1492

Feidy Blandino
Providence, Rhode Island
Spain: Instituto Ibêrico Las Tres Culturas

1492, a date firmly engraved in my memory from the beginning of my study of history. A date that takes on new contexts every time it is referred to. This summer I was provided with a new perspective through my Student Diplomacy Corps program, Las Tres Culturas. It was on this historic date that a culturally rich era in Spain concluded, and my stories commenced.
I vividly remember my first time learning the reality of the “Discovery of America.” It was during fifth grade social studies in my first year of Sophia Academy. This date clashed with my intersecting identities; what I had previously known as a factor in American history was suddenly revealed to me as a factor in my Dominican Caribbean history in ways that were clearer than ever before. Now hyper-aware of my Spanish roots, I was curious to learn more.

When applying to SDC, I immediately gravitated towards the programs to Spain, marking them as my top choices. I saw Spain as an opportunity to advance my Spanish, and experience Spanish culture firsthand. What I couldn’t have envisioned was that not only did my studies accomplish both, but it also provided me with a perspective on intersectionality where varied identities do not conflict but rather collaborate and coexist.

During Spain’s history, Las Tres Culturas: Christians, Jews and Muslims, coexisted and exercised a sense of tolerance for each other. These religions and cultures recognized their similarities and admired their differences, which allowed them to partake in each other’s art, daily life and cultural practices. In Madrid, as I boarded my first ever train ride to Toledo, the city of the three cultures, this exchange and adaptation of cultures seemed to me like a utopia, and I was curious to see how I would see it manifest in modern-day Spain.We traveled through six distinct cities of Spain during the program, witnessing this sense of multiculturalism in every historic building I visited, and neighborhood our group and hosts explored. Newfound identities created during Las Tres Culturas reflected off of the walls, illustrating intersectionality in the most captivating ways. Through Arabic scriptures seen in the ancient synagogues of Toledo, to the Islamic architecture of the Mosque – Cathedral of Cordoba where both religions once prayed. It was beautiful and empowering to see where people were once being encouraged to express themselves in a variety of ways rather than picking and conforming rigidly to one.

Yet as we reached Cadiz in the far south of Spain this lively melting pot of cultures began to fade as we had arrived at the city where Christopher Columbus’s ship embarked. A ship that set off to discover new societies, destroying parts of cultures through Christian dominance and colonialism. What had once been three cultures in Spain became one, that would go on to influence the rest of the world, starting with my ancestors.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived in my family’s homeland, the Island of Hispaniola, now divided into the Dominican Republic and Haiti. They met with native Tainos, and this is where the first instances of Spanish-Christian colonization took place. It transformed my origins into what I know of my culture today. My ancestors’ forceful assimilation to the Spanish language allowed me to practice Spanish with strangers and new friends in Granada, Spain to Providence, RI. The presence of European conquistadors and the enslaved people brought over from Africa was reflected in our SDC group. Four members of my SDC group were Dominicans and we all had starkly different appearances, but we spent hours sharing parallel experiences growing up in different parts of the United States.

My time in Spain allowed me to learn about a part of myself that I cannot fully explore in America. In American I am very often too busy trying to conform. This summer I explored similarities with the use of the Spanish across continents, and I tried to embrace differences such as the word “vale!,” the way those would during the era of Las Tres Culturas. As I return to the United States, I will continue to narrate my story inspired by the ones left behind by Christians, Muslims, and Jews, fearless in expressing my multiple identities and enthusiastic to share it with others.