When I arrived in Quito at the beginning of this program, I was prepared to be immediately confronted with so-called “culture shock.” However, I didn’t have this immediate response, probably because we were traveling in a group of very similar “extranjeros,” and so the full effect of this phenomenon was buffered. However, once I arrived in my home stay in Cuenca, I began to notice culture shock.
The most obvious aspect of this many differences between my west-coast culture of the United States and the sierra region of Ecuador, where Cuenca is located, is how the role of gender plays out in daily life and is manifested. My 24 year old host brother sat at the kitchen table during lunch while his mother worked tirelessly to prep and enormous meal. He asked her, while she was sweating over a bowl of soup, what was taking so long. After lunch, he immediately disappeared to his room leaving the dishes to his mother. The next weekend, my host mom left for a business day trip. I was on a hike that day, but the rest of the family, my host brother and father, and his two nephews, were home. When I returned, the dishes were stacked high on the table and the house was a mess. My host brother complained that he was starving because his mom hadn’t remembered to prep food before her departure.
My family at home is almost the exact opposite of this. Both of my parents work long weeks, and so my sister and I do a lot of the work around the house. Additionally, my mom is a doctor and is home less than my dad, so my dad usually cooks for us and does many “domestic” things. It’s been very hard for me to watch my host mom work so intensely hard for her family and not receive help or a thank you.
I’m interested in how this hyper-masculine culture developed in Latin America, and the concept of “macho-ism.” This also makes me curious about the feminist movement in Latin America, as well as how people who don’t identify as belonging on the strict gender binary are perceived.
My experience with culture shock has made me think and I am extremely curious to learn more about this culture and how it developed and is continuing to evolve.