General Discussion

I can’t imagine what things will be like for an Otavaleño that I met on the streets of Boston last summer. He was a full-blooded Quichua from Ecuador busking with his pan pipes and haunting Andean folk music. During a break, I asked him in Spanish where he was from. When he said “Ecuador,” I immediately guessed his home town, which was Otavalo. He was stunned, wondering how some random Gringo on the street in Boston could ever guess what town he was from in rural Ecuador.

But not all of us gringos are totally ignorant of the world outside of our borders, and a few of us are even aware that Otavalo is a famous home town to street buskers of Andean music, and that they end up on street corners in many lands, especially in North America and Europe. We probably talked for over half an hour. He is exactly the kind of person I am proud to welcome as a visitor, and appalled that he is likely to be the kind of guy that would now get refused a visa.

I am waiting to hear more horror stories from acquaintances who get harassed or detained (hoping my wife will not be one of them this year). I’m sure there will be some. I don’t know which of my EU, Canadian or East Asian colleagues, if any, are canceling plans to come to the USA this summer. If they are, I don’t blame them. If not, I hope they are not harassed or worse. My worst treatment at an American airport was at the hands of a despicable team of American Airlines employees, whose airline I will never fly again.

I’m sure there will be one or more ugly incidents to report in the near future. This past Friday just happened not to be one if them.