This is SignMyCar. I'm Severine Dehon.
Today, I'm taking you to Houston to meet Dirk Van Tuerenhout.
Dirk moved to the Unites States in 1983 to pursue
his passion for the Maya and pre-Columbian civilization.
Now, he is one of the handful curators
of anthropology in the United States.
Dirk is a very knowledgeable, yet super approachable man.
He took me behind the scene of his museum,
at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
His universe is so unique that I ended up making two sets of interview.
The following interview is about his life story
and his experiences in the United States.
My name is Dirk Van Tuerenhout, I am the Curator of
Anthropology at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
Thank you so much, Dirk, for having me here in Houston.
Tell me, how did you get to the United States?
I came to United States in 1983. This was the end result,
in a way, of a teacher in sixth grade getting me
interested in archaeology. Over time, I got
interested in civilization that was very
difficult to study in Europe.
There was the Aztecs and the Maya people that lived in the Americas,
and then Europe. In Europe, most of their focus
is on Rome and Greece and Egypt.
I tried to take a class over there but I couldn't find any.
I applied to various schools in the United States and I was accepted
at a university in New Orleans called Tulane University.
That's where I started my studies in 1983.
What is the thing that you're the most
passionate about in the Maya civilization?
They are what I call a pre-Columbian civilization,
which is a fancy way of saying pre-Columbus
before the Europeans. That's important
because they did things without anybody from
the whole world coming over on a boat
to tell them how to build a pyramid, how to invent writing.
They did that themselves.
I think, in general, that is very cool as they say.
Were you able to work in your field ever since your graduation?
After I graduated, I was able to find a one-year appointment
at a school in Pennsylvania.
Afterwards, I was lucky to find a job at The Museum.
Now, instead of teaching in form of a class I teach by organizing exhibits
and taking people through my classroom which is the exhibit.
That's even cooler.
Yes, now I teach in three dimensions instead of two dimensions.
You have been working for 17 years
at The Museum as a curator of anthropology.
For the people who know nothing about your world, what is a curator?
As a curator, in Belgium we use different words, but it's the same idea.
You're in charge of a particular collection of items.
In my case, they are objects.
Other people take care of shells or dinosaur bones or rocks.
I take care of artifacts, things that are made by humans.
I'm a curator in the section of anthropology,
which back in Europe might be associated more easily with, say, archaeology.
The things that peoplemake: pottery, stone tools, stuff like that.
The way in which an exhibit is usually put together,
if we build it from scratch,
because there are two different kinds.
We have travelling exhibits and they come in as a package.
Somebody else already wrote the story, selected the object.
If we are doing all of that, it is like teaching, in the end,
but it's teaching in three dimensions.
You have to write the story that you
want to share with people, then you have
to find the objects, think of it as pictures in the book,
the objects that will illustrate your points.
That is challenging sometimes, you have to find these objects.
Maybe you have them in your own collection,
maybe you have to borrow some from other museums.
You walk through with the people
and you see the light come on
because you are connecting the dots.
At the end of the tour, I always love to hear
from people when they exit, "I had no idea"
- You have been in the United States since you were 23?
Yes.
How long have you been in the US again?
I'm 57 now, so you do the math. I think that's 12 years.
What is your favorite thing about living in the United States?
I was able to find something, a job in particular, that I could
not find back home. There are positions at museums where
you take care of Egyptian collections, yes, in Brussels especially,
but I was not doing Egypt. I was really attracted to pre-European,
pre-Hispanic, pre-Columbian cultures. There is one person who is
the curator in Brussels. He is maybe a year or two older than I am,
so there's no way I could wait very patiently until he retired,
because I would then have to retire a year later or so. It won't work.
Here, even though the numbers are low in terms of people
working as anthropologists in museums, I was still
able to find a position at a very nice museum and create exhibits.
I can do what I could not do back home.
You have been in the Houston since 1999.
What's your favorite thing about Houston?
In Houston I like the fact that the city is so multi-cultural.
There are so many different cultures here.
We have, with falling down and sliding up,
and ups and downs, and all of that, managed to accommodate each other
in a way that other cities come and study us when they want to know the future.
When they want to know where they will be. Chicago, for example, New York,
and that's really surprised me. I thought for sure there would be
more people of different ethnic backgrounds in places like New York.
The answer was no, there are more people
of different ethnic backgrounds in Houston.
You see that in the city, you walk around,
when you sit in the restaurant you look around,
and there's a rainbow of colors
and languages being spoken, which I find very interesting.
Is there still something about
the US society or customs that challenge you?
I'm sure of plenty. There are things where I
still have a very strong opinion, which I try
to diplomatically convey. For example, about healthcare.
I think it's easier to live a more peaceful life
as opposed to having to worry, as many people do here,
"When I get sick will I lose my house?"
It's incredible you have to worry about that.
That's not a minor thing, that is a major aspect of life.
You have one child here in the United States
- and Sarah is 17. - Yes, she is turning 17.
How is it raising a child in the United States?
Let's just put it very bluntly,
it is very expensive to raise a child. My parents had four children.
My dad worked hard, my mom worked until my sister was born.
They gave us as many opportunities as they could.
We are trying to do the same thing with Sarah,
but it is the four versus one where you go, "Wow."
Do you still feel Belgian? Do you feel American?
I feel Belgian. When the US team gets beaten by the Belgian team,
I bring it up very gently.
Occasionally I feel it is nice to, not in a demeaning way,
but to put a bigger country like United States in place.
I push buttons and I say, "Come on guys, 10 million people and we'll just play
you like an NBA basketball team would play in a Belgian team,
they will just win." They don't like that. It will change, I'm sure,
because over time there's 300 more million people here.
They will eventually have to
have a better soccer team. But not yet, and I like to rub it in. So yes.
After 34 years in the United States,
are there things about Belgium you still miss?
American society, in general, is very mobile. People move so much.
In Belgium, my family, my dad and I at one point went
to the archives in the city to do a little bit of family history.
It was so easy, relatively speaking, to investigate our family
maybe four, five, six generations back, and realized
born and raised in the same city. You were born, you got married,
you worked, you died in the same city.
Now, I have been living in Houston for 17 years
I'm starting to feel like an old-timer.
When I started in the United States, I lived in New Orleans.
That city has really more flavor like Europe in that regard,
long guarded history for the families.
"We've been here for 200 years."
It gives people a different way of living.
I think they have more roots, and they feel more at home.
Anyway, here, it's just, "Well I don't know how
things are because I just got here last year."
If you had one piece of advice for a fellow Belgian
moving to the United States what would that be?
Be yourself. There are so many different nationalities
or ethnic backgrounds here blending in. It should not mean to give
up what you think is true European.
Be proud of who you are and share it with others.
Even dare a joke, why not?
Don't be overly patriotic and say, "What we do is always better,"
then the question will be, "Then what are you doing here?"
You would come here for a reason, one would imagine.
So enjoy the good things, share the good things from back home.
You have an opinion sometimes, stand your ground.
If people criticize where you come from, then you can say,
"Well, you know, let me fill you in. You may not have learned it so well."
But overall, I think, remain who you are.
That, people will appreciate it.
Thank you so much, Dirk, for having me here in Houston,
I really appreciate your time.
Well, thank you very much. Wish you the best of luck on your road trips.
Look forward to seeing much more.
Thank you for listening to the SignMyCar interview.
To find out more multimedia stories
on Belgians living in the US,
just go to our website on www.signmycar.org.
If you like our work and would like to see more stories,
please consider making a donation on our GoFundMe page.
You will find the link on our website.
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