Changing our gaze to erase the stereotype and see the person requires listening from curiosity, putting ourselves in the other person's shoes and reviewing our positioning. The question " If I were this person with this experience, how would I feel?" can help us to take action to transform prejudices into empathy and relate to others in a responsible way.
The suitcase has become a symbol of exile. Quickly choosing what to take and what to be left behind, not knowing if you will be able to recover the things you leave behind, the uncertainty of whether the absence will be temporary or permanent… All this in the midst of a stressful and unchosen situation.
Have you ever asked yourself what you would put in your suitcase?
Suitcase with which Roser Bru went to France and then to Chile (See her itinerary)
Fundació Roser Bru
Josep Canudas went into exile in France in 1939, where he was interned in the Bram and Argelers camps. Canudas, who was a turner and cabinetmaker, made this suitcase with wood and metal parts in the Bram camp.
Josep Canudas Fund (Concepció Rovira Canudas) / MUME
Retreat. Col de Belitres (Portbou), February 1939. Photo: Manuel Moros / Peneff Fund.
Jean Peneff
Miquel Santaló was a deputy in the Republican Courts. On February 1st, 1939 he participated in the last session of the Courts, in Figueres, and then went into exile.
Fondo Miquel Santaló / Ayuntamiento de Girona - MUME
Lieutenant Juan Sáez Tomás belonged to the Payment Section of the Intendance Service of the Republican Popular Army. When he went into exile he carried a suitcase with the money to pay the troops, which was guarded by his family for more than 70 years.
Sáez Merodio Family Fund / MUME
Border crossing between Portbou and Cerbère, February 1939. Photo: Manuel Moros / Peneff Fund
Jean Peneff
Frimari Burgués, Hortensia Padrós and their daughter Cleopatra had to go into exile in France at the end of the war.
Burguès Family Fund / MUME
“When the Russian offensive was more than likely, the government of that country [Ukraine] gave general advice to the population to take the most essential things with them and not to take unnecessary loads. The logic of the minimum possible weight had to be followed. Everything had to fit in a backpack.”
Excerpt from: PUJOL, E. (29 de juny de 2022). L’exili, una constant històrica. Sonograma magazine. https://sonograma.org/2022/06/lexili-una-constant-historica/
Suitcase for a family of five
Yulia Melnykova
Suitcase of a music teacher
Yulia Melnykova
Suitcase for a family of three people and two cats
Yulia Melnykova
Suitcase of a family composed of a mother and a child
Yulia Melnykova
Suitcase of a family of three, contains disability documents because the child has heart disease.
Yulia Melnykova
A dog’s luggage.
Yulia Melnykova
Contents of a Ukrainian suitcase
Yulia Melnykova
Stereotypes and prejudices are simple pieces of information that are spread and penetrate easily. For this reason it is important to learn to detect them, to have an open mind to realize when we are reproducing them or when someone else is doing it, only in this way we will be able to avoid them and transform them into rigorous, effective and constructive messages. This process is not easy, it can only be achieved by practicing and acting (role-play).
Migrations are a common practice of the human species and have been a very prolific source of inspiration for artistic creation. Art helps to express feelings and to show what is difficult to express rationally with words. At the same time, it is a window that allows us to connect with the emotion experienced by other people. Literature has many witnesses from different generations and from all parts of the planet who speak of what they have lived when they have left their place of origin.
Here is a small sample.
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