I am a very atypical Portuguese, because the typical Portuguese person misses Portugal and that is not my case. I don't feel saudade, perhaps because I have an amazing family, because I love what I do... I don't feel saudade, but I do have a lot of passion. I am a Portuguese who doesn't want to return; I don't want to work in any Portuguese team. I don't want to live in Portugal, but I am a Portuguese that wishes to make something important with my potential.I couldn't relate more to Mourinho's words. That's is exactly how I feel about Colombia. Sometimes I think that I am an "atypical Colombian" but it seems like a pretentious thing to say. I don't miss Colombia, at least not in the persistent way most Colombians seem to miss it. There is an undeniable Colombian character --some undefinable form of passion, you could say-- in what I do and in how I behave, I am sure, and I feel most proud of that.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Atypical
Today there is a very interesting interview to José Mourinho in El País. At some point of the interview, when discussing his feelings about Portugal he says:
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2 comments:
To my experience Colombians and Portuguese are no more passionate than, e.g., Argentinians and Chileans, or even Italians or Spaniards.
I like the new colours of your blog, but I profoundly dislike Mourinho by the way -- his style of football and his public personality.
That's a good point, Ebbsborg. Indeed, I think that we latin-americans tend to believe that we are "more passionate" than others--whatever "passion" means here. So, for a Colombian is natural to think she/he is more passionate than, say, a German or an American. Thinking that "passion is what distinguishes us from others" is then quite natural. In fact, the official ad campaign for promoting Colombia abroad is called "Colombia is Passion"...
Of course, people from other (latin-american) countries can think exactly the same way, and could see "passion" as their distinguishing feature. But passion wasn't really my point. What I intended to express that even if I don't see myself as a typical Colombian who misses his country passionately, I suspect there is a Colombian "character" that distinguishes me from others.
As for Mourinho, I do not totally like his public personality; I think he's shockingly arrogant. He says he behaves that way on purpose, to protect his players from media pressure. This doesn't make him less annoying, of course. We still need to see what kind of football style he will enforce in Real Madrid. I don't like public personality of Guardiola either, at least the attitude he shows during press conferences. His arrogance is more subtle, more contained.
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