Asturian-American Migration Forum

I have been a member of this site for maybe a week now, and since joining, I have been thrilled to learn a lot of new things, "meet" new people, and get in touch with a part of my own history that is priceless to me. But more than anything is the fact that this is not some self-important group of people that trace their family histories just to attach themselves to this or that royal family.

For a long time, I resisted getting into the family tree thing. In part because I never had time (who does? just gotta make the time), and in part because it seems that so many of the people I observed in similar projects were simply trying to attach their family line to any royal family they could. In the United States, this trend is sort of a laughable one to watch. I can't tell you how many people I know that have their "family coat of arms" on the wall in their home without ever knowing if they are actually related with any significance to that particular family.

No matter what my family history, I love all of those people, living or dead. I am actually kind of glad that my family is, from what I understand, hearty country stock. From the stories I have heard (some are quite hilarious), my Asturian great-grandparents were quick-witten, sensible, stubborn survivors that went through a lot of adversity to ensure that their future generations were well taken care of and equipped to survive in a changing world. I don't need a coat of arms. I don't need a royal relative, and I just wanted to say here that it pleases me to see that I am not the only one.

That said, I will share my favorite quote from my great-grandmother, Sabina, that has survived into my generation though she passed away around the time I was conceived. When asked by my mother why she never wore a bra (Sabina's chest was reportedly HUGE), she replied that if she wore a bra, her belly button would get lonely.

That makes her more a queen than any royal to me.

Amen!

As to coat of arms, most Asturian families have one or more. As you get to learn more about Asturias, you will realize that we are a very stubborn breed, and that unlike other regions where it was the oldest son who inherited the properties, the land here has always been split up among all the children, hence the "atomization" of the land and the tiny farms, barely enough to feed a family. We have always owned our own land and preferred to go hungry rather than work for others. Of course there comes a time when you can no longer split your property and then the children have to migrate - that started at the end of the 19th Century. But as you get more into Asturian history, you will learn that as late as the 18th Century, according to Jovellanos, the population of Asturias was made up of over 85% of "Hidalgos" (noblemen landowners). It is also true that those hidalgos had little to eat , but they had no lords and no masters.

I once read a testament from the 16th Century by a noblewoman who lived in a manor house (I believe it was Teresa Bernaldo de Quirós, but I'm not sure), and her legacy to her heirs was 2 sheets, 2 pans, 1 mattress and assorted clothing items. Period. That should give you an idea!

That is pretty darn fascinating! And if I am to be attached to any nobility, I prefer the proud Asturian nobility that has no shame in leaving only sheets and pans to her children than anything else I have seen. In fact, that is truly "noble" in my opinion.

One thing that has survived down the line in my family is the work ethic, and the idea that one should work for themselves. My great-grandparents, when they moved to Cuba, were probably no better off financially than their relatives back home. Yet, their boy children, while very young, started their own business in Marianao, Havana, which was there until Castro's time.

There is a ghost legend about their dry cleaning business in our family, and among post-revolutionary Cubans. Ramon, the eldest of the boys, died horribly, run over by a truck in front of the dry cleaners when my mom was around 8 years old. Within a year or two, the business was shut down thanks to Castro, and because the dry cleaners was a converted house, the government made it into an army barracks. But not for long, because apparently, Ramon began to appear to the soldiers, ordering them out because this belonged to him and his brothers! If that isn't true stubbornness from beyond the grave, I don't know what is!

But y'know what? That people aren't running around talking about the Hidalgos and nothing else says a lot for the integrity of the people here on this forum, and I suppose that is what I was trying to say.

If we really think about it, we can see that we are all related to one another, and probably to whatever "noble" line of descent we care to choose, in the not too distant past. Mating among relatives excluded, the number of ancestors we each have doubles with each generation we go back in time. At about four or five generations per century, by the time be get back to Pelayo's time, we have more ancestors than there were people alive at the time.

Bob

True enough, Bob. What is unfortunate, however, is that there are people out there who care only to find those "noble" relatives, but none of the others.

We might all be related to Pelayo, but the good thing in that is not so much that he is a famous Asturian, but rather, one that did not end up giving generations of people hemophilia or porphyria (I think I spelled that right).