at as ifI had to give an explanation for these bizane happenings in American culture. To Spaniards and some Europeans, the Lewinsky-Clinton affair seemed to define all Americans. How
ignorant is this? There I was, trying to explain to Spaniards that there \\:ere many people in the USA who felt the media had gone overboard on the Lewinsky affair. Furthermore, I explained that many Americans really do have concems beyond scandalous media stories and are active in social worko
education, human rights. the environment, etc. etc. But then NATO (with the US at its head as aluays) decided to inten-ene in Kosovo affairs. At this point all Americans were being bad-mouthed on a daily basis. And what couid I say besides "don't confuse Americans with US govemment policies." After all, it tends to be US govemment policy, T!- shows, and media coverage that reflect the US to the rest of the world. And this certainly doesn't give the world a true representation of ail the diverse population and ideas that exist in the USA. You can see my frustration. After spending nine months in Spain it became very apparent to me that I would never be able to assimilate my so-called identity in a single dimension. After all, I went to Spain to reclaim and understand my Spanishness and ended up explaining and defending America and its bizarre culture to Spaniards in such a way that for the first time in my life I began to value the USA and its acceptance ofpeople like myself. In other words, in America you lvill generally be accepted for lho,vou are -- ChineseAmerican, Chicano, Native American, etc etc. This isn't to say that racial and economic discrimination doesn't exist in this country because it obviously does. But a democratic system that includes ideas like "all people are created equal" and "freedom of speech" -- to some extent -allows people of mixed races and identities to empower themselves in many ivays. The art, punk and political activist communities were some of the first communities where I felt comfortable in because they seemed to accept people rvho were not only a bit different from the norm, but who aiso had different ideas about the worid and ways ofdoing things. These communities indirectly en-
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