3: Montserrat Roser-i-Puig

Nostalgia Interviews with Chris Deacy

Montserrat Roser-i-Puig is Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at the University of Kent and, in the third of my Nostalgia Interviews series, gives a fascinating slice-of-life about growing up in Franco's Spain. Montserrat talks about the important role that memory plays in her family, including the very vivid initial memory she has from when she was just 2-3 months old, and she talks about the way that she and her siblings will often share different recollections of the same events.

Montserrat relates the desperate urge she had to leave the village where she grew up and the way she was a trailblazer for her family in seeking an education, against the instincts of her father, and how she moved to London and ended up studying for her doctorate. She also reflects on the important role that cinema played in her childhood (especially 'The Life of Brian'), where she would often see three films in an afternoon, and how she felt about American films being dubbed and spliced.

The interview concludes with some very personal insights about the influence of religion in Montserrat's native Catalan as well as important reflections on the nature of belonging - where and how we belong, whether our understanding of identity changes over time, if we can ever truly escape our pasts, and the concomitant danger of looking back.

Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Montserrat Roser-i-Puig and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.