Why This Venezuelan Was Confused With 'Minnesotan'

When Manuel Delgado arrived in the United States from his native Venezuela two decades ago, he magically "became" a Minnesotan. "I was born in Caracas, Venezuela and I always had my eyes on the possibilities outside of Venezuela, so I got into grad school in Nashville, Tennessee at Vanderbilt," Delgado said. "When people would ask me where I'm from, I would tell them 'Venezuela' but they would hear 'Minnesota.' And I was like really? With this face and this accent I seem Norwegian? But it was just their ear autocorrecting a word they had never heard before." Once Delgado got a little more experience with the rest of the country - he eventually realized that not all Americans love country music - it wasn't much different even within Hispanic circles although he definitely wasn't Minnesotan there. More…