I never thought I would be abroad for any reason. Let alone Romania, a country I didn’t know anything about until I applied to this program. We have just wrapped up a 9-day trip traveling by bus within Romania to different cities, towns, and rural villages to ultimately arrive in Transylvania. I found myself reflecting a lot about during our bus rides, having moments of realization that someone like me, a first-generation student, daughter of immigrants, was currently studying abroad.
My first epiphany came from the beautiful natural scenery. I was able to see things I had never seen before, considering I had never left Minneapolis, MN (if we don’t count a short weekend getaway to Chicago, or when I got sent to Mexico to get babysat for 2 years when I was 3, while my mom worked 3 jobs to send us money). One of my favorite memories in Cluj, Transylvania, was when some of us went to see the Botanical gardens. I had never been to one before, and it has been one of the most beautiful things I have seen so far in Cluj. Tulips of all kinds, magnolias, and lilies of all kinds, all in one spot.
Another moment I remember time freezing was when we were on our way back to Bucharest, the main city we are staying in, and had to make an emergency stop in the middle of nowhere because our bus was having electrical issues, and we got to enjoy the beautiful landscape in front of us by a small river and huge mountains. It was quiet, warm, and a bittersweet moment where I realized that our 9-day trip was over.
As I reflected on how grateful I am to have chosen to be abroad and see new things, I am also learning about what the situation is like abroad. One of the biggest topics of discussion that continuously came up during our trip was otherness. I had first learned of the term in my American studies class called Beauty and Race in America, even though I already understood the idea, I couldn’t help but to feel taken aback by the way the majority in the U.S. would describe people that they considered different, non-citizen, non-white, or “alien”. What is considered otherness in the U.S. was my identity and my culture, and I couldn’t help but to feel different, sometimes in a good way by feeling unique and sometimes in a bad way by feeling like an outsider. In the case of Romania and other countries in Europe, the story appears to be the same. Not to the exact detail, but there is a universal experience that comes from being different, being perceived and labeled as the other.
There were two lectures from this trip that led me to this kind of thinking and interpretation. The first one was led by Laszlo Foszto, who has a PhD in Social Anthropology and is the Senior Researcher at The Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities. In his lecture “Xenophobia on the Eastern Margins of the European Union: the Case of Roma in Romania”. We learned a bit more about the historical and cultural background of the Roma community and their origins, but most importantly, what I took away from this lecture was the public perception of the community by Romanians of a community that had been there for hundreds of years. There was a clear divide due to state pride in being Romanian and considering everyone else as the other, including this Roma community.
The second lecture was led by Oana-Maria Mateescu who has a PhD in Anthropology and History and is currently teaching at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj. Her lecture “Work and Racialization in the Context of Recent South Asian Immigration”, we learned that her work is very recent and new given a new wave of migration from South Asian groups, mainly for work. And yet, the immigration work laws are unorganized and impossible to work with. There are a lot of loopholes that end up affecting these migrants, leaving them vulnerable in a foreign country where they barely know the language.
Having this in mind, I can’t help but draw parallel comparisons from my own experience in the U.S., coming from a Mexican heritage background. Although I may not know all of the details in Romania, I know for sure that this narrative seems all too familiar to the immigration situation in the U.S. and the unfair treatment towards the “other”. Even though I am abroad thousands of miles away from home, I have somehow found my way back to learning about the history and treatment of minorities and immigrants.