Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875
Origin of the paradox By Sherif Nakhla
Dorfman is a Chilean who was born in Argentina, of Russian parents, and who grew up in New York. The idea of one man with two names is very much at the heart of who Dorfman really is as a person. To begin with, his name is not Ariel Dorfman, his father named him Vladimo Dorfman after Vladimir Lenin.Ariel hated the name because the children at school in New York made fun of it. When his father moved from Argentina to New York Dorfman was moved to an English/ Spanish speaking school. At that point he had already decided to change his identity. He changed his name to Edward and refused to speak Spanish, which was his first language.
During the McCarthy era his father was working in New York at the United Nations. But his father had to leave New York and the family moved back to Chile. At first Dorfman hated Chile: he wanted to speak English, but gradually he began to embrace Chile as his own country. For some time he refused to speak English and only spoke Spanish. Again, a man of paradox, and for the third time he changed his name.
There was a famous South American writer who wrote an essay about Shakespeare's The Tempest in which he questioned why America was rich and Latin America poor. He said America was like Caliban; it is ruthless and gets what it wants whereas Latin Americans are like Ariel, the spirit who tries to serve and please. Hence, by accepting the name Ariel he was really accepting an identity as a Latin American. He became Ariel Dorfman.