To be in Jerusalem, a holy city for three religions, is a kind of challenge for all us raised in intolerance and no respect for the other's belief. I was raised by German nuns in Uruguay, South America's tiniest country, created by the English diplomacy as a buffer between the two mighty giants, Argentine and Brazil. My ancestors were Italian and Spaniards and the land was populated by European settlers.
Nobody cared about the "others" who inhabitated the land before. They were just savages, the "Other", nobody wanted to know who they were, they were expelled, killed, forgotten.
The German nuns raised me as a racist, as a settler, as a fundamentalist Catholic. We were supposed to love the Inquisition, to hate the Protestants and the Jews. The Arabs, nobody cared, there was not one Arab who lived in Uruguay, and if they came, we called them "Turks", as they are called in Spain for the "Moors", los "moros".
And the Blacks? Nobody cared either, they were servants, janitors, nightwatchers, really the "Others".
But I was lucky, in some way, when I was released from the cloister after 11 years education, I discovered the world and the activism and the struggle. I was jailed and spent 4 years in prison and was deported to Sweden, where I have been living for 28 years now.
In the jail and in the exile I discovered myself as an "Other", I was an other for the soldiers who beat us, for the officers who tortured us, in Sweden I was an other, a foreigner, with the wrong accent, with the wrong color of hair.
I did the painful discovery in those days here, in Jerusalem, listening to the Jews and the Arabs discuss the land the history which they share. It seems we need always an "Other" to blame and to hate.
We should create together, Jews, Muslims and Christians, an "Other" to love and to share with, our brother or sister in pain and in joy.
Ana L. Valdes
Estar en Jerusalen, una ciudad sagrada para tres religiones, es un desafio para alguien educado en la intolerancia y en la falta de respeto para las creencias de los otros. Naci en el Uruguay, el pais mas pequeno de America Latina, creado por la diplomacia inglesa como un tapon entre los dos vecinos gigantes, Argentina y Brasil. Mis maestras fueron monjas alemanas y mis ancestros fueron colonos europeos, Italianos y Espanoles.
Nadie se preocupo de los "otros" que habitaban la tierra antes. Eran solo salvajes, el "Otro" que nadie queria conocer o reconocer como un igual. Fueron expulsados, asesinados y olvidados.
Las monjas alemanas me educaron como racista, como una colonizadora, como una catolica fundamentalista. Se suponia que teniamos que amar la Inquisicion, odiar los protestantes y los judios. De los arabes no se preocupaba nadie, ninguno vivia en el Uruguay y si venian los llamabamos despectivamente los "turcos", como en Espana se los llama los "moros". Y los negros? A nadie le importaban, eran sirvientes, plomeros, porteros, verdaderamente los "Otros".
Pero tuve suerte, de alguna manera, cuando terminaron mis anos de convento, despues de 11 anos de educacion, descubri el mundo, el activismo y la lucha. Estuve en la carcel por mi oposicion a los militares y pase cuatro anos en cuarteles y carceles dirigidas por el ejercito. Fui el "otro" para los soldados que nos vapuleaban concienzudamente, para los oficiales que nos torturaban.
En Suecia, adonde me deportaron y donde llevo viviendo 28 anos, he sido tambien el "otro", una extranjera, con el acento peculiar cuando hablo sueco, con el color de pelo equivocado.
En estos dias en Jerusalen, escuchando a judios y a palestinos hablar de la tierra y de la herencia que comparten, pense que siempre necesitamos al "otro" para odiar y para culpar.
Deberiamos crear juntos y junta, Judios, Musulmanes y Cristianos, hombres y mujeres, un "otro" para amar y para compartir, un hermano o una hermana en el dolor y en la alegria.
Ana L Valdes
