Extranjera

Over the months that I have been here, I have often found myself trying to imagine what it would be like to be a foreigner in the US. Being in Latin America and most of my past experience in the US being with Latin Americans, that is the population I tend focus in on. I have had my share of frustrating moments here when I can't express my thoughts fully because my level of Spanish isn't there yet. I have had moments where I felt like the children around me were older than me because they actually understood everything in a conversation and I was completely lost. When I first arrived here and my apartment wasn't ready yet, I felt very self-conscious because I was living in a dorm with 20+ other women and I felt like they were watching my every move. I don't know if they really were, but I was new, a foreigner and they all knew I was there. The first 1 1/2 weeks I lived in the dorm, I didn't really cook. I actually bought sandwich stuff, yogurt and things that I could prepare in my room in my attempt to avoid feeling watched, but I still had to go to the kitchen to get my food out of the fridge and to wash my dishes. The last few days I was there, I gained courage and started cooking simple things, like pasta.

I experience these frustrations and then try to imagine being at the supermarket in the US and not being able to speak English. I think about times I've been at the driver license office and witnessed the workers trying to communicate with a Latin American who doesn't speak much English. I remember getting my permit and feeling angry that a worker was talking to a man as though he was deaf because he didn't speak English very well. (I've actually experienced being in that man's position a couple times here.) And I think about the many undocumented immigrants in the US who are afraid of anyone who works for the government and live in some of the worst conditions in the US.

In a way, I feel that when I return to the US, I'll be able to relate to these populations better. I've experienced living in a country where I don't know the culture and struggle to communicate. But I still cannot imagine how it is to be an undocumented immigrant living in the US. I'm privileged to be a US citizen. Here I'm considered rich, regardless of my status in the US, because of my nationality. I have a support system from the US as well as my local community of Argentines. I am free to come and go from the country, safely. I walk past the policeman on the street corner and say "hola", feeling safe at the police presence. Due to the diversity of Buenos Aires, I don't stick out so much as a foreigner, until I start speaking. And I have felt welcome by everyone here. Even strangers on the street have been very helpful as I have been learning the language and how to navigate this huge city.

I feel that if I were to sit down and compare experiences with a Latin American who has moved to the US, aside from the basic culture and language struggles, our experiences would be quite different.

*Please note that my thoughts here are geared toward undocumented Latin American's and a lot of my experiences with them has been as a social worker.