The Eye of the Tiger

I'd like to share with you a part of dominican culture which I experience throughout every day - TIGRES. "Tigers" in english, pronounced "TEE-ge-rays" in spanish, are the bain of my exsistence. As an american I stand out as being an outsider as soon as I leave my house. A walk down the street creates stares and reactions from most whom I pass. However, it is the official responsibility of these tigres to comment, whistle, or hiss at you as you pass.

A tigre is any man who makes it a point to know that he notices you. They give you that look like they are picturing you naked, which sends uncomfortable chills up your spine. Many of these tigres hang out on street corners such as these men pictured here, just waiting for an innocent victim to walk by.

Hissing is a common way to try to get someone's attention here. Sometimes the hissing sounds like the common, "PSSSSSSST", when other times it is more like the way my parent´s described kids in their Catholic school upbringing, trying to get the teacher´s attention – "SSSSSST! SSSSSST!" Either way its irritating and I try to ignore it, though they actually think that I want their attention. If you were walking with a Dominican woman and a guy was hissing at you, she´d give you a nudge-nudge and a wink-wink and say, "Wow, you are one lucky girl!" In reality the guys are the lucky ones, lucky that I don´t bash them over the head with my water bottle!

Alas, we´re in a pretty busy area right now, so the tigre attention is much more than in smaller areas. From what I hear about my site, it is very small and everyone knows you, so they will not cat call or hiss at you in the street. Until then, here are some common calls I get from tigres in the streets:

"Hey Rubia!" = Hey Blondie
"Hola Americana!" = American girl
"I love jew!" = lame attempt at "I love you"
"Mi Amor!" = My love

I've even had a marriage proposal. Usually I just ignore it and it rolls off my back, but sometimes I'm just not in the mood and it really gets on my nerves. When I can control my reaction I might come back with something like, "But I don't love you!". You'd think this was mainly the young 20-somethings doing the calling, but it is all men, young and old. Sometimes a little boy will say something and all I can respond with is, "you're 12!" There are also dads with their young daughters who will stop to comment, so you can see how the girls learn that this behavior is OK. The creme of the crop was when I was walking by a group of guys, one of them sitting with a girl in his lap. This guy actually called to me while I passed, and I just pointed to the girl and said, "You can't be serious, you already have a girl in your lap!" They just laughed. (I didn't actually know the word for "lap", but it was close enough.)

Do what you can to avoid them, it doesn't matter. They'll still call, and they'll still whistle, whether you ignore them, smile politely, or try to come back with a clever remark. Nothing will stop them from doing it the next time. For example, Dominican men think that American women are cold, and by ignoring them in the street we are just proving to them that we are cold and we need their dominican lovin' to warm us back up. There's no escape.

Alas, we can laugh at it. They are truly harmless, they just want your attention.