What am i? Blame it on globalization

It has been 7 minutes since I have tried to get a taxi by the curb. I swear to God, I watched at least 10 taxis went by picking up others, except for me, why? Cuz I was PISSED – crossed by the people in this country – they just barged in and without considering who was there first, some of them were even worse, walking about 4m up to “hijack” a taxi instead of waiting for it in the designated area. A woman with a kid came up, of course, again, she “hijacked” my taxi. I finally couldn’t take it anymore, “Estoy aquí primera.” “No, estoy aquí primera, estoy con la niña.” I was so mad about her lie but at the same time I was like “forget it”, so I let them get in. While them entering the taxi, I burst out, “coño, los ecuatorianos!” (For the record, I am normally extremely delicate and politically-correct on such issue, and would never made such comment.) Not sure if they heard me.

Just one of those things I couldn’t stand about this country – people taking advantage of “civilized” folks. Just because we don’t fight, doesn’t mean we don’t care. However, this raises a more important question in el ninja’s life – what am I? He was born here, very likely going to spend this childhood here, which makes him the only Ecuadorian in the family. How is he going to feel while his dad and I start bashing the “his people”? How are we going to explain to him? We (as foreigners) can get away with all the criticism since we are not “one of them”. But how are we suppose to educate el ninja so that he does not grow up with prejudice against others and racism against his fellow countrymen (which is something extremely prevailing in this racial-diverse country).

I guess that we will just have to play it as we go – he is always going to be an ecuatoriano with very unstereotypical upbringing – he’s going to eat tortilla españolas o mapo tofu instead of churrasco or menestra for lunch; he’s going to like jamon Serrano more than fritada; he’s probably going to learn how to use chopsticks before using knife-and-fork. Who knows, no matter what he is, he is going to be different – neither 100% latino, nor 100% asian, nor 100% Canadian, nor 100% Spanish, let alone Catalan. He’s going to be a-little-bit-of-everything (and will have to live with the ambiguity) and hopefully emerges his own identity.

So sorry kid, don’t blame us for making it so complicated, blame it on globalization.

(being a 4th-generation culé is probably the only thing Catalan about el ninja)