Suggestions About Dealing With Anti-American Sentiment on the Camino

[Douglass Norvell]

F. Scott Fitzgerald spoke of the "American Disease" that is, we want
everyone to like us.

An impossibility.

dgn

----- Original Message -----
From: Rosina Lila <BlaroliaAOL.COM>
To: <GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2003 6:08 PM
Subject: Re: Suggestions About Dealing With Anti-American Sentiment on the
Camino


> Oi Antonio,
> While what you write is eminently correct, there are certain inescapable
> present realities that  U.S. people traveling abroad would do well to
> recognize.
> Two weeks ago I returned from Rio de Janeiro where I had gone for
Carnival.
> I adore Brazil, unquestionably. I think it and its people the most
beautiful,
> the most possessing of the happiness of being alive, the friendliest and
the
> most generous with themselves of all the peoples I've know anytime,
anywhere,
> bar absolutely none.
> And yet, at the Sambodromo itself (!) there were definite acts of hostile
> behavior towards our little English-speaking group; when some of those
> Cariocas who had been talking around us in highly critical terms about
the,
> then, upcoming war heard me speaking Portuguese they gave me an on-and-on
> earful about  their all too clear sentiments.
> Were it not for much welcome caipirinhas and the comforting affection of
my
> Brazilian friends, the glories of that Greatest Show on Earth which is the
> Rio Carnival would have been ruined for me.
> I might add that the cautionary advise that I've been receiving about how
to
> act in Seville, when I go there for Holy Week in a couple of weeks,  has
come
> from my Spaniard friends in Seville itself. In fact, I had been fancifully
> toying with the idea of pretending to be Brazilian so that everyone would
> love me.
> It does appear that discretion, and some type of friendly, dispassionate
> answers to possible war related questions and comments might be good to
take
> with us.
> Do you, by chance, read the Brazilian "Caminho" list-serv? If you haven't
and
> you will  I think you might well think a little differently.  Rain, wind,
> snow and other problems do not  bypass pilgrims. One must deal with them.
> Personally, I'll just do what I do in the Camino itself and everywhere:
trust
> myself to Jesus and the Virgin Mary and pray a lot.
> Warm regards,
> Rosina