 15 years old, but still I haven’t had the chance to join a real pichanga. The boys on the beach confirmed that it’s not common for girls to play soccer with boys. Whatever. I am una gringa and visibly culturally different.

Recently though, I’ve received less cat-calls (which are commonplace here unfortunately) and attracted less attention from locals. One woman even told me she thought I was from Santiago and a dude on the beach asked me if I was Brazilian. At an activity day with the host siblings, some of the sister said to me, "Wait, are you chilean? Are you a host sister or a student?" When I have to confess that I’m estadounidense (American), they say, “oh you’re not that gringa!”. My Italian genes have blessed me this time with an ability to tan quickly and my dark, curly (these days wild) hair automatically separates me from gringas rubias (blonde white girls). Due to this, I sometimes think twice about going out or walking around with one of the blonde girls. In reality, I’m almost always with a blonde girl, so I’ve acquired a strong and sassy protective layer to be able to ignore the (sometimes) inappropriate comments and whistles from local men.

Pictured: soccer fields

...continue reading "Am I still a gringa?"

By rmattiola

My week started with environment shock and ended with culture shock. The desert was intimidating. My flight from Santiago to Arica followed the coastline so we landed over a beach. I wondered when the sand would turn to grass, or some other sort of coastal vegetation but it never did. Sand was everywhere. Our bus ride back was a little quiet considering we were a group of teenagers excited to meet each other. Everyone was taking in the surroundings. I noticed, amongst all the emptiness, a few industrial centers and a single field of corn growing miraculously in the sand. Having never spent any of my adult life in a desert, I was surprised by the vastness. This shook me a little, even though I knew all along I would be staying in the most arid desert in the world. The locals say it never rains here, and they are pretty correct, considering the average rainfall in Arica is .03 inches. I felt 3 or 4 drops of rain when I went on a run along the beach. Maybe this will be it for the semester.

Pictured: The Atacama Desert

The city is lively enough, but it only has one movie theatre with one room. I found this endearing. Historically, it was a viceroyalty of Peru for many years and still has many Peruvian influences. For example, in the city’s cathedral (which is closer in size to a church) is a replica of an important church in Peru. But the design is exactly the same; the cathedral of Arica has rain-spouts encased in the face of stone lions even though it never rains here. The original cathedral was destroyed in an earthquake. We’ve been debriefed in the safety procedures for tremblores and terremotos, which happen frequently because the whole coast of Chile rests on a fault line and is therefore the most seismically active country in the world. It is also the longest and most narrow county in the world.

...continue reading "La Primera Semana"

By rmattiola

I turned 21 three days before leaving for Chile. I had a blast. At the end of the night, in a tapas bar, a small Hispanic man came out from the kitchen and presented me with a decadent flourless chocolate cake and a candle. The bar tenders called out, “Con Permiso! Atención!”

The small man who may have been 40 or 70 years old began serenading me with a beautiful Spanish song. I listened intently and was able to understand many of the lyrics. The song was sentimental and commemorative. He sang these romantic words to me as if he was a dear family friend. The next day, I recalled a lovely line from the song translated, “you were born with all the flowers”--ironic since my parents’ family and friends were sure to bring roses for the new baby Rosalie on the day I was born.

After the song ended we exchanged hugs and a sincere “muchisimo gracias”. Then the music restarted and my feet started stomping and I dreamt of the fun I’ll have in Arica.

I keep learning more and more about Arica, the Atacama Desert and Chile in general. For example, the Atacama desert is home to the world’s largest telescope. The nearly cloudless skies and minimal light pollution supposedly create the optimum star gazing experience. This news is super exciting since I will be living close by. I also read about an ancient anthropomorphic geoglyph called the Atacama Giant, thought to represent a diety of the Inca or Tiwanaku. This massive work of art is dug into the side of a mountain in the desert about 3 hours south of Arica. Hopefully, I will get down there to see it myself.

...continue reading "Cumpleaños Feliz!"

By rmattiola

In my application essay I explained how I could count 15 of my favorite places in DC. I gave the details about one and said to check back for the other 14. Well, here they are:

• The residential streets of Georgetown between 27^th and R and Wisconsin.
• Dumbarton Oaks Estate and Park
• The Gardens of The Smithsonian Castle
• Boulder Bridge Loop at Rock Creek Park
• Jefferson Memorial and River Run
• St. John’s Yellow Church
• National Cathedral
• Residencies around the Palisades
• The Pond on the Mall
• The WWI Rotunda on the Mall
• Renwick Art Gallery
• Impressionism Wing of National Gallery of Art
• Teddy Roosevelt Island
• On top of the old grafitied dock house looking over the Potomac off of the canal path

I’m going to be honest: I’m new to this whole blog thing. I don’t really even keep a journal. I do however, at any given moment in time, posses a collection of scraps of paper, torn notebook sheets, and sticky notes upon which I jot the most important thoughts racing through my mind. These are fun facts, things to remember, song lyrics, Spanish vocab, short essays, etc. So now I will attempt to accumulate my fragmented sticky-note-thoughts into complete sentences for this travel blog.

...continue reading "What if…"