Reframing Latin America: A Cultural Theory Reading ... - BGSU Blogs

an opening jaunt: el salvador in 1923 67
many of his descriptions on an essentialist foundation, revealing the modernist
framework at the core of his interpretation. For example, he often implies
that the behavior of Central Americans refl ects inborn character traits.
He categorizes animals and people alike as “half-breed” and uses the term
“to mate” to describe the marital practices of “peons.” The most revealing
of his essentialisms occur when he collapses essentialist identities together
and allows them to reinforce one another. When he writes that “the peon
girl without a partner is the daughter of a rather sensuous race, and of a race
that is not inclined to work when an easier living is to be obtained” (our
italics), he links class and race such that a poor girl becomes a racial type
rather than a member of an economic category. 7
A semiotic reading pays attention to the moments when Foster’s text
speaks against itself. For example, he criticizes the people of El Salvador for
generalizing about all “gringos,” proving that he is aware of the problems
of stereotyping. He is not deterred, however, from writing stereotypical descriptions
of Salvadorans. If we further examine what he means by “internal
bickerings,” we can see both the essentialisms and the contradiction in the
Foster text, of which he is unaware. While wondering why Central Americans
don’t escape overpopulation in one nation by “gravitating” over into
the next, he concludes that “the people of all these nations are like those of
the Balkans in their hatred for one another.” He bases this conclusion on a
conversation with a Salvadoran he meets on a train who tells him he should
never go to Guatemala because the people there are scoundrels. This revelation
prompts Foster to recall that Guatemalans he had spoken to previously
characterized Salvadorans in a similar manner. In describing the details of
this bickering, he points to the absurdity of the essentialisms that Central
Americans carry for one another. Yet, he does not reveal the absurdity of essentialisms
in general and essentializes the people of Central America even
further.
Harry Foster, “A Gringo in Mañana-land” 8
IV
A few hours of leisurely travel brought me to San Salvador, the capital of
El Salvador.
It was a warm, sunny capital, only a trifl e over two thousand feet in altitude,
extremely low for a Central American city. Its population numbered
only some fi fty or sixty thousand. Its people, being of mestizo composition,
did not affect the barbaric raiment of the Guatemalan Indians. The halfbreed
maidens wrapped themselves in fi lmy shawls of pink or blue, but