we are a product of all we have seen...

While spending a lazy afternoon in Juan Valdez, sipping a cup of rich Colombian coffee, catching up with emails, the guy at the table next to me looks over at me.   "Excuse me," he asks.  "But are you Colombian?"  Slightly puzzled, slightly amused, as I have no Latino heritage but have often been asked that question, I respond, "No, why do you ask? Are you?"  He tells me that yes, he is from Cali.  We chat in Spanglish, I explain that I actually have lived in Colombia and he tells me that I look Colombian.  I respond gracias and he asks por que gracias?  I'm not sure why that was my response, why I take this as a compliment, but I do.  I've felt for years now as if a part of me is truly Colombian, that I connected with the culture there on a level unlike anywhere else that I have ever been, and while mi sangre may not be Colombian, mi corazon is.