During my first year in the US for college, I had occasion to go to the pharmacy to get a prescription filled for a medication which in Argentina, at that time, I could just ask for at the local pharmacy and get, in the original packaging from the supplier. I mentioned this to the pharmacist, just by way of making conversation. His comment was:
"Yeah, well, everything is loosey-goosey south of the border."
His tone and demeanor clearly showed his disdain for medical care outside the US and an inability to distinguish one Latin American country from another. While it is true that it was not a good idea to hand out medications without the doctor's prescription, a practice which has now been discontinued, Argentina nonetheless had excellent medical care with reasonable, though not optimal, availability to the public. Some Latin American countries have poor medical care while others, like that of Costa Rica, are among the best in the world.
The attitude of the pharmacist in Lubbock of course is not universal, but it is widespread. If you hold to the tenet that everything American is superior, you class everyone else as inferior and not worthy of notice. As a result you will not learn about them. At the time, Argentines had a longer life expectancy than Americans and a lower child mortality rate. If I pointed out these statistics to people, they were at best reluctant to believe them. They violated the dearly loved axiom that everything American is better.
When I was in college I was a blundering hothead and felt intensely bothered by the ignorance of my fellow citizens. Now I take these things in stride, knowing that I am dealing with a deeply-seated cultural theme that goes far back to the beginnings of our country as an independent nation. With humor and understanding, little by little, those of us who have extensive experience living in other countries are getting through.
When I was in college and I mentioned I had come from Argentina, where I grew up, people would say "Oh! That's the capital of Brazil, isn't it?" or ask me if I rode a horse to school. Now, when I introduce myself to my classes at TCU and tell my students where I'm from, they say "My parents just got back from there and they love it!" They know where it is and have some concept of what it is like. Study abroad has become common. The younger upper middle-class generation is more open-minded and has a wider experience of the world than was common 40 years ago. We should listen to them.
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