I have long identified myself as "Mexican, Puerto Rican, Portuguese, German", though I'll throw "Spanish" into the mix since some of my Latin American ancestors were Spanish.
Because much of these countries had various tribes conquering over the centuries, I'm sure there's more to my genealogy story than just those listed ethnicities.
Yesterday, at a family gathering, my parents informed me that they have taken a DNA test (using their saliva) and sent it to "23andMe", a DNA testing services that matches aspects of your DNA with various ethnic groups from around the world
(note: learn more at https://www.23andme.com/)
1) My knowledge before my parent's DNA test
My dad was an immigrant from Mexico, more specifically Oaxaca, a state with a large native population. My dad's mom is believed to be of pure native ancestry (with Zapotec, Toltec and whatever other tribes are in the area), My dad's dad is of mostly Spanish ancestry. So basically, a white man and a brown woman made my father. Of all his siblings, my father is the darkest brown and inherited much of the Native Mexican features.
My mother grew up in Hawaii and is of Puerto Rican, Portuguese and German ancestry. I don't even look German, but I got my last name from my mother's side of the family.
My mom's mom is a descendant of Puerto Ricans who came to Hawaii in the early 1900s to work in the sugar plantations. Just looking at her, she has a tan-color skinned and I assume to have a mix of Spanish and some indigenous ancestry (probably the Taino tribe).
My mom's dad is of Portuguese and German ancestry. He was adopted by a Native Hawaiian family. In other words, he was a white boy raised in a Hawaiian home. He passed away a few months before I was born, so I was never really able to learn about that side of my ancestry.
Because my mom's dad was adapted by a Native Hawaiian family, some relatives did apply to Kamehameha Schools (private school with a "preference" for Native Hawaiian children) and one got in. Obviously, that could anger some with real Native Hawaiian ancestry who feel their children are entitled to attend that school.
Though one of my uncles did marry a Native Hawaiian mom and had several kids with her. But it wasn't them that went to Kamehameha Schools.
The whole issue raised tons of questions. Was that relative who got into Kamehameha Schools a case of fraud? (turns out the parents inform the school of the adoption situation when applying) Or did we have some hidden Hawaiian genes from that Portuguese/German grandfather who was supposedly adopted.
In the 1990's, people have commented that my mother looked like Lokelani Lindsey, a controversial trustee of Kamehameha Schools with tons of scandals. Needless to say, my mom got some glares when she walked around the malls. Lokelani Lindsey is believed to have a mix of Native Hawaiian and Portuguese, and other European ancestries.
Add that up, my parents wanted to settle the issue "once and for all" and got the DNA test!
2) My knowledge after my parent's DNA test
"23 and Me", the DNA testing company breaks it down into the following groups
- East Asian (including Southeast Asian) and Native American (for all of the Americas)
- European (with splits for different regions of Europe)
- Middle Eastern and North African
- Sub-Saharan Africa (which splits into West African, East African, Central and South African)
- South Asian
- Oceanian (meaning Pacific Islanders)
"23 and Me" does narrow down these categories into specific tribes, but doesn't have the records for all the tribes. Their records are limited for specific tribes that are Native American and Oceanian.
======
My father, who is visibly of Native Mexican, is listed as 43% Native American. Unfortunately, "23 and Me" was unable to break it down by Native American tribes that match my father.
He is also listed is 35% European, much of it "Iberian" (meaning Spain & Portugal). There is some Sardinian in the mix.
He has 4.5% Sub-Saharan African, most of it being West African. My dad's home state of Oaxaca has a larger Afro-Mexican population as compared to other Mexican states.
He has 1% North African ancestry. The Moors, coming from what is now Morocco, has ruled over Spain & Portugal for a few centuries.
He has 1% Ashkenazi Jewish (meaning European Jewish)
He has also has 1% East Asian ancestry, with a mix of Mongolian, Japanese and Yakut!
Those numbers don't add up to 100% , because a certain percentage is either undetermined, or fits into a category of "broadly _____________" (for example, 10.1% is "broadly East Asian & Native American")
================
My mother's side of the family is seen as the "white" side of my family. She is listed as 86% European.
25% is Iberian (meaning both Spanish & Portuguese), 3.1% Italian, and 19.7% "broadly Southern European"
31.3% is Northwestern European. While the last name I inherited from my mom is German, she also has "British & Irish" and Scandinavian ancestry.
0.6% is Eastern European ancestry, 0.2 % is Ashkenazi Jewish, and 6.2 is "broadly European".
6% is Native American. That has got to be the Puerto Rican side. Unfortunately, "23 and Me" was unable to break it down by Native American tribes that match my mother.
3.1% is Sub-Saharan African, most of it being West African. The Spanish imported African slaves to Puerto Rico. The Portuguese also imported a few to the Azores & Madeiras (where much of the Portuguese who came to Hawaii came from). However, the Hawaii's plantation owners didn't want that many "black" people in their plantations, but I'm sure some of the African blood was present in some of the ones who came.
2% is North African. As mentioned earlier, the Moors, coming from what is now Morocco, has ruled over Spain & Portugal for a few centuries.
There was no listed trace of Oceanian (Pacific Islander) blood on my mom's side . So basically her Portuguese-German father was adopted by Native Hawaiians, and therefore didn't have Native Hawaiian DNA.
=============
=============
=============
So basically, the DNA tests confirmed that much of my ancestry is European & Native American (though in this case, the "American" is below US borders).
I do have circa 3-4% African ancestry. I think much of that were African slaves were taken to Latin American plantations. Even though the Spanish & Portuguese were more likely to race mix with Natives & Africans in Latin America (as compared to the British in the USA), their racism made those who weren't obviously "black" ashamed to express their African ancestry.
By the time the "Black & Proud" and "Black Power" slogans became popular throughout the Americas in the 1960s & 1970s, it was too late for those whose ancestors refused to admit their African ancestry, and therefore knowledge of their African ancestry was lost.
While I'm a major hip-hop fan with a tiny % of West African DNA, I'm still going to restrain myself from saying a certain word common in hip-hop songs. I do it out of respect for the anti-racist cause.
I have about 1% Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. For those who don't know, Ashkenazi were the Jews who settled in Europe centuries ago. Just like the case with Africans, those with Jewish ancestries faced massive prejudice, and those who were mixed and not visibly Jewish were ashamed to admit such ancestries. Therefore knowledge of Jewish ancestries were lost to their descendants.
Also, being that history is filled with conquests, that means invading armies raped the women, forcing them to bear children of the hated invaders. Because of the stigma attached to rape, and stigma of sharing genes with the invaders, that could also mean that information is lost.
The reason I mentioned that is I'm thinking that my Scandinavian ancestors might've been the Vikings that raided much of northern Europe.
Also, as obvious from my Latin American ancestry, the Spanish & Portuguese enslaved and raped some of my Native American and African ancestors.
That all being said
- because we can't change the past,
- because our DNA has genetic information from so many different tribes,
- because history is filled with migrations, conquests and slave trades
- because racist & ethnic stigma made many ashamed to admit some ancestries
we are all human, above our ethnic, racial and national identities.
As the late Rodney King famously said "can't we all just get along?"
