When people here my full name Ursula Sportelli they
are always puzzled by it.
Today I am going to tell you a story about where my
parents came from & where I was born and how I came to acquire such a
particular name. Further, I am going to let you know how the seventies impacted
me & how it correlates with my character today.
Lets first take a trip across the Atlantic Ocean where
we will land first in Italy. Has we go towards the south of Italy in the
province of Bari that is where my father comes from a village dated back from
the eleventh century called Putignano.
The village is particular it was build in a circle on
one side are huge mountains and the other side near the village is the Adriatic
sea. Nowadays, a modern city surrounds the old village, which I find is quite
particular.
They called my father Franco Sportelli he was born and
raised in the village of Putignano being the eighteen child of a family of twenty. He lived there until he finished his duty in the army.
In his twenties, my father decided to travel the
world to discover new places. Franco travelled all around Asian & then came
back to tour Europe.
Has he travelled and saw many beautiful cities nothing
inspired him most than the country were I was born. A tiny country called Holland at the time,
which was build over the North sea. It had windmills swirling everywhere,
vivid tulips & a sparkling green carpet covered the land surrounded with
very tall people.
My father being an artist himself enjoyed the culture
of great artists like Van Go & Remnant. Franco thought people were so
friendly and inviting in Holland he decided to stay a little in longer in the
city of canals.
On a misty evening my father decided to check out a
cozy little bar in the neighborhood. Franco glanced over and saw the most
magnificent woman he had ever seen. She was a blonde goddess with longs legs
that never ended, but my father said to me that it was my mother's smile that
captured his heart. She was my mother her name was Andrea DeRyke.
My mother was born just after the Second World War in
the city of Rotterdam. The biggest port of the world resides in Rotterdam in
that period of time. Andrea came from a very poor family of two siblings with
an alcoholic father and a schizophrenic mother.
Andrea was an artist; she loved painting, gardening
and cooking. She told me when she saw my father for the first time she was
smitten by is different ethnicity. Since all the men in Holland were fair skin
& hair. My mother was attracted to the Mediterranean look dark skin and
dark hair but she told me what attracted her the most was my father's
gazing eyes it gave her chills and butterflies.
They fell in love with each other
instantaneously. They
got married not to long after they meet and a year later I was born in 1970 in
the city of Amsterdam. Love triumphed with two different cultures. That
is why my name is Ursula Sportelli a mixture of Dutch and Italian.
Nineteen seventy
the year I was born a time were hippies danced with peace in their hearts
& sang with the spirit of love, women were starting to become more
assertive & feeling liberated, poor people had a chance to become
second-class. War did not exist anymore and the Industrial age was settling in.
My character reflects the seventies. My core value is freedom. Most of the time
I am in a dream like state & I love to let my imagination soar. When I was a little girl I really thought
the war was over forever.
My mother told that I was independent from an early age. When I was toddler of 4 years old I would escape my mother’s hands continuously to go gallivanting in the market on my own and talk with the merchants.
I believe, I can achieve whatever I desire. I
believe everybody should be given the chance to grow and better them selves.
I embrace modern technology but realize today that we
need most of all is human contact. That is why I am so attracted now to
get to know people which inspires me to write. They give me a piece of
the puzzle that I am seeking to better myself.
There was a time that I decided that who I was is not
go enough & that I should change my character from a society stand point of
view. This venture made me very unhappy & very depressed.
Today, I am back to me; I embrace my character fully reflected from the
seventies.
My name is Ursula Sportelli and I
was born in Amsterdam in 1970.
