Villa Miseria

My Spanish teacher asked for our weekend experiences today at the beginning of class. I wasn’t expecting such a strong reaction from her when I recounted my tour of one of the “villas miserias,” (poor squatter communities, as mentioned in Feb 25th’s entry). In a nutshell, her reaction was, “you’ve got to be crazy,” and implored that the other students not follow my lead. She insisted that the people living in these villas are uneducated, violent, dangerous drug addicts, and that I was lucky to reappear unscathed. As you can imagine, I was squirming in my seat and swirling in my mind of how to manage this conversation. On the one hand, remembering my jaunt through the poor community on that sunny Saturday afternoon, I remember experiencing a complete sense of security. Peeking into the humble homes along the narrow path, I saw impeccable cleanliness, and I exchanged smiles and nods with the residents there. On the other hand, I have to admit that I am a foreigner to this land. I wonder to what extent my experiences in other countries, in neighborhoods similar to this villa, translate to this new reality? And on another level, I admit to my perhaps naïve tendency to want to believe in the good in all people, even more so among those in the most impoverished physical conditions. When I hear these stereotypes about a neighborhood or a group of people being dangerous, uneducated, unruly… comments that seem to paint the group as a “separate breed,” to what extent is this reality? Even considering it is (which I profoundly do not), how can we dismantle this fear that sets up walls which perpetuate injustice? To creatively readjust our perspective to see that building bridges of interaction, belief, and faith can help to dissolve these unhealthy and useless boundaries?

As I brought up Gandhi in tonight’s family discussion about violence, I was intrigued to hear such resolute responses regarding his being of “another level,” or higher being. I got little impression that they believe it’s possible to even get close to being what Gandhi was to this world. But he was a man, a human being, I insisted. We are all capable of acting out of such a place of love and peace; are we not? Is it so difficult?