Vowell Sisters response post

Sarah and Amy Vowells’ This American Life podcast on retracing the Trail of Tears brought up the idea of the travel narrative, which was reinforced by Sterlin Harjo’s Barking Waters. The genre of travel narratives is universal. The Vowell sisters’ travel story is their way of contemporizing the history of their people, the Cherokee. Cherokee history is remarkable in its richness and in its tragedy. Yet with each generation removed, the history of the Cherokee becomes less relatable, which is the Vowells’ main motivation to experience the living history of their ancestors on the Trail of Tears.

This podcast triggered for me a series of stories of my own history, mostly accumulated from drives around my parents’ hometowns or from family stories. Everyone has these stories, and everyone is forced to confront and integrate them into their identity. We are constantly asked to redefine ourselves with and against our own perceptions, as well as those imposed on us by the rest of the world. The Vowell sisters, for example, have entirely divergent experiences being Cherokee and Swedish. Sarah, nicknamed “Indian,” is treated more Cherokee due to her darker complexion. Amy is nicknamed “Swede” based on her light complexion. The question arises, what does it mean to look Cherokee or Swedish, and who gets to decide these standards? Without the ability to tune out societal conventions, constructions of race can cause identity crises among people who do not look or act the way society tells them to. The Vowells are able to deconstruct these conventions by personalizing the history of their ancestors by retracing the Trail of Tears.

My experience returning to Brazil is a travel story particularly similar to that of Amy Vowell. I am the lightest-colored person in my family by far. My grandfather frequently referenced my hair as corn silk, and I have always been his favorite because my more “American” (whatever that means) appearance is desirable in Brazil, the relic of, you guessed it, the Colonial Era. Brazil, however, is an interesting case. There more than 16 recognized skin color-based racial categorizations, which are typically less negatively implicated than the United States’ few overly-simplistic categorizations.

My heart is in Brazil – there is so much that I want to learn about my family’s and country’s history. My uncle is the national historian for the Presbyterian Church in Brazil. His books provide me with factual information about my family. For the stories and unofficial history, I go to my grandfather, the best storyteller I have ever known. His stories are my only insight into my Guarani Indian heritage, stories which will be lost if I don’t record them soon. I will be living in Brazil for 8 months next year with the hopes of defining what Brazil means to me and collecting more pieces of the Matos family history. I hope to have a similar experience to that of the Vowell sisters and that I am able to use the heritage I discover on my trip to help me identify who I am in the contemporary world.