Meeting People When Traveling

Mostly when I meet new people when traveling I say my first name and then people ask where I am from. Most of the time I remember where people are from and not their name, at least that is how it goes with me. Mostly the conversation stops there, or I ask about their travels.

Pry Further

But with me most of the time the conversation doesn’t stop there, when I answer I am from Holland. They pry further: 

• ‘Did you live there all your life? 

• But where were you born? 

• Your parents where are they from?‘

I take it as interest and as I am proud of my roots, they are part of my identity! I answer I was born in the Dutch Caribbean, Curaçao. 

Curaçao passport

‘Oh so you have a Curaçao passport? ‘  No a Dutch one, its Dutch territories like Puerto Rico is to USA and Martinique to France. Then people seemed satisfied and the questioning stops. I take this mostly as interest but some days I wonder about this ………

'Hé, je lijkt niet op een Antilliaan!'

In 2008 I was interviewed about racism for Contrast by Shantie Ramlal-Jagmohansingh. I talked about positive racism, which is actually also not okay. Racism comes most of the time due to:

• Lack of education about other people. Not knowing makes people afraid and there reaction harsh

• a bad experience people had experienced with people with a certain appearance or background.

*In the article 'He, je lijkt niet op een Antilliaan!' my lastname is misspelled. My last name is spelled Capella.