The lense of ¨Orientialism¨ in Central America

Back in Guate with Jessica´s family who are so insanely endearing and our conversations have provided a good metric in determining how well the Spanish is improved.

Miguel Angel Garcia still speaks rather slow when trying to explain things, perhaps because he wants to speak more in english, and because we are usually talking about things that bring out our differences. While watching CNN ¨En Español¨, he said something to the affect that Islam was a violent religion. He was responded to by my reminder that the media in the west doesn´t really give a fair representation of the middle east. But before the point was solidified, it occurred to me that the Koran does not condemn violence to the extent that the bible does. The words that came out of my mouth can be translated into the following: it wasn´t until the 13th century that christianity was given an intellectual justification for violence by St. Thomas Aquinas.

This noticably shocked him which provoked me into explaining further by contrasting the bible with the Koran. He then explained with great difficulty --which is still currently attributed to his kind accomadation, thinking that my listening comprehension is even worse than it is-- his catholic beliefs, mentioning the planets in the universe and taking a turn to an anecdote where the governmentin France once declared that God has died. It is almost suspected that he was going to follow that one up with bad luck that followed France. He was about to receive the question which surely causes rifts within many christian communities: does he believe in an interventionist god? If so, what does he not intervene in? But he received his seventh phone call from clients who want to stay at his hotel.