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Hi, I’m Carlos Vieira. I write stories about identity, belonging, and the systems that shape who we become.

Who Gets to Be Seen? Arise Stories newsletter art
This Week in the Arise Stories Universe

Who Gets to Be Seen?

This week, I’m reflecting on the Oscar ceremony from March 15, 2026, through the lens of Moonlight, representation, and the quiet politics of visibility.

When certain lives finally reach the centre of the screen, it can feel like progress. But visibility is never neutral. Some stories are welcomed more easily than others. Some identities are only embraced when they appear in the right aesthetic, the right tone, the right frame.

This essay asks a harder question beneath the awards, applause, and prestige: who gets to exist visibly in mainstream storytelling, and under what conditions?

Representation is not only about being seen.
It is also about who controls the conditions under which visibility becomes possible.

Explore the full essay and stay tuned across Arise Stories social media this week for the related video series exploring identity, belonging, power, and the stories systems allow us to see.

Follow the conversation this week across Arise Stories social media.

Borrowed Identity

A Novel of Belonging, Deception, and Becoming

How far can someone go to feel recognised?

Mara has grown up on the edges of certainty, moving through foster homes, temporary rooms, and places where nothing lasts long enough to feel real. Stability has always belonged to someone else.

When she discovers she has a twin sister, Lina, raised in safety and affection she never knew, the revelation unsettles everything she understands about herself.

Through a chain of quiet decisions, Mara steps into Lina’s world. A message sent under the wrong name becomes an opening into tenderness, trust, and the fragile possibility of being seen differently.

But borrowed belonging has a cost.

As her connection with Jonas deepens, Mara must confront the question beneath the lie: who is she when no one is mistaking her for someone else?

Borrowed Identity is a character-driven literary novel about longing, recognition, adoption, foster care, and the delicate line between reinvention and self-erasure. It explores what it means to be chosen, to be claimed, and ultimately, to choose oneself.

Borrowed Identity