Colombian Transculturation:

Although Colombians struggle to reach United States "standards", they often can't. Ofelia Schutte states, "The inauthenticity of the [Latin American] individual lies in being a 'bad copy' (mala copia)- (95). The failure of Paisas to meet these "standards- bears heavily on the their shoulders. What's more, Paisas will reach them. The conquest of Latin America has created an individual who is a combination of European, Indian, and African races. This combination is unlike any in the world. Latin Americans, therefore, must live by their own standards. Paisas must realize the value of their own culture to regain their ethnicity. Different cultures have different purposes for their ethnic groups. One can argue that there s no superior culture. .
             The need for Paisas to compare themselves to another's standards began with the discovery of Latin America. Mary Louise Pratt, author of the book Imperial Eyes, talks about the discrepancy between the European and the Latin American individual. She defines these differences as contact zones or "social spaces where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination--like colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out across the globe today" (4). She exemplifies her contact zones by referring to an old text written by an Andean named Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala. In it, Ayala describes to King Phillip III of Spain the Inca Empire as being made up of both Amerindian and European laws. This Peruvian writer sent his King a letter in which the Inca laws were fixed to please him. Unfortunately, he also risked losing an empire's identity. But Ayala was neither the first nor the last to accept foreign influence at a high cost. Since its discovery, Latin America has found itself in confusion, in a search for an identity. Schutte illustrates; "[The Latin American] is a divided and incomplete being since the time of the colony.