The gaze of the tourist conditions us, sometimes for the worse and sometimes for the better. In art, many Latin American countries have seen their painting evolve based on the commercial success that exoticism reaped among foreigners, who were its main buyers, which created an imposed imaginary, an identity fantasy so powerful that he ended up deceiving not only the outsiders but the locals. The phenomenon also affects literature, cinema and academic production. A character in the last novel by the Colombian Juan Cárdenas, Peregrino transparente, refers to that current that “flips between the demagoguery of magical realism and the thousand clothes of pornomiseria”, since this is what we think of others when we think in them
Are we as they see us or as we think we are? It is difficult to distinguish, we all have a bit of Schrödinger’s cat, influenced in a way by the external gaze even without realizing it. Sometimes we rebel against it, like that uncomfortable Barcelona when it sees itself excessively carnivalized. But other times, the outsider’s gaze associates us with the genius of great creators or with virtues we didn’t suspect we had.
I would say to the touristophobes that the influence of the visitor’s gaze helped Spain overcome many of its atavisms and freedom was introduced into our public and private life.
I think about this, these days, in Andorra. To the idea that I was carrying and to the wonder of its landscapes, it shocks him to discover that – just like in San Marino, the Vatican and Malta – abortion is a crime here in all cases, punishable between two and a half years and twelve prison, depending on the case. Amnesty International denounces the flogging to which the authorities subject the activist Vanessa Mendoza Cortés, who fights so that the law does not force anyone to give birth and faces lawsuits for damaging the country’s image. A French department, that of the Eastern Pyrenees, has just asked co-prince Emmanuel Macron to intercede so that Andorran legislation is adapted to the countries around it and has expressed its support for Mendoza. Andorrans must know that, for many of those who visit them, what is damaging their image is not Mendoza but the facts and laws that motivate their struggle.
