Imagine, instead, a world

March 12, 2009 in Uncategorized

Imagine, instead, a world in which this kind of respect and learning was the hallmark.

From the website on which I found the video:

An Argentinian bank, Banco Provincia, recently produced an advertisement that is not only sympathetic towards the place of transgender people in society, but avoids the snark and cheap humor that usually accompanies depictions of transgenderism in favor of a genuinely touching display of apology and forgiveness. In the ad, an elderly man approaches a transgender woman from his village. He discusses briefly how she got a loan from the bank to start her hairdressers' salon despite the fact that her ID card shows that she is a man, then tells her that he has come to apologize for treating her badly all these years. It's done with surprising elegance and lack of moralizing, and it seems almost impossible to imagine it on American TV.

In the spirit of celebrating when people and organizations get it right, how about a nice email to the leadership of Banco Provincia to say thank you for this, in care of Dr. Eduardo J. Ordoñez, gerenciageneral@bpba.com.ar

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.

8 comments to " Imagine, instead, a world "


joyce lukaczer

March 13, 2009 AT 12:13AM

chilling & sobering to recognise how impossibly far this culture is from allowing this reality to air publically with such a obvious kindness … like a broadside to the nogin, WHAP! think about it, yes, just sit for a moment and let it wash through …

Marion

March 13, 2009 AT 10:44AM

That is quite impressive and so beautifully crafted. We could use more of this in America. Thanks for posting, Patti.

Mama Kelly

March 13, 2009 AT 11:02AM

This was such a great commercial. It definitely “got it right” and expressed a wonderful sense of tolerance and acceptance.

Kim

March 13, 2009 AT 2:33PM

Beautiful, just beautiful. Thank you for sharing it, Patti….

Shelley

March 13, 2009 AT 2:58PM

Sweet.

Calls to mind the Hazel Henderson quote on Keri Smith’s blog today, which begins:

“We are all making the future, every minute that we live…”

Let’s all live towards that future, TODAY.

(Full quote here: http://www.kerismith.com/blog/archives/000612.html)

Teri and the cats of Furrydance

March 13, 2009 AT 4:08PM

I came to you blog via Lynn-Getting my Feet Wet…liked what I found wandering round your blog and the post for today and the commercial…made my heart happy as did the few posts I read before I had to stop and get back to work…I will return!

Paula - Buenos Aires

March 14, 2009 AT 5:54PM

I recognized the image immediately and then checked again which site I was looking at. My brain was cross checking what my eyes saw. Lol!

There is a line missing in the translation. Where it says “Take this. Have this” The original audio says “Take this. I made it”.
Men that make their living working the fields are known for their hand skills and their set ways. The gift is touching.

The Mr. Lopez is called Don Luis. The Don is a sign of respect but her calling him by his first name implies they have known each other for a while.

This ad is not new, the Banco Provincia people will love the e-mails telling them it is still making waves around the world.

Nicola Larosa

March 19, 2009 AT 11:19AM

Wow, touching. I don’t recall such sensitive advertisement ever, here in Italy.

Marion: please notice that Argentina *is* in America. Perhaps you were referring to USA as “America”, an unfortunately growing kind of usage. One even hears Canadians say: “I’m not an American, but…”. Astounding.