Who Are You?

I stumbled across this clip while looking for a youtube video of The Who singing "Who Are You", and was shocked by how much I can relate to Alice's situation. Sometimes, I feel like I'm the wrong size, color, shape to be in Costa Rica. I clearly stand out and everything is confusing and new to me. Just like the caterpillar everyone is asking me "who are you?" in the form of where are you from, how old are you, and why are you here- and just like Alice I feel like responding "I hardly know".

The issue of nationality is especially interesting here. What is your nationality? I have filled out countless government forms asking me this, most recently in Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. When I'm speaking/writing in English the answer is always American. However, since coming to Costa Rica I have had many people lecture me on the use of the term American. Technically the word America belongs to North, South, and Central America and sometimes people feel the need to remind me of this. I think at times calling ourselves American is seen as a sign of arrogance…or ignorance. I understand this on some level, but when I am speaking English I literally have no other word to describe my nationality and when I speak Spanish I simply say "soy de los estados unidos" and write EEUU (the Spanish abbreviation) on all the immigration paperwork. While this misunderstanding is frustrating at times it has been more enlightening than annoying.

Also adding to my general confusion over nationalities are the variety of slang terms used. Here's a brief list to give you an idea of what I'm talking about...

A list of things you are likely to be called in Costa Rica:

Chino- used to refer to any person who looks remotely Asian

Gringo- The term can be applied to any person who is known, or assumed to be from the United States regardless of race, or it can denote a strong association or assimilation into American society and culture. The term in its functional use is mostly encountered by Americans traveling abroad to Spanish speaking countries.[citation needed] The American Heritage Dictionary classifies gringo as "offensive slang," "usually disparaging," and "often disparaging." (I stole this from Wikipedia, but in Costa Rica the term isn't used in a derogatory way)

Macha- a blond female, usually a foreigner (this is what most people -aka men- yell at me on the street)

Negro- this can be used to refer to anyone with dark skin

Norteño- a gringo

Polaco- technically this translates as Polish, but I've been told that often this term is used to refer Jewish people in general because of the large number of Polish Jews that came to Costa Rica in the 1930s and 1940s.

In the U.S. in general, and Washington, DC specifically, I feel like specificity and political correctness are seen as valuable. Hearing these terms, and being lectured on the inappropriateness of the term I use to describe my nationality, has exposed me a different way of approaching ethnicity and race. That said, I’m not sure I’ll be using any of these any time soon…