Alright, to give an overdue answer to the question of authenticity.
Here’s the thing: when at home in Canada, do I begrudge Indian restaurants, Chinese bubble tea shops, Ethiopian community centers, and Lebanese bakeries?
No.
I like them. (Especially, hehehe, because of the deliciousness they tend to bring. What a shallow view of diversity but hey, delicious is delicious!)
Variety and options in Canada is nice, so it is also nice in Guatemala. Nothing annoys me more than those tourists who say stuff like “gee, it’s so awful that they have malls here… so westernized.”
As for what I do as a traveler, the question authenticity is a bit more difficult. I do go to gringo bars, and I eat tofu sandwhiches at cafes here in Xela. My two closest friends in Xela right now are American.
But at the same time… I usually eat in cheap local-style comedors. I cook tortillas, avocados and beans for dinner. I go out salsa dancing. I have an expanding number of Guatemalan friends, which I hope will become bigger as I become more confident in Spanish. I read the Prensa Libre almost every day.
I don’t think that travelers should not really sweat this stuff, as long as they are continuing to enjoy and challenge themselves and experience new things.
This is definitely not a very complete answer. Maybe one will come to me in time.
Yelkaye.net will become more of a travel blog (rather than an expat one) for the next month, as I skip from place to place for awhile before settling back into Xela September 1st. Off to Mexico tomorrow!
Hills around Xela, as seen through my sunglasses:
Comments 1
I really like what you said. I guess I’ve got to say that I really find tourists who say things like that about malls and such here as pretty naive. Should Xela just turn back the clock 50 years, perhaps to before it had electricity, would that be more authentic? I’m sorry to spoil their pre-conceived idea of a developing country, but Xela is a city and a commercial center, it has actual people living in it, it’s not a zoo or a museum for all the tourists to come and stare at (that’s Antigua, for gosh sakes!). People live here, they need to buy things, they want to have clothes and electronics and food and perhaps even go see a movie for entertainment.
The great thing about someplace like Xela is the chance to sample the diversity of experiences here, from gringo nightclubs to the local markets to little comedores to the mall to all the really cool and hip restaurants elsewhere in the city that only Guatemalans and no gringos go to since tourists think Xela only consists of Zone 1. And it’s been my observation that you’ll find as many or more Guatemalans sampling the different experiences as you do tourists, which calls into question just what is the definition of this “authenticity.” So everyone toss out the pre-conceptions, relax, and just enjoy!
Posted 03 Aug 2009 at 7:58 pm ¶Post a Comment