In Chapter III of A Simple Soul, Felicite both meets and loses her nephew to the navy. Devastated, she knows nothing of him for a very long period of time, until she hears that he has reached Havanna.
"Felicite imagined that Havanna was a place where people did nothing but smoke, and that Victor walked around among negroes in a cloud of tobacco."
This passage, at first, made me laugh, for I know Cuba to be something more than that. "Maids", I thought, "What a shame they don´t know better". I recalled this one time, where I asked my maid to help me pack for Egypt. She was shocked, for she thought I talked about Egipto, the neighborhood where she lives and did not comprehend what packing was needed for. When I explained I meant the African nation, she was amazed and asking all sorts of questions on how we were getting there, what we would do, the places we would visit, and so on. I remeber thinking how cute she looked, knowing almost nothing about such an important country. But I would soon learn that although I do not mistake the country with the neighborhood, I too was very wrong. I believed I would arrive to a country where camels were the main form of transportation, a country where us women would be forced to cover ourselves up, where Coca-Cola was not heard of, and no one knew what a cellphone was. How wrong I was, but the worst thing was that coming from Colombia, where myths about our country are plenty, I should have known better. I was just as wrong as my maid, showing that stereotyping and ignorance does not belong in one group of persons. It is widespread, and it is a general effort what can save us from such dumb mistakes.
"Felicite imagined that Havanna was a place where people did nothing but smoke, and that Victor walked around among negroes in a cloud of tobacco."
This passage, at first, made me laugh, for I know Cuba to be something more than that. "Maids", I thought, "What a shame they don´t know better". I recalled this one time, where I asked my maid to help me pack for Egypt. She was shocked, for she thought I talked about Egipto, the neighborhood where she lives and did not comprehend what packing was needed for. When I explained I meant the African nation, she was amazed and asking all sorts of questions on how we were getting there, what we would do, the places we would visit, and so on. I remeber thinking how cute she looked, knowing almost nothing about such an important country. But I would soon learn that although I do not mistake the country with the neighborhood, I too was very wrong. I believed I would arrive to a country where camels were the main form of transportation, a country where us women would be forced to cover ourselves up, where Coca-Cola was not heard of, and no one knew what a cellphone was. How wrong I was, but the worst thing was that coming from Colombia, where myths about our country are plenty, I should have known better. I was just as wrong as my maid, showing that stereotyping and ignorance does not belong in one group of persons. It is widespread, and it is a general effort what can save us from such dumb mistakes.
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