Friday night after work, several of my coworkers decided to sit down with me after work to chat for a while. The four of them that I was sitting with were Mexican, and one whom I did not know very well had been shocked earlier in the day when he heard me speaking Spanish. Although my coworkers and I often chat, it is usually in Spanish and usually short and surface-level because our conversations are cut short by business. After my coworker who I am less familiar with asked me how I learned Spanish, which led all of us into a long conversation comparing typical "Hispanic" culture with typical "white" culture. When I told them that I want to live in El Salvador, they seemed to think this was the only sensible thing to do. They explained how everything in Latin culture is about family and everyone is affectionate and full of emotion (which is the experience that I have had so far), and one of my more blunt colleagues finished his explanation by informing me, "White people so cold." I laughed a bit. They asked me to tell them about my family and my experience in El Salvador.
Later in the night, a few of us also had a conversation concerning poverty and human rights in Latin America, as well as globalization. To say the least, we had a very interesting and enlightening conversation, and I was able to have a very sincere and open conversation, considering we have not known each other for that long.
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