My name is David, I was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador in 1970 but from 1972 I moved to the island of Bonaire. Since then, I’ve lived in Bonaire my whole life and studied for about 11 years in the United States.

One main experience that I can speak about was from the United States and how mindsets are when it comes to interacting with people – especially towards my culture, background and race.

I was in the US as a 16 year old teenager until I was 27 when I came back to Bonaire. So that was 11 years in the states. I lived in the South, where I encountered many who were traditional in their ways of thinking.

When it came to outsiders, they always had generalizations. When they thought they knew something about me, or when I would tell them where I was from - that I was born in Ecuador, that I'm actually with a South American background… and when they hear the term “South American”, they would say, “oh, you must be Mexican!”

They generalized everything with Mexico when it came to Latin America and did not understand that there's Central America, South America and even the Caribbean where they speak Spanish.

Everything was related to the Mexican border, because that was what they saw on the news. So they immediately thought that our food was the same as Mexicans, or that our music was similar.

I explained to them that no, we have a whole different culture and it was a little difficult sometimes because I felt like they did not really care much.

It was just important for me that people hear who you really are, your interests, experiences growing up, what is it you like or dislike, your habits, food, clothing, culture…

So I just generally accepted that they did not know nor cared.

There were of course exceptions. Maybe you had to explain who you were a few times as there were some who would be open minded and that was a good side of it. They would ask me about the South American / Ecuadorian culture and I would have a chance to explain to them so there were some who were interested, but the majority generalized a lot.

When one doesn’t know your culture background, and when you explain to them for the first time, it's like, “whoa! A discovery that they have never experienced before”

They would go, “Wow, I didn't know that. You guys do that? Oh really? You guys like Latin music as well?”

Then they start opening their eyes a little.

If I compare Europe [this article was written during David’s time in Europe] and the United States, for example, I think people would have a lot to learn still.

You can learn it through books, but it's good that you go to those countries as well so you can feel how people think, how people act and you feel a completely different environment of what you feel back wherever you're from.

As you go through these cultures and you've been through that almost transition all the time, has there been a moment where people have constantly frustrated you with something?

Yes, because people want to generalize a lot of times. If they see that you have, a Latin background, or they see your skin color, your hair or your facial features, people want to generalize.

“Oh, he must act like a certain country of South America” and a lot of times they name the bad things.

They will say, for example, “oh, if that country is a poor country, you must be the same way.”

But they don't realize that I was raised in a whole different environment even though I was born there. So they try to generalize and a lot of times they say the negative things of that country, because for example, everybody knows that certain countries are struggling right now in South America.

So sometimes they say for example: “hey, your country must be struggling and you must not have many benefits.”

And then I simply say that I grew up in Bonaire. I'm a school teacher. So when I want to teach and when I want to teach English for example to a local person in Bonaire, a lot of times they would rather go up to learn English from a European person because they think that European person dominates English better than me, not knowing that English is pretty much my mother tongue along with Spanish.

Sometimes they would say that “you're probably not such a good English teacher because you came from Latin America,”

But they don't know that I lived 12 years in the United States and I sharpened my English skills there. I even did some college (university) studies over there.

So all that is a way of people not understanding and you have to explain to them and know that people are going to quickly judge. When they look at you and say, “yeah, this guy must be so and so…” maybe that's not the case at all.

My advice

I know not everyone is as flexible and quickly to adapt, but I think it's best to learn to listen to the person and get to know them.

Tolerance is a very strong word because a lot of times we see somebody and right away we prejudge, so it would be a good thing to try to ask questions, to get to know the person and have like a small interview with the person.

Then you'll know this person has this background, that they are from a certain race or ethnicity, that these are their experiences in life.

Never judge a book by its cover - that's probably one of my best advices I can give.

I think a lot of the things that I've noticed people don't do as much nowadays because of the technology and internet, is that a lot of people don't read.

I think it's good to read about different countries, backgrounds, cultures… because by reading, you get a better view of what the people are like, so you stay literate and that’s very important.