Logan Fee

Dance 1010
July 15, 2015
Life History Interview
For this assignment I chose to do it on Ecuador and the cultural differences involved with
moving to Utah from there. When this assignment was first brought up I instantly thought of a
good friend of mine that is from Ecuador. Ive always been intrigued by where he has come from
and the different traditions that he has from there. Conducting an interview for this assignment
was a great opportunity to ask him more specifically about his culture and living here.
Interviewing him was a very fun process. It actually went a lot longer than I would have
anticipated. Even towards the end he would ask me if I still had time to keep going. Each
question he would have a different view then I would have expected. Due to the fact that I have
lived in the United States my whole life I never thought of his point of views with language,
food, proper etiquette, birthdays, holidays, sports, schools, and even safety. These are the topics
that will be address throughout this paper.
When my friend first moved here he was 18 years old. He moved here because his mom
married a white male from Salt Lake City, Utah. News like this made a big impact on him and
for his family. After arriving in Utah one of the bigger challenges was language. I asked him,
Did you feel like others treated you a lot different since you didnt know how to speak English
very well? The response really surprised me. He talked about how here in Utah (possibly the
United States) there are many individuals that speak Spanish and others did their best to try to
help him. There wasnt a particular time that he could recall that he truly felt discriminated
against due to the language barrier. Thats not to mention that he didnt have a hard time trying to
learn it.

I actually first met him serving an LDS mission in the same place of Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma. Where I was able to serve with him specifically. So with this question I also could see
the other side of individuals in the United States that talked with him differently. As if he
didnt understand them so they spoke in a slower or different way. I found this to be quite
annoying; but, it wasnt very often that this happened. By the time I met him he had a pretty
good understanding but would still need help with particular words and using words in the right
phrase of time. From first-hand experience I felt that he was treated a little different by
individuals that he may not have seen himself. It was refreshing to hear that he felt very
comfortable with everyone here in the Utah area and helping him. That is what I would hope for
anyone that were to move here and feel welcome.
In the interview we also talked about what it felt like to be brown and from Ecuador
here. I asked him this question, Do you feel discriminated against by other races? Particularly
white individuals? He responded by saying that he doesnt feel discriminated against since there
are many other cultures around the Salt Lake area that he felt like he fit in. He did say that as
far as cultures go the Mexicans have been the most rude to him. This was an answer that I would
never have guessed. This resulted in extra questions from me to find out why! He said that they
have their own culture and tradition when it comes to family. Even though he is from Ecuador,
has a similar skin tone, and speaks the same language he still felt discriminated against by a
decent amount of Mexicans here. There was a time he mentioned (without exact details) that he
was at a restaurant here where one was making very rude comments towards him in Spanish. He
ended up going and talking to him to find out what was going on and said that he wouldnt give
him a particular answer. I found that interesting that others would still make comments towards
him in Spanish with the possibility of him knowing about it and that being here in the United

States. He also mentioned that he feels much safer being in the United States. Down in Ecuador
there was a much higher crime rate and people that would rob people walking down the street.
This never did happen to him personally, but it did happen to some of his friends. I didnt think
that it would be that bad in Ecuador. Our government does put a large emphasis on crime and
making sure that everyone obeys the law. He and I are both grateful we can feel safe here!
Discussing discrimination and the language barrier was an interesting topic.
I then asked him more of a simple question about the food of his culture and his thoughts
about the food here. He talked about a few different dishes, one in particular is called
Encebollado. Which is a fish soup. He then went on to say that this is a common dish that the
people would eat for breakfast. Now here in Utah if anyone eats fish soup for breakfast there
would be the idea that their taste buds are weird. This came to a surprise to me to say the least.
But, this was more common since the city hes from called Guayaquil is right next to the coast.
Resulting in seafood being a routine meal each day. He then went to mention that the seafood
there is MUCH better than the quality of seafood here in Utah.
For lunch they would always have rice with another sort of meat such as chicken, beef, or
fish. The name of a meal mentioned for this was Seco de pollo. This led to ideas about a
difference of etiquette between our cultures. He said that they are very picky about using proper
etiquette in Ecuador. There was a story he told about going over to a family friends house with
his mom. When he was there they had a great meal but he didnt use all of the silverware that
was provided. So afterwards when they left his mom reprimanded him and asked why he didnt
use all that was provided. That is definitely not how things are viewed here! Since living here he
still feels the instinct from his culture to have the proper etiquette even though it is not viewed in
the same way.

Holidays are a time that is much harder for my friend being here in Utah. Particularly
New Years Eve. They have a much bigger celebration there than they do here. On New Years
Eve everyone dresses nicer with new clothes on. They even have different good luck legends.
For example, if someone wants more money the next year they need to wear yellow underwear,
if they want love the next year than it needs to be red underwear, if they want to travel they need
to walk around with a suitcase for a good amount of time around midnight, and for the simpler
part of getting good luck in general they will eat twelve grapes! These were all very interesting
and fun ideas to me.
Something that was more exciting was what he called Fin de ano, which means old
year. Where each family makes a character out of cardboard and paper to burn at midnight. The
character is called, Ano Viejo. They make characters
that are superheroes, cartoons, actors, politicians, etc. He
showed me pictures and a lot of them are VERY well
done. (To the right is an example of an Ano Viejo picture
that he showed me). They do this to symbolize burning the bad from the previous year. They also
put fireworks inside of it as well.
I asked him how he feels about New Years here in Utah and he says its very boring and
he even feels homesick or left out that night. Since all of his friends and other family are out on
the streets in Ecuador celebrating and all the music playing throughout the city and we do such a
small celebration compared to that. He talked about the idea that if his family were to burn an
Ano Viejo here in the United States they would get in a lot of trouble for creating a fire in the
street. So instead to make it a little more exciting this last year him and his family made one out
of balloons that was a soccer player and they popped all of the balloons at midnight (picture to

the left). This was much better and more exciting for him to bring his culture here and not have
little amounts of fireworks or confetti poppers. I would love to feel of
the environment that he talked about in Ecuador with everyone
celebrating in the streets with music and dancing going on within the
community. Makes our ball drop in New York not seem near as exciting
or community building as what they have going on in Ecuador.
Towards the end of the interview I asked about what school was like
there. He talked about them having private and public schools but no
matter what school you go to you have a uniform. With college they have schools that are more
prestigious. But, none of them have a mascot or are viewed in the way that they are here in the
United States. He said that he enjoys that type of atmosphere here as he has been attending
college and feels like he is more of a part of the school. Within the sports side of colleges they
dont have football or baseball programs in Ecuador. They have the majority of all the other
sports but not those two. Which for him isnt a big deal since they are all about soccer there! He
said growing up they do a soccer tournament every year during school for about two to three
weeks within each grade. So they do that for excitement and if the World Cup is going on
everything shuts down and closes a few hours before the game starts. Then as you walk down the
streets you can hear the games in car radios and televisions everywhere. There are also people
that paint their faces and go all out during this time. Being here in the United States he says
that he doesnt get to feel that same type of atmosphere about soccer or any sport. They are much
more into it down in Ecuador and he even mentioned all throughout South America. This would
be something that would be a blast to have here in the United States. I would preferably love to
have this involving baseball, but I dont see this happening any time soon.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to interview my friend and see his point of view from a
different culture and non-privileged group. Language would be such a difficult thing to me,
learning the different values here, foods, and celebrations. This challenged my assumptions about
how he felt learning the language here by him feeling comfortable and helped by other privileged
groups. As well as the idea of how safe we feel here in this country. The perspective on
Ecuadorian culture has really grown for me in the idea of how family/friend oriented it is. I
didnt think that was as a large part of their culture; which I really like that it is.
It also helped me reflect more on the culture that we have here in Utah. From what my
friend had to say we are a friendly culture that has its own traditions and norms. I didnt think
much about this concept until I saw the perspective of someone else thats not from here. I
learned a lot from this interview and assignment. Ecuador seems like a place that I would love to
visit someday and see some of these perspectives and celebrations for myself!