A couple of days ago, I decided to
take on a challenge: act like a tourist in my own country of Puerto Rico. In
order to do this, I had to choose a venue, for which I selected the Town Plaza
in my hometown of Vega Alta. I dressed for the part by wearing cargo pants,
socks with flip-flops, fishing hat and a disposable camera. From the get go I
was faced with onlookers sharing looks utter confusion and many were holding
back laughter. I’m not exactly sure if they wanted to laugh because of how I
looked or from the absurdity of someone visiting this place for tourism since
there truly isn’t anything interesting for an everyday tourist, especially with
all the beautiful places Puerto Rico has to offer. Nevertheless, I stuck to my
character and started to talk to people of different ages. To avoid people
recognizing my accent while speaking English, I chose to speak Spanish as if it
were my second language, which seemed like a better bet. The results varied with
the ages of people I talked to. Young people were trying to hold back their
laughter, some laughed in my face and others where respectful. I can’t blame
them, hearing myself talk made me want to laugh and imagining myself in the attire
didn’t help.
As I talked
to older people asking for directions or just general information about the
place, I noticed that they tended to be way more helpful than their younger
counterparts. Everything was going smooth until I started talking to an older
woman. While I was taking with her, I could see how she stared at me like she
knew me and couldn’t remember from where. I started to get a bit nervous and
then she burst out: “Tú eres el nieto de Manolín!” which translates to: “You’re
Manolin’s grandson!” My eyes opened ‘till my eyelids disappeared into my skull.
The jig is up – I thought. I remembered how my grandpa used to be mayor of Vega
Alta for 12 years before I was born and during my childhood he introduced me to
many people around town every time they said hello because almost everyone in
town loved him. Thanks to this, from time to time random people approach me and
start talking about how they remember me as a baby and how they changed my
diapers and so forth. I’ve always loved this because it reminds me how much I
admired my grandfather and how everyone else looked up to him as well. After I
snapped out of that flash back all I could muster in the moment was: “Uhhh,
noooo. Definitely not me no how. Bye”. Looking back at it makes me laugh.
Overall, this experience helped me see and understand how many tourists I have
seen in Old San Juan must feel at times and remembering my grandfather always
brings a smile to my face and a tear to my eye.
Honestly, I'd probably have stared and maybe laughed if I'd seen you with that sort of attire. Although you were found out,
ReplyDeleteI once read somewhere (I can't, for the life of me, remember where) that instead of going to the big flashy touristy places, it's better to go the less sought after places, that that way you can truly get a sense of the culture of the place you're visiting. Instead of going to a restaurant in the middle of a tourist attraction, that you should go to those hole-in-the-wall type of restaurants.
I applaud you for denying your true identity for the sake of the assignment! You're a bit of a popular person. Although, i think it's a bit awkward to start a conversation saying they remember changing your diapers lol.
PS. That video was hilarious. Why in the world did Bono skip from 3 to 14??? Hahahahaha
Obviously because 4-13 don't exist in Spanish.
DeleteWow, your experience was very challenging, just by being at your own municipality where there are people who know you and can destroy all your drama, hahaha. It's a very good strategy the one you used with the change of language, because it can be more credible to speak spanish (poorly) and with accent, something that Jim Cooper will criticize if he hears you! But very nice experience you had, and I like very much the video you just posted, I will learn from it, thanks!
ReplyDeleteJim Cooper laughed when somebody didn't know how to pronounce so I don't care what he says haha.
DeleteI just imagine the scene and it make me laugh! Hahahaha I really liked your blog, it was very interesting to see in the way that you catch the reader's attention. When you have the chance to see the person that recognized you, you should tell her what really happened that day! LOL!
ReplyDeleteI ended up telling her though. I don't think she understood.
Deleteawww idk i think is very nice to know that even though your grandfather died many people remember him :)
ReplyDeleteYeah every time something like this happens I get a little chocked up.
DeleteI laughed so much reading this! I have a lot relatives that I don't know and when I meet them for the first time they say the "pamper" bit you mentioned. I loved the video at the end, it's hilarious.
ReplyDelete