CONTENT WARNINGS: In this conversation, Nana and Lenh talk about experiences with bullying, relating to your own body, boundary violations, family, immigration, racism, fatphobia/diet culture and getting tattoos/piercings.
Nana
february 2020
@nanarchist_
“The most complicated part of growing I did in the process of immigration…”
My name is Nana, I use she/her pronouns. I was born in Ecuador but I live in the Netherlands, I moved here as a teenager. The most complicated part of growing I did in the process of immigration, because I don’t think it’s like a thing that happens in one day and night, it’s a process, right? So, that’s a really big thing about me. When I introduce myself, that is a thing that I think about.
I’m bisexual, I’m 21 years old now, I’ve lived in the Netherlands for four and a half years and I’m currently starting my paperwork to become a citizen.
Lenh: If you like, you can also talk about what you like doing, what you’re interested in.
Oh yeah, I can do that. I always liked reading as a kid, and then I stopped because capitalism [laughs]. I went to this really demanding high school, so I didn’t have time to read anymore. And when I stopped going to school, because I was going to start going to school here, I had 6 months in Ecuador where I was doing paperwork to move here and it was so intense… I think reading really helps me, I’m trying to do it more now.
I also love painting, and same story, as a kid I always did it, I stopped doing it because capitalism, and now I’m taking a break from university and taking it slow, so I’m painting again and it’s so amazing! I love painting, and also just reconnecting with that part of yourself that doesn’t want to do everything perfectly but just wants to enjoy the process, and not being so focused on ‘Oh, I have to make a beautiful painting that I can show to people’ or something.
So, I love reading, I love painting, I love cooking so much! These 6 months that I would live at Ecuador without doing anything, I started cooking for my family, because we didn’t have money to pay the woman that was cooking for our house, and that’s how I learned how to cook. And then some months later when I moved here, I went vegan, so I had to re-learn everything I knew about food, and I started cooking again when I started university, when I moved to Groningen, two and a half years ago.
“I recently started a kitchen collective.
It’s called ‘Kale Kip’, but I hate that name.”
I recently started a kitchen collective, it’s called ‘Kale Kip’, but I hate that name. It means ‘bald chicken’, which is basically the body of a chicken when you’re cooking it – I’m not comfortable with that, but it still has that name because I took it over from someone else. I’m working on it with some friends and we’re cooking for activists, so for big numbers of people, and I really love that as well. So yeah, basically I love cooking, painting and reading.
L: Very creative things, altogether.
Yeah, I think I’m creative. I’m a gemini [laughs], I think that’s why I’m always so into these creative things.
I feel like as a child I really suffered because of that, because this world is just striving… well, not the world, capitalism is striving to make you into this really square person or something? Creativity is not encouraged, and as a child I was always trying to find new ways of doing things. School and also your parents, they have been raised a certain way, they always try to limit your perspective, and limit the ways you express yourself; I always struggled with that, and I think I didn’t realize that until now, you know?
