Jorge Gutiérrez: Let’s be honest. How many times have you asked yourself: Who am I really? And then comes the second question: Do they see me? At class, with your family, at work, online… Do you actually feel seen?
Let’s talk about something that has shaped humanity since the beginning of time. The search for identity.
Anonymous testimony #1:
Just like what makes you…you, what you like, what you enjoy, what’s around you, like what you make of your life, I guess.
Anonymous testimony #2:
My culture where I grew up. Yes, my grandmother is a lot of it. I think my grandparents helped me shape a lot of my identity.
Anonymous testimony #3:
The culture and the place where you grew up have a big impact, but I think then also the life experiences you make shape your identity and I think they also change it. So I think it’s something that’s not fixed, but it’s changing throughout life, the experiences you make.
Jorge Gutiérrez:
Welcome to PINGG! A podcast by the SINCRONY Project, where we will have a look into powerful and inclusive narratives generated for good. Dear listener, I don’t know about you, but I’m almost in my thirties, and I’m doing a podcast.
Thank you very much! And even though I’d love to make this my personal diary, this is not about me. It’s about you. Whoever is listening — no matter your age, wherever you come, or whether you’re a she, or a he, or a they. You are welcome!
It’s also the story of a group of people. Yes, this group. A wonderful group of researchers, united by a shared goal: to empower all young people, especially those belonging to minoritized groups. We are the SINCRONY project! A initiative funded by the European Union under the grant agreetm…. Hmmm. Wait, there’s no need for that.
Let’s travel to the city of Bologna and meet Professor Elvira Cicognani, our Project Coordinator.
Prof. Elvira Cicognani: It’s a three and a half year project which includes nine partners, European partners, and the aim is to attempt to find ways to meaningfully engage and involve young people in deliberative and participatory processes, because we know that young people have been traditionally excluded.
Jorge Gutiérrez:
Excluded? From where?
Prof. Elvira Cicognani: From decision-making processes, by different levels and young people feel excluded. And this has for them very negative consequences, and it has negative consequences for the quality of democracy, because if young people do not engage, do not participate, their perspectives, their voices, their needs are not heard, are not listened to, and so the decisions that are taken, also decisions that involve, that concerns young people, cannot be taken into account, so we miss the possibility to represent the entire spectrum of needs and concerns of the population, including young people.
Jorge Gutiérrez: Thank you Professor, actually same. I genuinely agree with you that young people aren’t listened to enough, and not represented enough either — especially… some identities. We’re all different, but it’s interesting that some identities still struggle to be visible.
Hmmm, sorry, I know I told you that I wasn’t going to talk about my life but I recently watched this tv show it’s called Heartstopper. It’s based on a comic that I really recommend you. The story is very simple actually. It follows Charlie, a teenage boy, and Nick, his classmate, as they slowly fall in love after sitting next to each other at school. And… that’s it. Yeah, I know it’s crazy! It shows a whole group of young people, each with different identities, ways of loving, ways of being, and ways of figuring themselves out. But what really stands out is that… They’re not alone! Around them, there are friends, families, even teachers who support them — who make space for them. And that support creates a sense of belonging. A space where you don’t have to hide who you are. Talking about teachers, let me introduce to Cristian Compare!
Christian Compare: Hi! I’m Cristian Compare and I am a psychology researcher at the University of Bologna.
Jorge Gutiérrez: Hi Cristian! So let ask you something. When you think about belonging, what comes to mind?
Christian Compare: I think belonging isn’t just really about fitting into the mold. It’s more about being able to show up as yourself and feel like your presence matters to others. This connects to a dimension of relevance in the sense that you feel that you can make a real difference, that you are seen, and that you have a voice.
So maybe we should talk about authentic belonging that can happen only when you don’t have to perform or hide parts of yourself and you feel that you can be you all the time in that context.
Jorge Gutiérrez: There is another side of the coin. Being invisible. Let’s listen to Gundula Ludwig.
Gundula Ludwig: Hi, my name is Gundula Ludwig and I am a pro-nouns, she or none. I’m a political scientist and I also work in gender studies at the University of Innsbruck, where I’m also a director of the Center for Gender Studies. First of all, visibility is always a question of perception, right? So who is visible for whom and who is invisible for whom?
And for instance, if we look back in history, there have always been queer communities or trans communities who were not visible in like the official public sphere, but of course they were visible within their own community or their own counter publics, and they were proud to be queer or trans, and they still are.
But at the same time, I think there is also a connection between visibility and being proud, because a lot of social movements or activists have their goal, as one of their goals, to increase visibility.
Jorge Gutiérrez: Thank you very much for the history lesson, Gundula.
So now I have a question for you, listener. Have you ever stopped to think about your own identity? About how it affects the way society looks at you, listens to you, or makes a space for you? About how your life experiences shape your identiy?
Let’s listen to Ángel Honrado, my collegue and the Project manager for the SINCRONY’s Communications. Ángel, how would you define identity?
Ángel Honrado: For me, identity is something very down-to-earth, actually. I’ts a… I see this is a combination of where you come from, where you live, and how you relate to others. And it’s not a label. I think it’s more like a process that fixes over time. For instance, if I look at myself. I am a gay man, 47 years old, I grew up as the youngest of the siblings.
I grew up in a little city, Alicante, in a democratic country. I was raised in a public school, for instance, in a very specific neighborhood. And all of that, even when you don’t feel it, there are small things like actually, has shaped how I see myself and how I relate to others.For instance, my love for food comes from my mother. My connection to the theater that I play, actually, and it’s from being exposed to theater earlier on. Those things actually made me who I am.
But that also changes over time. I moved, you know, from Alicante to Barcelona, I met new people. My work experiences, for instance, the fact that I have a company now, they have been actually reshaping continuously my identity. I’m not the same person that I was thirty years ago.
Jorge Gutiérrez: So based on what Ángel just told us… Do we have multiple identities?
Gundula Ludwig: We live in a world that is structured through gender, race, class, disability, and other identity categories, and these categories build identities. So it’s important to keep that in mind, that identity is not built on a true whatever essence, or a true being.
It’s a result of identity categories. And I think it’s also important that we always have multiple identities, or multiple categories construct our identities. We’re never only gendered, we are also racialized, gendered, belong to a specific class, and so on and so forth.
Jorge Gutiérrez: Well, Gundula… You didn’t have to hit me so hard. It really resonates with me. I’m mostly at peace with who I am, but there are moments when it feels fragile — when I feel exposed and even like an impostor. But, the question is… How to approach this vulnerability?
Christian Compare: We have many parts of ourselves, so I am many things. I’m not just a cisgender man, but I am also white. I have many characteristics, many parts of my identities that I try to keep all together. And when I go into the context and when I engage with people, when I interact with others, parts of who I am feel emotionally safe, but others might feel less accepted or more rejected.
For example, as I said, I am a white, cisgender man, and when I go to talk in conferences or at meetings, I don’t have a feeling that I won’t be taken very seriously. But at the same time, the way I look, my body size, might make me feel uncomfortable in some situations. And for that part, I might not feel very emotionally safe in engaging with what is going on in that context, while for other parts of myself, I might feel very emotionally safe. And I have to live with this tension and navigate this tension, because we are many things at once.
Jorge Gutiérrez: We are many things at once… I like the sound of that! Understanding and a being proud of our identity is a first step. But the next question is… How do we start participating, taking space, and shaping that democracy around us? That’s where the next part of this journey continues.
Oops, by the way, my name’s Jorge! Nice to meet you. Thank you for listening! And please, stand by! Because our identities are shaped by many layers that sometimes, we can’t control. But, spoilers! We’ll leave that for the next episode. Bye bye!
