And the award goes to…

Posted on August 3, 2010 by wwelvaert under Life in Peru

This Jeff Sessions dude who had this to say about the 14th amendment:

“I’m not sure exactly what the drafters of the (14th) amendment had in mind, but I doubt it was that somebody could fly in from Brazil and have a child and fly back home with that child, and that child is forever an American citizen,”

Go read all the hypocrisy at AP.

For the record, let’s check the native Americans on the US Senate’s ethnic diversity web page. Just saying…

Look, I understand there are some shady operations who bring women to the US just to have an “anchor baby”, and that’s not ethical nor beneficial for the baby and their family. And large-scale migration does have a significant social impact, but so far what I’ve experienced in Peru is that people are proud when a foreigner decides they want to make Peru their home, as it shows a way of approval and appreciation for the country.

So here you go Mr. Sessions, perhaps you ought to be grateful that many Latinos indeed want to live the American Dream.

Proud Peruvian?

Posted on February 12, 2010 by wwelvaert under Life in Peru

Patricia’s status on Facebook:

Porque sera que para volvernos Fans de nuestro Peru o decir me siento orgullosa(o) de ser Peruana(o) tenemos que irnos a vivir a otros paises…si no me creen solo lean algunos comentarios del enlace A que Peru puede tener 1 millon de fans antes que otro pais…

un ejemplo: El Peru es lo maximo…saludos desde Miami …

So true, and also so sad. Many Peruvians just want to leave their country, “si o si quiero salir del pais” as they say. Unfortunately it is often the young, the educated, and the ambitious who end up leaving the country, exactly the kind of people who would be able to make Peru a better place.

Many Peruvians leave and then become the proudest advocates of Pisco, Ceviche and Machu Picchu….

UPDATE 2/15/2010: Ben shares the same idea in an unrelated post about Pedro Suarez Vertiz:

“… It’s a song about how truly awesome Peru is and even though many people have been deluded by bullshit hollywood or whatever to think they have a brighter future elsewhere…it’s only when Peruvians go abroad that they truly realize how great things are back at home …”

Carne de extranjeria Peru

Posted on December 5, 2008 by wwelvaert under Life in Peru

I finally got the Peruvian resident visa, better known as carné de extranjería, so now I can live and work in Peru more easily. The entire process took over a year, first nearly 6 months to get legally married in Peru and then 6 months to obtain the “carne extranjeria”.

For me, obtaining this semi-permanent admission into the fine population of Peru was hopelessly complicated by the facts that (1) we were living in Cusco, not Lima where all the bureaucracy is and (2) I am a Belgian citizen who’s lived his entire adult life in the US, which made it more difficult to get original documents. You can read the first post on this blog for the silly-but-true story of how a Belgian guy met a Peruvian girl while living in the US, and ended up back in Peru!

OK, got to go now. I have to do some work to pay for all those fees we paid to the “Banco de la Nacion” over the last year or so 🙂

Ward