Farewell San Jose, With Love!

This is our last day in San Jose, which is my favorite place by far. I really do love this city, while most of my classmates may disagree. This morning, we've had our last encounter with Joaquin. I'm going to miss his crazy self and all the help that he gave us to navigate around this city. I’m also going to miss the liveliness of the city, people moving from quickly all over and driving crazy, as well as getting food whenever we want by walking to the local Mas y Menos (a Costa Rican grocery chain)!

Joaquin began the discussion by asking us to reflect on our expectations of Costa Rica and our actual experiences in the country. We were 30-40 minutes into our discussion when were visited by Daniella, who works with the Media Observatory on migrants and refugees. She was invited to speak with us because of her expertise as a media, race, and culture critic. After her introduction, Daniella shared with us facts and information about the portrayal of migrants from Nicaragua and Colombia, and Ricans from the Caribbean in the media. These ideas of racial profiling and prejudice are very similar to those that we have in the United States. Migrants are often portrayed in a very negative light, and even small crimes committed by an individual of a certain race are put in the forefront of magazines, newspapers, websites, and television news castings.

As an employee of the Media Observatory, Daniella explains to our class how the local diversity and its reality have been made invisible, and that many media outlets are responsible for the prejudices that people develop as a result of what they see and hear in the news. Health, security, and education, which are some of the concurrent issues covered in Costa Rican media, have been depicted as being on a decline because of the migration of Colombians and Nicaraguans into the country. Multiple times on our trip it has been revealed the that both overt and covert racism have been directed towards to these migrants, and sadly, it makes a lot of sense how these ideas are perpetuated through the media.

As Dr. Vanessa Smith from the University of Costa Rica told us in her discussion last week, many Costa Ricans have had very minimal, if any , interaction with individuals of other nationalities, ; therefore, these perceptions must have come from some place where the information is easily accessible. Perception is reality and has harmed these migrants in many ways. It is so sad to know that this happens all over the world. Of course, we have our own history of prejudice and racism in the United States, but for some reason, it still amazes me that racism is still so prevalent in other countries as well.

As the day progressed, we lounged around and casually discussed our topics and ideas for our presentations, which are to be given while we are on the UGA’s campus in San Luis. We are such college students, waiting until the last moments to brainstorm and complete our tasks, but we have gathered so much information on a daily basis and have countless facts and observations to complement what e have learned thus far during our program. My group’s topic is “Stereotypes in Costa Rica and beyond,” while the other group’s works work will be on the proximity of affection, as well as the perception of beauty and appearance. I am excited to see what we all come up with and when we put all of our perceptions of the information together and present it to our class.

Well, we had class at the end of the day, our final class session of the program! To wrap up the term, Dr. Harris asked for us to write down five things we have learned and will adapt into our daily lives once we return to the US. Here is my list:

1)STOP making generalization
2)Make a conscious effort to see past race and embrace other’s cultural differences and backgrounds
3)Go to events, programs, etc that are different from what I am used to, such as the AOPi house with Carly
4)Have much more patience with people and things
5)Find the positivity in ALL the things that I have; be grateful

Some of us made comments about being more critical as consumers, sharing new ideas with family and friends, and being more self-reflective. I am so proud of how far we all have come on this trip thus far. We’ve learned so much and I only pray that we will continue to apply this knowledge as we come back to the “real” world.

Yours Truly,
Bianca Wilson-Price