Cultural appropriation is a big problem, but the thing is, I didn't invent my life. I really lived in Africa.
Cultural exchange rarely takes place on equal terms.
The foreigners come out here always to teach, whereas they had much better learn, for, in everything but wits and knowledge, the Arab is generally the better man of the two.
I am not afraid of European influences. The point is to use them, as Ellington did, as part of my life as an American Negro.
When I was growing up, the Spanish-speaking world was Balkanized. We were isolated. We didn't know what was happening in cultural terms in Ecuador, Colombia and Chile. Nowadays, this has changed a lot - fortunately for writers and readers. There is much more integration.
I'm dying to go to India... because the culture seems so vastly different from what I'm used to in the States. I would love to do some yoga there. And be amongst people who are so different than myself. There's so much you can learn from people who grew up in a different environment.
People have asked me about what it's like to work in Pakistan and abroad. It's such a healthy cultural exchange.
Culture is a fluid, ongoing process. People tend to look at culture in a fixed time but it's constantly moving and evolving, as is the conversation between Americans and Cubans.
