As I’ve walked
through the streets of Ireland along with my peers we often run into people
asking us: Where are you from? Which part of America are you from? Some of us
in the study abroad group come from different ethnic backgrounds, and define
ourselves with other backgrounds, rather than just “American,” for instance:
Ethiopian, Armenian or Mexican; however, when asked what our backgrounds are in
Ireland, we typically have defined ourselves as simply, “Americans,” with no
hyphenation. I never thought much of it until I stumbled upon a young Irishman
who asked me: “What are you really? I mean I know you are an American, but you
must be something else as well." I said "Oh yeah, well I'm
Salvadorian.” In a recent class discussion, my professor, Charlotte McIvor, shared with us a bit of her experience as an Irish-American woman working and
living in Irish society. She defined herself as being “somewhere in
between" both cultures, hence she juggles her American and Irish heritage
while submerging herself completely in both cultures as she has worked and
lived in America, and will now work and live in Ireland. Her commentary brought
me to think about how much I have questioned my own cultural identity. As a
Salvadorian-American I could immediately relate to her own self-description
because I have always felt the same way as if I am somewhere in between the
middle of both places and cultures. Interestingly, while in Ireland I often
have abandoned the complexity of my background and have represented myself as
just an American.
As I’ve spent
more time in Dublin these questions came into my head and made me wonder about
my performance in Ireland as a Salvadorian-American and the performance of
Ireland’s “Irishness” in contrast to my “Americanness.” I came to think that
"Irishness" is a performance put on for outsiders of Irish culture,
in which some individuals native to Ireland display utterances and patterns
that might seem “Irish”. But as a matter of fact are an attempt to define their
personal identity to foreigners. For instance, when on a Viking tour our tour
guide had a thick Irish accent and he also made sure to mention stereotypical
facts about Ireland such as whiskey as a remedy for cold. He was attempting
to identify himself as an Irish man and the way he did so was by identifying
himself with stereotypical assumptions of Irishmen.
In the same
way, Irish people might have expectations for Americans as well. For instance,
my two girlfriends and I were sitting at an Irish bar in which a man started to
ask us questions about the show Jersey Shore and followed by making sexualized
comments and comparing us to the women on the show, as if he expected us to be
the same way. I felt as if there was a prior expectation of who we were and we
didn’t ignore the man but rather talked about ourselves and our
“Americanness.” We were ourselves in a way, but also made sure to talk about
our American lives, we were by saying things like “No we’re not like that,
we’re loud but we are definitely not like Jersey Shore girls” or “No, us
Americans watch a lot of T.V. but we hate Jersey Shore, it’s trash.” In the
same way we generalized ourselves to this stereotypical idea about us because
we felt as if we were expected to have certain lifestyle. We utilized them to
identity ourselves in a certain group, but also switched them around by also
clarifying.
As an American
visiting Ireland, I believe that between Ireland and the U.S we often share
mutual expectations from each other culturally and these suppositions set the
ground rules for the interplay we experience as visitors of Ireland. The kind of
performance we exchange will often depend on the place, the person and the
context in which we communicate. When I question or think about my experience
in Ireland, I often analyze myself and my own behavior and I realize I too put
up a performance, but rather than stereotypical, or self-indulgent it is
self-representative of how or who I want people to perceive me as. I think some
Irish people do the same.
I have come to
see Ireland’s art as an outlet to talk about their social, political and
cultural issues; most of the art I have been exposed to has been culturally
relevant to unspoken topics in Ireland. For instance, the show What the Folk! which talks about the general perspective people have of Irish Folk tradition in music and dance or the show
of Ourselves Alone which talks about the conflicts and lives of women
involved in the Northern conflicts during the 1970s.
In my
experience of day to day life in Ireland the talk of conflicts or social issues
regarding Ireland are often omitted or touched upon lightly and humorously. My
experience with a historian of Ireland who guided my tour of the city is that
he touched upon social issues and political conflicts in a humorous way, for
example he said something along the lines of “I’m still going to therapy for
the visit of the queen last year”, referring to the visit of Queen Elizabeth to
Ireland last year, along with making fun of U.S. President Barack Obama. Experiencing the
differences between shows and tourist performances, have helped me grasp and
understand more of Ireland’s social culture. I rapidly understood that in this
country there are guarded feelings about history, and in some ways they do
manifest to foreigners through the behaviors of Irish people.
My feelings
and thoughts of Ireland have formed based on my day to day interactions and a
large amount of theatrical and artful exposure in a short period of time;
although, a few weeks is not nearly enough time to grasp a deeper understanding
of Irish-ness or Irish culture, I do think my short time in Ireland has allowed
me to understand the complexities of Ireland’s history and its ongoing
development as a culture and as a country. More importantly, I have gained respect
and understanding towards Irish culture because I have come to grasp the
origins of their social troubles and also recognize the immense and rapid
progress they have achieved in a short period of time.
~Diana Vergara
Clockwise from upper right: Moni Wright, Diana Vergara (author),
Saba Bekele and Danielle Diaz
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