The way that I was able to connect with FOREIGN WORDS was the way the Alexakis connected with a completely different country and what he was able to learn about himself and his own family. During my trip to El Salvador I was able to learn a lot about my own culture and family. I was able to see things very differently and had a new appreciation about what parents have been through in order to give me a better living. On page 31 it states, “not only do the words I have already studied encourage me to keep going, so do those I don’t know yet. The objects surrounding me are a constant reminder that I still don’t know their names in Sango…..I find myself in the middle of unknown words that are constantly calling out to me.” In the same fashion that Alexakis was not able to get enough of Sango and wanted to continue to learn more, I felt the same way about El Salvador so that I could learn more about where I came from and about my family.
Edwin, this is an excellent beginning. I’m glad to see you citing specific passages from FOREIGN WORDS. You can reconnect with El Salvador at any point by going to a Salvadoran community event here in New York, or looking at Salvadoran newspapers or websites on the internet. How do those reconnections from New York compare to what you experienced when you actually went to El Salvador?