Quotes About Culture

the national sport is to talk about the person who just left the room. In this, too, we are different from our idols, the English, whose principles forbid them from making personal remarks.

La fe no me ha fallado, pero mi relación con Dios ha ido cambiando con los años. A veces, sin pensarlo, lo llamo Ngenechén, y a la Virgen del Socorro la confundo con la Santa Madre Tierra de los mapuche

Our country has produced exceptional men and women: two Nobel laureates—Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral—the singers/composers Víctor Jara and Violeta Parra, the pianist Claudio Arrau, the painter Roberto Matta, and the novelist José Donoso, to mention a few who come to mind.

The first thing we offer a visitor is a tecito, an agüita, or a vinito, a "nice little drink" of tea, water, or wine. We always add the diminutive -ito to our words, almost as an apology for offering, in accord with our desire not to be noticed and our horror of putting on airs, even with words.

Why had that woman tried to give me her baby? It was a girl. No one wants a girl! the driver answered.

Mapu-ché, «gente de la tierra», así se llaman ellos mismos

Isla de Pascua

Apenas comprendió que en Estados Unidos ella no era blanca, se le pasó el racismo, y su amistad con Tabra barrió sus prejuicios contra artistas y gente de izquierda.

Los hombres temen el poder femenino, por eso las leyes, las religiones y las costumbres han impuesto durante siglos toda suerte de restricciones al desarrollo intelectual, artístico y económico de las mujeres.

You get three Venezuelans together and one will play the drums or the guitar and the other two will dance; there is no ill that can resist that treatment. Our parties, in contrast, seem like funerals: the men gather in a corner to talk business and the women die of boredom. Only the young dance, seduced by North American music, but as soon as they marry they turn solemn like their parents.

the United states is as safe as a convent, but the culture is addicted to violence. Proof of that is to be found in its sports, its games, its art, and, certainly, not least, its films, which are bloodcurdling. North Americans don't want violence in their lives, but they need to experience it indirectly. They are enchanted by war, as long as it's no on their turf.

Para un chino ilustre el evento más importante en la vida era su propio funeral.

Despite being English, they served an edible meal.

pero ese tema era tabú en aquellos tiempos de hipocresía colectiva.

we turn our backs on Latin America, always comparing ourselves instead to Europe.

Las creencias propias se llaman religión, las de los demás se llaman superstición, lo nuestro es idioma, lo que hablan los demás son dialectos, y lo que hacen los blancos se llama arte, y lo que hacen las demás razas es artesanía.

discovered flamenco dancing, which

Despite being English, they served an edible meal.~p 108, A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

Despite being English, they served an edible meal. -A Long Petal of the Sea, page 108

His grandfather, he said, was from a traveling family—part of a group called the "Gringos"—signifying, here, not unwanted Americans but Greek-speaking Gypsies in Spain.

Much which is unworthy in human life might be avoided if people would only accustom themselves to talking in verse

People in New Zealand go out of their way to not be impressed by things.

I would have thought there's no greater country to watch rugby than New Zealand.

I'm a Kiwi. I'm from a beach suburb called Takapuna, which is on the north shore of Auckland in New Zealand.