Brazil, Italy, China, and the United States of America. Four different countries, four different cultures, four different languages, one similarity: a person. In the short life span of 21 years,  Federico De Vecci, a student at Boston University, has lived in all of them. 

De Vecci, considers himself Italian despite the range of countries he has lived in. De Vecci was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, from Italian parents, and lived there until the age of four. Then he moved to Milan, Italy from the ages of four to 14, then Shanghai, China from 14 to 18, and finally to Boston, United States to pursue his college education. 

De Vecci studies neuroscience and psychology at Boston University. He credits his major choice to his fascination with the inner mechanisms of the human mind and its relationship to science. In the future, he would like to work in neurotechnology and develop a product that will improve people’s lives. 

The question “where are you from?” troubles De Vecci, as he does not have a legitimate answer. He has a Brazilian and Italian passport, as well as a permanent residency ID from Hong Kong that categorizes him as a citizen. Each country has provided him with a new experience. Each culture has merged and integrated to form his persona. He considers himself Italian due to his heritage, however, being Italian does not quite embody De Vecci’s cultural background. 

“I have learned a lot to from the Asian culture, such as,  appreciating small beauties, the art of meditation, the art of being patient and [a] completely different culture that thinks in a completely different way,” De Vecci said.

De Vecci’s parents understood that their children would have a mix of cultural experience, but his mother wanted to ensure that their Italian background was not forgotten or overpowered by other cultures. His mother decided to leave Brazil and raise her children in Italy for ten years, “otherwise, when we become older, we would not have as much in common with her,” De Vecci explained. 

“Even though Fede has moved around a lot, he really showcases his Italian heritage. He loves Italian food, he’s got a really good sense of style, he talks with his hands a lot, and pretty much every time I go to visit him he’s sipping on some Italian wine,” said Isabella Elwaw, a good friend.  

Despite his mother’s efforts to preserve her children’s Italianism, De Vecci still experiences a degree of rejection when going back to Italy. He feels like a foreigner in what he is supposed to call home because he has not lived there all his life. The contrasting cultures have influenced and formed a different part of De Vecci’s identity. 

“I don’t consider myself Chinese nor American or Brazilian. So by process of exclusion, I’d feel myself Italian,” De Vecci said. “However, if you think of Italy, [which] is [the] place that I call home, it’s only a place that I’ve lived 10 years. I’m 21, meaning that 11 years out of my life I’ve lived outside of Italy. So it’s hard to define home.”

De Vecci is the eldest of three. As a big brother, he felt like the experimental child. He had all his parents’ attention, which felt a bit suffocating, so he decided to move out and live by himself in Shanghai at just 16 years old. He attributes living on his own to his maturity. 

He attended an international high school. Which he described as living in a “bubble.” He explained how Chinese people are more standoffish towards foreigners and enforce the us vs. them mentality. 

“There’s very little interaction because they don’t think much of us until you start speaking a little bit of the language, at which point they really start appreciating the effort and they start accepting you a little bit more into their culture,” De Vecci said. Years have gone by since he last practiced his Chinese, but he still remembers around 1400 characters of 55,000. 

His transnational exposure has developed an interesting dynamic with his siblings. When they speak with each other, they speak in a hybrid language that De Vecci calls “Itanenglish,” which is 70% English and 30% Italian. He explained how the language they speak depends on what they are speaking about.

De Vecci barely remembers his experience in Brazil or its language. “I remember some [of Brazil] like an old movie, you watched a couple of scenes here and there. I remember like a beach chair. I remember specific skyscraper, maybe a trip to the zoo, maybe like a Lullaby when I was a little kid, but I don’t really remember much of that from Brazil,” De Vicci said. 

De Vicci believes that on a conscious level Brazil’s culture does not form part of his identity, but subconsciously it does. “I think it might’ve changed a lot to be honest. My mother at least claims that Brazil really did impact me a lot and allowed me to develop this extroverted, adventurous side of myself,” he said.  

“He has lived in many places and I think that each place has rewarded him in some way, building up to the person he is today, even his time in Brazil. He tells this story of when he first went to Italy he was considered a hyperactive kid and the teachers said it was because he was ‘Brazilian’ and maybe that has carried on to who he is right now,” Elena Quartara said, lifelong friend. 

De Vecci explained how his internationalism sparked fear on his parents. First we “scared them a lot because that they noticed that we were speaking English [at] the dinner table,” he said. “We were [not] dressing as Italians.”

He considers Italian culture to be relatively judgmental. He feels the pressure to accentuate his Italian side to feel more accepted by his parents and their home country. If he does not accentuate that side of him, then he gets ignored. 

“I don’t fit in a box. I’m never going to fit in a box and I made peace with it,” De Vecci said. “That said, I just choose to fit in as much as I can. I accept the fact that I am a hybrid.”