Want to feel American? Travel Abroad
Edward Barrios Acevedo     [Photo]

“Are all Americans as dark as you?”

It was the first question asked of me as I sat down at an outdoor café over looking Sydney Harbor.

I briefly glanced down at my caramel-colored forearms and then looked up.

“Yup. All of us,” I replied with a grin. “I suppose we all can’t look like the Marlboro Man.”

Andrew, who studied at the University of Sydney, looked puzzled for a brief moment and then shot back a smile.

“Cheers then, mate!” he replied, and asked if he could buy me my first Australian beer.

It was my second night in Australia and never having traveled so far away from home, it was the first encounter with someone who had not been exposed to many Americans, let alone a Hispanic American.

It was then so many time zones away from Los Angeles when I realized that I had met an educated man who had absolutely no preconceived notion of who I was (other than I was American), no prejudices about my ethnicity, and no understanding of any ugly stereotypes that I will spend much of my life battling in the United States.

It was, essentially, my first taste of freedom.

Sure, even with Andrew and other Aussies, I had to chip away at the silly stereotypes held of us Americans in general. For example, I explained to Andrew that not all Americans enjoy vast amounts of wealth; some of us actually are concerned about global warming and international human rights; most of us don’t eat hamburgers for breakfast; and many of us, including myself, don’t own several semi-automatic handguns and use them to settle neighborly disputes.

But that, of course, was all too easy.

After years of resisting subtle, sustained, and calculated developments of stereotypes and caricatures of Hispanics throughout the United States, I was finally free, for the most part, to construct my own identity something many in the United States take for granted.

It’s hard to imagine that was eleven years ago this summer. I saved over a year for that trip, scrubbing showers, writing articles, and fundraising for my university. The effort and education of my experience was worth every penny.

Today, like back then, prejudice surrounds me. This was recently affirmed by anti-immigrant activities that several groups have chosen to participate in along America’s southern border, as well as in the op-ed pieces I have read throughout the country written by people who can only justify their American “pride” with hateful words.

Though my grandfather arrived to America around 1915, I am regularly assumed to be a foreigner (even among foreigners) in my own native country, and therefore, presumed unworthy of any of those quickly receding rights and liberties that come with U.S. citizenship.

But not in Australia.

I had to travel several thousand miles outside my own country for a taste of what the majority of Americans enjoy all year round: the power to determine your own identity.

Since that cool night in Sydney, I have had the opportunity to travel to nearly twenty other countries ?\ and even live in one of them ?\ where I have met countless strangers and made several friends, quite often being the first Latino American many have befriended.

In moments of reflection, I believe I have added a richer, more complete cultural layer upon the definition of who Americans are. For many people all over the world, I became the new face of America, one that reaffirms its diversity in opinion, culture, and political thought. Which is really what America is all about anyway, isn’t it.

During my travels I came to understand that prejudice ?\ sometimes subtly or explicitly ?\ exists everywhere. Many countries, including Australia, have incredible problems due to prejudice, racism, and ethnocentrism, things all based on fear and ignorance. I am not naive to understand that America is not alone in this.

Yet, if we are to live up to our American ideals, then we still have a long way to go. It is hopeful to know, however, that the freedom of stereotypes and hateful caricatures exist well beyond our borders. It is my hope that one day I won’t have to book a flight to experience it again.

(Edward Barrios Acevedo is a counselor, teacher and Freelance writer based in Los Angeles. He is the author of Dancing Under The Sun and the Ultimate Teen Relationships Guide. Email him at Edwardfactor@yahoo.com)

© 2005, Hispanic Link News Service
07/03/05
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