Fratella is a deliberate bastardization of masculine and feminine conjugations of the Italian language. Being new to the foreign words Fratello and Sorella, my roommate and I found it difficult to remember the proper terms for “brother” and “sister”, and eventually it became an inside joke to say the words wrong. Calling Florence home, this became a tongue-in-cheek play on the misuse of the Italian language by tourists.

The depiction in this piece is from when my sister Cori came to visit in Florence in February. She is standing in front of a restaurant in a popular tourist area, Piazza della Signora. My sister, a foreigner, is found in a place in Italy commonly overflowing with foreigners.