This is a comment I’ve heard from fellow Americans a hundred times and the one and only thing about it that bothers me is the disappointment in the eye’s of my Colombian wife should she be near enough to hear it. She’ll be the first to admit that there are a couple of things our Hollywood image of her country that may in fact be so but she’ll quite correctly point out that our image of her wonderful point of origin is painted with a poor quality brush.
Some twenty odd years ago the brother of the husband of my wife’s sister came from Colombia to settle his family of wife and two children in our “hood” in Manchester N.H…..and make no mistake……it was a “hood”.
Poor Jairo came to this country from Colombia having never once in his life seen an act of violence or experiencing fear of any kind and was somewhat bewildered by the American attitude towards his homeland. One morning a few weeks into his new life in America he heard the bullhorn. The policeman that possessed it was using it to bellow towards the building Jairo occupied…..
“Vacate the building now !!….Occupants… vacate the building now!”
Having a total English vocabulary of Marlboro and Budweiser its somewhat surprising that Jairo had the presence of mind to grab his three year old son and race down the stairs from his third floor tenement where he made it to the second floor landing. This is where he encountered the man with a pistol who used it to entice Jairo and his child back up to their home on the third floor where he then enjoyed the experience of being held hostage for two hours climaxing with the shootout with the cops . So….how do we explain to Jairo our image of his country….?
I’ve heard the question a hundred times from Colombians…..
“ You lived on lower Lake Ave in Manchester? …You got some piedra duros Man”
