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[quote=”maravilla”]didn’t your mother ever tell you how rude and tasteless it was to ask a person where their money comes from?[/quote]
Maravilla,
Of course I know that to ask someone about their finances is not proper unless you are entering into some kind of transaction with them that might involve a risk on your part.
You missed the point of my post. Allow me to explain.
As soon as you step foot in Latin America, there’s a good chance that your nationality will take second place to your new classification: Gringo. As a foreigner, the locals will often tag you with this broad and flexible label (gringo, male; gringa, female; gringos, plural), even if your physical appearance is not so different from theirs.
Despite the widespread usage of the term its actual definition is the subject of some debate.
There is still a tendency to define Gringo as a hostile term. A quick look online, for example, reveals a number of negative portrayals. Merriam-Webster describes it as “often disparaging” and Dictionary.com as “usually disparaging.” The Free Dictionary says it is “Used as a disparaging term for a foreigner in Latin America, especially an American or English person.”
In general, the above definitions are not accurate – Gringo is simply used to refer to a foreigner. There are exceptions, largely depending upon where you are, who you are and how it is said. Obviously, if a Latin American stares at you and growls “grrriiingo” before spitting on the floor, it might be a good time to leave.
In your case you are not a native of your adopted land. At some point you decided to relocate there as a resident or citizen. You are by definition a “Gringa”. Unless you are a citizen you are still a foreigner who resides in Costa Rica.
So you arrived there before others who wish to relocate to Costa Rica. Good for you. The issue is that you paint with such a wide brush. Do you use the term “Gringo” in a casual sense or in the more hostile use of the word? If the latter is true then you are insulting 99% of the people who use this forum including yourself. The very title of this thread suggests the more hostile usage.
From my experience in making new friends in Costa Rica they would never use the word in hostility and neither would the vast majority of ex-pats in country. Costa Rica is known as being a friendly country, thus the allure to reside there.
Being the new kid on the block, and home owner in Guancaste; socializing with expat gringos has been a mostly rewarding experience. Fellow expat gringos have provided me with their vast experience and networking channels, and in some cases; have been my tour guides, business advocates and financial advisers. From my experience, there are cliques in every expat community. These cliques tend to be strongest among the expats with large disposable incomes. Let me be blunt, Costa Rica is no different than North America, in terms of the expats living and working in Costa Rica; you are either a have or havenot. If you are a have, open doors and opportunities are vast.
it was Livefreeordie who stated that it was the gringos who constantly inquired as to the source of his/her financial ability at such a young age to relocate and live in a foreign country. my response to him/her merely echoed their reference to gringos. and regardless how the term is used, there is always a tinge of hostility behind it, and you can’t really blame the locals for feeling that way given what the gringos have done to this country (and Mexico, the Yucatan, the Baja) and any other country in which they have taken root.
Are Chinese gringos?
Id say no. But why?
Doesn’t gringo have to do with having money? The connotation of the word as it is used here certainly says so.
Now I have made this point before and will do so again because I have experienced this countries for many years.
Ticos are becoming Gringos.
Ok Ok not all Ticos and before you all start jumping on me in a myriad of different manifestation, look around a bit and tell me if you do not see that the culture is changing.
More so, Ticas are becoming Gringas.
The dumping of traditional cultural traits in Costa Rica is making the current culture more progressive (witness the slut walk). I love that word progressive. Don’t you? As if progressing is always good! As in progressing along the road to hell! Hey I sure don’t want to be a progressive in that case.
Why do people think that any change is good change?
Its becoming Costa Greeda (trfic fines and cameras, new tax plans) faster than you can shake a stick at it. Just wait until good times again. This place will become ultra expensive.
So all of you that find their pocket book to be more important then their lifestyle, hang on for a while and you will be able to use your real estate as an investment vehicle to increase your financial worth. Selling out and creating upheaval in your community. Thats what Gringos do don’t they – gentrify?. Destroy community by speculating in real estate.
So will the Chinese do the same.
I think not.
personally I think they are better suited to running the world.
First the new Chinese gringo is an expert at getting along (assimilating perhaps no) but the Chinese have long been spreading their culture everywhere. Now will their new found wealth make them expansionist? Hmmm. I think not. They will remain isolationist IMO.
So will they come here and ruin the environment by building unoccupied towers as monuments to their greed and ruining the cost line to financially enrich them selves like the Americans and Europeans did? Hmmmm. What say you?
But as gringos go i think Ticos will become gringos much faster than the Chinese, even with less wealth because they will hawk themselves into debt to be wanabe Americans. Didn’t you hear tha Farid whats his name said the worldwide americans are thought to be the coolest culture? (Nauseates me as well). So all you that want to hang with Gringos and their Hollywood values and telivision morality (Jersy shores everyone) aint the hollywood writers grand?), in a few years, won’t have to look very far!
Those coming here to live a traditional lifestyle with a content stay at home wife and mother and several kids will have to look much farther! As the slut walk indicated the decline in traditional values is more like an assault powered by the feminazis up north and television.
Chinese Gringos? hmmm… Maybe?
Tico gringos? No doubt – just a matter of time
Different place – same gringo mentality….
before i even saw who wrote this post, i knew it was YOU! what chauvinist rhetoric. why didn’t you just come out and say that you think all women should stay home, cater to their man, stay pregnant, and in the kitchen? that was only a “traditional” value because it was what MEN imposed on WOMEN!! It wasn’t what women, for the most part, chose for themselves, and throughout history there were plenty of women who broke out of those yokes of enslavement and went on to become influential writers, painters, politicians, and change-makers. Your anti-female rants are really insulting as though a woman’s purpose in life in nothing more than to service men whether she wants to or not, and bear children like a brood mare! That other countries wants to emulate Western culture is a bit odd to me considering our culture panders to the lowest common denominator. Exactly WHO is watching those dastardly reality shows featuring plastic women who all look the same as though they went to a bargain basement sale at the local plastic surgeon? As for the chinese, they don’t usually assimilate into another culture. they see, they come, they build, they stick to themselves. but they all want a car now, and designer clothes, and every gadget ever made, while they wolf down the poison diet we export to other countries in the form of fast food. in every post you opine on this subject, your complete and utter disdain for women is apparent. are you single? i can see why!
[quote=”maravilla”] all women should stay home, cater to their man, stay pregnant, and in the kitchen? that was only a “traditional” value because it was what MEN imposed on WOMEN!! It wasn’t what women, for the most part, chose for themselves[/quote]
The Costa Rican society has been very much a macho society but the number of younger women who want to be able to work outside the home or are refusing to stick with a man who beats and dominates them is rising and they are leaving the marriage.
I told the young lady who works for us that a revolution is coming here as it did in the States in the 1960’s. Upheaval is coming and the Ticos are going to be at a loss as to what to do.
and it’s about time that the repression imposed on women by men is abolished in all societies. i guess according to 2bncr, laura chincilla should be barefoot and in the kitchen, where she belongs!!!!
I guess I struck a nerve.
First of all I was making a point regarding cultural values in Costa Rica.
You extract one part/point and twist it to represent the gist of the post.
The gist of the post is cultural change in Costa Rica. Not feminist extremism.
It’s one thing to be against domestic violence and it’s another thing to be a motherhood basher (barefoot and pregnant etc).
I deplore anything violent. Men hitting women, women hitting men. I am pro woman. I am pro motherhood. The feminazis think that being a mother is degrading. Actually, it’s the most sacred of all jobs. Are you a mother? Being an involved father has been the most satisfying of all jobs.
Extremism is extremism no matter whom or what you represent. Female extremist seek to devalue motherhood. I am pro woman, I am anti femanazi. The femanazi control Hollywood. That is where the most toxic “US culture” originates.
I can’t understand why you need to attack me personally – “you must be single etc.” Your belligerency makes my point. Culturally I don’t think most Latinas would react as you to someone who is espousing a different point of view.
Yes I have many loving relationships. On a friendship level, gift level, need level and erotic level and a parental level. Again, I have children and nothing defines me more than my fatherhood. Why are you so anti-motherhood and family? Why do you view stay at home mothering as belittling? I would bet that most honorable traditional Ticas define themselves first as mothers. I am also willing to bet that they think motherhood is sacred and the most important thing they do, not as some subservient chore. I think you have swallowed so much feminist kool aide that there is no going back – no other perspective other than the feminist credo that we women must compete with men and show them that we are better than they are. “The I am woman hear me roar/nag” Helen Redy syndrome. Women and men should complement each other, not compete.
To me feminism is anti woman. I see feminist as women trying to be men instead of developing their natural feminine qualities. I am all for powerful women. But I am not for women who want to be powerful men. There is a big difference.
Women in Costa Rica know how to be both feminine and powerful (professional and stay at home mothers). Instead of seeking masculine power and imitating men, they develop their femininity and use it as a natural power. It’s unnatural for women to have masculine power. The US has become a great leader in many things but what a shame that they have done it at the expense of turning many women into men – culturally speaking.
Finally it the typical gringo/gringa thing to think that traditional Costa Rica cultural needs changing. It smells of superiority and elitist attitudes and those poor Ticas mothers having to bear children and be subservient to their husband against their will. Lets liberate them! Why would anyone want to be liberated from the most important job there is? To find fulfillment in Gringo culture at the expense of the emotional security of their family?
Helen Redy days are long gone and about as relevant as female extremism.
oh, puhleeze. what about laura? should she be back in the kitchen being subservient to her husband? is she really a man or is she a woman who has come into her own? your reference to feminazis is but one of the clues that you have disdain for any woman who isn’t subservient. i don’t know any feminists who want to be men. in fact, i know plenty of women who think men are pretty useless so they don’t want to be a man — they just want to be women who get paid the same amount as a man for the same job. i talk to plenty of ticas and they don’t want to emulate gringas; they also don’t want to have motherhood as their only claim to fame and don’t want a passle of children as their mothers or grandmothers used to have — one or two is just fine with them. most of them have dreams and desires that they would like to fulfill but can’t because the man in their life doesn’t want them to do that. women are coming into their own all over the world and are standing up against the oppression that has been inflicted on them by men. you really need to get a clue. what’s next, your veiled prostitution diatribe?
OK I hear your roar.
Do you have children?
I would guess not.
Yours is the voice of extremism not common sense.
In these matters your need to be right makes you unable to understand normal thinking.
Extremist will do anything to defend their narrow thinking.
Again do you have children, if not then your POV makes perfect sense.
yes, i have children. very very very successful children. my girls were raised to believe they could become anything they wanted; that their sex should not be a hindrance to their goals. they are both extremely well educated, well respected, and have great authority in arenas that were typically reserved for men. my point of view isn’t extreme at all. it just differs from your chauvinist attitude.
it’s chauvinst when it’s to the exclusion of all the other things a woman can be. and we sure don’t need any more people in this world.
that was you putting your spin on my reply. I never said any such thing. You putting words in my mouth. typical extremist behavior. paste and copy where I said women are excluded form doing anything else. You attack me personally and put words in my mouth because you know you have a weak position regarding my posts and you want to use it as a vehicle to promote your feminist anti male position.
“many women think men are useless.” That is as anti male as it gets. You are the mysandrist. It is you who is saying men are useless, I never said anything like that about women. You are projecting your disdain for men on me as if I have the same kind of disdain you have for the opposite sex. read what you write – look in the mirror and tell me who is sexist here.
[quote=”rward”][quote=”maravilla”]didn’t your mother ever tell you how rude and tasteless it was to ask a person where their money comes from?[/quote]
Maravilla,
Of course I know that to ask someone about their finances is not proper unless you are entering into some kind of transaction with them that might involve a risk on your part.
[/quote]Let us put this into an HONEST perspective. The entire population is involved in a “transaction” with itself. Either we all live in this world together, or we live in it apart and opposed. Whatever wealth you or I have did NOT come out of a vacuum. It came from the world. We either share the world or we continue fighting over it. The notion that it is bad manners to ask about another’s wealth surely came from the oppressive rich bastards who steal theirs from the rest of humanity. Of course they want to keep it all secret.
It is now a small world and at this stage of the game, it is everyones’ business how and by whom the planet’s resources are being consumed. I would love to hear an argument defending the secrecy of wealth. The only good one I’ll accept is if the wealth in question was gifted from an alien planet.
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