Yeisson Vargas and Valeria Guzmán, migrants: “Bread in Spain is like Spanish. It doesn’t taste like much” | Culture | EUROtoday

If the soul of Latin American migrants in Spain will be embodied in two representatives with loads to say, right here we now have them: Yeisson Vargas, a 30-year-old Colombian with a level in Social Communication and Journalism, as we speak a building employee in Alicante; and Valeria Guzmán, a 31-year-old Salvadoran journalist with an enormous resume who has managed to outlive in Barcelona by folding bins or serving espresso. Both have been awarded the prize for the most effective migrant tales organized by the Centroamérica Cuenta Festival and the Autonomous University of Mexico in Madrid. Authors from 20 international locations have participated in it from the 16 autonomous communities through which they reside.

Ask. What introduced you to Spain?

Yeisson Vargas. The seek for a greater life. In Colombia, eager to be a author is like eager to starve and that is good originally of your twenties, however then it’s a must to take into consideration your pocket and never simply your coronary heart. And the one who can supply higher alternatives to Latin Americans is Spain.

Valeria Guzman. I may now not be a journalist in El Salvador as a result of political situations in my nation, my associate lived right here and that’s the reason I’ve been right here for 4 years. If my associate had been in Guatemala, I might be in Guatemala.

P. How does Spain deal with them?

Valeria Guzman. Bad. My ties and the folks you’re near, superb. But the political actuality is that Spain could be very harsh with the migrant actuality. Everything could be very tough, from getting a job to getting {qualifications} accredited. And the expansion of world fascism permits hate speech to develop.

P. Do you discover racism?

Valeria Guzman. Yes, sure. There is the neighbor who shouts “sudaca” at me on the door of my home. And the one who congratulates me for understanding learn how to converse Spanish.

Yeisson Vargas. Spain has handled me effectively as a result of I’ve been in a position to work and put bread on my desk. I’ve had cultural shocks, however thank God I’ve met extra good folks than unhealthy and Spain has given me a chance that Colombia didn’t give me, to be reasonably valued, that’s the reason I really feel glad. I really feel that Spain loves me and I really like Spain.

P. Impossible to apply your professions right here?

Valeria Guzman. I’ve carried out the whole lot, I’ve been a espresso vendor, folding bins, railway assistant, all the time between informality and short-term and discontinuous everlasting jobs. Now I edit {a magazine} and anti-racist initiatives within the Roquetas neighborhood, in Barcelona.

Yeisson Vargas. I’ve all the time had a variety of work, in communication and in building. There are individuals who have discovered virtues in me that I did not learn about and I make the most of the truth that they admire it and pay me for it. How to make household crests or movies.

P. Do you assume that the Latin American presence is effectively represented, does it have visibility?

Valeria Guzman. No, there’s a nice denial of the contribution we make and an ideal infantilization, however I believe it’s enhancing. There are folks opening doorways for lots of migrants who’re right here. Somewhat extra is lacking. The picture of migrants is tremendous unfavorable, additionally of Latin Americans. Inside the taste of racism there’s a little bit of camaraderie in the direction of Latin Americans in comparison with the view in the direction of Moroccans, for instance. I see it in my neighborhood of Roquetas.

P. You acquired an award from the Inter-American Press Association on your work on the disappeared in El Salvador. Do you are feeling that in Spain there’s consciousness of what’s taking place in your nation?

Valeria Guzman. That subject launched me to very arduous tales, the work about two younger brothers who disappeared and had been murdered particularly marked me. Here I’ve not but obtained a job as such in journalism, however I’ve observed the solidarity of colleagues with the truth we reside there.

P. You are a laborer and a poet. He has acquired a number of awards in Spain.

Yeisson Vargas. Poet is a title that third events have given me. What is occurring to me now with my texts right here, I might have preferred to expertise it in Colombia.

P. And what do you miss?

Yeisson Vargas. We don’t reside in a steady current nor in an ideal future, we reside pitifully within the actuality that impacts us, with the situations that have an effect on us and futures that now not come collectively.

P. And in materials phrases? In his story he mentions that bread will not be bread.

Yeisson Vargas. It’s like Spanish. We converse the language, however in Spain one feels just like the son of a legacy that doesn’t acknowledge him. The identical factor occurs with bread, it’s going to have the identical elements, however the preparation and the way in which you are feeling and style it’s a completely different sensation, it’s a style and never a style, a style that does not style like a lot.

P. Write about conversations at different speeds.

Yeisson Vargas. Here I’ve discovered that they need the whole lot now, hopefully earlier than they’d requested for it. And you study completely different social codes, which is why once you see the folks you left behind once you migrated, they discover you in another way.

P. He additionally talks about seeing his mom in low-resolution pixels.

Yeisson Vargas. We are reminiscence, however the recollections are dropping energy and the look in the direction of my household is turning into a bit of extra distant, with much less high quality.

P. Valeria, you describe the very marked segregation between the blondes within the workplace and the brunettes folding bins within the warehouse. Is it your expertise?

Valeria Guzman. Yes, I’ve labored folding bins and I’ve skilled conditions through which I really feel that distinction.

P. They have additionally referred to as it black, a shade that you just had not even thought-about.

Valeria Guzman. It occurred to me in the course of the 8M march in Barcelona the primary 12 months I lived right here. Everything was going very effectively with some ladies, we went to the demonstration and certainly one of them launched me to somebody who wanted to interview an individual for a college job and mentioned: “I’m bringing you here so you can interview a black woman.” A fellow feminist on 8M! I informed her: “I am not black,” not as a result of it’s a unhealthy factor however as a result of I might be appropriating an expertise that’s not mine. And as if identification had been one thing that somebody exterior baptizes, she mentioned: “You are brown.” I had by no means considered that, I had by no means considered what Pantone shade my pores and skin is, and the primary time it was an 8M and it was arduous.

P. Are you contemplating returning?

Valeria Guzman. Yes, I want to return to El Salvador and see my nephews develop up.

Yeisson Vargas. Yes, however in different situations through which it’s seen that it was price it.