Thus, through a little luck and a lot of tenacity, I had the good fortune of interviewing two individuals of Pakistani heritage, two of Indian origin, and three of Moroccan origin, all of whom were between 20 and 30 years old, and whose identities will remain anonymous. However, it soon became clear to me that surveying individuals whose backgrounds were utterly different from anyone culturally tied to Spain would be far more interesting.
Originally I’d thought it a good idea to survey individuals from peripheral areas within Spain. I’d like to have delved more deeply into each person’s background, taking into consideration their parents’ social, economic and political backgrounds, but time did not permit.
#Microcosm in spanish series#
Though I still can’t claim to have achieved more than a series of educated, subjective observations, I believe that by posing five specific questions to six individuals comprising three different cultural and ethnic backgrounds I’ve been able to form a limited hypothesis about what growing up in Madrid as an ethnic minority could be like. Similarly, questions concerning the degree in which an inherited language could hinder or encourage an individual to take on the adopted, or “host” identity of the country he or she is born in had always struck me as curious. The idea of growing up in a culture in which one language is spoken at home and another elsewhere is something I can’t personally relate to, but which has fascinated me and made me wonder to which degree the inherited, or “source” language may contribute to the formation of an individual’s identity, and to which degree it may not. Consequently, I’ve been able to flesh out what for years had been superficial observations and personal theories concerning individuals from ethnic groups as they interacted with a language not traditionally spoken within their countries of origin.
I’ve had the tremendous opportunity this year of meeting and spending time with a lot of people from an incredibly diverse array of backgrounds.
0 kommentar(er)
