My Bolivian Disguise

I look Bolivian. Well not exactly, but I am getting closer to it I believe. When I’m in Cochabamba nowadays, I’ve cleverly started wearing my sunglasses everywhere and I think that it helps me to look more Bolivian when you can’t see my slanty little Asian eyes. I think I’ve had some relative success with this. I’m trying to play myself off as a Bolivian or at least a person of some type of Latino descent from somewhere unfamiliar (to…umm…everyone?) that could explain my horrendous accent.

My greatest triumph lately was when I was walking down the street and a teenage boy called me “blancito” which roughly translates to “whitey” (and was supposed to be some kind of insult, au contraire!) Victory! My assumption was that he thought based on my physical appearance I was a light-skinned Bolivian. Well look at that, the first time in my life that someone has ever called me “whitey.” Up until this to this point it has only been “chinita” or “japonesa” so I think I’m making progress.