[speaker002:] yeah uh so the thing is I traveled to uh I traveled all over uh South America a few years ago when I was in college and uh
[speaker001:] ah
[speaker002:] picked up a lot of history and uh and uh a lot of cultural knowledge from that experience uh have you had any experience with it or have you read or have you any interest in it
[speaker001:] well I've I've spent uh I spent three years in the Orient but I uh as how shall I say it living on their level but and but I've never been uh to South America so
[speaker002:] well it was interesting for me I hadn't taken much uh history or any classes or anything on it at school and uh the person I was traveling with knew a lot about it uh and she kind of explained a lot of things that were going on there but uh uh it was interesting to to see a lot of uh the history and how they've sort of developed into some of the patterns that each of the countries have been through when I was traveling around down there
[speaker001:] the the thing that that I uh  I guess I could could say that I know how none I know how America comes across to other countries from my uh time in the Orient uh
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and I know that uh so I I guess I can extrapolate it a little extrapolate a little bit and say that that uh might makes right and money makes right and uh uh I'm sure that the perception in other places is that these guys are a bunch of bullies uh
[speaker002:] yeah I think that uh I think that particularly applies down there uh it uh there was a perception particularly in Brazil and Argentina that the United States had was really to blame for a lot of the economic oppression that was suffered down there because uh something like after the war we gave all sorts of special trade preferences to Europe to help them recover and completely ignored the South American beef and
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and what other industry they had down there and they suffered greatly for that even though they had these great products for export you it was sort of the United States that was kind of choosing their fate you know who would make it and who wouldn't
[speaker001:] well I I and yet I can see part of that because uh how shall I say it my impression of Latins has been governed by when I grew up in California and certainly here you are in Texas uh uh my impression of Latins was was totally uh colored by the fact that I there were a lot of uneducated Mexicans and uh I think most Americans you know all the stereotypes are that the they call them banana republics and things like that so that the stereotypes are that that uh they don't know what they're not very well educated when I was the the flip side of that is
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] that uh in my twenties uh well when I was in in Hong Kong I found uh uh I I met some people who were totally white blonde haired people from I think it was Uruguay
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and uh so they told me a little about they said well this is you know it it's very European country and uh then I met uh after I got married I met a woman from uh Mexico City whose vocabulary she didn't speak English at all that her vocabulary was incredible even though her pronunciation was uh a little rough
[speaker002:] huh yeah
[speaker001:] and I talk and I heard her give a speech one time and I I uh she was got all over me because uh she said you're  you're equating the fact that my accent uh that I have a Spanish accent with no vocabulary and so I guess what I'm leading up to is to say that I'm sure they're getting very tired of us not taking them seriously
[speaker002:] yeah uh in fact a lot of those same sort of stereotypes impressions I had before I traveled around down there and one of the things I learned was that there is an incredible amount of diversity uh especially from country to country but even within countries you know you you've got uh uh different races uh in in the Andean countries you have a big uh Indian race you know and and Mexico has a lot of that and that's why you know you get sort of the Spanish Mexicans who who aren't really as common that you see in the United States and
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and the uh the the poor uh ethnic uh you know Indian uh uh races and cultures and everything and there's a there's a big mixture and then like Brazil has uh a lot of African people of African descent and all different races and and then you you deal with a lot of issues that are sort of even a microcosm of of the racial issues in the United States where like people in Argentina