Parallels in Attitudes

Reading about Moki’s return to the village in Blue White and Red by Alain Mabanckou made me realize how many parallels there are in the way that people from developing countries think of and treat those that emigrate and come back. The passage in which Moki very carefully hands out the gifts to family and friends reminded me of my parents every time they go back to the Dominican Republic. Every time they plan the trip they do not have to worry about just things like flights, where they will be staying, or what places they will visit but they also have to worry about the gifts that they have to bring for family and friends in the homeland.
Thinking about it, there have been times where it seemed like people in our hometown were more eager for the gifts than to see us. One occasion that comes to mind was when my uncle went one summer and when he arrived at my grandparent’s home he set all his bags in a room and went to greet everyone in the living room. About five minutes later a good friend of his went up to him and asked him if the blue nike sneakers in the big bag were for him. My uncle then realised that he had not even opened his bags yet.

I also found that Alain Mabanckou did a good job at illustrating the way that people in the homeland perceive the foreign country. People in the book perceived Paris as not just a city in France but in a way a mystical place of its own. Similarly, I remember how a lot of people refer to pretty much any place a Dominican moves to in the U.S. as “Nueva York.” Even when my family from Florida visit they are still considered from “Nueva York.”
by Jaime Benavides

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