Redwan and Michelle were born in Lanzarote; David in Gran Canaria. All three are Canary Islanders, Spaniards, but all three have been made to feel foreigners in their own country at times because their features give away that their ancestry comes from Africa or Asia: "And where are you from, where are you really from?
"You feel like a foreigner in your own land, if you say you are from the Canary Islands there is always a question". "They don't let us feel like we're from here or there, everywhere they see you as a foreigner", Redwan Baddouh (Arrecife, 2004) confesses to EFE from Barcelona, the city where he is studying law at university.
These three young people star in 'Without Explanation', a documentary released by the Adsis Foundation on 21 March to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Both David, Michelle and he were born and raised on the islands. They have no doubts about their Canarian identity and share a common element: they are racialised people. "Their features reveal ancestry from other latitudes," says Adsis.
Redwan has been involved in social groups since he was very young. In 2022, the Government of the Canary Islands awarded him the runner-up prize of the Premio Joven Canarias for his "involvement in associative, educational, social and neighbourhood movements in the Argana Alta neighbourhood", in Arrecife.
His parents are of Sahrawi and Moroccan origin. His family lives in the region of Guelmin (Morocco). When he goes there, he is a foreigner; but if he stays in Spain, he also feels like an outsider. On an anniversary like the one celebrated this Friday, Redwan highlights the "institutional racism" involved in being born in Spain and not having the nationality if your parents do not yet have it, as happened to him.
"You are born as a foreigner in your country and that gives you an idea that a big change is needed in Spain," he says.
David Morales (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1993) is a lawyer and actor. The son of a Canary Islander and a Mauritanian woman, he says that in the documentary he brings his vision "which is perhaps not the most common" and that it is far from a victimising discourse: "It is one thing to be a victim and another to feel like a victim".
He makes it clear that racism and discrimination still exist, even though progress has been made. "There is still a long way to go, sometimes you have to justify your presence here, as if a black person could not be Spanish," he says.
They both talk about childhood. Redwan explains that then "you are not fully aware but you know that you are different or that you are treated differently".
David says he had a "very happy" childhood and does not think he was "bullied more than other children for other reasons", but he does notice that now there are certain speeches or words that are no longer heard so easily.
Both also speak of a lack of role models. In Redwan's case, he says that he never had a racialised teacher, "nor do you see such people in positions of responsibility", and that this creates glass ceilings.
"Until not so long ago I didn't even think I could be a university student, I didn't even think about it," says the law student.
This happens to David in his work with fiction. He says that he notices more discrimination in the audiovisual world than in the world of law, because if he aspires to a role, he is supposed to play a character related to his skin colour, "or at least to what someone else thinks you can do in this society", he says.
The Adsis Foundation stresses that "Canarian society is increasingly plural", because "more and more people of diverse origins have their homeland here". However, they add, "day-to-day life is like a string of questions: where are you from, really?
Source: Saúl García Infobae-EFE 21/03/2025