Prior to my arrival in Chile, I had many preconceived notions that shaped what I believed would characterize this new adventure. While some remained true, such as the beautiful appearance of the city, others were completely unexpected. There was the Chilean love for ‘pan’, the lack of central heating, the prevalence of stray dogs, and even the concept of ‘tea time’ in the place of dinner. Among the different forms of culture shock, however, lay a completely unexpected familiarity. While the majority of people around me in Chile had a slightly darker continuum of skin tones and dark hair, the advertisements and commercials were filled with white faces and light hair. I had expected every inch of Chile to be foreign to me, but it wasn’t. This made me wonder: Are the advertisements simply displaying United States influence, or do they represent something completely different?
At St. Edwards, I took a sociology class with Dr. Neal that covered topics related to ‘Self and Society.’ Within this class, we spent a good deal of time discussing race and what exactly that means. Race is a social construction, meaning that it is perceived differently depending on how a place has defined it over time. In the United States, there is a significant amount of stigma attached to the African American and Hispanic races specifically. At home, it seems that white, whether we want to admit it or not, assumes a higher socioeconomic status. Is that also the case in Chile? After a quick search on the internet, I found that the majority of Chileans refer to themselves as white, even though only a small portion of them are technically white. This raises even more questions. Is there a preference for being ‘white’ in Chile? What can be learned from this is that whiteness holds too many definitions to even comprehend.
Growing up, I was always taught that being proud of who you were was one of the most important things in life. Seeing the prominence of United States advertising confused me. I hoped that there was some sort of other explanation, but in my gut, I felt that we were being put up on a pedestal I wasn’t too sure we deserved to be on. At the all-girls’ school our group has been volunteering at in Chile, my assumptions about this pedestal were confirmed when I experienced the students’ reactions to my appearance. They seemed so incredulous, talking about how much they liked my hair and my eyes. On the first day we arrived, many of them wanted to get their picture with me. I was definitely not used to, or even comfortable with all the attention. This occurrence, mixed with my uneasiness about the advertisements I continued to see, made me feel absolutely terrible. In the United States, we complain about how advertising has created the ultimate body and face that is almost impossible to achieve. We struggle with self-image and girl after girl is plagued with anorexia or bulimia. What about these precious little Chilean girls? We have them looking at the same pictures, teaching them that white skin, tiny bodies, and blonde hair is what is beautiful. It’s not. Beauty comes in so many shapes and sizes, and relies not only on outer appearance. I just hope and pray that they all have incredible parents, like I was fortunate enough to be blessed with, to teach them that.
I had very little concrete expectations when arriving in Chile. But I definitely had no idea that there would be so much influence from the United States. In all the different forms of pop culture, there was familiarity that I never would have expected. It was interesting that the culture of the United States spans out and influences many countries, but we tend to not be aware of what is going on in countries around us.
Through this experience, I learned that ‘beauty’ and race are entirely more complicated than I ever could have imagined. As location changes, perceptions change as well. It’s interesting how a human being can stay exactly the same, but hold many different statuses based on location. This matters to me because it also provides an example of what privilege looks like and how race plays a role in privilege. Race and the perceptions associated shape human life in more ways than can be counted.