April Salazar was told by her family that she had descended from Spain, and that she should be proud of her Spanish heritage. That knowledge helped shape Salazar’s identity until her family got genetic testing and found some surprising results—Salazar was not as Spanish as she was led to believe. She was also part Native American: in fact, a lot Native American. Here is this week’s Sabiduría, or Words of Wisdom:
Photo via aprilsalazar.com
This is very common among Mexicanos I know and a very sensitive subject… In fact, I would wager, most family trees do not hold up to any close scrutiny. The idea that you can track lineage by simply looking at fathers, or mothers is silly. We are all the product of many people. The further you go back, the larger the number. Because most Mexican’s have Spanish sirnames, it is tempting to translate that into a Spanish ancestory. This is expecially true if the family is light skinned. It is easier to assimilate into Anglo American cutlure by claiming a shared European ancestory. The alternative is difficult to explain. Many Mexicanos have a very limited or no written family history. Most I know can only go as far back as the late 1800’s. For my family this is true. My grandmother appears on the US census of 1890, before that there is no trace of anyone I can find… perhaps there are baptismal records in Mexico… but which ancestor do I choose to follow? I have accepted that much of my heritiage is Native American… that most of my ancestors stepped (or were forced) out of their society and their culture so that they could survive. They were in fact, refugees. In a generation or so a child was given a western name.
I remember a joke from when I was a child. It sounds funnier in Spanish… “Hey, did you hear our neighbor Sanchez just bought a new Lincoln Contential? Really? Yeah, and now he won’t talk to us… I suppose now he’s Don Sanchez (Spanish).”
I started doing genealogy when I was 16 and I am glad I did. My Mother’s name was Marguerite Montemayor. Her father was Estanisloa Montemayor. He was born in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. My 13th great grandfather was Diego Montemayor born in Spain. He was a Jew. I have a genealogy with over 10,000 names, dates, and places. I would be happy to help anyone who reads this try to trace their ancestors. e-mail me at tosilly123@beyondbb.com
send me your grand parents names, dates and places. Same with as many generations as you can and I will see what I can find. My grandfather always told me when I went to school, “Remember who you are”. It helps if you know who you are.
Wonderful story. My grandma always told us she was pure Spanish and my grandpa was half Spanish and half French. I always identified with my mother’s family, not my father’s who I really never knew. Our family tree on my matriliniar lines criss cross with different lines merging when people who probably had no idea they were distant cousins married. A double cousin who is a professional genealogist has traced our ancestors back to the conquistadors April speaks of. I did the Ancestry.com dna test and was surprised to find that it showed more Indian (Native American) than Spanish and a surprising amound of Irish as well as many of the surprise ethnicities found by April’s father.