La Vida Americano

SALAMANCA, Spain – When I first arrived in Salamanca, I was looking forward to shedding my American identity, and I hoped to avoid fitting the stereotypical U.S. tourist image. Although I was intent on completely submerging myself in Spanish culture, I soon found that doing so would not be as easy as I had hoped.\nWalking down the street, sometimes I hear whispers of “Americano” from locals, and I wonder how they are able to determine my nationality before I even open my mouth to speak. Americans don’t really look any different than Spaniards, yet somehow locals here are easily able to single us out as foreigners from the good ol’ U.S. of A.\nApparently “American” is more than just a nationality – it’s a way of life. It’s apple pie. It’s football and McDonald’s. It’s pickup trucks. All of these play a role in typical American culture. But are our tastes and consumption habits what make us American?\nWhile it’s not necessarily bad to be labeled a foreigner, it can be frustrating to be judged before being given a chance to make any kind of impression. Here, Americans are seen as loud, wasteful, stylistically challenged workaholics who spend most of their lives commuting in their cars.\nHowever, the process of stereotyping does work the other way. Many of us, for instance, have realized that we are easily able to pick native Spaniards out of the crowd as well. Spanish women dress nicer than women in the States, and men tend to grow mullets and don “man-pris” (unfortunately, all Spanish men do not look like Antonio Banderas). They are infamously late, tend to smoke quite a bit and love night life.\nObviously, many of these stereotypes are based on observations. They were not made for the purpose of soiling the reputation of one nationality or another. I’ll admit we can be loud and messy, but one of the things that has amazed me the most has been the ability of my fellow Hoosiers here to adapt to Spanish cultural norms. In particular, we have learned to be a little more frugal, and we have come to love the cultural institution that is the siesta. And given the opportunity, most Spaniards would probably do the same (although they might have some trouble not eating ham and cheese at every meal, which also seems to be the norm here).\nFrom all of this, I have come to wonder what my friends, my family and myself would be like if we had been raised in Spain. It seems doubtful that one’s character is completely dependent on location. Despite the generalizations we use, we are dead wrong to assume people from different nations and cultures are overwhelmingly different.\nGo ahead – go to McDonald’s and watch the game if you want. Just take your own preconceived notions with a grain of salt, and hopefully others will do the same for you.