During my year teaching and living in Ecuador, I started to figure out what it was like to expand my world – what it was like to understand that my way of life wasn't the only way, and that all approaches to life have their pros and cons.
While living with a host family for the whole year, I began noting some differences. For example, in general, Latin American culture is more open than the culture I come from. For example, people here express what they feel, for better or for worse. And there's a huge emphasis on family. Coming from my Irish-Catholic background – and from a majority background in my country as a white, cis-gendered woman – it was one of the first times I could feel what it was like to not be in the majority. And this experience brought me a mixture of discomfort and comfort. On the one hand, it was uncomfortable to walk on the streets and look different from everyone but then reassuring to come home to find a host mother who loved me like her own. Cómo siempre la voy a querer (I will always love you), and it is true: I will always love her, my host mom Aida. I will also always value that experience of feeling uncomfortable, of feeling like I didn't belong: it is important for white people in the U.S.A.to constantly be checking their privilege and their status, and to be reflecting on ways in which our mixed history has led to where we are as a country today. Travel allows you to do this.
Because Ecuador and Uruguay are distinct from each other, these countries are ideal sources of reference for me as a learner of Latin American culture.
