Chile Forum

Yeah a combo of personal referral and letting the referral know through your actions and words you are aware, watching and vigilant will prevent most problems.

Then there is the "proxy" route alone or combined with the above.

Then there are other scenarios where they assume or you fool them into thinking you are a cheap ass (like when I overheard a chileno thinking I was a chino peruano).

JLP wrote:

Frank wrote:Chilean racism is a little strange... most obviously directed at Peruvians, who are supposedly "cochinos"...

I struggle with your statement, because in reality it's not a matter of race (white, yellow, black or red) but an issue of nationalism and immigration. I very well remember a few times in Canada in the 1991 recession when some Canadian born whites, blacks and orientals where blaming the "immigrants" for the tough times.
What you fail to mention is that Bolivians and Argentinians are also thrown in the same pot, yet, Ecuadorians, Colombians, Cubans and all other Latin Americans as well as the recent Asian, African and South Asian immigrants are never talked of.
I personally believe that it is because of our history (Pacific War) and traditional border problems we have with Argentina. By the way, just remember that we Chileans are not considered the greatest people in Argentina, Bolivia and Peru either!!!! Somehow we are also considered some kind of scum by them.

As far as I am concerned, I am out of the box (Matrix ?) I'm proud to say that I have very good Peruvian, Argentinian and Bolivian friends.

Wasn't intended as any kind of provocation, just my recollection of what I've seen in Chile, mainly in Santiago. Got Peruvian colleagues and friends as well. I hadn't mentioned the other nationalities as they hadn't come up, but now that you jog my memory, I remember a Peruvian who preferred Chileans to think she was Ecuadorian. From Chiclayo, in the north of Peru, and I understand there were some family connections with Ecuador, but as you say, Ecuadorians aren't remarked on in Chile. Possibly because there are relatively few of them so they're off the radar screen? Same I imagine for Cubans. However, Colombians are very much in evidence in Santiago, but perhaps because they seem to occupy a lot of professional positions (as opposed to working in restaurants and people's homes), and are also returning home in some quantity since Colombia has had economic success and peace over the last few years they don't excite any strong emotions in Chile. People just smile when they talk (sing-song accent).

Chileans are definitely not in good favour with a lot of the neighbouring countries, in fact even as a non-Chilean I get some strange reactions when I use my by now Chilean-accented Spanish.

About Argentina, that's a thread in itself. I guess two countries with such a long border were always going to find it difficult to get on well. I understand the Argentineans reputation in Chile to be "arrogant SOB's", while Chileans are "uncultured hicks" in Argentina (though apparently hard workers, for some reason).

I have not had sufficient coffee this morning to fully process what that was all about, but we all know what happens to offensive trolls when I have not had my coffee yet. All I can do is click the banned button.

Troll be gone. As you were.