Circle of Stereotypes

"The pair of americans persuading every local farmer that they could find along the entire  Caribbean coast of Colombia - from the tip of the Guajira all the way south to Santa Marta- to grow marijuana for them." (Page 113)

In one of my lasts posts I said that I believed that Paternostros tone was reflective but within this reflectionn can't she be accusing? These are after all her own reflections and if that is the case, all humans accuse others of things in reflections. In this part of the memoir, Paternostro is explaining how marijuana came to become a cash crop in Colombia and when she explains that it was actually two guys from Queens who convinced others to grow, one can feel a bit of accusation in what she writes.

In Chapter 13 is where all the explanations  about marijuana are being given. There is special emphasis in the fact that it was not Colombians who imposed it and those that in the end benefited from it, are made to sound as traders or even another kind of person not thought of as Colombian. A stereotype given to those that participated in this:

"Guajiros are known to be Colombias pirates, the pioneering smugglers...the men who entered the trade began to settle in Barranquilla and soon the word "guajiro" became synonymous with "drug trafficker"..." (Page 114-115)

These stereotypes and the way Paternostro writes about these Guajiros, make the reader assume a position based on what she has written. Obviously not all people from la Guajira can be described this way, probably less than half aren't this description. Stereotypes are usually used to accuse someone of something and in this chapter, the reader gets a sense that these Guajiros are to blame.

There's a sense that around this topic of drugs any Colombian would react. But as a Colombian, it is annoying when other countries blame the growth of the popularity of pot solely on us. Here is the proof that if it wasn't for the americans that came with their big bahs of money, and in a sense turned the Guajiros into a scapegoat. When people look back, they don't blame those two Americans from Queens, they blame Colombians in general. The Colombians in turn blame the decided scapegoat.
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