Introduction

Hi, I am Aaliya, and I am a first year Arts student. Born and raised in Mumbai, I am an Indian with extremely global interests. Due to my mother’s residence in Africa for a period, and my father’s constant trips to the middle east, I grew up exposed to multiple languages and cultures. As a child, I was taught to read Arabic and was encouraged to try my mother’s African cooked food, yet having access to the local ‘Bhelpuri’ of Mumbai. At an early age, I was immersed in a curriculum that introduced me to languages close to extinction, like Marathi, Memoni and Persian and at home, my linguaphile mother encouraged me to learn global languages like French. This insatiable thirst to learn languages and immerse in cultures made me burn with curiosity about the world. Since I had not studied Latin American history before, I was immediately drawn to this subject.