Maybe it was inevitable when the American blonde linguist and her Mexican
Spanish teacher fell in love in Mexico City that they would have me, a child
born between worlds. I was born in Guatemala into the center of my very own Venn
diagram, a place where worlds overlapped and intersected. Sometimes I picture
my Venn diagram in the colors of my three passports: one blue, one green and
one red. Other times I picture the languages that flow like currents through my life: the pragmatic, direct sounds of English mixing with the musical
tones of Spanish, flowing into the soft, gliding reverberations of French and
finally swirling with the complex intonations of Arabic. New circles have been added as I’ve traveled and lived in
other countries, some of them becoming more home to me than any home I’ve ever
known. At least in the center of my own Venn diagram I can find the place
between worlds where I belong.
Tell me, what would your Venn diagram look like?
Tell me, what would your Venn diagram look like?
*The rather long title of this post is taken from John Venn's 1880 paper that introduced the Venn diagram to the world.
