The Expert

WE all have our cultural biases. We can’t help it. We can only view things from our learned experience. But when we travel, we expand those experiences and broaden our views ­ perhaps changing how we see the world. And how others see us.

I only understood that clearly when travelling in the Middle East in my 20s. A teenage girl was introduced to me at a luncheon. When she heard I was from California, she became excited.

“Do you know Madonna?” she asked.

As if I, of the 38 million Americans residing in California, was the next ­ door neighbour of Madonna. But now, living in rural small ­ town Galicia, I am experiencing something similar.

We are well­travelled, especially in the US. I travelled for work a lot. And we travelled with our children for holidays to nearly every state in the union. So, I know a bit about each of them.

But the US is vast compared to countries in Europe. So big that there are varied cultural pockets where, while English is spoken, there are accents I can barely understand. But my fellow Gallegos don’t care.

It seems I am now the go ­ to person to consult when anyone in the area is travelling to the

US. Mothers, brothers, cousins, friends. It doesn’t matter. There will be a knock on my door. Someone I recognise will be there with someone I don’t recognise. Let the travel consultation begin. I almost feel like a medium. Perhaps I should light candles or lay out some tarot cards.

“I see a tall, handsome stranger in your future trip to New York.”

I have begun recycling itineraries, and custom Google maps for these people. Finding I get excited about their adventures. Remembering my own and doing my part to broaden their horizons, one Gallego at a time.

A 53-YEAR-OLD Guardia Civil motorcycle officer died on Monday, April 10, after he was involved in a collision with a vehicle being driven by a British national. The incident occurred at around 11.15am on the CV ‐ 415 near the munic ‐ipality of Turís in Valencia.

Francisco Ramón Montes