Here I present some left-over and de-contextualized quotes from my interviews for the Daily Orange article “Way Down South,” about the first year of this program:
“I needed to get the fuck outta Syracuse.” – Kylee DeCoste
“I think that’s why we loved Cuenca so much—cause it was so different from anything you find in the States.” – George “Jorge” Williams
“The best part about Ecuador? Fuckin cheap drinks. A beer cost a dollar.” – Lucho Wheelwright
“It’s not like they’re ninja nuns who are gonna save you if you’re attacked.” – Alejandra Arenas
“He was a musician teaching a spanish class… I blame Syracuse for that.” – Jorge
“I do sometimes have nightmares about the Chupacabra.” – Alejandra
“Yo remember when we saw those cops beating up that homeless woman?” – Alejandra
“I feel like the more cultural stuff is outside of the cities.” – Nubia Mendoza
“I wanna feel Latin America. I wanna be in it.” – Jorge (note: the
interviewer took full advantage of this opportunity to make sexual jokes.)
“Oh fuck you’re on my foot, you’re on my foot!” – Kylee
“I mean, what is reggaeton? The music in Chile sucks.” – Jorge
“My parents used to call me the chupacabra. I heard they only exist in Mexico though.” – Nubia
“Nick O’Rourke declined to comment to a gringo newspaper.” – Nick O’Rourke
“You get the description that it’s third-world—peligroso.” – Jorge (followed by a lengthy discussion of what exactly the “second world” is, and whether or not the “fourth world” even exists, which ended with Nubia asserting that the fourth world has something to do with immigrants, and the interviewer asserting that it is Atlantis.)
“The last thing my friend said before I left was ‘Don’t get kidnapped.’” – Alejandra
“We have these Latin American traditions, like with the noise bombs—did you get that e-mail?… Bueno—but we know that no one is going to die.” – Mauricio Paredes
“I was a political prisoner in this country. I was tortured. And here, nobody likes to talk about that.” – Mauricio
“Mauricio’s like an uncle.” – Lucho
“Mauricio is the shit.” – Marguerite Schumm
“I think Mauricio is a fantastic director. He’s doing his best to get the most out of this program and to continually make it better for the future.” – Lucho
“I’m proud of this group.” – Mauricio
“El Chupa-what? I don’t know what the fuck you’re talkin bout.” –Kylee
