Memorias - An American in Spain, A Spaniard in America

Memorias - An American in Spain, A Spaniard in AmericaDuring my California childhood, my familys Spanish language and culture surrounded me, and I felt unlike other children in the context of a "superior" Anglo culture. Friends commented that coming to my house was unlike visiting other homes. Now, when Im in Spain or in other countries, I finally feel like an American, but uncomfortably so. This stay with family in Spain is about a recursive emotional path to learn about my family through this parallel

During my California childhood, my familyÕs Spanish language and culture surrounded me, and I felt unlike other children in the context of a "superior" Anglo culture. Friends commented that coming to my house was unlike visiting other homes. Now, when IÕm in Spain or in other countries, I finally feel like an American, but uncomfortably so. This stay with family in Spain is about a recursive emotional path to learn about my family through this parallel family across the ocean, and, in so doing, to learn more about my own life and responses to it. I stayed long enough to enter their everyday life, and long enough to know the link of my past with their present. Now I have the memory of this time, the people, and the emotion. Sharing these images, and the story behind them, helps me to stabilize these memories, to unite them with new memories; my photographs are my emotional conduits to the experience. The visible evoking the invisible. (in English and Spanish)