[This message has been edited by Miguel]
This is going to start off topic, but be relevant to Planet Love by the end.
Did anyone catch the new president's address to the Bolivian Congress on CNN Espanol last night? It was fascinating. The man sounds like Winston Churchill. He said things that made sense -- about politicians working together for the benefit of the country, ending corruption, etc. And he did this forcefully and persuasively. Without notes and with very little time to prepare. The Congressmen and women were an interesting bunch as well -- the chamber looked like a town meeting, with people from all walks of life. Indians in native clothing, women in sueters, very few suits.
At present, Bolivia is experiencing massive protests, deaths in the street, paralyis of the country, etc. It's slipping into anarchy. And a large part of the population blames it on the U.S. It's not anything we did directly, but people are angry because
1. The government has stamped out coca production, as a result of pressure from the U.S. This was a very divisive issue in the last presidential election, and the pro-cocaine candidate came VERY close to winning the election.
2. The government has done certain things to please the IMF (try to raise taxes, repay debt) that were very unpopular. In many Bolivians minds, IMF = USA.
3. And the straw that broke the camel's back -- the government wanted to build a pipeline to Chile to export Liquefied Natural Gas to the USA.
What makes anti-U.S. perceptions worse, the ex-president, who got on a plane to Miami late last night, was considered a stooge of the U.S. The guy was educated here, and he speaks Spanish with a STRONG U.S. accent -- stronger than mine, and I'm a native.
Anyway, this is the sort of thing that has occurred in many parts of Latin America through the years. I wonder how this affects women's perceptions of a gringo husband, or moving to the U.S. I know Mexico well enough to think that it is a consideration there. There is a certain part of the population that just doesn't like gringos. And some of it's related to things that happened 50 or 100 years ago. I've met a couple of Mexican women that would be ashamed to bring a gringo home to meet Daddy, because Daddy hates gringos.
Any thoughts?
