a consideration

Like the United States, Brasil has a really mixed population, with people with many different skin colors, hair types, etc. There's a sizeable Japanese-Brazilian population, so people with Asian roots can be "Brazilian", and same thing with people with blonde hair and blue eyes because of the sizeable German immigration that took place in this country for many years. The key to spotting a gringo, however, has to do to an extent (of course!) with your God-given physical characteristics, but a lot of it has to do with how you dress and how you carry yourself. For this reason, I'm considering changing my style of dress to be able to fit in more here. Of course I'm not gonna go crazy and throw away all my skinny jeans and cute t-shirts, but I've decided to take to wearing looser jeans and plainer (BOOOOOOO!!!) t-shirts.

So, what prompted this consideration? Last week Sarah got us all tickets to see these three Brazilian reggae/rap bands Natiruts, O Rappa, and Marcelo D2 in concert. So, logically, we met up in my house to have a few drinks before the show. While everyone was waiting, I ran into the shower, got clean, ran to my closet to pick out clothes that I thought would be appropriate for a reggae show in the States. I picked out this really cool green and red cottony linen shirt with wooden buttons that I bought in Africa, a brown bead necklace, and black jeans. I'm chillin', thinking everyone is gonna be dressed like me, or similarly. No.

I get to the show to find out that the crowd is dressed in the same homogenous fashion as the rest of carioca society-- t-shirts with outdated American logos, ill fitting jeans, havaianas, bermudas (board shorts), etc... And all around me I hear "gringo" every ten steps I make. "Olha esse gringo" and "Gringo aiiii"-- just a lot of people pointing out the fact that I'm a gringo and that I'm not from here.

My point here isn't that I'm ashamed of being a gringo, it's a reality that I have to face. My point is that dressing here how I would like to dress makes me more of an outsider than I already am because of my nationality. And although doing this goes against everything we learn in my country, regarding individuality and self-expression, I feel it would be in my best interest for the remainder of my time here to just try to fit in more.

The thing is that being a gringo here just doesn't mean that you're a foreigner. It means that Brazilians think you're rich and stupid. If you can speak Portuguese, you're OK, but if not, it could be really easy to get taken advantage of. A beer for a Brazilian may cost R$2, but for a gringo who doesn't speak Portuguese, it can be double that. Being a gringo here is pretty much a liability, and that's why I've made this consideration.

Check out the photos from when my Mommy was hereee!!


photos

Beijosss--
Anthony