Daniela

Daniela was a junior when this study was being conducted. She was from south Florida. Daniela’s father was originally from Cuba. Her mother was originally from Netherlands, and she also had Spanish and German heritage. Daniela learned Spanish from her father who spoke Spanish to her at home, and she picked up some Dutch from her mother. She had visited Spain every few years since she was two years old, and she studied in Spain for six weeks in her sophomore summer. She retained Spanish but almost lost Dutch completely. She was a relatively balanced Spanish-English bilingual speaker. 

Daniela drew a blue brain to represent Dutch. Her mother spoke Dutch to her when she was very young, and it was still a big part of her “politically and emotionally”. In Daniela’s opinion, blue was a “logical” and “research-type” color and Dutch people tended to be considered as very “logical”. In a “polar opposite” way, she chose red, a color of “love and passion”, to represent Spanish language and Cuban culture that went to her heart. Cubans liked to give hugs, so Daniela added red ombré on both hands. Since dancing was “a huge part of culture”, Daniela added red ombré on both feet. Inspired by Clara who included a stomach half in red and half in blue to show her love for Hispanic food, Daniela added a red stomach to show her love for Cuban food as well. Finally, Daniela drew a yellow skeleton to represent English because it was the language through which she experienced and lived the world. She clarified that she wanted to complete the three primary colors in her language portrait, because they were the three central colors that could represent her three “central cultures”.