Mariana, Brazil/Northern Ireland

Hi, my name is Mariana. I’m 25. I’m from Brazil, I’m from Rio. I grew up there and then I left when I was 18, and I went to Spain, to live in Spain. I’ve been living there for 6 years and I adopted the country as my new country. When I first left Brazil, I did it with my family - my mom, my sister, and my two younger brothers - and then I came to Belfast as the next step in my life, and I’ve been living here for nine months so far. It was...I ended up here by chance, because of my studies, and now what I’m doing is I’m working in a legal firm with Spanish and Portuguese and I’m going through cases that are happening in South America.

The object I brought with me is Brazilian, and is a painting. I got it in Rio some years ago. It was a Colombian guy that had migrated to Brazil from Colombia that painted it, and something handcrafted, so it’s very meaningful. This is important because it’s something really colorful, he really captured the essence of the Brazilian way of life. It’s very bright, it’s very colorful, and not perfect. The painting is human, so that’s why I like it.