If Only Disneyworld was in Boston...

If Only Disneyworld Was in Boston…

I wouldn’t exactly call it racism, at least not the racism that Americans are accustomed to, but there is a definite stress on skin color in Ecuador.  Despite the fact that many people in Ecuador are “Moreno” or tan skinned with dark hair and dark eyes, almost all of the mannequins and advertisements in clothing stores are blonde with blue eyes.  The 4 year old child in my homestay has only blonde baby dolls.  I found it exceptionally odd that the term “negro/a” is actually a term of endearment for the darkest person in the family, because to be dark in Ecuador is not revered nearly as much as it is to have features attributed to a “white” person (i.e. lighter skin, blue eyes). 

At first I thought I was just making an observation about something pretty minute within Ecuadorian culture.  However, I knew I was on to something after two separate occurrences with relatives of my homestay family.   

The first encounter was with a nice elderly woman named Yolanda.  She was in her early seventies but still lively as anyone.  When she learned I was from the United States, she mentioned that one of her children lived in Boston.  I replied that I thought Boston was a beautiful city, to which she responded (in Spanish of course!) “Yes, I like Boston a lot more than the other cities, like New York and especially Miami.  Those cities are filled with immigrants; Boston is beautiful because it has a lot more white people.”  Mind you, Yolanda did not speak a LICK of English, yet she prefers Boston over a city like Miami where Spanish abounds, and she would be able to express herself to her hearts content. 

Shortly thereafter, I befriended a 6 year old girl named Antonella.  When I told her I was from the United States, her face lit up and the first question out of her mouth was about Disneyworld.  So we started swapping stories about Disneyworld, and I asked her who her favorite Disney character was.  She thought it over for a minute and finally responded Jesse from Toy Story.  I asked her why, and she matter-of-factly responded, “Because she’s the whitest one.”  I further prodded, asking her what she meant by that, and she rolled her eyes like it was obvious.  “Jessie has red hair and big blue eyes and she’s a cowgirl, like a REAL American.” 

I think I found it so odd because skin color is such a touchy subject in the United States, but here people talk about it like they’re talking about what they had for dinner last night.  Here, if you’re whiter, you’re prettier, if you’re darker, you’re a plain Jane Also, because everyone is so different in the United States, different cultures are constantly recognized to not risk discrimination (going along with the Disney example, think about the Princess and the Frog movie).  If people openly talked like this in the United States, it wouldn’t be tolerated at all, but here, it’s more of a fact than a personal opinion.