Are you a MUTT whose forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world

[OmahaBlueDog]

<<Cut it out! Cut it out! Cut it out! The hell's the matter with you? Stupid! We're all very different people. We're not Watusi. We're not Spartans. We're Americans, with a capital 'A', huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We're the underdog. We're mutts! Here's proof: his nose is cold! But there's no animal that's more faithful, that's more loyal, more loveable than the mutt.>>

[Bossy Monkey]

1. Not every; just Switzerland, England, Ireland, Denmark and Germany.

But yeah, certainly a melting pot. (Had to look up "Stripes," too.)

[cloudbase]

2. Sort of.

The countries they left weren't exactly decent.

[Xipe Totec]

3. Ever hear of the Ladino and 1492? n/t

[no name no slogan]

4. Do you mean Ladino, the language-- or do you mean

the Ladinos of Central America-- judging by your handle, I assume you mean this one. :hi:

[Xipe Totec]

9. Ladino is the language of the Ladino people

who were expelled from Spain in 1492

Not all went to Turkey; some, like my ancestors, ended up in the New World.

[no name no slogan]

11. There's a lot of what are called "Crypto-Jews" in what's now the American SW

The Wikipedia article on Crypto-Judaism is quite interesting. It's amazing that they were able to maintain parts of their culture and religion in spite of all the forces stacked against them.

[Xipe Totec]

17. That's my people

300 years ago.

Now, totaly integrated into the Catholic culture.

Well, almost.


We still eat cabrito, instead of pork for Christmas,

and the dreidel comes out around Hanukkah.

[no name no slogan]

20. Wow... that is VERY COOL!

That's amazing that after 300 years there are still echoes of Judaism, after traveling across an ocean and continent. :toast:

[Xipe Totec]

24. Just to make sure you understand, I'm not BSing...

Here is one of several thousand documents I have on the subject.

This is a remnant of a wedding record, from 1769,

The Wedding of Maria Antonia Ramos Anzaldua:

[no name no slogan]

25. I believe you. It's incredible you still have documents!

My grandfather's brother traced (chased?) one branch of our family back to a small church in Sweden to the 1750s. It was an entry in some sort of list of the congregation, but we don't have any original documents.

Otherwise, other records are lost to the sands of time-- including a possible Ashkenazi ancestor from Slovakia. This ancestor inspired one of my cousins to become a rabbi, so we've got that going on for us.

Amazing what you find and what you learn when you start peeling back the layers. :D

[Xipe Totec]

28. You're looking at a sample of a decade's worth of research

When I started, I didn't even know I was Semitic.

Nailing that one fact down was a major breakthrough!

(and I have the DNA analysis to back it up...)

[Kali]

32. wow - that is cool - where were you born/raised?

[Xipe Totec]

34. I'm as Mexican as a paddle cactus

and just as prickly

:hi:

ETA: If I was Jewish, I would be a Sabra.

[Kali]

36. I have loved discovering the diversity in Mexico over the years

the minimal geography that we learn in the US leads to the mistaken assumption that we are the main "melting pot" country. So wrong on several levels.

[Sebastian Doyle]

26. So there really WERE "tribes of Israel" in Central America?

I thought the Mormons made that stuff up?

They weren't actually called the Nephites and Lamanites, were they?

[Xipe Totec]

31. Yes to both

Yes, there are tribes of Israel in Central America.

Yes, the Mormons made that stuff up.

That they happened to be right, is a random accident... :hi:

[Kali]

12. ooo tell me more about the ones who went to Turkey?

[Xipe Totec]

14. 500 Years After Expulsion, Spain Reaches Out to Jews

Published: Wednesday, April 1, 1992

In a poignant ceremony marking the 500th anniversary of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, President Chaim Herzog of Israel and Spain's King, Juan Carlos, prayed together in the synagogue of Madrid today. Their gesture symbolized reconciliation between their people.

For Mr. Herzog, it was an occasion that "closes one more of the many painful cycles in the history of our people." And he added: "We cannot change the past. But we can learn its lessons and thus assure a better future for ourselves and humanity."

For Juan Carlos, it was a chance both to pay homage to the exiled Sephardic Jewish communities that have never forgotten their Spanish roots and to tell Jews that Sefarad -- the Hebrew name for Spain -- was "no longer nostalgia" because the country was once again their home.

The King, who wore a skullcap, was accompanied by Queen Sofia. "It may seem odd to choose the anniversary of a separation for a meeting of such profound significance," he said. "But the history of all people and, without doubt, that of Spain, is full of lights and shadows." A Dubious Choice


http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE1D8143FF932A35757C0A964958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladino_language

[Xipe Totec]

15. And, more specifically,

http://home.earthlink.net/~benven/ladino.html

[Mike 03]

5. Yes: I even have a "Count" whatever that is who was exiled from France.

He had been a wealthy man but a compulsive gambler who lost a fortune and was unable to repay his creditors. So he was forced to leave the country.

I am:

Irish
French
Portuguese
Canadian
French/Canadian (which makes sense)

ON EDIT:

Swiss too. Maybe the Count was Swiss. French or Swiss. I can't recall.

We also had a Mexican person of "Title" who married into the family, but he accidentally killed himself and little is known about him.

[no name no slogan]

6. I'm a bigger mutt than I first suspected

I found out a few years ago that my maternal grandfather's dad was illegitimate, and the man she eventually married as not my great-great-grandfather after all.

So far, I've got Czech, Slovak, Scottish, English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and quite possibly Ashkenazi Jewish as well. That's not counting the bastard a few generations back.

[CBHagman]

7. Well, I don't know that actual KICKING was involved...

...but yes, my relatives LEFT. They left Ireland, England, Sweden, and what was then Hungary (It's shrunk since).

All of which makes me a Promenadenmischling.

[pokerfan]

8. PJ Soles shout-out!

[Mike 03]

10. I had a huge crush on her. I would have been, um, 13 or 14 when "Halloween" came out.

She was so cute....

[pokerfan]

13. Yeah, you would have been in her demographic

14-94

[Sebastian Doyle]

27. Riff Randall?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL4od3xzthM
Had a bit of a Jr. High crush on her myself :loveya:

[elshiva]

16. My dad's side of the family were basically kicked out of

every country until America because they were Jewish.

[OmahaBlueDog]

22. So I'm guessing some Russian, Polish, and German

am I in the right neighborhood, or were your folks thrown out of Italy, Spain, & Portugal.

[elshiva]

23. You were right the first time. Russia, Poland, Germany,

Lithuania, and then Latvia. :hi:

[OmahaBlueDog]

18. My mutt pedigree

Mom's side: English, German, Dutch, Swiss, and reportedly some Powhattan Indian.

Dad's side: Northern England/Southern Scotland, maybe some Irish, Maybe some Welsh

My Grandfather had a cool life; he was born in rural Canada; did much of his growing-up in Trinidad; went to a business school in lieu of High School in Havana; immigrated to the US and lived in New Orleans; moved to California to attend UC Berkeley, where he met my Nana (who forced him from his wicked ways and made him settle down).

[Kali]

19. ooo he sounds wonderful - is any of his history recorded?

[OmahaBlueDog]

21. He wrote some down, but I really regret not having gotten more

...also, honestly, I wish I'd have been old enough to have a "man to man" talk about what high school in Havana followed by first job in New Orleans was like in the 1920s. I'm guessing there could be some elements to that story that were at least PG-13, and possibly "R". By the time I was in college, he was in the early stages of Alzheimers.

Before he met my Nana, he almost got tossed from Cal. His New Orleans employer, Chilean Nitrate, liked him a lot, and told him to go to college and get an Ag degree, and there's be a job waiting for him (there wasn't, but that's another story). So he did. This was in the 20's, mind you. He was in a fraternity, and I think it's safe to assume some partying was taking place. There were also no AP or CLEP tests. In those days, Universities were on an honor system, and you were expected to do work commensurate with your ability. But my Papa wasn't an idiot; he spoke fluent Spanish, and he wanted an easy "A". So, he took Spanish 1A as if he were an English speaker. It worked great until he started giving answers on tests that hadn't been taught in the lessons. Ooops! My Nana straightened him out, though. She was beautiful; she was also captain of the women's rifle team. It was an offer he couldn't refuse.

[Kali]

30. way cool!

[rockymountaindem]

29. I'm an Ashkenazi Jew, so maybe or maybe not on the mutt part but

we've definitely been kicked out of everywhere. Two of my ancestors (that I know of) were killed in a pogrom in or around 1903.

[krispos42]

33. Yup

Half Italian (4th generation, I think. 3rd or 4th), a quarter German, also 3rd or 4th generation, and an eighth each of English and Cherokee. The English my mom has traced back to the first half of the 19th century. Somewhere in Illinios.


My kid is 3/8 Italian, 1/8 Irish, 1/8 German, 1/8th French, 1/8th French-Canadian, 1/16th English, and 1/16 Cherokee. :-)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

35. My mutt pedigree: My grandfather deserted two armies

He was born in Latvia in 1884, then part of the Russian Empire, earned a teaching certificate in St. Petersburg, but was drafted into the czar's army before he could actually use it.

During his tour of duty, he was placed on border guard duty along the river that separated Russia and Romania. Like most Latvians, he had no use for the Russians and he hated being in the army, so one night, he sneaked away from his fellow solders and swam the river into Romania.

He wandered around Europe for a few years and claims to have met Lenin and Trotsky in Switzerland. Anyway, when he went to France, he met a fast-talking recruiter from the French Foreign Legion, who told him that with his education, he'd be an officer in no time. Furthermore, serving a certain number of years would grant him automatic French citizenship.

He signed up and was shipped to Algeria, where he soon realized that he was unlikely to live long enough to be promoted or to earn his French citizenship. His fellow recruits were dying of disease and heatstroke, never mind skirmishes with the Arabs. He bought some civilian clothes on a trip to town and headed for the coast, where he picked up a freighter.

He couldn't go back to France, so he went to Germany, where he got a job as a crew member on a passenger ship that sailed between Germany and America. He made five crossings before he decided to get off and see what America was like. His first night in America was spent on a park bench in Hoboken, New Jersey.

He heard that there were Latvians in Boston, so he went there, worked at odd jobs, and took night classes in English. Eventually, he earned an American college degree and started a career as a high school teacher. His main subjects were math and chemistry, but he also taught French and German if needed.

In the late 1930s, he decided to go to law school. When Latvian refugees began arriving in Minneapolis after World War II, he was the only Latvian-speaking attorney in Minneapolis, so he helped a lot of people who were being fleeced by unscrupulous Americans. He also sold insurance on the side.

He died only a month before I turned 12, but he was quite a memorable character.

The Norwegian and German relatives have more conventional stories. The Norwegians were hardscrabble farmers who settled on the prairies of western Minnesota. The Germans were more middle-class and came over because my great-grandfather was a big fan of James Fennimore Cooper.

[OmahaBlueDog]

39. That is an American story

Some desertion, some swimming, and a trip on a freighter.

I love that he was a lawyer and sold insurance - the implication of which is that he -- gasp-- wasn't getting rich because he was actually trying to help people.

Great story. Thanks for sharing that.

[Kali]

37. well the rumor was they were kicked out of Texas - does that count?

Nah, I'm of mostly boring pasty white northern European decent, although my father claims to have found African blood markers - which really pissed off his mother - daughter of a KKK member.:rofl:

[OmahaBlueDog]

38. According to Chuck Norris, it does

Since Texas is a republic.

The African blood markers are interesting.