Minga’s youngest son Humberto works construction in Buenaventura, and was part of the crew that did plastering on the walls of the hotel and some of the private houses. The workers here are carefully taught the limits of where they can and cannot go. When they leave every day, their backpacks are examined at the security gate to see that they are not stealing any tools. On the whole, they are expected to remain inconspicuous, as are the laborers in any hotel.
At the same time, Humberto longed to see the completed buildings, and to drive around the complex that he had once known as farmland and open fields. Most of Minga’s family has been here with me; he had not.
Yesterday he came not as a worker, but as my guest, along with Mari, Luis, and Harlennys. We went to the stables, the zoo, and to tour the first floor of the hotel. We stopped and had a Coke on the outside patio.
Humberto, Harlennys, Luis, and Mari
Humberto and Harlennys
He was, in my view, profoundly uncomfortable – as I might be were I to have an invitation for tea with the Queen in Buckingham Palace. The good news is that the kids have been here with me often enough that they were perfectly at ease.
Access is, in part, a learned skill.
Tags: cultural anthropology
February 15, 2010 at 10:19 am
Hard to go from inconspicuous to being a guest’s guest. But how wonderful that this sense of access will be something with which the next generation is at ease. Look at how different we are from our parents and grandparents, too.
February 16, 2010 at 8:52 am
Yes, I think that’s right. And I’m proud of Humberto for wanting to try, and for doing his best in what was a hard and challenging situation. I’m super proud of the kids, who walk in as if they own the place.