What makes us Chileans is the way we interact with other people and the way we are able to connect with nature and society, things that most of us lack in our daily life. Maybe we should follow Chinua´s steps and try to show the Chilean culture to the world and feel more proud about our roots, beliefs and nation, just as he did showing the world that there was a missconception about how other countries, specially from Europe, see Africans, supposedly full of savage people without any manners. We must do the same, feel proud of our country and show the world we are more than the "international lanzas" as we are seen in some european countries and show off the good things we have as Chileans, just as literature, music, sports and many others.
Let´s be proud of the many things those cultures have taught us to be better people, maybe we should learn a little more.
I totally agree with you Sam, we need to be more aware of the meaningful things that makes us chileans; our roots, our essence...but how will we achieve that if we are hiding behind stereotypes and pressure from other countries? We have lost our identity; being chilean is not only empanadas, vino and cueca....we have to go beyond that...and to be realistic I think we are doomed...because we feel embarrased about our past.
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ResponderEliminarI consider that we as CHILEAN have an imposed identity and culture by the Spanish people that came to our country to invade and plunder our territory and as a consequence of that was that all our indigenes traditions were erased. Therefore, when we think in our identity maybe the first thing that comes to our minds are the colonial era, but rarely we think about the tribes that lived before this colonization based on horror, suffering and blood as well as Africa were Europeans invaded it… believing they were superior. Although, I know that culture is something that all of us made every day, however our roots were not so decent.
ResponderEliminarFinally , I tally with you regarding the fact that we need to show other countries and the world itself our culture, our identity. Furthermore, I do not know If I will feel proud of a country in which faced constantly with our roots ( for example : mapuches). What’s more, I believe if we are so aware of our traditions maybe we should incorporate them in our educational system and with that we will have even a more own culture.
I totally agree with you. When we visit foreign countries, they identify us with words such as "cachai" and even worse the "po" that we add at the end of a word. The thing is that we are not usually known because of our culture and one of the reasons is, in my opinion, that we are not proud of it. Chileans tend to imitate foreign models instead of preserve our culture, but I belive this is partly fault of the governments; none of them have tried to include our origins in their policies and as a consequence we don't give the importance needed to our real origins.
ResponderEliminarI concur with your idea!. We, Chileans, are a sort of a’ ‘sponge'' that absorbs traditions, beliefs and lifestyles not only from Spain, but also from Anglo-Saxon culture. For instance, 10 years ago Halloween was not celebrated at all, but nowadays people do celebrate it. They put adornments in their houses, hold or attend Halloween parties. What’s more, children take the streets asking for candies. This has led our national roots to lag behind an array of other cultures. We have to take into account that this is also turbocharged by the global village that Internet has established. Boundaries have been broken down enabling us to merge with other sets of values, beliefs, traditions and so on. Once I read an article on the Guardian related to how people feel represented by their country. There was this anthropologist who had been working for years studying what makes people proud of their culture. For him, the golden ticket is education. It is in elementary and high school where children and teenagers can develop their pride and love for their culture. Unfortunately, In Chile, The Ministry of Education has passed a police that reduces the number of hours for History so it is so difficult to develop cultural awareness. I think that as prospective teachers we have to take the bull by the horns and make the changes that our system needs. We are not solely teaching English, but also values and culture. Let’s broadening our student’s horizons by being the ‘’gateway’’ of our culture.
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