Arrived late last night at the Seattle Airport and within the next few hours I realized I have landed in USA..
the driver who took me to the hotel was from Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. we talked about Livingston and Rio Dulce and Belize.
the person who checked me in was from Gujerat. We talked about Patels and the ubiquitous Indian motel keepers.
The person who drove the shuttle back was Mexican but spoke English well despite my speaking Spanish to her.
The taxi driver from the airport to town was a Sikh from India, I also had a sikh cab driver the last time I was here. Front desk of the hotel was manned by White Americans and the lady cleaning the room was from Mexico and the person who came up to help put together something had a distinct levantine accent.
I was hungry, so went down in search of a sandwich. The Valet was Ethiopian and he suggested Subway, I said to him, I would really prefer something a little better, he suggested a Pita sandwich Mediterranean place. I had a Falafel Special sandwich which was prepared by a Moroccan with whom I could talk about Chaabi music and the icon of that genre in Morocco. Went to the corner store maned by Chinese.
So, the next time you have a desire to judge America and say unkind things of this country being without a culture, remember, this country is crawling with culture and each person is allowed to keep their culture and religion and practices, unlike UK or France where there is a strong pressure to assimilate and give up your identity.
I am glad to be here, in this lovely city, named after a chief of the Squamish Indians who gave the famous speech about Ecology, more than a hundred years ago...
I have the greatest privilege of being associated with Native cultures of many continents.. thus satisfying my curiosity and desire to travel and the chance to help them with my medical expertise. these notes are from those travels. I am a professor at the University of Havana
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