Hello everyone~ I am soon to venture to Spain for the first time. Upon hearing of my plans, one of my friends was quick to inform me that he'd heard that there is a prejudice against Asians amongst Spaniards. I am an Asian-American woman. I was born and raised in the states, but often pass for a variety of nationalities. Just wondering if this racial issue is genuinely something I need to take into consideration as I travel around what I understand to be a beautiful world over there. Would love to hear your thoughts/experiences. Thanks*

Hi Johanna. I, too, am an Asian American and I currently live in Spain (now in the Canaries, but have lived in Asturias, Barcelona and Salamanca as well). Overall, I haven't really had any negative experiences due to race. The worst that has happened to me (which is more annoying than anything else) is that men in the street would call out "chinita, chinita" (little Chinese girl) as I passed. Initially, it was kind of shocking (in part because I'm not Chinese American), but after awhile I got rather desensitized to it and kind of look at it as a similar situation that I imagine blondes here face, hearing "rubia, rubia" all the time. I would say, that in the smaller towns (I lived in a TINY town in Asturias), the issue stood out much more. But, this was due to being 1) an outsider, 2)American and 3) Asian. Apart from the "chinita" episodes, the only other thing may be that people openly stare (but then again, I don't think this is unique to a question of ethnicity here. People tend to openly stare more in Spain than in America for WHATEVER reason, I would say more out of curiosity than rudeness. In my experience, people have been more interested in the fact that I'm American than anything else (though, admittedly, people are often surprised). And luckily, I've not had any bad experiences due to my ethnicity. I think you'll find that people in Spain are generally very accepting and interested in people from different cultures. Hope this helps!

Never heard of such kind of problems here. I agree with the post above. I also think you will be looked at many times because it is not very frequent to see asians here, but there is no assumptions that asians are better/worse in any sense (not even the one I have seen in TV, that N.Americans use to believe blondes are naive and asians very clever).

johanna--

i had a similar question to yours before i left for spain. i'm black, so i consider myself very aware of these things and also my frequent traveling bud in spain is korean-american. so i will tell you what i (we) noticed.

the majority of asian people that i saw in spain were in a similiar situation as in the u.s. in the pre-80s. they are kinda floating on the outskirts of the main culture, working in convenience shops, running restaurants, etc.

like black women, there were quite a few asian prostitutes that i noticed. the women tend to be sexually exoticized just as equally as they often are in the u.s.

i also saw a lot of asians illegally selling items on the streets (just like many north africans)late at nite and oftentimes being harassed by drunk people who are out in droves at that time of night.

and i saw a bemused expression on many spanish people's faces when asian tourists would take pictures (much the same expression as many american's here and now).

my general overall feel (and that of my friend's) is that the asian population in madrid is not necessarily embraced, but they are more tolerated than blacks and pretty much keep to their own communities.

in regards to both races in spain, my general feeling is that it's not so much racism that the spanish project as colonialism.

Hi all,

Firstly Johana, Thanks for starting this thread.

I will be making my first solo trip to Spain soon and being an asian (I am a Malaysian chinese), I was was abit apprehensive about travelling alone in Europe as I have heard some horrible horrid travel tales from solo women travellers. I have also been told that there are not many Asian there so that explain the curiosity among them.

However, I thought I should share this episode with you guys. A girlfriend of mine (also Asian) was doing a solo in Spain a few weeks ago. She really enjoyed the trip but told me to be careful becos when she was there, she had some people following her ! It was slightly scary for her but she got hold of her composure and started to speak to them. Apparently they were just so curious of her - asian gals doing a solo in spain is a rarity.. thats what they told her. Anyhow, she had such a great time that she is planning another trip there soon !!

There , my 2 cents !

jennifer

Ignacio,

Please! Get off the movie kick! It really is getting old, and boring. Read Sheba's post, and you will see what really exists in Spain. When she talks, it's first hand information, not something out of a "B" movie that you watched.

Not all the old Fascist attitudes have died, or been killed off in Spain yet, and there is still an attitude that "outsiders" are not as good as Spaniards, amongst a lot of people. That's why it's rare to find anyone who isn't a Spaniard having a key position within a Spanish company, in Spain.

Also, before talking about the "tokenism" you've gotten from movies, in the U.S., explain to me how Spaniards are allowed to hire asian and Portuguese cooks, maids, etc... and treat them like the garbage they haul out every day. Spaniards treat their cattle better than that. It's always better to clean up your own problems before you attack someone else for theirs.

The simple fact is, anyone who is large, and especially not Spanish, can be treated like dirt in stores. But it's even more pronounced for anyone who isn't from European extraction. I've even seen clerks stand off to the side, and not help people who were shopping, simply because of the color of their skin. At least in the U.S. we are trying to do something about that, and even though it's too damned slow in coming, it is at least beginning to happen.

Wolf (Who hates it when people are elitists!)

Hint, spaniards stare a lot, it's not supposed to mean anything.

It's not because of you in particular, is a general attitude towards the environment, staring is so commnon that there is no verb in spanish to distinguish staring from looking. So relax, and start stare to check on everybody's attitude, clothing....

So what does this mean if you're a chubby asian female? (Referring back to another post concerning rudeness in stores.)

Pookita (who is fortunately not traveling alone, on top of it all)

Pookita and Sheba, everybody stares....It doesn't matter what you look like as far as I am concerned. I am an Italian American. Spaniards stared at me because I spoke English. Even "The Chairman" asked me if I was Italian. I didn't take it as insulting at all. Just stare back. Wolfgang, couldn't agree with you more about the "b" movies and Ignacio. The only English TV station we got in our NH hotel besides British CNN was the porn channel. And although, my husband, really hated it Ignacio, we don't all start taking our clothes off when the "maid " comes to our room. So, please quit generalizing....

Read the long " staring " thread in this forum from last September.