Redwan and Michelle were born in Lanzarote; David, in Gran Canaria. All three are Canarian, Spanish, but all three have been made to feel like foreigners at some point in their own country because their features reveal that their ancestors come from Africa or Asia: "Where are you from? Where are you really from?"
"You feel like a foreigner in your own land, if you say you are Canarian there is always a follow-up question." "They don't let us feel like we're from here or there, everywhere they see you as a foreigner," Redwan Baddouh (Arrecife, 2004) confesses to EFE from Barcelona, the city where he is currently studying Law at university.
These three young people star in Without Explanation, a documentary released by the Adsis Foundation this March 21 on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Both David, Michelle and he were born and raised in the islands. They have no doubts about their Canarian identity and share a common element: they are racialized people. "Their features reveal ancestors from other latitudes," says Adsis.
From a very young age, Redwan has participated in social groups. In 2022, the Government of the Canary Islands awarded him the runner-up prize of the Young Canary Islands Award for his "involvement in associative, educational, social and neighborhood movements in the Argana Alta neighborhood," in Arrecife.
His parents are of Sahrawi and Moroccan origin. His family lives in the Guelmin region (Morocco). When he goes there, he is a foreigner; but if he stays in Spain, he also feels like he is from outside. On an anniversary like the one being celebrated this Friday, Redwan highlights the "institutional racism" that implies being born in Spain and not having nationality if your parents do not yet have it, as happened to him.
"You are born as a foreigner in your country and that gives you an idea that a very big change is needed in Spain," he points out.
David Morales (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1993) is a lawyer and actor. Son of a Canarian and a Mauritanian, he says that in the documentary he provides his vision "which may not be the most common" and that it is far from a victimizing discourse: "It is one thing to be a victim and another to feel like a victim."
He makes it clear that there is still racism and discrimination even though progress has been made. "There is still a long way to go, sometimes you have to justify your presence here, as if a black person could not be Spanish," he says.
The two talk about childhood. Redwan explains that then "you are not fully aware but you know that you are different or that you are treated differently."
David says that he had a "very happy" childhood and does not believe that he was "a victim of bullying more than other children for other reasons," but he does notice that now there are certain discourses or words that are no longer heard so easily.
They both also talk about a lack of role models. In Redwan's case, he says that he never had a racialized teacher, "nor do you see people like that in positions of responsibility," and that this creates glass ceilings.
ri"Until not long ago I didn't even think I could be a university student, I didn't even consider it," says this law student.
This happens to David in his work with fiction. He assures that he notices more discrimination in the audiovisual world than in the legal world, because if he aspires to a role, he is supposed to play a character related to his skin color, "or at least with what another person believes you can do in this society," he specifies.
From the Adsis Foundation they highlight that "Canarian society is increasingly plural", because "more and more people with diverse origins have their homeland here". However, he adds "they experience the day to day as a string of: but where are you really from?".
