When I'm not dressed up in a suit I look identical to your stereotypical Latino gangbanger. The broken nose, tattoos, scarred face. So I'm always a sight to see when I'm out of my element.
You wouldn't expect to see me at a Flogging Molly concert sapping on my second flask and knowing all the words to their Irish drinking songs.
People could never see me in Georgia at a dive bar drinking with some good old southern boys and knowing the words to "The Ride." Then they see the pictures of me and some guys and some Georgia Peaches with a Confederate Flag behind us.
I didn't know what an Anime Convention was but I went. The nerds looked at me like I was a bully ready to throw up gang signs and start punching away.
Then I saw some guy dressed up like Mega Man and some chick dressed up like Rinoa from FF8 and I'm like
"F*ck yeah. Its like Halloween without the candy and crying kids." The same way my father's country is instilled in my memory and will often bring back the smell of Bananas, Sugar Cane and Coffee (Platanos, Cana y Cafe) I get pleasant flashbacks of all the good times I've had in predominantly white mosh-pits, the sake I've had instead of Corona's or Dos Equis while spending the day in Little Tokyo.
(You can't go Mudding in East L.A. You can in Kingsland, Georgia though.)
Every time I hear a song in a different language I wish I was able to understand the language so I could fully enjoy it. Every time "La Gota Fria" or the Celia Cruz song "Soy Antillana" rings in my ears I want to explain the great lyrics to my non Spanish speaking friends so they could share my enjoyment of the song.
And if songs like that exists in Spanish I know it exists in other languages. Do you enjoy other cultures other than your own? How do you embrace it?
Comments (9)
I live in a multi-cultural society, and I love it. I love all my friends from 23 different countries! I NEED to be with people of other races and cultures, or I'd go crazy. I think that's how God made me. No way can I be around people who are ALL Chinese.
Whenever I meet someone from another culture (that speaks another language) I ask them to teach me how to say something ("hello" or "thank you", usually). They always seem so appreciative when I master it and apply it.
Aside from that, I'm working on a master's degree that involves the study of other cultures (ethnomusicology). I've been learning Japanese drumming and Afro-Caribbean dancing.
I love experiencing other cultures. I'm going to Mexico in November! W00t!
love exploring other cultures.
I want to see pictures of you in your "gangbanger" mode. :)
I love learning about other cultures. I'm using Rosetta Stone-Korean so one day I can go to Korea =)
i live in a semi-multicultural family...my siblings are haitian, my sisters college roommate is indonesian...:D
@FreeeVerse@xanga - Malaysia is a forced "multi-culural" society (as all "multi-cultural" societies are, it is a fabricated phrase!). Malaysia had a Malay culture, and was (and still really is) a British colony that the Chinese went to to make money. There is tension to the enforced "multi-culturalism" of Malaysia. The riots against the Chinese weren't that long ago, most Malays DESPISE the Chinese. And in Malaysia, as in Singapore, MOST people do stick with their own race and culture.
In the haste to not mention race, nationality, or ethnicity, the phrase 'culture', and the notion of such, is wildly misused and misapplied now.
Multi-culturalism is a lie, it does not exist, and never has done.
Culture, is different, around the world, and amongst different races, peoples, ethnicities and nationalities, and there are many essential similarities to culture.
When forced together in numbers though, the better aspects of any culture are diminshed by the problems that entails.
I like the whole world AS THE WORLD !
@S_K_O_T@xanga - I wonder how why you mentioned Malaysia when I didn't write that word in my comment. Hmm. Anyway, I am glad to say that my Malay friends do not despise me. Thankfully you emphasized the word "most", because I'm not part of that "most" that likes to stick to their own culture.
@FreeeVerse@xanga - 'Cos this was my second reply to you today after the one on another post about America and you mentioning an American that thought Malaysia was in Africa.
I did say most, I emphasised most, and I meant most, and most do, but not all. I'm always specific in what I say.
What's "their own" culture? Who, ever, is 'they', and what is "their" culture?
That's more that does prove that race and ethnicity does exist (not a "social construct" as some devious liberals propose). Someone has to be of a people, a people have to be a people, first, before they can have "their" culture.
As I said though, Malaysia is a dynamic tension between differences, a delicately poised, controlled, balancing act, so is, in a manner of speaking, a hybrid culture unto itself. On Malay land, and under British direction and dominion though, of course.