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News June 2013
Julieta Falavina , Author “ Mosaic , The Path Between ”
by Eduardo Simantob You have been to a few hotspots in the world ( Kashmir , Palestine ). How is it to travel in places like this , being a woman ? JF – People ask me this quite often , but I had to pass by a certain psychological “ preparation ”. I used to fear going to a place as charged as Palestine , but there was a situation I lived once in Paris , in a very dodgy neighborhood , where I was faced with a very hostile encounter with a young Algerian in the street at night . But eventually we had a very interesting exchange , and the estrangement and hostility turned into empathy and understanding . Suddenly I felt I was ready . That night I felt I could go anywhere . Palestine , Kashmir , slums in Brazil , any conflict zone . In all of these places I was welcomed . Not because I was parading as a savior , simply because I was just plain human . People know it , they can feel it . When you try to be respectful people act accordingly . More often than not my Palestinian and Kashmiri friends were intrigued by what they called “ my goodness ”. They usually took me in , and often told me I had to be very careful in the next village . Once I left them I should pay more attention , not all people are as nice as they were , they would say . I guess this deep fear of the unknown is a common thing everywhere . And though I know most of my friends shiver just to think of me talking openly to strangers …. I can ’ t avoid it . I find the risk of dying or being hurt really less scary than the reality of not knowing the other . How does the fact of being a Brazilian woman affect the access to the people , and to the stories you tell ? JF – Being a woman makes it harder and easier at the same time , though I don ’ t know how it is to be a man . But being a woman makes it possible to be anywhere in a more gentle way . All people I met had mothers ; some had sisters , and daughters . Whenever people were aggressive I usually asked about their family . I never felt scared for being a woman anywhere . Fortunately it has been so long that I do not feel harassed that I barely know how I react to this . I usually talk back to people . And they get puzzled , and eventually start telling me their stories . Or else , when they could not talk to me , they would offer sweets in a bus , or a smile … I really cannot think of a time when I felt really scared . Being Brazilian also makes a huge difference . I did not notice it immediately … but soon enough I realized that by the fact that Brazil is mainly known for football and carnival , it made people relate to me very differently . Not having a history of being a colonial power , or an imperial power ( although in Latin America this perception is a bit different ) often allowed me to ask whatever I wanted . Having been born in Brazil also prepared me to the idea of syncretism and to accept difference , in spite of all economic problems arising from the enormous inequality that exists there . We usually boast how we are used to difference , but it took me a long time to feel at home in Brazil again . And if there is one thing I do admire from where I come from is the usual acceptance people have towards difference . And of course , the proverbial optimism and joy . Being Brazilian allowed me to always laugh and to be emotional at things . Seeing difference was the norm in my life rather than the exception . So people often ask me about football players or Carnival , which are happy events . It makes my journeys significantly easier . You avoided taking sides when describing the conflict zones you travel through ,
and keep the politics in the back . But how could you describe yourself , politically ? JF – My book came out of a series of emails I sent to people to explain the place I was in . I was , and still am , more interested in people than in the political reality of a place . I studied international politics and social sciences , so I was not unaware of the political facts on the ground . But I felt misinformed by it . I find it very important to know the history of a place , yet what always moves me are personal stories . And the more I wrote about them the more I realized how similar we are in the world . As an anthropologist I always defended the plurality of the world . I wanted to cherish the languages , the cultural manifestations , and as a student of psychology I also always felt we were exactly the same everywhere . It did not matter even whether I spoke the language of the place , soon enough I could grasp what was going on . The reason I never write that much about politics in my e- mails is because politics permeate the world where we live , but if we focus too much on it we are taken by ideas and lose touch with the human aspect . I don ’ t even classify myself politically anymore . I am interested in people , but without ever losing the notion that we are the same in diversity . It is tricky when you think of borders , that on one hand they should preserve differences , and yet , on the other we should not allow them to fully separate us from the other . And spiritually ? JF – Brazil is a very syncretic country . I was born in a Catholic family who is not practicing and that doesn ’ t attend church . As a child I believed in nothing , and had no affiliation to any specific religion . As soon as I could define myself as something , I would say I was an agnostic . Later , following the trends of the time I became a fundamentalist atheist . Until I met a friend who is deeply involved into religious studies , and asked him whether he was a “ believer ”. He said , “ I guess I am a believer trapped in the body of an atheist ”. To what I replied , “ I guess I am an atheist in the body of a believer .” We became very good friends ever since . I believe both of us relieved our atheist parts somewhere along the path . I have always felt both . Sometimes a believer trapped in an atheist body , sometimes an atheist trapped in a believer body . Never were the two in the same place at the same time . Till the day I stopped trying to be that coherent . Nowadays I am very interested in religious beliefs , but my biggest religious practice has to do with compassion . A value I learned to understand better with Dostoyevsky ’ s “ Brothers Karamazov ”, and that I see in almost all religious manifestations in the world . What is the meaning of the “ path in between ”? JF - I wanted to call my book ‘ In-betweeners ’ because I always felt we were trapped in between worlds , ideas etc . But something that happened in Brazil made me realize that we do not have to choose all the time . We do not have to be perfect . We have to make a Mosaic . Mosaic is a celebration of art . It is a celebration of what is made by hand , the art of the possible . Taking things that were broken and making something better with them . Something beautiful . And celebrating what is most human : living the symbolic . Art is for me the best manifestation of humanity . And a mosaic is a form of art that leaves the idea of perfection ( in disruption ) aside . A mosaic is beautiful because it is made of pieces . We are all made of pieces . What matters is the journey , not where we come from or where we end . This movement to go back is a search for belonging and we belong both to the All and to a specific thing . We must go back to realize that we are inheritors of all the joy and pain that exists . The middle path is a Taoist idea , a Chinese concept . But it is something beyond that I wanted to bring , because it has nothing to do with being in the middle as being “ right ”, “ correct ”, but of being really in between things , conflicts , ideas . It contains the idea of the middle from Buddhism . But not a perfect middle . Just in between , in what humans are ; in this human experience we can make a mosaic . But this is just one narrative . There are others and they should all be heard . Because it is only in hearing the other that we find our own voice . And I have finally found mine . MOSAIC , THE PATH IN BETWEEN SYNOPSIS “ Mosaic ” is the journey of a woman who always felt lost , but who never feared the Other , and went after It . It is the journey of a woman coming of age while trying to understand boundaries as well as her roots in search of a sense of home . It is a human journey through her body and with a soul open to record the so many voices that helped her finally find her own . The voices of Thais , Palestinians , Israelis , Tibetans , Europeans and so many others , calling for a gentler world , a world in which all of us feel less alone . The book does not follow a strict chronological order . Instead , it delves on an inner path . Mosaic starts with an old self of the author , still naïve but at the same time quite skeptical of faiths , dogmas and deep-rooted beliefs , leaving a precocious and short- lived marriage to do voluntary work in a school in Thailand . It is a seemingly harmless world , and her travels then also follow no plan or any specific curiosity , until she decides to focus her PhD in a research about how Israelis and Palestinians perceive and act upon the very idea of peace . Suddenly the individual stories and the humanity of the people she meets become much more interesting than any academic work . The PhD will eventually be dropped , but the trip will rage on up to the limits of physical endurance , as she is faced with odd health issues , the proximity of death and a reassessment of spirituality . She starts to realize that “ home ” transcends geography ; it is made by people , by love , by managing to conciliate her roots with the antennae that connect her to the wider world . The book also includes original illustrations done by artists Thomaz Bondioli ( São Paulo / Amsterdam ), Valérie Ciriadès ( São Paulo / Belgium ), Sandra Naxara ( São Paulo ) and Mounia Dadi ( Marrakesh ). Original graphic design made by Gustavo Soares ( Rio de Janeiro ). ABOUT THE AUTHOR Julieta Falavina ( 1981 ) was born in São Paulo , Brazil , but attended French schools in order to follow a constant curriculum while following her parents ’ errands . At the age of 19 she won a Fulbright scholarship and graduated in Music and Anthropology at Hofstra University ( New York ), later continuing her studies at University of Amsterdam ( Social Sciences & Conflict Resolution ) and finally settling at the London School of Economics , where she completed her Masters in Cognitive Anthropology and started the PhD program . She was also teaching assistant at Birkbeck College and University of East London in Political Approaches to Social Conflict ( 2011 ). Julieta ’ s nomadic life started at a tender age , having lived in Buenos Aires and in South Australia still in her teens . While pursuing her academic career in Europe , she traveled extensively in South America , Southeast Asia , India , North Africa and the Middle East . In 2009 , while volunteering in Thailand , she began to narrate her stories via e-mail to about 20 friends . The characters in her stories started to become readers , too , firstly to know what was being told about them , but then to also follow the world through the eyes of someone they knew so well . Soon the mailing list had more than 500 names , many of them replicating the stories to their own friends . In parallel , Julieta kept two blogs , one in English and another in Portuguese ( with different contents ), where newcomers could read what she had written before . As a prolific songwriter , Julieta has also dozens of songs composed in several languages , and many of them can be seen in her own YouTube channel . She is fluent in Portuguese , Spanish , English , Italian and French . Links : http :// www . translatingthoughts . wordpress . com ( blog English ) http :// descolonizandoamente . wordpress . com / ( blog Portuguese ) http :// www . youtube . com / user / julietafalavina / videos ? view = 0 ( YouTube Channel ) “ Mosaic , The Path in Between ” can be purchased for Kindle http :// www . amazon . com / dp / B00CSAJHP4 / ref = r _ soa _ w _ d