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August 16, 2004
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Heterogeneity Matters
A typical day (perhaps) in our new city in Western Connecticut:
- 8:55 a.m.: Driving down Main Street, we pass several Brazilian restaurants, specialty stores and travel agencies.
- 9:00 a.m.: We go to a Portuguese mass (not intentionally but it was a happy mistake).
- 10:30 a.m.: We pick up some guajillo chiles from a Mexican specialty store (one of several in the yellow pages within ten minutes) for my afternoon recipe, Oaxacan chile-marinated pork with fresh salsa and guacamole.
- 11:00 a.m.: While at Target, Dinka meets and talks to a Swiss woman (about converting inches to centimeters) and an Austrian woman (Styrian, to be exact) that has been a resident of Connecticut for ten years.
- 12:00 p.m.: On arriving at our apartment complex, we pass (and carefully avoid) the children playing in the parking lot: some South Asian, some Latino, some African-American.
- 7:00 p.m.: Enjoy Argentinian wine with dinner, purchased the day before from a nice wine shop with wine from around the globe.
Finding such diverse and vibrant communities in small-city Connecticut has been a wonderful surprise. More importantly, these are not small token "ethnic" groups that the people from the suburbs drive in to "experience" but rather they are large and integral pieces of the fabric of the area. Being surrounded by so many different cultures and being able to take part in them is a good thing.