Dear Bloggers,
When I was in Spain, my race became very apparant. It weighed on me everyday, pulling, slowing, stopping my actions and my confidence. It didn't help that people constantly yelled "Chino", "Chinito", or my students' favourite "Chino Cudaido" (a famous racial television program in Andalusia, Spain).
Now what this has to do with the title, "Brazilian [chinese]" is one time, I turned to a woman in a very well known park in Madrid and told her about this problem of mine. It turns out that the woman was Brazillian, and told me that all races in Brazil are accepted into their beautiful engulfing and tolerant culture. Brazil devours Chinese, Indian, African American (that's the good one right?) or any other race into its own culture or loud, soulful music, impassioned samba, futbol bonanza, and whatever one might find stereotypically Brazilian. However, Brazil allows these different races to keep their own cultures and traditions, encorporating them into the ever growing and ever changing Brazilian culture. Ultimately, the colour of one's skin is forever forgotten, and a Brazilian is only known as a Brazilian.
Now, home in Canada, I feel like I'm Canadian Chinese. Weeellll....I'm definitely Whitewashed. A banana peel with a white filling. Nevertheless, the words of the Brazilian friend I had made still ring clearly: "If you said that you were Brazilian, I would have believed you."
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