Current mood:

sore

Ser vs Estar
Today's photo is really yesterdays photos and today's post is really yesterdays post. I had to go out, last minute, with all the other people in this house who are all younger than me. Theres that quarter century for yah.

There seems to be a very vivacious stencil scene here in Quito. This one says "Our democracy is for everyone" with a native dude with a gun to his head. The ethnic makeup of this country is a bit new to me. In Bolivia, Peru, and Guatemala the indigenous people are oppressed but at least they are in the majority. You get the feeling that they will have their day soon enough (and in a sense they have their day now in Bolivia). Here it is a bit different. From 20 to 40% of people say they are indigenous depending on who you ask and how you ask. People say they are not when they are. Also there is a very very large black population. Then there are mestizos and whites. Everyone tends to mix. They treat each other badly, but they mix. The little kids running around are any sort of combo of all the ethnic groups here. The separation that you really feel in Bolivia just isn't here. But then again, it is worst to be indigenous only only a little better to be black. I've been translating part of the most recent constitution and they pretty much have to write directly that the natives are nifty and the government will integrate their offices. I doubt it has happened but at least they wrote it down.

So, by the letter of the law, their democracy is for everyone but, for the people who only got the right to vote in the 70s (if you couldn't read in Spanish you weren't legally allowed to vote. Many native people only understood their own language whatever it may be) it seems democracy usually isn't for them. They are trying though.

The Mexican film from yesterday was a comedy whose humor was mostly verbal, thus I didn't get most of it. I could laugh a few times but the dialog was so fast that I missed nearly everything that was cracking my co-watchers up. I'm going back still, of course, but that kind of movie is very hard for me. At least I did a lot of talking to people last night.

Now off into this wet Quito Domingo