Thank you Ana Beatrice! These are materials I had never seen before and they made me think a lot. I have to say that the issues you have dealt with are rather complicated and I think it is not enough to describe them in a few words. I’m afraid my thoughts may be trivial and I’m afraid of falling into colour blindness. So I’ll just share my experience, hopefully in the general interest.

As half Italian and half Peruvian, I have a lot of respect for what you wrote. My family comes from the coast, especially from Trujillo, a city that is 8 hours by bus from Lima. I have always been raised with the importance of accepting others because my family (as a non-EU) has always been discriminated against. However, especially after reading Alcalde’s paper ("Coloniality, belonging and indigeneity in Peruvian migration narratives"), I began to think of many things:

1- First of all, can my family actually be considered "Peruvian" in the strict sense (which makes me think of the concept of "authenticity")? Since most of my relatives are white or tall (and some are blond or light-eyed too), can they actually be defined as "Peruvians" according to the general idea that people have of Peruvians (short, dark-skinned, etc)? And then, if my family is considered Peruvian but with discretion, how would I be perceived?

2- Also, I thought back to some sentences repeated by some members of my family over the years. Among these, there were some who emphasized the importance of not being considered as the Peruvian "cholos" or "paisanos", because they were darker and considered more "ignorant" because they came from the mountains ("We are not from those parts", "we are not those Peruvians", etc). According to those members of my family, these things were not said with "racist" intent, but only to clarify that in Peru there are several people with different ethnicities and therefore, they should not be "mixed" (yeah, I know. This is VERY racist).

3- At the same time, although I was born in Italy, I am considered "gringa" only by people outside my family. This, in particular, because they consider me Peruvian because it's important for them that I do not forget my origins, even if I am white and "half European". It's quite a paradox that they don't want to be compared to "other Peruvians", but accept me, a "half-Peruvian", as a true one. Is it?

That’s why I think it’s really complicated to position yourself, especially within a field of research. We must take into account the cultural background (positionality), our feelings and opinions (subjectivity) and the "examination" of these same opinions during the research process and how this affects the final work (reflexivity). I mean, I don’t know exactly how to position myself. I understand the difficulty of seeing oneself as part of one community or another. Both my cultures are part of me and they make me who I am. I consider it a great privilege to be part of two worlds so different because they allow me to get out of the box and try to get a more original worldview. Unfortunately, I can not even answer this question. I think that, after a lot of study, the different situations in which I'll find myself will help me to have the tools to find the best approach.