May celebrates Asian Pacific Heritage Month in the US, or at least it used to. The commemoration of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPIHM), along with 10 other national cultural and heritage annual events, was halted by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) under Trump’s recent executive order banning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in federal workplaces.
Who is “The Perpetual Foreigner?”
You may have heard people of color (POC) joke about the long-dreaded question, “Okay, but where are you really from?” Despite the long history of Asian-American presence in the U.S. (look up “Transcontinental Railroad” and then “Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882”), Asian Americans are still not seen as Americans-first, but rather as visitors that do not belong in the U.S. This biased stereotype of the “perpetual” or “forever foreigner” is deeply unsettling. However, this article is not the space to unpack that discomfort. Rather, it sets the stage to understanding my lived experience as an Asian American with Peace Corps Colombia.
Foreign Faces, Familiar Questions
Accepting my invitation to Peace Corps Colombia, I knew that my racial and ethnic identity would not go unnoticed among the locals. If my own country still struggles to accept me as one of their own based purely on looks, I could hardly expect Colombians to receive me without question. I, nonetheless, did not expect the quantity and quality of the curiosity.
The first four to five months in Colombia, I would get frustrated by the fact that I stuck out so much. I would think, “Why can they not accept that I am American and leave it at that?” I felt like I was asked so much more often than my peers about where I am from, and wondered, “Why am I so singled out? We are all foreigners.” I knew that it was born out of genuine curiosity and that they meant no harm, but it still stung.
It has been nine months since I arrived in Colombia and six months living and working at my site. Over these months, I have experienced and processed the curiosity locals express about who I am, what I am doing, and where I am from. I have learned how to and how much to respond, and in some cases, not to respond at all. Yet, I still find being asked about my identity as a conversation starter uncomfortable. Moreover, that is often the entirety of the conversation, which vexes me all the more.
While I am pleased to have “figured it out,” it was a lonely and exasperating journey. Unlike most of my fellow POC volunteers, I cannot simply blend in—although a part of me hoped with the genetic diversity in Latin America, that it could have been possible. I am grateful for my PCV and home support networks, but it feels no one could wholly relate to my experiences.
Diversity in the United States is accepted and understood by Americans; diversity in Colombia is accepted and understood by Colombians. The potentially contrasting differences between the two seem to be based on understanding the cultural and historical definition of diversity, and it took a while to not only realize but accept these differences.
It took months of discussing and processing with my fantastic support network at home to come to terms with my Asian American experience in Colombia.
DEI in Peace Corps Colombia
As an Asian woman with a non-Asian and gender-neutral name, I never specifically noticed a time when DEI crossed paths with my application process. Although, perhaps that is the beauty of DEI—that it should be invisible because it ensures everyone has the opportunity to succeed.
On a personal level, with both volunteers and Peace Corps staff, I feel very supported. However, when it comes to Peace Corps training, DEI seemed like both an afterthought and a superficial front. Throughout Pre-Service Training (PST), the importance of DEI was constantly repeated. Yet we only had a few sessions pointedly geared toward different aspects of diversity in the 11 weeks of PST. It’s likely that under the new administration, even these few sessions will be removed from future iterations of PST.
A volunteer-led advisory council called Bridge Council was also affected by the current administration's removal of DEI. Truth be told, I did not know what it was until I read OÍSTE’s article, “What Even was Bridge Council?” It may be the fault of time. Bridge Council had only started in 2023 and had not been allowed ample time to unfold and advance through a continuous process of innovation and improvement that its members hoped to foster. Potentially, had they been given more time, Bridge Council could have implemented more comprehensive workshops both for volunteers and staff to address a greater extent of DEI identities.
Perhaps in a few years, the Bridge Council could have worked through kinks and learned from PCVs to bring about effective DEI workshops. Our experiences of varying gender, race, sexuality, and class identities are essential for building intercultural competencies, a pillar of Peace Corps’ mission.
Disclaimer: The content of this publication is generated by individual volunteers. The opinions and thoughts expressed here do not reflect any position of the United States government or the Peace Corps.