General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: How did you get here? [View all]Benton D Struckcheon
(2,347 posts)...so my Mom and Dad both came over on Eastern Airlines flights from San Juan to NYC. That was easy.
On my mom's side we think if we go back far enough we end up with a slaveowner from Haiti who fled after they threw out the French.
On my dad's side, they started out from Corsica, an island that now belongs to France but is inhabited by folks who are actually ethnically Italian. This was part of a push by Spain to prevent rebellion against them after Bolivar: they invited immigrants from other Catholic European countries to move to their remaining colonies to keep them from doing the same, the logic apparently being divide and conquer.
Which is ironic, since some of PR's most ardent nationalists wound up being the Corsicans who landed there as a result.
All of the above makes the point that the US ain't the only melting pot: most of the Western Hemisphere is all mixed up.