Johnny was born in Venezuela, grew up in Colombia, and moved to Queens, NY, for the first time at the age of 11. After some back and forth, he permanently settled in the United States at the age of 18 and now is 30 years old. When we talked about identity and notions of belonging, Johnny commented that his identity was heavily influenced by his experience with learning the English language:
Nowadays, well, if by American you mean a U.S. citizen, nowadays, yes. I speak in English now. Even though it is not my first language. […] I use it most of the time. So, I would say it occupies my thoughts, the way I communicate with people, the way I want to communicate with people, the way I actually plan my life. So, that makes me very much American. The industrialized way that I have been raised, here, to learn to do things on the snap, you know, go get this go pay for that, this is how you establish certain procedures and certain factors in your life – paying bills, going to school, it is pretty much at a pace where it matches an industrialized nation such as this, yeah I am very American. If I go back home, if I ask the time I expect the time. If I say I am going to be somewhere at 1 p.m. I will be at that place and do what I am supposed to do at 1 p.m. It’s not like that in Columbia. People basically chill. It’s not such a priority.”
