Unhappy encounter

Yesterday, I went to interview a professor from the Universidad de Buenos Aires. He is a professor from the faculty of humanities and has helped in the research area of INADI. I heard from people outside the INADI about his expertise in indigenous topics. I was really excited

I was supposed to get there at 7:45pm, but I was an hour late! I didn't meant to be so late! Anyways, I finally talked to him. It was an unsuccessful conversation. Maybe it was because I was so late that he didn't have a good attitude towards me. I was very frustrated. I am sure he knows a lot, but he was pretty reluctant to talk.

I am interested in knowing his perspective regarding the discrimination and exclusion indigenous people from Argentina face. I was mainly interested in his opinion because he is white and belongs to the academic community. So far, I have mainly interviewed indigenous people. I also want to interview non-indigenous people to better understand how the "other side" (non-indigenous people) thinks.

He just didn't get the point of my study. He asked me what was the central theme of my study. I explained him that because of personal reasons I was interested in learning about the ethnic discrimination and exclusion Mapuches, Aymaras and Quechuas face in Latin America. He still didn't get it. I didn't know how to explain myself!!! He thought that I wasn't nothing new. He said something like "ok, indigenous people are discriminated, so what?"

I tried explaining him that this project wasn't my master's thesis. I unsuccessfully tried to make him understand that my project is more about the experience and the exposure than about doing a complicated survey. Then he tried to give me advice of how I should do my project. He suggested I should stay in one city for the whole year. I guess from his academic point of view, I lack the "skills" and "methods" to do this project. I had prepared some questions too. He made me read him the questions, but didn't answer any! My project might be too "generic," and maybe that is why he was reluctant to help me.

This experience, however, made me realized that I like that my project is so "generic" and that I am not staying in one single place. Of course, there is trade of! However, in this way, I will be able to have a general perspective of this social issue in South America, which is what I want. Later on, I can go into depth...later on!

Ambiguities: there is not such a things as one truth

The amount of information I have been processing in my head is such that it is taking me some time to understand things. Learning more about the different pueblos indigenas of Argentina, their location, language, and cultural identities has been interesting, but also challenging. The problem is that on top of that, I realized that sometimes my informants give me different sides of the same story. Their perspectives differ and then I don't know who is right. There is not such a thing as one truth. Everything has two sides....or more! I have to be careful and try not believe everything people tell me. I need to be aware of my biases and their biases.

This is also true for a bigger scale of things. Today, I was talking to Eva Puca, an Aymara that is part of the CJIRA (the Commission of Indigenous Lawyers in Argentina). She said that I will be able to compare the reality of the indigenous communities with that the IMF and other global agencies show to the world. Only after learning about both sides, I will be able to form my own opinion of what is "true". I am excited to learn more about these different perspectives and discover that one "true."

Fear can really stop you

I want to talk about fear. The fear that I have been feeling for the past month since I arrived to Buenos Aires. My project is about ethnic discrimination and social exclusion against the indigenous communities. As I said before, all I know about this topic I learned once I started doing my project in Buenos Aires. I am scared of expressing my thoughts and opinion because I am scared of offending someone. I am scared of sounding (or being) paternalistic. Today I read that being paternalistic is a way of discrimination.

It is harder when you are not really sure what you are talking about. I didn't know how to use properly the words "pueblo" and "comunidad" because they are synonyms in spanish. However, they refer to different things. So I had a hard time asking people from which "pueblo" indigena they are from. Pueblo indigena refers to the bigger indigenous group of people (I still have problems to explain what it is!). Examples of pueblos indigenas are the Mapuche, the Quechua, the Aymara, the Huarpe, the Guaranis, etc. A pueblo indigena is divided into communities. For example, there are Mapuche communities in Argentina and Chile, but the pueblo indigena Mapuche is only one! One nation!

I am scared of being misunderstood, of being rejected. This is what stops me from writing. The last thing, I want to do is to hurt anybody, to make somebody feel bad. However, the topic of discrimination against the indigenous people is so touchy that I am scared of making a mistake. I feel that maybe if I knew I have indigenous blood, things could be different.

However, there is one thing for sure. I still have to say what I think and not be afraid because fear can really stop you. I think it is a process of learning how to talk about this topic. The other day, I was talking to Carlos Martinez Sarasola, an anthropologist who specializes in the ethno-history of the indigenous people of Argentina. He told me that the only way to do fieldwork and build relationships with the indigenous people is to establish an equal relationship with them, and I agree with him.

New Discovery

In December, Argentina will be hosting the VIII Latin American Congress of Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE). A few days ago, I worked at the Ministry of Education of Argentina helping out with an important national seminar, where teachers from all over the country got together to discuss the logo and motto of the Congress. I had the opportunity to talk to many indigenous people who are currently working as teachers or are very involved in the process of promoting (or institutionalizing) the IBE.

This exposure make me realized many things. I realized that everything that I have learned about discrimination against the indigenous people in my life, I learned it here in Buenos Aires. I realized that even though I was interested in this topic before, I never made any effort to get involved and learned what was going on in Peru with respect to this topic. Thus, I have no idea what the government, the indigenous people or the civil society are doing to stop discrimination; to form a better Peruvian society where there is respect and equality.

I also realized that before it wasn't a big deal for me to find out whether or not I have indigenous blood. Now it is. All the people I have interviewed so far know about their genealogy, but I don't. So when they ask me if I am from an indigenous community, I don't know what to answer. I don't know for sure that I don't belong to one. Plus, knowing if I have indigenous blood will open many doors to learn more about myself and my cultural and genealogical heritage.

I also experienced an awesome feeling. Before starting the seminar, the people from the Autonomous Educational Council of Indigenous People did an inauguration ceremony: the Pachamama ritual. No words to describe how happy I felt. My feeling of happiness is not exactly because of the ritual. It is because I didn't see this ritual from a paternalistic or superior perspective. I respected and appreciated their culture and our differences. This is a good beginning!

It felt good because it is easy to be paternalistic. I am aware of my biases and my background. I grew up in a society where there are two extremes. You could have paternalistic or derogatory attitudes toward this large sector of the Peruvian population. When I say indigenous people, I am not trying to encapsulate all the indigenous people in one category. That is just not possible.

Most of the indigenous people that migrated to the capital city in the past decades tried to assimilate into the mestizo society. They didn't want to be different, so there was no appreciation of the indigenous culture from the rest of the society or even from the indigenous people themselves. There is no much of a middle ground. Equality is not an option yet. What is worse discrimination is visible because there is a diverse population in Lima. There are white, mestizos and indigenous people as well. So, friction was inevitable. Otherwise, most people from Lima are not very preoccupied with what is happening to the indigenous people; as if the indigenous people were invisible citizens with no rights. This is my view of this complex situation.

Peculiaridades Bonairenses!

Ahora les quiero contar un poquito de porque Buenos Aires es tan peculiar y especial. Tantas pequenas cosas que me sorprenden! Primero, el subte. Yo he vivido en Nueva York por mucho tiempo y tomaba el tren subterraneo todo el rato. Cuando vivia en Londres tambien, pero es que nunca en mi vida he experimentado lo que vivo dia a dia al subirme en el subte de Argentina. Como dice mi amigo companero del trabajo en INADI Dani, el subte es una prueba de vida para el que se suba. Porque a la hora que te metas esta repleto, pero yo digo literalmente repleto de gente! A reventar! Dani lo puso de una manera muy chistosa. Segun el que lo que pasa es que en la Argentina es un pueblo muy esperanzado, porque la gente ve que no cabe un alfiler mas en el subte pero siempre piensan que si hay un lugar mas para que ellos se suban! Jajaja. Y si que es verdad. Hoy en la manana estaba tarde para el trabajo y el subte de la linea D (que es verdecito) estaba tan lleno de gente que me dio verguenza entrar porque los iba a apretar mas con mi tremenda mochilota azul super pesada llenita de cosas, camara, laptop, grabadora, papeles! Me dio tanta verguenza que antes de entrar al tren les pedi que por favor me hagan un espacio porque iba super retrasada al trabajo y eso no podia ser! Yo creo que a la gente le dio mucha gracia porque dos segundos despues un chico entro detras mio y nos apreto todavia mas....y no pidio disculpas!

La otra cosa que me extrana es que no hay monedas. Si senores, hay una tremenda escasez de monedas en la Argentina...bueno al menos en Buenos Aires. Pero lo mas gracioso es que el bus o colectivo, como le dicen aca, solo se puede pagar con monedas. Entonces, como michi pagas el colectivo si la gente no te quiere dar vuelto con monedas!

Lo otro que me gusta mucho de aqui en Argentina es que la gente aqui en Buenos Aires son super educados y amables (imaginate como seran en provincia! Un pan de Dios!). Siempre dispuestos a ayudarte. Super buena onda, como dicen aqui! Especialmente con respecto a mi proyecto. La licenciada Mariela Flores, una indigena del pueblo Diaguita de Quilmes, me esta ayudando tanto presentandome a gente y dandome datos. La gente que he conocido en este poco tiempo, ya sea en protestas apoyando a Evo Morales o en los foros del grupo indigena del INADI, me han siempre concedido entrevistas y han hablado conmigo de cosas bastante personales tambien.

La ultima cosa de las que quiero hablar es de la vida nocturna argentina. Nunca he visto cosa igual. El otro dia mi amiga Suzie quedo en salir con un amigo argentino de ella y el le dice, “te parece si paso por tu casa a las 11:30 o 12am. Disculpa, yo se que muy temprano.” Salir a las 12:30am es muy temprano? En Buenos Aires claro que si! La fiesta se pone bueno solo despues de las 3 a 3:30am!!!!! Y yo que pase en Lawrence University en Wisconsin cuatro anos...para mi la fiesta se acaba a las 2am como maximo....3:30am yo ya estaba haciendo la tutumeme!jajaja porque claro, habia que levantarse temprano para ir a brunch y luego a la bioblioteca! Jajaja aca salen desde el miercoles hasta el domingo...lunes y martes descansito y luego otra vez empieza!