Who am I?
Stephan and I crossed the Chilean - Argentinian border three times last week. A tedious procedure of standing in line and filling out immigration and custom forms.
Writing my name, date of birth, passport number, country of origin. These variables which are supposed to define me. Do they?
I used to dislike my last name as a kid. It is derived from "milk" and I used to be teased about it, being called cow or milka.
When I moved to Iceland and learned about patronymic names, I made up my "other" name, usually found on the internets, Anna Heinsdóttir. My father is called Heinz.
My second name is Anna. Like my grandma. She died of Alzheimers two years ago. Because of the Alzheimers, which started when I was still quite young, I did not get to know my grandma as much as I would have liked to. I honestly I struggle to find something to write about our relationship, but I have her name.
More than by names, people tend to focus on my nationality. It is usually one of the first questions, sometimes even before name. I always feel slightly dishonest when answering. For better or for worse, living Iceland has been a big part of my life and has had a profound impact on the person I am today.
One could argue that the passport number is just a way to uniquely id people, same as the kennitala in Iceland. And it can be seen as similar to the ID numbers used in data management rather than a method of dehumanisation.
But then the whole immigration process, no matter how slightly or how friendly the people involved are is at its core dehumanising. It screams "you are not one of us and we don't want you here". It also treats everyone as a security risk, which has to be documented and managed. Last time I came back from Mendoza for my visa the bus was standing in the traffic jam in front of the border. The toilets were right in front of us. All of us were longingly looking at it through the bus windows. The bus driver was not allowed to let us leave the bus for security reasons. Maybe they thought that the whole Argentinian "coffee trip" is going to climb through the toilet windows, immigrate illegally into Chile and carry out terrorist attacks.
Writing my name, date of birth, passport number, country of origin. These variables which are supposed to define me. Do they?
I used to dislike my last name as a kid. It is derived from "milk" and I used to be teased about it, being called cow or milka.
When I moved to Iceland and learned about patronymic names, I made up my "other" name, usually found on the internets, Anna Heinsdóttir. My father is called Heinz.
My second name is Anna. Like my grandma. She died of Alzheimers two years ago. Because of the Alzheimers, which started when I was still quite young, I did not get to know my grandma as much as I would have liked to. I honestly I struggle to find something to write about our relationship, but I have her name.
More than by names, people tend to focus on my nationality. It is usually one of the first questions, sometimes even before name. I always feel slightly dishonest when answering. For better or for worse, living Iceland has been a big part of my life and has had a profound impact on the person I am today.
One could argue that the passport number is just a way to uniquely id people, same as the kennitala in Iceland. And it can be seen as similar to the ID numbers used in data management rather than a method of dehumanisation.
But then the whole immigration process, no matter how slightly or how friendly the people involved are is at its core dehumanising. It screams "you are not one of us and we don't want you here". It also treats everyone as a security risk, which has to be documented and managed. Last time I came back from Mendoza for my visa the bus was standing in the traffic jam in front of the border. The toilets were right in front of us. All of us were longingly looking at it through the bus windows. The bus driver was not allowed to let us leave the bus for security reasons. Maybe they thought that the whole Argentinian "coffee trip" is going to climb through the toilet windows, immigrate illegally into Chile and carry out terrorist attacks.