My name was given by my parents. My mother wanted me to be named after her father “Jose”, and told my father that he could add any other name before or after. He chose to add his own name after and I ended up being called “Jose Carlos”.

It is for me a little annoying to live with my name because it is impractical. Two names, though common in Peru, ends up being too long when sharing it with people. However, I can not share only one of the two names as many people do, because “Jose” or “Carlos” alone are too generic names. And I don’t identify myself with them, I am not Jose, nor Carlos. This has been even more problematic outside of my home country. It is quite difficult to share my name with foreigners for whom even its pronunciation gets complex.

I wonder how it would have been to have a more simple name. I think I would hate to have a very common one such as “Pedro” or “Diego”. In that case, I would prefer to keep “Jose Carlos”. However, it might have been incredible to have an uncommon one-word name such as “Hercules”, “Ulises” or “Napoleon”.

Despite of all, I think I have come into terms with Jose Carlos. The nickname of “Seca”, that people have used to call me since I can remember, helps to have a one-word label. And also it has helped to think about people like Mariategui and Borges that might have shared this thought at least for some moments.