Beauty

Two things happened this morning at catechism class that made me wonder ...

I have been using a Spanish language website to print out coloring pages for the children in the Saturday morning program. Today´s picture was Jesus and the little children. With no instructions about which crayons to use, or what particular colors to choose nearly every one of the older children in the classroom where I was assisting chose yellow colors of one shade or another for the hair of Jesus and the hair of the children. As you might imagine, there is not a single tow-headed blond child in the group. A few have what might be called ´medium brown´ hair, but others have dark brown, and most have black hair.

The other event happened when I spoke with Fr. Hipólito about a young girl in the catechism class who I suspected was illiterate. He told me that, indeed, she could not read, and that in the DR elementary classes can have 50 or 60 students in a single class. Only those who are really motivated, and sit in the front of the classroom where they can hear and see the teacher actually learn anything. Others are left to fend for themselves, which is to say, they are forgotten. (Aside -- one of the really important ministries of the Episcopal Church here is the ministry of education. Many of the local parishes have parochial schools, with relatively high academic standards, and smaller class sizes. Unfortunately, tuition costs keep many bright but needy students away, even with scholarships.)

This girl, who I assumed was about 13, was very dark skinned. Fr H told me that the first time she came to catechism class, she was in tears. She told him her mother had abandoned her because she was prieta, a word which refers to dark skin color. Fr. H reassured her that she was sweet and lovely, and now calls her ´chocolate,´which in our country would be, if not insulting, at least a bit rude. (Though you might name a pet Chocolate).

Here it is a term of endearment, as are terms like morena, morenito, negro, negrita, none of which translates directly into English, but all of which imply something like "darky." It´s unthinkeable to most of us in our country to use such language, but that´s the difference in the culture.

Nonetheless, there are clear indications that beauty equals fair skin, light eye color, and straight hair. Nobody is going around deliberately teaching children that these are the standards of attractiveness, but they are picking them up from an early age. Some of this comes from the ubiquitous American advertising pictures, and some of it, I think, probably comes from the historical heritage. The Spaniards -- i.e. the Europeans -- were the ones with the power and the influence and the money. And they were fairer than most of the other residents.

Is it racism? I don´t know...maybe. But it makes me think. What is beauty, really?

And it makes me wonder what people make of this blue-eyed fair-skinned guy they see around the city.