Walking in the Suburbs
Back in California, I found myself walking the two two miles between the Pleasant Hill BART station near San Francisco, and my father’s house, ruminating on being the only walker on a completely non-commercial strip of what essentially amounts to highway. On a two week trip back to the US, I had an interesting time observing cultural and societal differences between Guatemala and California. That suburban walk was certainly a huge diversion from my ultra-urban life living in the center of Xela. Here, its impossible to leave the house without a few buenas dias to strangers, as well as the inevitable conversation with at least one person that I know. Obviously like an urban environment anywhere in the world, but it was a large difference in my trip.
I also noticed a marked difference in the social formalities exhibited by the two cultures. Here in Guatemala, at least in my experience, there is a large amount of what feels like genuine cultural nicety. As mentioned above, there is constant greeting on the streets, even to gringos in a neighborhood where the sight of is common. This as opposed to walking down the street and feeling resentment for being yet another traveler. Walking into and out of stores always comes with its own share of niceness, in greetings and goodbyes. All this combines to allow one to feel very welcomed into the place, as if in some way surrounded by friends. To me, getting back to LA was a marked contrast. There is of course a world of formality as well, but in some way it feels and looks SO much more forced. The attitudes of waiters and waitresses, that of store clerks. Its a subtle difference, but struck me nonetheless.
Other than that, I of course enjoyed the food cultures of LA and San Francisco. And the artistic culture, getting out to museums and photography shows and concerts and DJ events. All that is lacking pretty intensely here in the Guatemalan highlands, in no small part due to the cultural and intellectual genocide carried out here with the help of my very own government. But those thoughts can be saved for another post.
