Despite the obvious fact that my blood runneth one hundred percent gringo, often I feel that there is a Latino inside of me just waiting to burst out. I am frequently reminded of the differences, however. Especially by those closest to me. We gringos just aren’t as warm and fuzzy as Latinos. We are more prone to give the cold shoulder. We are not as familiar, or family oriented. We are not as open and inviting. We are impatient. And so the list goes. But if I had to boil it all down to a single trait that distinguishes the two, I would describe it like this….we gringos are infinitely more “hung-up” than Latinos. What exactly does that mean? It just seems that we have these ideas of the way things ought to be and if they aren’t it makes our blood boil…..I’ll call them “hang-ups.” Case in point is the way Latinos, specifically Costa Ricans, view “risk” compared to gringos. For instance, a Costa Rican would not think twice about riding down a busy road on a bicycle with a kid sitting in his lap…..without a helmet. You see things like this all the time here. Sometimes if I am transporting a group of gringo tourists and they view such a site, all will express in unison their outrage, scorn and derision about the “bad parent” risking the life of that poor child. But to the tico, it is just a way to get from point A to point B. What’s the big deal? There are countless other areas I could mention where we gringos tend to be hung-up about things, whereas the ticos will take a more relaxed live and let live attitude. Does that make “us” right and “them” wrong, or vice-versa? No, not at all. But being hung-up does imply a tendency to maybe too quickly impose our sense of justice and fair play onto the rest of the world. It is just not right for women to dress like that. It is just not right for children to behave that way. It is just not right for people to hold those view points. And our airwaves are inundated with Rush Limbaughs, who are more than ready to express outrage about how “those people” are so off track. This is “America” and we don’t do it that way. As a by-product of growing up in a hung-up society, I am sometimes quick to judge someone as being in the wrong when they take a different approach than what I might deem appropriate to the situation. That happens a lot here in a business context, as well as in the area of personal relationships. It’s the notion of “I just can’t get over how they……” Well, get over it. Being “right” or being “wrong” just isn’t as big a deal here in Costa Rica as just, well, “being.” Hang-ups tend to rob you of your enjoyment of life because you are always so busy being aghast at the behavior of other people. But if you want to get “latinized” (which is a good idea if you plan to live here) you really need to let loose of the hang-ups and take a more relaxed approach to life. Pura Vida!
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