My mother, sister and I were lost looking for the social security office in my area. We decided to stop and ask for directions and saw this old guy, so we rolled down my window and pulled the car up next to him and asked where we could find it. He was old, it made sense. Old people would know where the social security office in our town was. And he did.
He politely told us, while casually leaning on our car with his arm on the door and his elbow hanging in the door a bit as he spoke close to the window. His face was like a foot away from, kind of leaning into the car.
Then, when he was finished telling us how to find what we were looking for, he asked, “So, where are you folks from?”
My mother answered, “Huh? Oh, we live here, we just don’t really drive out here that much.”
He lowered his voice, raised an eyebrow and was like, “No, really. Where are you from?”
My mother answered, “Oh? I was born in Cuba.”
He was like, “Oh, Cuba!” As he suddenly became nervous and quickly backed away from the car. From like five feet away he was like, “Well, those are nice people. Cubans are nice people. Nice land, nice people, Cubans.”
My mom goes, “Well, thanks for the directions.”
He answers, “Yeah, Cubans are pretty nice people. Holista la vista!”
Is there some Cuban stereotype I’m unaware of? Are we supposed to be dirty or something? I don’t get why his attitude changed so suddenly.