Standing Out

Standing out in a crowd can be a cool experience. What teenager hasn’t wanted to be noticed by everyone at the school dance? Or maybe you recently saw someone driving a ridiculously priced automobile.

We understand that people want to stand out. Sometimes you don’t. If that automobile were in an impoverished part of town and slowly rolling up to a red light with a crowd of people already standing by … now it’s turning more into a foreseeable carjacking situation, no?

Will I stand out in Uruguay?

No. You won’t stand out. 

I was standing in Carrasco, THE well-to-do area in Montevideo, on the curb near their central shopping district. I had just purchased a new vehicle, a Chinese truck that lacked all the unnecessary and overly complicated bells-and-whistles pervasive in the American market, and I was checking to see if I had parked well. I wasn’t sure I had even parked in an area that was correct as anyone who has lived in an urban environment can understand.

Standing on this street corner staring at my truck and parking job a gentleman approached me. Dressed in a collared shirt with a sport coat though humble and the common variety of flat cap, this man who could have easily been off any street in Spain approached me “I’m sorry” he said. “I’m not from around here and I don’t know if I’m parked correctly” though the accent made clear he was in fact Uruguayan and not from Spain. My guess was that he was also uncertain of the parking in Carrasco but what was no longer uncertain was whether or not I stood out. Mistaken for local after 60 days in country made me realize I was indeed home.

There are two ways this could be taken, both of which are okay and explored without judgment. In this world of cultural appropriation and key eye towards colonialism, was my presence in Uruguay one of a foreigner? Was I upsetting the local demographic balance and was my presence distorting what had been a previously homogeneous and peaceful community? No. In Uruguay, Europeans and the European diaspora are simply joining their distant cousins who came here generations before. Often Uruguayans are keen to describe with pride their family’s history and where in Europe they originally came from. As with anyone who has a healthy psychology, these people have self-esteem. The contrast with the West is stark. No shame of having participated in the conquest of the Charrua people nor guilt is common among the population. Uruguay is unique in Latin America for having no indigenous population.

In Uruguay, your light eyes and skin that burns in the sun will not stand out next to the well tanned man with brown eyes and brown hair. You can be at peace and equal. There is no shadism that I have been able to perceive. Uruguay is a population in harmony with itself. Sure, in the age of the internet all manner of cultural pollution can flow around the world, however, for the average Uruguayan having a rational sense of well-being and pride in their family history is normal. The United States experienced something similar until the last several decades.

For Americans who are proud of their Italian ancestry as many are, be careful being too boastful of exactly “how Italian” you are because the person you are talking to might very well also have an Italian passport and thus win your chest thumping competition. It is sure to be taken in good fun as you realize that while your family’s path took a couple generations longer to get here than theirs, you are now both in the right place.

Marco