Spanish Intolerance

While I love many things about Spain, there is on aspect that has bothered me and has had me thinking for quite some time.  No country is perfect, but the Spaniards' general intolerance has sent my mind reeling on several occasions.

While I've kept my mouth shut on this blog, I was inspired to finally write this post after what I watched unfold at work yesterday.  This week we're celebrating Valentine's Day in English class.  I decided to replicate the common activity that we did as kids: make a V-day mailbox and have the kids deliver handmade valentines (with English messages).  In order to ensure that no child is left valentine-less, it was necessary for the kids to HAVE to make valentines for everyone in the class, if they wanted to make one for anyone.  While we didn't have time to do to this, I had the kids pick names from a bag for a "secret valentine" sort of deal.  But before the activity even started, one of the girls asked me if a certain little boy would participate (for the purposes of this post, I will call him Juan).  Juan has down syndrome.  I answered that yes, of course he would participate in the activity (while he doesn't participate in most activities, this was easy and fun enough for his abilities).  The entire class erupted into groans, begging that I reconsider this decision.  Absolutely not.

Next, I passed out the names of each person in the class, and when one girl picked Juan, she spent the rest of the class complaining loudly and almost in tears.  Today, while looking through the valentines, I discovered that the girl elected to NOT make a valentine for him and to make one for her friend instead.  I told them that that their behavior was uncalled for, but I didn't feel it was my place to say more, seeing as I'm an assistant, rather than a full-time teacher.  But I thought at the very least, the bilingual coordinator would put a stop these malicious comments and poor behavior; but he just ignored it instead.

I was appalled and nearly in tears about this.  I understand that kids will be kids, but I believe it is the DUTY of adults, especially influencers like teachers, to impart the basic principle that yes, we are different, but we are all equal and thus should be treated so.

I think that perhaps this situation upset me so much because this comes after months of watching the daily mistreatment of this little boy.  It is very obvious to me that either none of the teachers at this school have special education training, or that the Spanish approach to disabilities and differences is vastly different from our own.  Where to start... In my opinion, they handle him too physically: they will tug his hair or ears, grab him by the leg to drag him from under a table and lightly hit him to castigate him.  When he doesn't want to work, they call him lazy, although I'm sure it's not that he's lazy, its that he requires a different method of learning than the other students.  They make jokes at his expense.  They call him names.  If he needs to wipe his nose, but refuses or wipes it on his sleeve, they will call him dirty or a pig.  For Christ's sake, the child has down syndrome, he is not deaf.  I do not claim to know much about mental disabilities, or the extent to which he understands, but I'm sure that this constant flow of verbal ABUSE (yes, that is what I'd call this)  must be deteriorating his sense of self and integrity somewhere inside.

I know that I am not alone in my experiences and observations, as my friends have echoed similar experiences in their schools, which leads me to believe that this isn't an isolated circumstance, but a widespread cultural intolerance to people with differences.

I've also noticed this characteristic of intolerance when it comes to race relations.  I cannot say that I have experienced racism directed towards me, although I face comments about my skin color and race on nearly a daily basis.  As in Argentina, my name has become "Morena," yet again.  This is a term used in Spanish speaking cultures to describe a person of color.  But it's so encompassing that it can be used to describe someone of olive complexion, to someone with a very dark complexion from Africa.  I became accumstomed to this new name in Buenos Aires.  I swear to you that not a day passed by when someone didn't refer to me as "morena."  At first I wasn't sure how to react, because if someone in the U.S. were to call me "colored girl," I'd probably be ready to slap them across the face.  However, it was explained to me, by both morenos and whites in Argentina, that "morena" was not an offensive or derogatory term; rather just a term meant to describe a person's skin color, which is natural.  While I'm no longer put off by this, and I understand that this is a cultural difference, it still seems a bit odd to me.

However, I KNOW that I'm not reading too much into the fact that there is very real racism against "los gitanos" (the gypsies) in Spain.  The gypsies are usually people of color who live an alternate, nomad lifestyle, which many times includes begging and stealing.  Every Spaniard who has spoken to me about los gitanos has had nothing but hateful things to say.  I've tried to ask as many questions as possible about their history and relationship to the Spaniards to try to better understand this animosity.  But I can't take it seriously when the Spaniards say that they're bad people, without backing it up with any concrete reasons.  And how can ALL gitanos be bad people?  Even if Spaniards have had some bad experiences with some gitanos, this certainly doesn't speak to the actions or persons of the entire race.  That's a little thing I call racism.

Then there's a fun little phrase called "no seas un moro" (don't act like an Arab) that the Spaniards pull out when someone does something stupid.  Hmm...racism?  They think not, but I think so.  It's the equivalent of using the ever so eloquent phrase, "that's gay" to describe something stupid in the States.  It's ignorant and prejudiced to equate something distasteful and undesireable with a group of oppressed people.  While it seems to make so much sense to me, it seems to be an incredibly difficult concept to grasp for the Spaniards.

Sorry this has been quite a long rant, but if there's one thing I absolutely cannot tolerate, it's close-minded ignorance, and I'd say I've had my fair share here.  Perhaps some would assert that my being raised in America, especially as a minority woman in America, has made me overly sensitive in our country of political correctness.  But I'd argue that it's just made me more adept to recognize prejudice and its causes.  It's not an excuse that Spain is a more homogenous country than the U.S.  There are no excuses for this.  It's paramount to educate oneself about other people, cultures, religions and races because the world is an infinitely diverse place.