MovieChat Forums > Jesse (1998) Discussion > offensive to chileans

offensive to chileans

posted 19 years ago by edivila
20 replies | jump to latest

As a chilean person i'm most than used to hear movie characters talking about chile in a complete disinformed way. it's usually used in jokes that implie a remote locations that no-one knows nothing about (like in there's something about mary, or seinfeld) and normally i found it funny cause this characters are supposed to be as ignorant about chile as everyone is, so no problem.

some other times they clearly use chile cause they needed say something about a southamerican country and they just opened a world map an pick the southest country there is. for example, there's a playstation racing game called wipeout xl wich features a racing track in valparaiso chile. now, valparaiso is a very special looking port city, mainly becouse of it's interesting architecture. but in this game, valparaiso, chile, is portrayed as a amazonic jungle, with the ocassional aztec pyramid. still, this didnt bother.

now, if you're making a sitcom, and you're going to have a chilean main character, the least you can do is pick up an encyclopedia, or a tourist guide and learn the basics of the damn country.

who i'm talking about is diego:
- he drinks tequila (for chileans tequila is as foreign as it must be to americans)
- he eats tacos (same thing as tequila)
- he has parents trying to fix his marriage (a practice that probably died more that 50 years ago)
- and my personal favorite, he helps people from his country get across the border (please show me a map that clearly shows what border the united states shares with chile)

from all this, i think it's pretty obvious that for americans everything below their southern border is one big mexico.

[–] infinitelylost4ever 19 years ago

That border thing is kinda funny. It takes common sense and a lot of times people don't use that because who wants common sense in a comedy? That makes it a whole lot less funny. Yeah I smuggled my dog over the border from Spain. Lol!! Kay anyway... My hometown gets its name from Valparaiso, Chile. I'd love to go there someday. And I speak a little spanish and plan on going further with my spanish so yeah.

~~~Kiss~~~

I love Casper the friendly ghost and he's mine so y'all can't have him.

[–] edivila 19 years ago

thanks for answering, i honestly thought no-one in the world was ever going to read my post.

[–] infinitelylost4ever 19 years ago

No problem! I was bored and curious about what exactly would be offensive. I haven't seen the show since I was really young. Way before I started taking spanish and learning about the different cultures. We had a student teacher when I was in 8th grade who was from Chile. I don't remember what city though. Or was it Chile? I really can't remember. As I was typing that I remembered something about Puerto Rico, unless that was the place she went to teach. One of those two. I probably sound really stupid but I can't even remember the girl's name. I'm going into the 11th grade and my memory kinda sucks. So yeah. I wanna visit a lot of the spanish-speaking countries. A lot of people in my town want to visit Valparaiso, Chile since we're named after it. I still think that border thing is hilarious. That is just so funny. And wow I typed a lot. Okay bye.

~~~Kiss~~~

I love Casper the friendly ghost and he's mine so y'all can't have him.

[–] homer-j-fong 18 years ago

You havent seen the show since you were 'really young'?? The show started in 1998 and ended in 2000, hardly a long time ago. Which means that you are still young now!! :)

Visit: http://www.sin-nombre.co.uk/ & www.sin-nom.com
"I am evil Homer, I am evil Homer"

[–] infinitelylost4ever 18 years ago

I am still young. I'm 16. So 1998 would have been really young for me. :) So yeah.

~~~Kiss~~~

I love Casper the friendly ghost and he's mine so y'all can't have him.

[–] homer-j-fong 18 years ago

cool

Visit: http://www.sin-nombre.co.uk/ & www.sin-nom.com
"I am evil Homer, I am evil Homer"

[–] rabgee 18 years ago

The vast majority of Americans are extremely insular and know nothing of other cultures, simply because they think their "way of life" is best. The typical American thinks that everything was invented in the U.S. and anyone that lives outside their country live in mud huts and are somehow inferior because their main goal in life isn’t to own a picket fence house drive a s.u.v. and screw over your workmates and friends for the mighty Yankee dollar.

Ps, there is a lot of nice Americans as well.....lol.

[–] bluewinged 18 years ago

Hi,
I read your thread, and I must say I agree with you.
I'm from Norway and I kind of see the same problem there. I have nothing bad to say about Americans, I think most Americans are really nice, and some of my best friends are from the USA, but it seems like some Americans look at the world as "USA, and foreign countries".
The thing with Americans not knowing much about Norway is not that much seen in TV-shows, but you can see it a lot of other places. I think many people, and not just Americans think of Scandinavia as one big country, years behind the rest of the world when it comes to technology.
This is two of the most crazy things I have heard:
~A man said: "I know they have ice bears in the street in Norway, but you can't fool me, they don't have subway!". First of all, there is NO ICE BEARS in Norway at all, except for one island that has Ice bears, but it's in the ocean far away from the actual country. Second: We have subway...
~"Norway is the capital of Sweden". NO, Norway and Sweden are diffrent countries with diffrent languages and capital cities. The only thing the two countries have is common is the border.

I don't think this is a problem just about Americans and other countries, I think it's a problem with people talking about things they don't have a clue about.
This is very annoying for the people who know the truth. It's diffrent to make a mistake maybe 10-20 people can see, but when people talk as if they know everything about something more than 5 million people know is wrong, it's really annoying.

So people, THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK! -It's better to say nothing at all, than to say something so far away from the truth.

~Eli:)

[–] lmb-imdb 17 years ago

Before you classify Americans as insensitive or just plain ignorant about other countries, please keep in mind the SIZE of the United States. Most Americans will never venture out of their own country simply because of the size. We may travel to Illinois from Wisconsin or to Indiana, maybe even fly as far as Florida and California or (if we're lucky enough) Hawaii, but when we do this, we still have not left the good ol' US of A. In many, many other parts of the world, these kind of travels would take you into a whole other country with different customs and languages. Here in the USA, we do not have that privilege. If I drive 12 hours by car, I'm only in Texas or Georgia or Nebraska. It's all English speaking and all very similiar in culture.

When I was younger, I used to be embarassed by the fact that my fellow Americans were ignorant about the rest of the world. As I matured, I realized that there are many Americans that have not even left their STATE. I have met Americans that live just 3 hours from Chicago and have never visited. The USA does not have the kind of public transportation systems that other countries have. Yes, the major cities do, but if you live in a rural or suburban area, it's very expensive to travel. And if you live in a rural area, you probably don't have a ton of money either. Even if you are in a city like Chicago, it's still quite the plane ride (length and cost) to get you to another country.

So yes, people, Think Before You Speak. Americans are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to worldly knowledge simply based on logistics.

[–] edivila 15 years ago

So yes, people, Think Before You Speak. Americans are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to worldly knowledge simply based on logistics.

So i must assume that people in the united state dont have access to books, movies, TV or the internet.

[–] lw_valdes 18 years ago

What?? Diego does not eat empanadas or drink red wine??? Are you sure???

I agree with you. In the future, when producers would like to include a Chilean character, they should take a look at the internet or read a book to learn a little bit about our country (and others as well).

It seems to be strange that they picked up a Brazilian actor (pls note I have nothing against brazilian people or actors), because I'm sure they could chose a Chilean-born artist or at least a Chilean-parent one, just to be sure of the accent and stuff, for example.

[–] edivila 18 years ago

"What?? Diego does not eat empanadas or drink red wine??? Are you sure???"

jajajaja, buenisimo. que bueno que mas chilenos hayan tenido mi misma inquietud. gracias por responder.

to everyone else, thanx a lot for all your input. i can say i agree with most of what i've read, and it was very interesting to see that not only chileans but also people from norway, and probably all around the world feel annoyed when their cultures are completly misrepresented in movies and tv shows, not because of any bad intentions, but mainly lazyness from the producers.

[–] bluewinged 18 years ago

I just have to add: I watched the episode where Jesse's father talks about tequila and helping people over the borders. I think it was supposed to be a joke, because he doesn't know anything about Chile, so I think it's done to make fun of him. After watching old episodes I don't think the show is very offensive after all, but I agree with you that it's a problem all-over if you know what I mean.

Oh, and also to greyart: I didn't mean to be offensive to Americans, many of my best friends are American, it's about the research done (or not done) by the people producing and writing shows. I didn't mean to be offensive to Americans, but it just turned out that way because almost all TV-shows and movies on Norwegian TV are American.

Man, I feel like my sentences are so weird written that no one understand what I mean... So, if this sounds very complicated (I think it does) please ask and I'll try to explain...

Phoebe: Run!
Joey: Where?
Phoebe: Mexico!

[–] bluewinged 18 years ago

OH! And btw: by "ice bears" I meant polar bears... me and my good English.

Phoebe: Run!
Joey: Where?
Phoebe: Mexico!

[–] edimosval 18 years ago

I´m chilean.lamentablely much people from USA are very poor in general culture,ignorants in many things.In Chile we knows more of USA than they of us.I saw tv shows from USA since my childhood.Not is grat job to investigate in internet about countries or any thing that you want need.Please misters producers and writters!Invetigate before write stories.

[–] greyart 18 years ago

Offensive to Americans:
People who think they "knows more of USA" because they watch tv.

[–] gignock 18 years ago

Okay, I just watched "Live nude model" on aol's in2tv, which i think is the episode you were talking about. The dad, who is very obviously prejudiced, says "I thought you people only drank tequilla" when Diego asks for a beer (the joke being that the dad confuses Mexico and Chile). He then sarcastically replies that he has to be sober to sneek his friends across the border (he doesn't really help people across the border).

I'm American and I drink beer (from Germany) and wine (from France). I eat tacos (from Mexico), pizza (from Italy), gyros (Greek), and so on. There are really few foods/drinks that are uniquely American, and you can only eat cheese fries so often :D

If you are still upset about the stereotypes and misrepresentations, talk to Americans from Alaska, Hawaii, the entire south, and most of the midwest.

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] Piratebooty88 17 years ago

yea, pretty sure most of that stuff (helping ppl across the border, drinking tequila) was a joke. I know that alot of US tv shows often know nothing about the places they say their characters are from, but I think, for once, those kind of statements were made for comedy's sake, not because of ignorance/prejudice on the writers part.

Where are all the good men dead? In the heart or in the head?
-Grosse Pointe Blank