My name is Carlos Antonio Paladini.
One of my early memories growing up in Lima, Peru and Sao Paulo, Brazil was reading about Che Guevara. Despite personally disagreeing with aspects of his philosophy, I remember being struck by a declassified CIA report describing Che Guevara as “quite well read” and “fairly intellectual for a Latino.”
I had the good fortune of my parents placing me in a private American school in Brazil. Most students were American expats, with a small group of us from Latin America. Even in our home country, it was clear that we were the “other” in that environment. I made the choice to tell other students my name was “Carl Paladini” to avoid being on the receiving end of comments. I also started learning English, my third language, and worked diligently to build a broad vocabulary while speaking without a “Latino” accent.
When I moved to the U.S., I passed as tall white guy, and people assumed I was. I didn’t fit the ‘stereotype’ for what people think of as Hispanic or Latino. All throughout high school and even into graduate school where I earned my Ph.D. in Neuroscience, people knew me as “Carl Paladini.”
I later learned about one of my scientific heroes, Santiago Ramon y Cajal (an unmistakably “Latino” name!). He was the first person of Spanish origin to win a scientific Nobel Prize. Using 1800’s technology, Santiago Ramon y Cajal demonstrated experimentally that neurons were not part of a syncytium. Rather, there were gaps between neurons, what today we call synapses, and which can only be visualized using electron microscopy.
At some point along the way, someone called me Carl and I said you know what? Call me Carlos. And from there I didn’t look back.
Brazil will always be where I feel most at home, but thanks to Santiago Ramon y Cajal, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Frida Kahlo (among many others), my dear friends and allies, and the way things are getting better nowadays, I now say my real name.
My name is Carlos Antonio Paladini.
