Piropos

Wrote this a week ago... forgot to post it...

Now is time for me to talk about something that I didn’t really want to write about too too much before… because I didn’t want to concern family members… but considering I’m leaving in less than a week, I’ll talk about it.

Here, they’re called piropos, and they’re the way that many Dominican men “flatter” young women. In the states, it would most probably be called verbal harassment.

And these piropos are something that’s normal for Dominicans. They don’t get overly concerned. Some Dominican women even like hearing them, because they make them feel good about themselves. However, American women get called out to a million more times than Dominican women do, no matter how gorgeous the Dominican woman are.

What are some common piropos? These have become so common for all of us Americans, it’s pretty much just street noise.

“Ahh que bella/linda/bonita” (Oh how beautiful/pretty/beautiful)
The words “gringa” (non-Spanish speaking white person), “Americana”, “rubia” (blondie) are commonly added onto the end of this phrase.
“I want to marry you” “I want to sleep with you” “Come to my house” “I want to be your boyfriend”, etc…

And maybe you think that teenage/20-something men are the only people saying these things. Nope.

On four separate occasions I’ve been in a taxi where the driver has flat out told me that he’d like me to be his girlfriend/wife, because he could “take good care of me”. The conversations always start totally innocently, I’ll say Hi, How are you, etc, and once they see that I speak Spanish… I’m fair game. Two weeks ago I complimented a taxi driver’s car, because it was really nice in comparison to most that I’d seen. I’d been in the car for about 30 seconds, and he turned towards me, totally seriously, and said “If you really like it, honey, I’ll give it to you. Be my girlfriend.”

WHY DO I KEEP LETTING PEOPLE KNOW I SPEAK SPANISH? I really need to stop. When they think I don’t understand, they just talk about me right in front of me. Anyway.

Another time, a friend and I were eating ice cream at a stand near my apartment. We were talking quietly in English, not drawing attention to ourselves… normal. Right? Right. We weren’t dressed like strippers or dancing around yelling in English or anything idiotic. So there’s this “cop” (I use that word very loosely in this country) who was guarding the ice cream stand. And he just kept staring at us. And we did what we’ve been taught to do which is just ignore people. But he wouldn’t stop.

PS this guy has a gun and is probably about 60 years old.

After about ten minutes of creeping like a creeping creeper, he says to us “So what are two beautiful girls like you doing in this country?”
And without missing a beat- I’d already been here for two months- “Well, what I am trying to do is to eat my ice cream and talk to my friend without being interrupted. You think I can do that?”

Okay okay I know that it sounds like. Katy went to the Dominican Republic and turned into a btch. But no. No no no no you don’t get it. You give these guys an inch, they take a mile. A head nod, a weak smile, eye contact for more than half a second… that all means you’re interested. According to them.

PARA QUE SEPAN.

But not all Dominican guys are like this. I have met some tame ones. Some.

And it’s difficult for me to describe this all. Because I KNOW that no matter how I explain it, you all are going to think I’m exaggerating or whatever. But no. No no no no no again. You really can’t understand it until you get here, but it’s really like this. Getting shouted at five times in a minute is really nothing. at all. I get hit on about a dozen times before lunch, you?