5. Service and other short-term trips to foreign countries can often reinforce, instead of breaking down, stereotypes and cultural misunderstandings about the host community and/or country.

In our encounters with Central Americans, North Americans are often constrained by the “development” mentality. We are all familiar with the categories “first-world” and “third-world” that are so often used to describe the countries of the world. Just as often we hear the terms “developed” and “underdeveloped” (or “developing”) to mean the same things. Even more starkly, some simply use the terms “rich” and “poor” to describe different countries. Of course, the United States is counted among the “developed” countries of the world, and all of the Central American countries are counted among the “underdeveloped.” What do these terms mean? When the word “development” is used today, it is usually used as a yardstick with which to measure a country’s progress along a path toward an industrialized, consumer-oriented, and capitalist ideal of economic and social success. Development, in this sense, presents the American way of life as a universal ideal—it naturalizes the affluent or middle-class American way of life and presents it as a universal ideal.

Development, then, is a concept that demands some much more careful consideration. When Americans travel to Central America, especially with the intention of serving in “poor” communities, we often unwittingly bring the development mentality with us. We look at the communities that host us and we are amazed at how poor the people are. In many cases, the thing that makes the biggest impression is the poverty: we are simply struck (and sometimes awed) by how little people have and the ingenious and creative ways that they make due with what little they have—in comparison to what we have, that is. We would do well, though, to consider this reminder from Mexican economist Gustavo Esteva, who writes that “different peoples and cultures define in different ways what living well is. They freely determine, in their own terms, what they need.” In other words, it is not up to people from outside a given community to determine what constitutes “rich” and “poor,” and to use their own terms to define who they are and what they need to live the lives they want.

Critiques of the development mentality have rather deep roots in Latin American intellectual circles. One of the most famous critiques linked international service by groups of well-intentioned Americans to the broader interventions of the United States government through programs such as the Peace Corps and the Alliance for Progress. It comes from a speech given by Monsignor Ivan Illich to a group of North American students visiting Mexico in 1968 to take part in a short-term service work. The talk has come to be known as “To Hell with Good Intentions,” and in it, Illich very frankly expressed his “increasing opposition to the presence of any and all North American ‘do-gooders’ in Latin America” and urged the assembled college students to stop “pretentiously imposing [themselves] on Mexicans.” He pointed to the students’ lack of rural training, lack of Spanish-language skills, and lack of understanding of Mexico’s shared history with the United States as reasons why they should stay home. And he concluded by saying “I am here to suggest that you voluntarily renounce exercising the power which being an American gives you. I am here to entreat you to freely, consciously and humbly give up the lega right you have to impose your benevolence on Mexico. I am here to challenge you to recognize your inability, your powerlessness and your incapacity to do the ‘good’ which you intended to do. I am here to entreat you to use your money, your status and your education to travel in Latin America. Come to look come to climb our mountains, to enjoy our flowers. Come to study. But do not come to help.”

The fact is that many in the global South know that short-term service trips can do more harm than good. Indeed, many would prefer not to interact with North Americans through the paradigm of “service,” “aid,” or “development” at all.

So ask yourself: What are the outcomes we hope to achieve by traveling to Central America and engaging in service in the community? Are good intentions enough to make this trip successful not only for me but the community I’m visiting as well? What kinds of unintended consequences could come of our presence in the community and the work that we will do?

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