Asturian-American Migration Forum

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MDHSuarez wrote:I am going to a family wedding in Spain. My maiden name is Menendez and I married a Suarez. Common names in Spain, of course, but we are going to the wedding of my husband's cousin, who is also a Suarez and he is also marrying a girl named Menendez. How funny that this American Suarez cousin went to Spain and fell in love in the country of his great-grandparents.

[Now Art is writing] I've been thinking about this sort of thing a lot. Obviously, I'm something like your cousin!

A counselor once told me that we may be programmed, possibly by a parent, to want to return to the homeland of our grandparents or great-grandparents. He also suggested that there is something very magnetic about the culture of the homeland, so that even generations later we feel very at home there. I'd love to know how that works!

It seems to me that the emigrants themselves and their kids (the first generation) may have had a more jaded view of the homeland.

My mother (first generation) waited until she was about 50 before visiting Asturias. She likes Spain, but probably not nearly enough to move there. Her siblings, (my aunts and uncles) had very little interest in returning. Only two of her six siblings made a trip to Spain, one never stopped to meet family, although she drove through the pueblo in a huge American car. Yes, the family noticed and remembered the story!

My grandfather clearly did not want to return. He'd say "What's for me there?" Although he had to work hard here, I suspect that his life in Asturias would have been much harder.

Did anyone else hear of the emigrant generation saying things like that?

[edited to clarify who is writing]

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MDHSuarez wrote:[translated by Art] Voy a una boda de familia en España. Mi apellido de soltera es Menendez y me casé con un Suarez. Nombres comunes en España, desde luego, pero vamos a la boda del primo de mi marido, que es también un Suarez y él también se casa una muchacha llamó Menendez. Qué gracioso que este primo americano Suarez fue a España y se enamoró del país de sus bisabuelos.

[Ahora Art escribe] He estado pensando en esta tema muchísimo. ¡Obviamente, soy algo como tu primo!

Un consejero una vez me dijo que podemos ser programados, posiblemente por un padre, para querer volver a la tierrina (patria) de nuestros abuelos o bisabuelos. Él también sugirió que haya algo muy magnético sobre la cultura de la tierrina o patria, de modo que hasta generaciones más tarde sintamos muy en casa allí. ¡Yo amaría saber cómo esta functiona!

Me parece que los emigrantes ellos mismos y sus niños (la primera generación) pueden haber tenido una opinión más harta (duro) de la patria.

Mi madre (primera generación) esperó hasta que tuvo 50 y pico años para visitar Asturias. Le gusta España, pero probablemente no bastante para moverse allí. Sus hermanos (mis tías y tíos) tenían muy poco interés en volver. Sólo dos de sus seis hermanos hicieron un viaje a España, un nunca paró para encontrar la familia, aunque ella condujera por el pueblo en un coche americano enorme. ¡Sí, la familia lo notó y recordó la historia!

Mi abuelo claramente no quiso volver. Diría "Qué queda para mí allí?" (Pues, quedo allí su sobrino favorito, y otros de su familia.) Aunque él tuviera que trabajar mucho aquí, sospecho que su vida en Asturias habría sido mucho más difícil.

¿Oyó otros miembros pensamientos así por la generación de emigrantes ?

[editado para aclarar quien escribe]

Hi MDH, and welcome to the forum!

I firmly believe that Asturians, like Basques, have a genetic compass, a magnetic needle that points the way. We have been on this land for so many generations that it’s in our genes.
I was born in the mining valley of the Nalón River in central Asturias, where all my mother’s family and ancestry come from and I mean all without exception.
I spent my childhood summers with my paternal grandparents in Ribadesella, which I believe is the world’s most beautiful town, and I have seen many a beautiful town. However, my father’s grandparents and other ancestors (except a great-grandfather from Colunga) were without exception from the towns and villages of the tiny Valle de San Jorge in the neighbouring Llanes district.
Well, at the age of 9 I saw that valley for the first time in my life through our car window. I knew nothing about it and yet it struck me as the most beautiful landscape on earth. I never forgot those images – the farmers mowing down grass at the verge of the Ocean, with the green mountain range behind them. Now, at age 48, having been all over Spain, all over France and Portugal, having lived in Germany and in the USA, having travelled to England and Switzerland, I still believe there is no landscape comparable to that of Ribadesella and Llanes.
So, yes, like the salmon and the whales, we are genetically conditioned to return to our roots. And no foreign-born Asturian ever felt a foreigner once he walked on Asturian soil.

As to your grandparents not wishing to come back, I would take a wild guess and say that they might have been victims of the incredible “ethnic cleansing” by the Franco regime after the Civil War, which left over 300.000 dead and sent millions into exile. In fact, in many towns only half of the male population survived – Franco supporters all of them, of course. But that’s another matter....
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Yo creo firmemente que los asturianos, como los vascos, tenemos una brújula genética, una aguja magnética que nos indica el camino. Hemos estado en esta tierra durante tantas generaciones que la llevamos en los genes.
Yo nací en el valle del Nalón en la zona central de Asturias, de donde son todos los antepasados de mi madre, y quiero decir todos sin excepción. Pasé mis veranos con mis abuelos paternos en Ribadesella, que creo es el pueblo más hermoso del mundo, y he visto muchos pueblos hermosos. Sin embargo, la familia de mi padre y todos sus antepasados (salvo un bisabuelo de Colunga) eran de los pueblos y aldeas del cercano valle de San Jorge en el concejo de Llanes.
Pues bien, a los 9 años ví ese valle por primera vez a través de la ventanilla del coche. Sin saber nada sobre él, me pareció el paisaje más bello del mundo. Nunca olvidé esas imágenes - los aldeanos segando al borde del mar con la sierra verde detrás.

Ahora, con 48 años y habiendo estado por toda España, toda Francia y todo Portugal, habiendo vivido en Alemania y en los Estados Unidos, habiendo viajado a Inglaterra y Suiza, sigo creyendo que no hay paisajes como el de Ribadesella y Llanes.

Así que sí, creo que como el salmón y las ballenas, estamos condicionados genéticamente a volver a nuestras raíces. Y ningún asturiano nacido en el extranjero jamás se sintió forastero al pisar tierra asturiana.

En cuanto a que tus abuelos no tuvieran mucho interés en regresar, me atrevería a suponer que podrían haber sido víctimas de la increíble “limpieza étnica” (política) del régimen de Franco en la posguerra, que dejó más de 300.000 muertos y obligó a millones al exilio. De hecho en mucho pueblos sólo sobrevivieron la mitad de los hombres – los adeptos a Franco, claro. Pero ese es otro tema....

Cheers
Terechu

Art and Terechu,

I share that seemingly unexplainable attraction that you speak of....Terechu, I agree with you that no foreign-born Asturiano feels out of place in Asturias. My first visit was in 1974 and it simply felt "natural".
For Tampenos, the contrast in geography is very stark......Florida is very flat and sub-tropical....so the potential for "travelers' shock" was very real, but it simply did not happen....my contemporaries, other grandchildren of Asturianos, feel the same way.

Some cultures are bland and passive.....for some reason ours is very intense and "thick"....perhaps as Terechu points out it's because of the unbelievable continuity of generational presence on the soil. I was shocked to learn that the farm my grandmother grew up on has been in our family since the 1600's!!!!!

This ties into another topic I will introduce under this same category, re how did we, as 2nd/3rd generation American-born descendants of Asturianos "self-perceive"?

My grandparents, like so many emigrants, had no desire to return. My grandfather always said: "La unica cosa que yo deje in Espana fue la fame".[Bob's inserted translation: "the ony thing I left behind in Spain was hunger."]...please excuse any errors, the Spanish I speak/write is purely from absorption, I've never studied the language. That is not to say the the Tampeno emmigrants were not proud of their heritage...they certainly were, and many would talk at length of the days there. Perhaps alot of the hesitancy to return was practical...in the early part of the 20th century
travle was not as easy or affordable as now.

The exchanges between Tampa and Asturias have remained very intense.....Oviedo is Tampa's sister city, and every other year Tampa sends a contingency of approximately 100 people to participate in Dia de Las Americas, as part of the Fiesta de San Mateo. Our Centro Asturiano has linked up with El Museo de la Emigracion/Casa de Indianos in Colombres.

I have to agree. During my one visit to Asturias a few years back, the dominant attitude seemed to be "good, you have at last come home." Every Asturian I talked with told me of their connections to Asturians who had emigrated to the US.

I can hardly wait to return. It will be like coming home.

Bob Martinez

Por supuesto que cuando vengais estareis en vuestra casa. ¡Y que no se os ocurra no hacer una visita a los amigos!

I cannot imagine "coming home" without first notifying my friends and family in Asturias. The warmth and friendliness of the Asturian people--even total strangers--are among my fondest memories. Meeting my father's cousin (my second cousin once removed) for the first time was like reuniting with a loved one I had not seen in years.

Bob Martinez

My Grandparents came over from Asturias in the early 1900's with their children. This directly from my Father's Memories of West Virginia: " My Father followed the Zinc game in Spain, helped build the plant and later worked as a foreman on the furnances. About 95% of the workers in the plant were Spanish. I have seen the town of Grasselli transformed from a small farm town to a town whose being was like a town in Asturias."

I don't know why but my Grandparents Dionisia and Jose Garcia returned to Spain...during his years in Grasselli he saved his money because his dream was to return to Spain and buy a Farm...which he did. This had to have been in the 1920's approximately...they never returned to the USA and lived their lives on their farm until their deaths. In fact the farm is still there, and is still in the family. They left all their children in the USA except for one son Ramon who went back with them.