I see and hear Americans on the train irregularly. Generally they are not the stereotypical Ugly Tourists. However, after having lived half of my live in the USA, with an American passport since birth and two American-raised children, I am not inclined to approach them. I am not one of them. They do not see me as one of them. I think it’s mainly due to the colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the US, that is over 100 years old. Good grief!
2012-06-30
That’s ok. The US passport IS one of the many American passports. I’m betting that if you heard someone speaking Spanish with a Puerto Rican accent, you would approach them. Theres’s home, and there’s Home. It’s like when I realize someone may be from New Orleans.
You have a point, to a point.
I feel very much your post. Of course I did not live in the US for as long as you did, but I needn’t have to live there longer to know that I was never going to belong.
Peace!
my passport says Global Citizen, my Earthsibling. our roots go deeper and further back into history … way before there were nation states and false borders … way back for about 13.7 billion years… but i understand why you don’t want to speak English to the imperialists…
Los Abruña también somos ciudadanos europeos (Españoles).
America is an entire continent. Perhaps someday the American continent will unite and have a single unifying “American passport”, as many European countries did. In the meantime, we need to reserve the term “American passport” for the future… Otherwise we will confuse the future historians who will see this website and possibly think that Rubén was promoting American unification years, decades, or centuries in advance :)
You must be referring to the USA passport since there is no such thing (yet) as an “American” passport.
You are right. I as many people do, assumed that American means from the United States of America.