Living on the Hyphen of Being a Swiss-Brazilian<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Author<\/strong>: Aline Romy<\/p>\n\n\n\n i<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is one thing to be a Swiss child in Brazil and quite another to be Brazilian woman in\nSwitzerland.2<\/sup> As a Swiss child, words like jacar\u00e9<\/em> refused to leave my mouth in the\nappropriate way. ii<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As a Brazilian woman in Switzerland, I am confronted to gross stereotypes that some European males have about Latinas. As soon as my Brazilianness<\/em> is mentioned I can feel a tone shift. I am perplexed for some time, before I realize why I suddenly feel icky. iii<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDo you feel more Swiss or Brazilian?\u201d iv<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If Gustavo P\u00e9rez Firmat is a \u201cone-and-halfer\u201d I am an \u201cin-betweener\u201d. Image: <\/strong>\u00a9 by padoriot via Pixabay Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The professor tells me gently
\/\u0292a.ka\u02c8\u027e\u025b\/
I frown as
\/\u02c8\u0283a ka\u02c8\u027e\u025b \/
leaves my mouth.
The professor repeats \/\u0292a.ka\u02c8\u027e\u025b\/
\u201cWhat\u2019s the difference?\u201d
As a 12-year-old, somehow the palato-alveolar ejective fricative sounds exactly the same as\nthe voiced postalveolar fricative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTake your sticky hands away from me.\u201d
Their slimy head associates Latinas with promiscuity. We are all sluts on tinder looking for a Swiss passport.
\u201cI don\u2019t need your Swiss passport. I have my own.\u201d
I am Brazilian and you will not make me feel ashamed. I am also Swiss, and you will not make me feel lesser for being both. But sometimes it is hard to negotiate between my two cultures, to be constantly translation bent, perpetually betraying one language or the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I try to put it on a scale, to allocate certain traits to each of my cultures. I have had Swiss punctuality drilled into me, but my sense of humor is Brazilian. While being Swiss means precision, Brazil taught me how to improvise, to loosen up at the edges and be less rigid. Some of this is easy, but most of it is a tangled mess, blurred lines, no clear distinction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inhabiting the \u201cin between\u201d space between both countries means I am somewhere, but also nowhere.3<\/sup> Maybe I\u2019m floating in the middle of the Atlantic. However, I cannot samba to save my life. Too social, too open, too sunny to be fully Swiss. But too antisocial and quiet to be fully Brazilian. I like to mix bright yellow lemons with my green limes when I make my Swiss friends discover the sweetness of caipirinhas made with golden cacha\u00e7a. The amber liquid aged in balsam barrel\u2019s is a mixture of flavors. Nuts, cedar, honey, tobacco, vanilla.
As a Swiss-Brazilian, Suisse-Br\u00e9silienne, Su\u00ed\u00e7a-Brasileira I am always treading on the tightrope of the hyphen that connects my heritages, my cities, my languages. I don\u2019t know where one ends and where the other starts. My two cultures are blindly held on a balancing scale within my heart. Sometimes it tips one way or the other, but it is impossible to know which culture is the dominant and which is the subordinate.4<\/sup>
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