It’s Important To Listen And It’s Too Easy To Prejudge

An unlikely summertime story about prejudice and its lasting impact.

Photo by Tim Hüfner

‘That’s the Catalan,’ he said to his friend, and I felt something I had never felt before: prejudged.

This is one of my first summertime memories. One could point out it doesn’t say much about my childhood summers, but I think it probably has to do with how I felt about the heat back then. I just couldn’t stand it, so it makes sense I associate Mediterranean summers with sad memories.

As a kid, I spent part of my summers in my mum’s village in Spain. I’d been born in Barcelona and that made — and it still does — a Catalan. By the time of this first summer memory, I had no idea what that meant, or that it meant anything at all. So far my childhood had been free of politics.

There I was, though, by the swimming pool, expecting a friend to introduce me to other local kids, when my nationality suddenly defined who I was. Not only that, but it was obvious from the tone and the expressions in the other children’s faces that being a Catalan wasn’t a particularly good thing over there.

Now, I must confess I have a rather stubborn character. I do believe it has got much better with the years, but back then — I must have been eight — I knew as much…