Ronit's Interview

Ronit was my classic interview mystery candidate. A young woman with teenage children, born and raised in El Salvador, made aliyah at eighteen, married an Uruguayan, and speaks mainly Hebrew at home. What would she have to say about identity? Complex, no? I'm not sure what I would say if I had walked in those shoes....

Surprising to me, Ronit felt very clearly about her feelings toward Salvador. She was honestly grateful for the idyllic setting and easy childhood but equally candid about never feeling quite at home. "The Salvadorans never really let us feel like we belong." Ronit remembers one day in the market when she was young;

"The children swarmed around me and started touching my hair. They had never seen a redhead and followed my mother and I as we bought what we needed. I was a bit shaken up by the crowds pushing each other to touch my hair and face. I did not go back to the market very often after that incident."

Ronit distinctly remembers her mother showing her and her older sister Judith a picture of Hebrew University in Jerusalem; "This is your University and you will be there soon." There was no question in Ronit's mind that Israel was her real home where she would live out the rest of her days.

Unlike other Salvadoran community members who made aliyah, Ronit remembers Salvador as a lovely country, one she would like to see again. Her Spanish is perfect and she gravitated toward a mate who could share this part of her. Her fluent Hebrew makes it hard to believe that she could not speak a word when she landed in Eretz Israel years ago..... "Even so," she says. "my closest friends are from Latin America....Argentinean, Brazilian, Uruguayan. I cannot deny that speaking Spanish makes me feel happy....and someplace familiar."

This interview forces us to consider the power of language. While it did not marry Ronit to a certain country, it does remind her of a time and place. She did not forcibly speak Spanish with her children which makes me think that her connection to Spanish is one that is subconcious rather than calculated and/or forced. I do not know if Ronit would agree with my assessment, but I think she cannot deny that her oral history is a fascinating study of the evolution of language through memory and identity.

This brings me to another point (!!). Language for interviews. Sadly, my German is nonexistent (much to my late Oma's dismay) and my Hebrew hasn't even begun to blossom (yet I can read street signs!!). Despite these idiomatic limitations, I can indeed interview in Spanish and English and all interviewees are encouraged to speak in their native tongue. No one has spoken Spanish as of yet but then again, I have not done any interviews on Salvadoran soil. I am prepared for this to change drastically and am interested in the results. I believe my questions will be more contained and reserved as that becomes my personality in this second tongue. The beauty of the Spanish language will probably lend a more descriptive tone to interviews although one can never be sure.

I'll keep you posted.