Sports moderator Viola Spiro: “They called me provincial in Tirana. I felt the prejudice when I arrived at around 19 years old

Sports moderator Viola Spiro shared her experience with prejudice when she came to Tirana to pursue higher education. In an interview on the show “Mirëmbrëma Yje,” she mentioned how people would call her “provincial,” a stereotype she said she never experienced in Greece, where she spent part of her childhood.

She stated, “We used to call them backward,” emphasizing that her hometown of Korça was frequented only by the elite or intellectuals of Albania. “The first impact was the dialect, you’d run into someone using a word that was unfamiliar,” said Viola Spiro, adding that Korça is not like other provinces that are rigid, closed, or backward.

Viola Spiro: “They called us provincial. I grew up in Greece, and you might think I experienced racism there because they are nationalistic, but honestly, I didn’t feel it because I moved to Greece when I was 2 years old. I adapted, learned the language, and maybe they are a little oriented by appearances, they are a different people.

I felt the prejudice in Tirana when I came around the age of 19. I felt it in Tirana back then, where Korça was frequented only by the elite or intellectuals of Albania, who knew that Korça was a place to go for the weekend and have fun. Meanwhile, others thought of it as a city like the other provinces, which are rigid, closed, or backward.

We were so advanced that we called others in Tirana backward because for us, they were a mix of things. We kept our identity and culture intact. The dialect was the first impact you encountered, where someone would use a word that seemed unfamiliar to you.”

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