About me

The whole story —or at least what’s coming to my mind— and the importance of the places and people that made me who I am and perhaps who I will be.

Araci Matos
About Me Stories

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Photo by Artem Kovalev on Unsplash

Let’s try this again. My name is Araci, and I am Portuguese. I wish nationality weren’t a factor to determine in such a straightforward way my identity. However, part of who we are is determined by our surrounding world, and mine is Portugal.

Portuguese have long names, but we never thought our names were any longer than anybody else’s until we started comparing them with foreigners. We can have two names, so that’s me, Joana Araci, and we get the surname of our mother and the last surname from our father. Fair enough, don’t you think?

I have always felt weird why, in other cultures, the mother’s surname would be erased from their children’s names. Well, not in Portugal!

I was born at ten in the morning on 20 August 1990 in a city called Viseu, in the rural area of Portugal. Guess what? There are more places besides Lisbon and Porto. And I know you are having a hard time figuring out how this is pronounced.

I am a 90s kid, but I was conceived most likely on Christmas 1989. It’s not that it’s relevant; I just find it funny since I like the 80s so much.

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Araci Matos
About Me Stories

Trying to be the Portuguese Annie Ernaux or Elena Ferrante