My name is Janice Goveas and I was mentored in Diaspora Dialogues program two years ago as an emerging playwright. I also work in fiction. I moderate the Diaspora Dialogues Facebook group and this blog.
This is how I diaspora-
1. My father is from Pakistan.
2. My mother is from India.
3. I was born in Bahrain, but I don't speak Arabic.
4. The name I use is the name I was given at birth: English first name, Portuguese last name.
5. English is my first language.
6. I have an MA in Spanish Lit, speak Spanish fluently and 'pass' for Latina as often as I can.
7. I also speak French fluently.
8. I speak no South Asian language fluently.
9. I am a total foodie and have no loyalty to any cuisine.
10. I secretly believe that anyone who knows anything about history would rather be descended from India than any other civilization on earth.
11. I have lived in Bahrain, Pakistan, Canada, Spain, Colombia and the United States.
12. I feel most at home when I am by the ocean. Any ocean. Almost anywhere.
How do you diaspora?
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I haven't thought of it that way, but here goes...
ReplyDeleteI'm a wife and mother, a daughter and sister, formed and shaped by India, Bahrain and then Canada.
I'm a writer, a reader, a friend, a participant in Life's currents, a blogger (http://moushumimuses.blogspot.com/), a traveller, a willing ear and shoulder to those who need it, a volunteer.
The physical places that I lived in have moulded me into who I am today. No doubt I will visit other places and some of their soul will seep into me, further diversifying my identity.
I diaspora as a citizen of the world, of humanity and positive experiences, of rejections and uncomfortable truths, of compromises and unflinching ideals.