In my never ending quest to learn about my somewhat new home, I gathered a great deal of insight into the Dominican psyche at the gym today.
As it turns out I am in friendly competition with my little brother in a bench press contest, so I have been training rather heavily. I have a Dominican buddy who spots me and we usually speak English as his English is even better than mine. Anyway, I had been sharing some "secrets" with him about powerlifting as I had learned and we have been progressing rather steadily with the weights, so much so that today that at least half the gym stopped in their tracks to see me do my lift. It turns out for most of them it is a whole lot of weight, even for guys that outwweigh me 50 lbs or more. When I was getting ready to do it one of the fellows there warned my spotter that it was going to be his "fault" if I hurt myself. When I did it, a few of the guys noted how red my face got and said I was going to kill myself for sure one day doing so much weight - it didn't seem to matter to them that at one point I had done quite a bit more and in fact was quite meek compared to some of the guys I knew back in the States. One guy who had actually been kidding me about not being strong, who also outweighs me by about thirty pounds, said I was doing it all wrong even though I am already doing more than he can. In fact, I have had quite a few Domincans tell me out of the blue unprovoked that I am too small and skinny and weak to be able to lift like them.
I finally asked my Domincan buddy, what is the deal as I had run into this over the years - Domicans telling me that I was really weak and that they are a lot stronger. He said it is all about being "macho". In other words, if you "look" more "macho", ie bigger and stronger than it means that you are. Even after I showed these guys up it was like it didn't register in the mind of some of the guys - they will never be convinced that I could be stronger even if they see me do it with my own eyes!
At that point a light switched on for me - to Domincans, the "appearance" is valued much more than the "substance". And now matter how much "substance" you have, it will more than likely be overlooked. This explains to me why the excessive materialism is so important to so many Dominicans. It is because if someone has a certain appearnace then all sorts of other things are automatically assumed about the person. Now I understand why sometimes Domincans look at me the way they do in their US120k jipetas when I take my daughter to school on the US2k motorcycle in jeans and sometimes an old tshirt - it is like - look at that poor American - que verguenza - haha!
In spite of this new found insite, Domincans are still very pleasant to be around. Typically, there genteelness will overwhelm their materialism.
As it turns out I am in friendly competition with my little brother in a bench press contest, so I have been training rather heavily. I have a Dominican buddy who spots me and we usually speak English as his English is even better than mine. Anyway, I had been sharing some "secrets" with him about powerlifting as I had learned and we have been progressing rather steadily with the weights, so much so that today that at least half the gym stopped in their tracks to see me do my lift. It turns out for most of them it is a whole lot of weight, even for guys that outwweigh me 50 lbs or more. When I was getting ready to do it one of the fellows there warned my spotter that it was going to be his "fault" if I hurt myself. When I did it, a few of the guys noted how red my face got and said I was going to kill myself for sure one day doing so much weight - it didn't seem to matter to them that at one point I had done quite a bit more and in fact was quite meek compared to some of the guys I knew back in the States. One guy who had actually been kidding me about not being strong, who also outweighs me by about thirty pounds, said I was doing it all wrong even though I am already doing more than he can. In fact, I have had quite a few Domincans tell me out of the blue unprovoked that I am too small and skinny and weak to be able to lift like them.
I finally asked my Domincan buddy, what is the deal as I had run into this over the years - Domicans telling me that I was really weak and that they are a lot stronger. He said it is all about being "macho". In other words, if you "look" more "macho", ie bigger and stronger than it means that you are. Even after I showed these guys up it was like it didn't register in the mind of some of the guys - they will never be convinced that I could be stronger even if they see me do it with my own eyes!
At that point a light switched on for me - to Domincans, the "appearance" is valued much more than the "substance". And now matter how much "substance" you have, it will more than likely be overlooked. This explains to me why the excessive materialism is so important to so many Dominicans. It is because if someone has a certain appearnace then all sorts of other things are automatically assumed about the person. Now I understand why sometimes Domincans look at me the way they do in their US120k jipetas when I take my daughter to school on the US2k motorcycle in jeans and sometimes an old tshirt - it is like - look at that poor American - que verguenza - haha!
In spite of this new found insite, Domincans are still very pleasant to be around. Typically, there genteelness will overwhelm their materialism.
