In almost every country, there exist icons, which represent the culture, and past of each country. In America and Venezuela, exist a los of icons that represents those countries, as well as, for example, the American Eagle, Mc'donalds, the flag, and Elvis Presley, in America. In Venezuela there is Simon Diaz, Simon Bolivar, the orquid, the flag, and the home food.
It is important to establish some difference between those American and Venezuelan icons. I choose the flag, the food, and the nature.

The flag:

In my opinion, the flag is one of the most important things that represents a country, because there is always a story behind those flags. In this comparation, I want to focus in the starts, for example, in the American flag, you can see 50 starts, which represents each country of the United States. However, in the Venezuelan flag, is it possible to see just 8 starts, this is because is to remember the past, and to remember that now Venezuela is independent, so the 8 starts, represents the 8 provinces that were liberated during the independence battles.

The food:

Mc'donalds, is an important American icon, it represents the easy and fatty food, however it is so tasty so it has become a wolrd power. It is important to say, that Mc'donalds, is also a stereotype of the Americans, and the American food. In Venezuela, there is more home food, which means that almost everyone, prefers to eat something made by themselves. The typical food icon in Venezuela, is the Arepa, and it is an important symbol of their culture, as well as Mc'donalds is an important icon of American culture.

The nature:

In America exists an important animal, which is the Eagle, the American Eagle, that represents highness, and domain. In Venezuela there is a bird called Turpial, it represents the bauty of the nature, and it has no political connotation.

As we can see, this nature icons, within these countries, had a lot of difference, because, once the Eagle is representing the progress, and is representing the American society, the Turpial is an icon of beauty, purity, calm and peace.

Venezuelan Stereotypes

It is hard to determine which are the Venezuelan stereotypes, because of the fact that I am Venezuelan. However, I decided to ask some American people, what they think about as, and they said that Venezuelans are very energetic, happy people and they always related Venezuela with Baseball. I realized that Americans does not have a lot of stereotypes about Venezuelans, however, if you ask for a bad stereotype, they always talk about politic things.

In Venezuela we are very nice people that always like to support who needs it, actually we are really energetic, in the terms of dancing and parties. It is important to mention, that, as well as with the American Stereotypes, in Venezuela we have a lot of people, from very different cultures that has different thoughts about life, and may be, are not as the common stereotypes.
Some generalization about Venezuelans could be that we usually do not follow the rules, for example in the streets, and driving. Venezuelan people, are disorganized, and in some cases very unpunctual. Nowadays, Venezuela is very related with the baseball, this is because we have a very strong baseball team, and in the aspects of football (soccer), we are not that recognized.
In the other hand, Venezuelan people, give a lot of importance to friendship, and when you have a friend, it is important to be by her or his side anytime, because, for as, truly friends, can be count with one hand.
Finally, I think that Venezuelan stereotypes, are nothing but American stereotypes, however, being in this country I could find some people that has similar tastes, and thoughts, as me, so this are just generalizations and stereotypes, about, may be, a majority of Venezuelans, which ones, however, has their only way of think and be.

American Stereotypes

According to an article of Cross-Cultural Contact with Americans, “stereotypes are exaggerated beliefs and images about groups of people and are often based on a lack of information or contact”. Stereotypes can be good; also, it can help at the moment of making differences between cultures, however, in some cases, people just use stereotypes as the basis of their knowledge.
In my opinion, there are a lot of stereotypes about de American culture, or even, the American people. For me, Americans are, first of all, perfectionists; they always try to make things as awesome as they can, looking for perfection. This stereotype is the one that, as I think, has allow the American people, to have a society so organized, stable, and that follows the rules.
Secondly, I think that Americans are always looking for comfort, it is important to mention, that it is good, for the society, because it allows to make things easier, but, in the other hand, this stereotypes is one of the reasons why every time that I think in American food, I think of something plastic, and made in the microwave.
Due to the fact that Americans are always trying not to establish differences between races, in my opinion, they increase this thought of racism even more when they do this, because it is, for me, try to make two, or three or even more different groups of races, that are non native from America, giving themselves the importance of being Americans.
Finally, in every society are stereotypes, however, there is a lot of people in, for example, the United States, so everyone is different, and probably, they are not all like what is commonly thought about Americans.