Little Fat Black Doggy Bitch

Visitors to Chile are often surprised by the lack of Caribbean Latin flare that one might typically associate with "South America". In comparison to what I imagine of Brazil or Belize or Costa Rica, or Tijuana which I know, Santiago is cold, grey austere and concrete. An acquaintance of mine who is a licensed psychologist here told me that 50% of Santiago has some degree of clinical depression. More of a Soviet wetdream than a tropical destination.

So that's the big "Surprise!" when you taxi in from the airport. New pavement, traffic, people stressing out over stupid shit -- you could be in the US. The most affluent parts of town are the clean, sprawling suburbia of shopping malls and Starbucks.

But it's time to get surprised again: Chile is totally Latin.

From higher tolerance to noise pollution to a larger sense of duty to family and Church, the interior walls of slum homes plastered with images of the Catholic Saints, illuminated by candles, a man downtown crossing himself while passing before a small adobe sanctuary set precariously in between two monolithic towers of unregulated construction.

My favorite are certain Chilean terms of endearment, which I believe are similar to many other Latin American countries in that they ring totally offensive to the North American ear. It is acceptable among strangers to refer to somebody, or directly call them Fatty gordito, Blacky negro, Skinny flaco. Among intimates the term Doggy perrito can also take the feminine form, little bitch, but in a good way.


On the flipside you get hyperbolic gushing, fruit vendors call girls Beautiful guapa or My Queen mi reina. Again, in a good way. Although in not such a good way women in Chile do have to regularly contend with a torrent of cat calls just like in so many other parts of the world.

A lot of people in Chile look up to North America and Northern Europe for direction, which is fine, but it's often taken to an extreme. It's not the first time a country has hated its neighbors, but it does seem a little strange that there'd be such a strong impetus to have absolutely nothing to do with Latin America. Pinochet helped a lot with that but it's deeper i think. But no matter what it's origins, it's ridiculous. Chile is totally Latin. Or if you wish, "hispanic." It's just not at all like Northern Europe or North America.

It's like how Israel culturally eschews its Arab neighbors in exchange for the diversity, materialism and development of Western -- specifically United States -- culture. But Israel's population is massively impoverished, it has a huge proportion of Arab citizens, and occasionally city buses burst into flame. It's not in Arizona, it's in Palestine.

Similar thing with Chile.