The Latin America Diaries Entry VIII: What makes you local?
In Santa Teresa, a town on Costa Rica's Pacific coastline, the question of who is considered local arises.
Everyone in Santa Teresa is from somewhere else, yet they all claim to be locals. A question lingers in the air: Who's local now, anyway?
Just living somewhere doesn't make you local. The word carries weight – it grants authority over a place.
An analogy is made: a papaya on the shelf at Woolies in Australia doesn't make it a local fruit, so why would a foreigner in Costa Rica call themselves a local?
Author's summary: Defining what makes someone a local.