MIRROR 11.13.19
RELIGIOUS DYNAMICS 3
DOC IDENTITY CONVERSATIONS 5
PAGLIARINI Q&A 7 SOPHIE BAILEY/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
2// MIRR OR
Editors’ Note
Q&A
By The Dartmouth Mirror Staff
What part of your identity is most important to you? Anne Johnakin ’23: My passions. I think a large part of who I am comes from what I love to do, and that’s the part of myself I like to share with others the most. Lucas Joshi ’23: Being multiracial, I share an appreciation for more than just one culture. Elizabeth Whiting ’21: My hometown and family roots, which I see as DIVYA KOPALLE/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF inextricably woven together. The cliché of “finding yourself ” never feels as real as it does during the Sophie Bailey ’22: Bi-racial/multifour years of college. Many of us may have completely different conceptions culturalism (half white/Irish and half of our identities than we did when we first stepped foot on Dartmouth’s South Asian/Indian). campus. Perhaps this is because Dartmouth pushes you to develop as a person or because you experience a great deal of change over the course of the four How has your identity changed years you spend here — or maybe because at a place like Dartmouth, you since coming to Dartmouth? are virtually guranteed to interact with people whose identities differ from AJ: I am less afraid to be myself at your own. Dartmouth because there are no Empathy isn’t something you can learn in a classroom at Dartmouth, but preconceived notions of me from when it is a skill you can learn by forming connections with other people. And for I was little. I don’t have to pretend to this reason, not taking advantage of the opportunity to learn about other be someone I used to be; I can be who kinds of people during your time at the College would be silly. I am now. This week, the Mirror examines conversations within the DOC about LJ: I had never seen so many other identity in the outdoors, as well as how students maintain their religious multiracial students as well. It’s identities on campus. We also look into what it’s like to have a twin and talk incredible! to a professor about his a multicultural heritage. We hope you read about EW: I became more aware of the more some identities that differ from your own. And we hope you think about uncommon aspects of my identity and your own identity in the context of other people’s, and maybe even form grew increasingly proud of those parts some new connections along the way. of me. Interestingly enough, I see my own identity as very much same if not more secure now. Allison Falco ’23: I wouldn’t say my identity has changed, but more so, it has follow @thedmirror grown. My identity is still rooted in the same things: being a woman, a writer, a dancer, a mental health advocate, etc. Dartmouth has allowed me to cultivate 11.13.19 VOL. CLXXVI NO. 102 each of these areas more than I have ever been able to before. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DEBORA HYEMIN HAN SB: I feel like people are a lot less prone to just assuming my racial/cultural identity PUBLISHER AIDAN SHEINBERG than people are at home in Arizona. Charlie Ciporin ’23: My high school MIRROR EDITORS KYLEE SIBILIA was super small and everyone knew NOVI ZHUKOVSKY me. I was also the only out gay person COPY EDITOR JULIAN NATHAN in my entire school. Since coming here, I’ve been able to define myself more on ISSUE LAYOUT GRANT PINKSTON my own terms and not just be known as “the gay kid,” which has been really nice.
Is your identity at school different at all from your identity at home? AJ: It isn’t very different, but I’d say I am more independent here than I am at home, mostly because I have to be. LJ: To some degree, I think I am still more comfortable with my identity at home. I have been in the same, loving community for almost the entirety of my life. At Dartmouth, I know I am getting to know one more. EW: My identity at school centers more around where I am from, as it has shaped so much of my personality and world view. At home, it pertains more to how I act. Further, my identity at school emphasizes the way I think more than my identity that my friends at home see. SB: At home, a lot of my more academic-oriented, driven, determined, intelligence qualities seem starker, even with the way I phrase things. Whereas at Dartmouth, those kinds of qualities apply to everyone, so I feel like more of my identity as someone who loves art and drawing and florals and a more relaxed/ calming atmosphere comes into play. CC: Since I’m a ’23, I feel like I’m going to have to see what happens over winterim! Have you ever taken a bad ID photo? Tell us about it. AJ: My learner’s permit, which I still have to use because I don’t have my license yet. I thought I looked so good in person that day, but the photo turned out terrible. LJ: Every so often I have this vein that pops out on my forehead when I smile. During my junior year in high school, I remember giving a big smile for my photo. A few weeks later, my yearbook picture came back and well ... forehead vein! EW: I have never taken a bad ID photo, but I ended up taking getting a new Dartmouth ID because the Registrar spelled my name wrong on my original one from freshman fall. I finally got my name change approved in the middle of winter term, and the contrast in pictures definitely expressed the toll of
the weather on my spirits. The two ID photos became sort of a “before and after” of my first Hanover winter. SB: Yes. My permit was worse, but my driver’s license is pretty bad. My face is just so round and shiny and swollen. I hope that when people look at it, they have a hard time seeing that it’s me. CC: My sixth grade school ID photo was horrendous. My hair stuck up at least six inches over my head, and I opened my eyes so wide I looked crazed. How do you interact with people whose identities differ from your own? AJ: There are so many facets of your personality and your identity, and it can be hard when you meet someone for the first time not to put them in a single box. I’ve met so many people here at Dartmouth, and time and time again they surprise me, which I love. Everyone here has so many layers, and it’s exciting to get to know all the different sides of people. LJ: For me, it is a grounding experience. Even though we all share many comparable qualities, it is such a reminder that there lies a unique identity in us all. EW: Identity is amorphous and in constant flux. So my identity differs from my own identity yesterday or an hour ago. I can’t expect to share an identity with someone else, so interactions become exciting opportunities for mutual learning and growth. I interact with people whose identities differ from my own to expand my mind, and theirs, and contribute to our respective worlds of identity. It’s an exciting thing. SB: Just trying not to assume anything about anyone, even though it’s really hard, because I’ve had people assume things about my identity and it’s really frustrating. CC: I think I’ve always sought out people who are different from me. It was harder to do at home since I come from a pretty homogenous area, but it’s been nice coming to a more diverse campus here.
Religious Dynamics at Dartmouth STORY
MIRR OR //3
By George Gerber
College is a time when students finds comfort in knowing that she assert their independence. When can attend pujas and access people arriving on campus, many students who can support her. must grapple with their religious Julia Martin ’23 has had a identities on their own for the first different experience. She said time, considering questions such that she doesn’t find religion to as: “Should I go church today?” be an integral part of her life at or “Should I pray before I eat?” Dartmouth. Although she went Here, there’s no one forcing you to to an Episcopal high school and do anything; if you want to escape attended chapel every Thursday, she religion, you can. explained that religion didn’t reflect I came to college assuming that anything about her personality and the academics and social scene wasn’t a personal identifier. She said would be too time-consuming for that her family only went to church most people, preventing them from for Christmas or Easter. practicing religion as much as they Martin said that since she’s come did back home. For many, this may to Dartmouth, she hasn’t actively be the case, but I’ve found that some pursued religion. However, she students can still fully interact with noted that there are many resources their faith if they so choose. out there for her should she decide Mounisha Anumolu ’23 said that to. her spiritual values have remained “Religiously, I feel about the the same since same so far, but coming to sometimes I Dartmouth in “Religiously, I feel feel like there’s the fall, but that about the same so more access to it has been hard religion here,” far, but sometimes I to find a religious Martin said. “I c o m m u n i t y feel like there’s more haven’t changed because she is access to religion here. a ny t h i n g, bu t s o bu s y. S h e I ’ve t h o u g h t said that this I haven’t changed about it more challenge made anything, but I’ve than I would her feel like she at home. thought about it more have had lost some I’ve thought that of her religious than I would have at maybe I should identity. g o t o ch u rch home.” H o w e v e r, or go to one of Dartmouth’s the Christian celebration of -JULIA MARTIN ’23 g roups, but I Diwali a few haven’t yet. Now weeks ago was a that I’ve become pivotal moment for her. independent, I’ve been trying to find “Diwali was the first big holiday my way with religion.” that I wasn’t with my parents, my It seems that for most people at family and my religious community Dartmouth, religion is on the back at home, and it would have been so burner. We might think about it awful if Dartmouth hadn’t done when passing a church or when anything,” Anumolu said. times get tough, but it’s hard to keep Anumolu explained that seeing it in your life when you’re alone. the services publicized and seeing With finals approaching and essays the Green lit up connected her to due, life can sometimes get too busy, her religion back home. She said and it’s easy to forget to take a second that the experience made her feel to sit back and reflect on life. Some thankful for religious communities people strongly identify with their at Dartmouth, and that she now religion, however, and believe that
it helps them navigate through these things that I didn’t want to be doing, aspects of Dartmouth life. but the way that I saw myself was Joelle Park ’19 said she had a changing, and the insecurities that strong sense of her religious identity my faith has helped me to overcome before she came to Dartmouth. Her started to creep back a little bit,” freshman year, she said that she Park said. felt her beliefs After were unusual, that year, Park “It wasn’t necessarily a n d m a ny o f took a gap her peers didn’t that I was doing things year to go to share the same that I didn’t want to ministry school. values as her. According to her, She said that be doing, but the way the break helped D a r t m o u t h that I saw myself was strengthen her culture — how faith, and it changing, and the we interact changed her s o c i a l l y a n d insecurities that my c o m fo r t l eve l e v e n t a l k — faith has helped me to with her identity challenges many and how she of her religious overcome started to understood values. religion as a creep back a little bit. “I think I whole. By the started noticing time she got back a r o u n d m y -JOELLE PARK ’19 to Dartmouth, sophomore she said a lot had year, right after changed for her. I rushed, was when a lot of my “I was able to enjoy Dartmouth values were challenged the most. It and really appreciate the positive wasn’t necessarily that I was doing things and not let the negative things
Rollins Chapel offers religious services for an array of faiths.
affect me as much,” Park said. “I just felt so protected from a lot of the negative mindsets that permeate this campus.” However, Park also said that she still felt worried about being able to maintain her renewed concept of religion once back on campus. I never saw religion as a lens through which we can look out at the world. To me, religion always appeared to be something that most people just did; people had to perform certain rituals that didn’t have any rhyme or reason, only to say they did them. But with the stress of college affecting all of us, reflection can keep us motivated and hopeful. However, the thing that keeps us moving doesn’t even have to be a single religion or identifier. To me, faith can be anything that makes us feel like we belong and that we have a purpose. I still haven’t found that “thing” yet, but I’m going to keep an open mind as to what it may be, and I’m going to keep talking to people of various faiths. After all, it never hurt me to learn.
DIVYA KOPALLE/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
Seeing Double: Twins at Dartmouth 4// MIRR OR
STORY
By Ale Geisel-Zamora
It’s a running joke I’ve heard together, but it wasn’t like ‘I’m going this but your brother did not or vice from twins and other students on to Dartmouth because Lizzie wants versa. Everyone assumes we have the campus alike: “Dartmouth loves to go to Dartmouth.’ They were same sort of base of knowledge, but twins.” Maybe that is true. But independent decisions.” sometimes it doesn’t correlate like interestingly enough, there is some Interestingly enough, both the that.” controversy surrounding how colleges Clark twins and the Hobbs triplets However, Hobbs said that she is address twins expressed that sometimes shocked when students wh ile m ak in g "It bummed me out they have similar don’t know she is a triplet. admissions interests as their “It bummed me out that I thought d e c i s i o n s . I n that I thought I was s i b l i n g s. T h e I was always going to be known as an article from going to be known twins explained the triplet, but I found out after I the New York that they share a got here that that’s not the case, as the triplet, but I Times, William major, and Hobbs and a lot of people don’t know we F i t z s i m m o n s , found out after I got said that she and are triplets. There’s a lot of times dean o f here that that's not her siblings are [when] someone will come up to me admissions and also planning and say, ‘I didn’t know Billy was your f i n a n c i a l a i d the case, and a lot of on pursuing the brother,’” Hobbs said. a t H a r v a r d , people don't know we same major. As Conversely, Lizzie said that since explained that a result, both sets she and Lily have similar interests twins are viewed are triplets." of siblings said and participate in the same campus as separate that they have organizations — they are both i n d i v i d u a l s -ELIZABETH HOBBS '22 t a k e n m a n y involved in the same sorority — they during the classes with each are well known as twins. admissions other. However, Lizzie explained that process, and if In fact, they wanted to form separate spaces they are qualified, both may be Lizzie said that this term she and her within their shared experiences and accepted. sister are enrolled in all of the same form their own identities. While some argue that separating classes. “Being a twin is a defining part of sets of siblings in classes is necessary “This is the first term in a while who I am. A lot of people referred to because of possible competitiveness, that we’ve had all three classes the us as ‘the twins’ freshman year. It’s over-dependence or difference in same, but it’s kind of fun going to made me who I am, and it’s really fun intellectual ability, twins and triplets class and kind of having a built-in having a person who has had all the on campus suggest that these shared study buddy," Lizzie said. "It’s also same experiences and is from home,” experiences may also be beneficial in kind of funny because our Latin Lizzie said. “But we both reached creating equally qualified, intelligent professor can’t tell us apart.” the age where we both wanted to individuals. However, Hobbs said that sharing form our individual identities, and Elizabeth Hobbs ’22 is a triplet, classes with a triplet is difficult at I think we have. Together we’re with two brothers, Billy and Hunt, times because twins, but once who also attend Dartmouth. professors and you get to know “My brothers and I did not decide peers constantly "Being a twin is a us, you pick up to go to school together," Hobbs said. c o m p a r e t h e defining part of who on our individual "We always thought we were going to performance of personality I am. A lot of people go to different schools. We didn’t tell the siblings in the traits.” referred to us as 'the each other when we were applying course. While or where we were applying. We all “A l o t o f twins' freshman year." there are many ended up applying early decisions to teachers really sets of twins who Dartmouth, which is kind of crazy to like having two came to campus think about, and then we all ended of the three of -LIZZIE CLARK '21 together, there up getting in, which is even crazier.” us in class. They are also many Lily Clark ’21, identical twin sister get really excited who don’t have of Lizzie Clark ’21, had a similar about it, so they their siblings with application experience. know who we are,” Hobbs said. “But them. Aditi Gupta ’23 is a twin whose “[Lizzie and I] applied to colleges sometimes, it’s awkward because if brother attends Boston University. separately,” Lily said. “We made our my brother gets something wrong “If he was here, I would have a own lists and we gave them to our in the class, the teacher will sort of form of support that I could lean on mom. We wanted to go to college look at me like how did you know without feeling guilty. But we didn’t
CLARA PAKMAN/THE DARTMOUTH
go to the same high school either, so it was a little bit less of a shock than it otherwise would have been,” Gupta said. She also explained that her identity has never been based on being a twin. “My identity as a twin has always been more of a fun fact like, ‘Fun fact: I have a twin brother’ and less like,
‘This is my mirror.’ Since I don’t have any other siblings, I really don’t know how else that relationship would look like,” Gupta remarked. However, Lily said that having a "mirror" on campus isn't the worst thing in the world. “It’s really fun having a twin on campus. Would recommend,” Lily said.
DOC Engages in Talks of Identity and Inclusivity STORY
MIRR OR //5
By Anne Johnakin
The outdoors are an inherently expensive space, leading many people to associate outing clubs, like Dartmouth’s, with privilege. Today at 7:30 p.m. in One Wheelock, the Dartmouth Outing Club will be hosting an event called “Identity and the DOC” which aims to facilitate a conversation about privilege and the outdoors and take steps toward making the DOC an increasingly inclusive space, according to DOC president Sarah Kolk ’20. Elliot Ng ’21, a member of the DOC directorate, said that this event was created because part of the DOC’s mission is to make the outdoors more accessible. “I think the first time I stepped into a big sub-club meeting of the DOC, it was very apparent there were not many people of color or female-identifying people,” Ng said. “You can go through that without “Institutional memory is a funny asking yourself why that is, or you can go through that and ask what are all thing because I’ve only been here for these factors that make Dartmouth, four years, and I can say I’ve seen the DOC and our wider community some change, but when I talk to like so, and why the outdoors are alums who are 10 years out, they’re mainly consumed by the people like ‘The DOC is so much bigger and who have more privilege and more more welcoming than it ever was,’” Kolk said. money.” Two of the attempts to make The DOC had a similar event this past summer, which focused on the DOC more inclusive come with female and non-gender conforming the addition of the People of Color persons’ experiences in the outdoors, in the Outdoors Club and Women in the Wilderness according to sub-clubs. While Kolk. The new "We want this space these clubs serve event aims to an important push further to be as welcoming as purpose in making at the topics possible to as many a wider array introduced over different types of of Dartmouth the summer students feel while still being people as possible." welcome, it’s also accessible to important to Kolk students who and Ng that they did not attend. -KELLEN APPLETON '20 feel welcome in Over the other areas of the past few years, the DOC has been trying to address DOC as well. Victoria Faustin ’23 has been accessibility issues in numerous ways, and Kolk said she believes they have involved with Cabin and Trail made productive moves. One of the and WIW this term and said she ways you can quantify the changes, has found the environment very according to Kolk, is by the number welcoming, both inside the sub-clubs and in the DOC as a whole. of people involved with the DOC.
LILA HOVEY/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
“Nothing’s perfect and nothing will ever be perfect, but I think the DOC is doing a fantastic job in trying to promote inclusivity,” Faustin said. “I haven’t been personally involved in an instance where I didn’t feel part of the club, and I think a lot of sub-clubs try to work with WIW.” According to Kolk, there was initially discussion over whether this "Identity and the DOC" event should partner with WIW and/or POCO. The directorate decided against this, citing the importance that this conversation is facilitated by the DOC as a whole. “Making these initiatives come from the institution rather than these subgroups is really important because it’s the goal of the whole DOC to become more inclusive and to have a more inviting culture,” Kolk said. “It shouldn’t be POCO’s prerogative to change the DOC, it should be the DOC’s prerogative to change the DOC.” The other large part of accessibility in regards to the outdoors is financial accessibility, which in the past served as a barrier for many students. Now, the DOC has heavily subsidized events these groups
sponsor, according to Kolk. The goal moving forward is to keep all major events, like the hikes and weekly feeds, entirely free. Additionally, break trips are subsidized in order to make them accessible to more students. Kellen Appleton ’20, the newly appointed director of First-Year Trips for 2020, said the issues of inclusivity and representation are something the Trips program has grappled with for a while. “The outdoors is such an expensive place,” Appleton said. “It’s a place that is usually very inaccessible ... It’s usually the realm of wealthy white people. And I think that’s a problem here at Dartmouth, too; we’re not perfect. But I think there’s a lot of people working very hard to make sure the DOC is a space for everyone.” Creating a welcoming environment is the main goal, said Appleton, especially considering that Trips are the first introduction to the DOC for first-years. “We have this problem of ‘There are lots of people participating in trips but the people who are running and volunteering for trips don’t
necessarily reflect the people who are actually participating in it,’” Appleton said. “It’s definitely a top priority for us, simply because we want this space to be as welcoming as possible to as many different types of people as possible.” According to Ng, the “Identity and the DOC” event is a small part of a much larger ongoing conversation. It is important, said Ng, that this is not a once-a-year occurrence where people talk about inclusivity and then immediately forget about it. Kolk’s main goal for the event is for students, especially underclassmen, to engage with discussion and keep this knowledge in their minds when they become leaders. Kolk emphasized the fact that this event is for everyone on campus, whether they are involved with the DOC or not, because the conversation applies to more people than just those heavily involved in the club. “We didn’t want to put any constraints on who should speak and what they should speak about,” Kolk said. “It’s very much open, but with the idea that the goal is to recognize and listen to a diverse array of experiences.”
6 // MIRR OR
Identity in Conflict: “The Shadow King” STORY
By Sophie Bailey
“I started out with the premise We have lived so much in myth; we that history is nothing but a series of have lost sight of what the truth was narratives created by individuals who of that moment.” are fallible, biased and, quite frankly, Much of that forgotten narrative, have bad memories. And there is so according to Mengiste, has to do with much that falls in the gaps, and there women. Not only how they supported is so much that has just been silenced,” men, but how they carryied rifles, were said author Maaza Mengiste of the bombed and fought in the war like any project that led to her most recent other soldiers. novel, “The Shadow King.” Taking place 40 years after the war, Mengiste, born in Addis Ababa, Mengiste’s novel reveals the ways in Ethiopia, is a Fulbright scholar and which the war is both very present professor at Queen’s College of the in the collective conscience but also City University of New York. She is misremembered. But the remnants of a recipient of a National Endowment this war extend beyond only memories. for the Arts fellowship and has also While conducting research for “The authored a previous novel, “Beneath Shadow King,” Mengiste said she held the Lion’s Gaze,” one of the Guardian’s a reading of her other novel, “Beneath 10 best contemporary African books. the Lion’s Gaze,” at a small bookshop Mengiste was one of the featured in Southern Italy. An emotional inquiry authors of the Cleopatra Mathis from a man in the audience, reckoning Poetry and Prose Series, sponsored with his own father’s involvement in by the English and creative writing the Italo-Ethiopian conflict, resulted in department. As part of this program, his gifting copies of his father’s letter, Mengiste read excerpts from her novel photographs and other documents and participated in a Q&A session in from that period to Mengiste. Mengiste Sanborn Library last week. described how she came to search for Mengiste’s newest novel, “The more photographs like these in Italian Shadow King,” was published in flea markets, something that helped September and centers on the lead her to writing “The Shadow Italo-Ethiopian King.” War, which she “I was overwhelmed characterized as with the history and This process the first conflict of collecting of World War II. the research; I was photographs M e n g i s t e so caught up in the and stories is described just s t i l l o n g o i n g, how pervasive this fact that so much was M e n g i s t e narrative of the not known and I kept emphasized. She Italo-Ethiopian discovering more.” is currently in the War and the midst of creating Ethiopian victory an internet is within cultural -MAAZA MENGISTE, archive of the remembrance photographs, a and identity, but AUTHOR project entitled also how much Project 35-41, this focus on recalling the years the resulting victory relegates the of the conflict: 1935 to 1941. preceding five years of fighting the As she delved deeper into research, war to the margins of our memories: Mengiste recalled being overwhelmed “There is no Ethiopian that doesn’t by this history and its complexity. know this story,” Mengiste said at the “I was overwhelmed with the history reading. “It is mythic, it is legend, it and the research; I was so caught up in is so deeply rooted in what Ethiopian the fact that so much was not known, identity is … But I became interested in and I kept discovering more. I initially this idea of what happened in between. lost track of my characters because I
AMELIE PERRIER/THE DARTMOUTH
wanted to tell it all.” Mengiste’s exploration extended beyond only Ethiopian accounts of the war. One of her central characters in “The Shadow King” is Ettore, a Jewish-Italian photographer with the Italian army in Ethiopia. “His character became a pivot for a lot of questions that I’ve asked for a long time about war, about art, about the intersections between photography and conflict … I became very interested in this idea of what happens to the women who are in front of that camera and what happens to the men behind it, because they are rearranging and reshaping their own sense of manhood and what masculinity means.” Taliq Tillman ’22 said he attended
the reading because he is interested in decolonial work and is currently working on a paper for his film class which examines the idea of constructed narratives, specifically within the context of modern cinema as inherently white. “It is the same concepts [Mengiste] is talking about, understanding that this [cinematic history] was a construction, not just a neutral history, so that then I can bring in more inclusive voices and voices of color,” Tillman said. While conducting research for this book, in Trieste, Italy, Mengiste visited what had been a concentration camp, accompanied by English and creative writing professor Alexander Chee, who was her colleague at the time. Mengiste described her very emotional
but profound reaction to this place. “Stepping into that camp, I couldn’t help thinking of the camps that are created in this country right now … I realized that it really is all connected, we are all threads bound to everything that happens to everyone,” Mengiste said. Chee, who taught with Mengiste at the NYU Writing program in Florence from 2016-2018 and introduced her at the reading, described his admiration for Mengiste as a writer and teacher. “She had researched so intensely, finding these old photographs of Ethiopian women and soldiers in Italian flea markets. It struck me as an incredible story to tell, and I wanted my students to hear that from her,” Chee said.
MIRR OR //7
Q&A with Latin American Studies Professor Pagliarini Q&A
By Lucas Joshi
Latin American, Latino and how to navigate them, and for that, I Caribbean studies professor Andre really value the “third culture” of our Pagliarini moved to Brazil with his upbringing. family at age five and lived there until age 14. Pagliarni returned to the What motivated your research United States to further his education, on contemporar y Brazil, majoring in history at the University of particularly in relation to the Maryland, College Park and studying Cold War era? the heritage of multiple world regions. AP: For a while, I was interested in the Pagliarini said he was insired by his modern Middle East. I thought I might grandfather — who served a Brazilian go into government as a career, but as diplomat during the Cold War — to I took more Latin American history study Latin American culture as a way courses at the University of Maryland of sustaining his Brazilian identity — and my senior capstone was about while living in the the Cold War in United States. “Every time I get the Latin America — I As a student in found myself more his course LACS question “Where intrigued. I read a 1, “Introduction to are you from?” I book called “We Latin America and Cannot Remain take a deep breath the Caribbean,” Silent” by James I have studied because it’s a very Green about the Latin America’s complicated story.” resistance in the cultural heritage. United States While I understand to the military the complexity of -ANDRE PAGLIARINI, dictatorship in multiculturalism, Brazil. There’s LATIN AMERICAN, I became curious a page where he as to how living in LATINO AND cites a diplomat in two countries and CARIBBEAN STUDIES Washington D.C. identifying with two who happened to cultures came to PROFESSOR be my grandfather. shape Pagliarini’s T h at p e r s o n a l research on the connection to the intersectionality of Latin American history of the Cold War really drove culture, race and identity. my interest. Can you speak to the impact Brazil and the United States have had on your childhood and early adult life? AP: Every time I get the question “Where are you from?” I take a deep breath because it’s a very complicated story. I was born in the United States, but my family is all Brazilian; I was the only one of my siblings who was born here. Even when I lived in Brazil, we would come back to the United States. I always say I grew up with one foot here and one foot there. I grew up in a situation with a lot of people like this. Some of them never felt like they were from anywhere. On the other hand, I feel that there is this facility to encounter new situations and know
In your article “‘De onde? Para onde?’ The Continuity Question and the Debate over Brazil’s ‘Civil’-Military Dictatorship,” you write that “the political system of Latin America’s largest nation is resilient, able to shield its interests from the storm raging outside.” Has the election of President Jair Bolsonaro challenged your view of the stability of Brazilian democracy following the dictatorship of the Cold War? AP: So, I am actually 0-2 in terms of my predictions for far-right leaders in the United States and Brazil; I thought Trump had no chance, as I thought Bolsonaro — even under the worse
circumstances — had no chance. Bolsonaro represents a negation of traditional political competition. On the one hand, I feel more pessimistic about the state of Brazilian democracy than when I wrote the article. However, I do believe that the style of politics Bolsonaro represents tends to exhaust itself. Historically, it does not deliver tangible improvements, and from that, I do feel it can ultimately be defeated. In a 2018 New York Times article, Ernesto Londoño and Manuela Andreoni assert that “many see in [Bolsonaro] the kind of disruptive, status quo-breaking potential that propelled President Trump’s victory in 2016.” Do you feel that then-candidate Bolsonaro met a changing component of Brazilian identity in his rise to the presidency? AP: Yes, there is this term from political scientists known as “political entrepreneur” for someone who is able to recognize a political moment and elevate a political discourse — though it varies in different contexts — that clicks. Under the government in Brazil, there was this idea that the middle class did not find itself getting worse or getting better; it found itself losing relative status. It bred a real sense of rage for millions of Brazilians, and the idea of anti-corruption became almost an identity for Brazilians. A moment was created where Bolsonaro’s discourse — previously fringe and on the margins — spoke to many people. How do you believe the release of ex-Brazilian President Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva — as he awaits the appeal to his criminal case — will impact the political identity of Brazil? AP: For better or for worse, Lula has this unique ability to connect to and with the people. Even after leaving his two-term presidency with high approval ratings, the question remains: “Does he still connect with enough people?” Assuming that he becomes eligible, I don’t necessarily think Lula
would want to come back and run for the presidency, but due to the personal stakes and the current state of Brazil, I think he just might. How do you perceive the Brazilian student identity at Dartmouth? AP: The whole reason I am here — for what I can presume — is because of the lobbying of the Brazilian students on campus. There are so many of these students on campus, and it is evident that they wanted more opportunities to learn about Brazil, a source of great cultural history in Latin America. When I came to give a talk last October, I heard that the turnout could be sometimes high and sometimes not. I walked in, and the room was packed — and I have to credit these students for all of their efforts and energy in driving the interest. Additionally, I really must give credit to Dartmouth for its decision to follow the path of recruiting Brazilian students with not only regional diversity but also socioeconomic diversity that is not often seen at other universities. In addition to your teaching at
the College, your family has become a part of the Dartmouth community. How do you hope to share your experience of multiculturalism with your children? AP: My son, who is 4, is a dual citizen with the United States and Brazil, and I am currently filing the paperwork for my daughter to be a dual citizen as well. My hope is for them to grow up going back and forth from Brazil and the United States, like I did. I want them to grow up not only speaking both languages but also being immersed in both cultures. For me, that’s another reason why I chose to pursue graduate school and the study of Brazil; I wanted to have this excuse to go back and forth like I had done before. I met my wife in Brazil in eighth grade. She came from a similar experience of American and Brazilian identity. One of the reasons our relationship has really worked and continues to work is because she understands and values that idea: one foot here, one foot there. This article has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
COURTESY OF ANDRE PAGLIARINI
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EYE-DENTITIES OF DARTMOUTH PHOTO
By Divya Kopalle