Asturian-American Migration Forum

Well, I have always heard stories coming from my mother about my grandmother being from Asturias and teaching her dances with castañuelas and beatiful things. My mother never learnt them, however she was proud of my grandmother's several last names "borbon" "tijerilla" "gavito" "de villa". My mother is a blue eyed woman with very fair skin, and redish hair not quite visible in Mexico. All her brothers and sisters are like that. I have hazel eyes, freckles all over my face and back however I never thought my mother's story was real and I tended to doubt them. For several years I have had gastrointestinal, neurologiacal and dermatological problems and, until recently, I search for a cause, my symtoms resembled a quite frequent disease that is very common in people from celtic roots, celiac disease, I tested positive for it. Well I now believe her, I hope I get in touch with you, probably I have some cousins around here.

There are quite a few genetic factors associated with celiac disease. For more information, go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=omim and enter "celiac" in the website's search engine.

Just a quick afterthought, one of the traditional grains in Asturias is spelt, which is low in gluten, a contributing factor to celiac disease.

Also, in contrast with the stereotype of Spaniards having dark skin, hair and eyes, lighter pigmentation is not uncommon in Asturias.

Bread made with spelt flour isn't as common today in Asturias, but you can still buy it and it's a lot tastier than the white bread! You can buy spelt flour here in the US, usually in natural foods stores.

I didn't realize that it's low in gluten, but that makes sense given the bread I've eaten.

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El pan hecho con harina de escanda no es tan común hoy en Asturias, pero todavía se puede comprarlo ¡y es mucho más sabrosa que el pan blanco! Se puede comprar harina de escanda aquí en los EE.UU., por lo general en tiendas de alimentos naturales.

No daba cuenta de que es bajo en gluten, pero tiene sentido dando el pan que he comido.

Thank you for letting me know about spelt bread, however it does contain gluten and I have been prohibited eating even small portions. I would really like to visit Spain and go to Asturias, I have searched for pictures and videos in youtube and I think it's a wonderful place, I never imagined it could be that way. As to returning, well I don't think so, I think it will be great to spread this beatiful culture around the world, even America has traces of Asturias, just as my ancestors had. Mexico has delicious food, beautiful buildings, artwork, etc, I think it's a good combination from prehispanic and hispanic culture.

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Gracias por hacerme saber del pan de escanda, sin embargo, contiene gluten y se me ha prohibido comerlo incluso en pequeñas porciones. Me gustaría realmente visitar España e incluso ir a Asturias. He buscado fotos y videos en youtube y creo que es un lugar maravilloso. Nunca imaginé que así fuera. En lo que respecta a regresar, no lo creo, creo que es grandioso difundir esta cultura hermosa en todo el mundo, incluso America tiene rastros de Asturias, así como mis ancestros lo tenían. Mexico tiene comida deliciosa, edificios hermosos, arte, etc. Creo que es una buena combinación de cultura prehispánica e hispánica.