Identities
Sonia Delaunay, Contrastes Simultáneos, 1913
Museo Thyssen, Madrid
She was born in Moskva
to a Jewish mama
and a Muslim papa
from Bashkiria.
To identify herself as Soviet
was a way to not let
issues of identity
get in the way of her entity.
With the collapse of the USSR
to her Soviet persona she said au revoir -
later resettled in Canada
she struggled to find another anima.
She came to accept the identity of her mother,
embracing her Jewishness, and to discover
herself as a champion of Israel -
a decision anything but lineal.
*
Her husband was born in Montreal
for him the Canadian world was too small
he emigrated to Europe three times
ever searching for new paradigms.
He kept his national document
but thought of relinquishing it many a moment
living in one or the other place
well distanced from Canadian space.
*
Their son is theoretically a Jew
but even as this he well knew
he never saw himself this way
rather a Russian, he would say.
He now has two passports
soon there will be three
this will give him and his family
unparalleled freedom and mobility.
*
I will fight to the end
to defend
an individual’s right
to an own identity
however they may define it.
Most have only one
no one has but none
yet many have more:
we cannot ignore
that this is a rising vector of our times.
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Mach’s Gut, Mutti