Though Barbara Calixto’s father is black, and her mother is white, she says she only learned the term “mixed-race” when she moved to Ireland from Brazil in 2023.
“We don’t really have that term in Brazil because everybody is so mixed... like, how can you know? I don’t even know where my dad’s family came from. They are, I don’t know, from some place in Africa. For us, it’s more like this. You look in the mirror and what do you see?” Calixto says.
While people’s identities are more fluid in Brazil, Calixto said that people of colour there can still experience racism.
“Even though it’s a very mixed society we still have some prejudice in us and you can’t really run away from that. People are racist everywhere. It still happens and it did happen to me back in Brazil sometimes.”
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The 23-year-old moved from Recife, a city in the northwest of the country, to Cork to study computer science at Griffith College. She was very influenced by her mother, who is a teacher, in her decision to move.
“She always told me that I wouldn’t get anywhere if I didn’t study, which is a very different situation for most of my peers that were with me in high school.”
Most of Calixto’s friends in high school dropped out before graduating to start working, she says. In her experience, the public school system in her area was very disorganised.
“There is a national exam to go to college in Brazil. For people that go to public school, it’s hard because how are you going to compete with people that went to private school and had classes everyday?”
[ ‘Life in Dublin was very chaotic. It was bad then and I’m sure it’s worse now’Opens in new window ]
After graduating, she started a degree in computer science in Brazil.
The Covid-19 pandemic was a big turning point for Calixto as that was when her beloved aunt died. Most of Calixto’s childhood memories were from time spent with her family at her aunt’s beach house.
“When somebody in your family dies, the whole dynamic just changes and everybody’s not that close any more. Me, my mom and my dad, we’re still close, but this contact with my cousins just completely disappeared because my aunt was just such a strong bond of the family.”
Her aunt’s death was especially traumatic as the family were not allowed to see her very often in hospital because of the pandemic.
That experience pushed Calixto to look at opportunities to study abroad. She had always had a natural aptitude for languages and wanted to study through English. Around that time, she began an internship which allowed her to fund her big move.
“Ireland was not my first option, but my mum said that Ireland was a nice place to go. And also if you’re here you can visit other places. I didn’t know much about Ireland when I choose to come. What I knew about Ireland had a lot of red-haired people. But that’s not even Ireland. I think that’s Scotland.”
When moving to Ireland, Calixto said that Dublin was never her first choice as she wanted to try living in a smaller city.
“But Cork’s not like a really tiny town, you know? It has everything you need still. You won’t be far away from everything and everybody else. I think that’s why I love Cork. It sometimes reminds me of my city back home.”
While Calixto loves her new home she has not had the easiest time making friends her own age. She said that the majority of other immigrants are older and at a different stage of life to her, arriving in Ireland with their partner or family.
“I’m not sure what it’s like everywhere else in Ireland, but Irish people my age, they don’t really, they’re not really interested in us, like you know, immigrant people.”
Alongside her studies, she works as a childminder and a waitress.
“I work with a lot of Irish people. They’re around my age or younger than me. And sometimes they ask me questions that are a bit weird. Like, oh, do you watch Netflix? Of course I watch Netflix. You know everybody watches TV shows.”
[ ‘In Brazil, it’s all about the food. Here it’s more about the drink’Opens in new window ]
She speaks fondly of the family of the little girl she minds. For Christmas 2024, Calixto was not able to go home to Brazil and when the family she works for found out they invited her over for Christmas.
“I liked the food. The roast chicken and roast potatoes. It was very nice. And the Christmas crackers, we don’t have that in Brazil.”
She believes her work as a childminder gives her an insight into Ireland’s future. She says that the younger generation has more awareness of diversity.
“I feel that that’s important for the culture because when you’re a kid and you grew up with these people, you see that they are not different at all, you know?”
For now she plans to get her degree and then work in Ireland for at least a year as that is what her student visa allows, and then see where she ends up.
“I see now people are doing those kind of riots, like anti-immigration things. Immigration is not a bad thing, it’s a beautiful thing. You are not going to lose any of the Irish culture, you know, and it’s such a beautiful culture”.
We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past 10 years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com or tweet @newtotheparish
