the politics of personal aesthetic

As I was waiting at the airport to come to Ecuador, I was knitting to pass the time (oh yeah, I knit. Just one of my many talents) when I looked at my nails - long, manicured; just all around taken care of - and I realized what my nails would mean here.
The length.
The simple fact they're polished.
Their non-acrylic nature.
In looking at my nails, one can measure me - size me up, if you will.
One can assume my position: Non-laborer. Fancy girl.

Here in Ecuador, and in other countries that share its economic and political woes, issues like nails is as much a political subject as skin color; not just the skin color one is born with, but the skin color of everyday life.

Here, and in many other countries - the Philippines being its biggest example - having a darker skin tone implies many things, but mostly it implies that the individual is outside for most of the working day out on the streets selling goods, out in the fields tending to the crops, instead of being indoors protected from the sun and its darkening rays.

Dark skin=poor. Light skin=not so much.

It's completely the opposite of what it means in the U.S. where having a tan is indicative of leaving work to vacation.
Which I always found interesting. People with light skin tones (aka white people) spend so much money on tanning, fake or real, to achieve a darker skin tone, yet most would never actually want to be a part of the "brown folk" tribe.

It's called "pigmentation envy" - I loved my Black Social Science class. The term describes anglos as envious of the beauty of the skin tone, but not of the reality that comes with the color. They want to visit the world, but not necessarily live in it.

As I travel around my "motherland", I can't help but think about all these issues as I take in the environment around me. I think about my position in life. About who I am. Who I want to be. Who I don't want to be. And I feel blessed and become thankful for everything my family has done for their children and their children's children.

Because it makes me want to give more, because it makes me want to be more...this is why I love coming home.