52 Ancestors – #30 Pedro Fernández

It feels awesome to be back writing about my ancestors! I was a bit nervous at first that I would just get lazy and never get around to it, but I'm almost at the half way mark of the 52 Ancestor Challenge. This is definitely hard to keep up with, with the rest of live going on and what not -- but none the less I'm up to my 30th ancestor! This post will be about my 10th (woah!) great grandfather Pedro Fernández. If you notice, I didn't place a birth year and death year at the top and that's because I have no exact date for either (even the birth year is greatly estimated) but no fear, I'll post none the less!

One of my 10th great grandfather's via my maternal side of the family is Pedro Fernández. The only reason I have even a name for him is due to the help of other genealogists who have paved the way with hours and hours of research probably before I was even born! To them, I raise my (figurative) glass and can't thank them enough! Hopefully, one day I'll be able to do the same for the next generation of genealogists to come.

Pedro Fernández is one of my Spanish ancestors, literally -- he was born in Spain and later migrated to Puerto Rico. Pedro, from what we know, was born in a town called Pastrana located in the province of Guadalajara, in the autonomous community of Castilla-La Manca in Spain (whew!). According to Wikipedia the town was especially important in the 16th and 17th century, around the time my ancestors would have been born there.

Pastrana, Guadalajara, España [Wikipedia]

Here is an aerial view of some of Pastrana. The town is only 95km from Madrid, which is very exciting because I'll be there in a few weeks and hope to visit Pastrana! Also according to wikipedia, the town's population is that of…1,054 (extremely small!). There are a few monuments and museums to visit in the town, so I think a day-trip will be sufficient to see most of the town. There's even a Palacio Ducal (The Spanish Wiki has more information) and there are Jewish and Arab quarters.

I'm not sure what drove Pedro Fernández and his wife Isabel Ruiz to find a new home; whether religious, political, or economic reasons both Pedro and Isabel (whether together or separately I'm not sure) left Pastrana and headed over to Puerto Rico somewhere in the mid-1600s. I'm also not sure how many generations the Fernández and Ruiz family was there, whether many or a few, but it seems they were ready to begin a new life somewhere new. My 9th great grandfather, who took on two completely different last names, was born about 1645 in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. His name was Pedro Díaz Muñiz de Pastrana, and he was also an Alférez from what he know about him. According to Wikipedia (my best friend today), an Alférez was "in medieval Iberia, was a high-ranking official in the household of a king or magnate. The term is derived from the Arabic الفارس (al-fāris), meaning "horseman" or "cavalier", and it was commonly Latinised as alferiz or alferis". I'm not sure how or where he got the title from, seeing as how Pedro Jr. was born in Puerto Rico and not Spain.

Before, it wasn't necessary that a child had to take on either of the parents' surnames; if a grandfather or grandmother had a higher ranking surname by which the child could go by to get better footing in society, the parents could choose to give them that surname. I'm not sure if Díaz and Muñiz are paternal or maternal surnames but I'm guessing they held some sort of title or importance to the family. There is also the slim (yet possible) fact that Pedro and Isabel were trying to escape some sort of past in Spain, whether religious or political and didn't want their child involved or followed by those surnames. Both Fernández and Muñiz seem to be found heavily on the north-western side of Spain, so potentially my ancestors moved down from there into Pastrana.

I don't know how possible it is to get specific information on Pedro Fernández and Isabel Ruiz since they lived over 400+ years ago but I would love to know what kind of Spain they lived in, or rather how the town of Pastrana was set up and why they would want to leave. Who knows if there is a common descendant of the Fernández and Ruiz lines living amongst those 1,054 inhabitants. It's kind of surreal to think of a 10th great grandfather, because that is REALLY far removed from where I am today. If and when I step into the town of Pastrana, it will have been somewhere near/close to 370 years (a rough estimate passed around the time Pedro Díaz Muñiz was born in Arecibo) since that family left the town for good. How odd that will be to return and walk potentially the same streets they did. If and when (because I really want to) go I will definitely give another update on the town!

52 Ancestors – #29 Valentin González Quiñones (1828-1907)

With this post of my 29th ancestor I'll have concluded the posts from July!! I'm definitely very excited to get into my posts for August and then line up my next ancestors for the next months to come. So without further ado, here is my 29th post about my 3rd great grandfather Valentin González Quiñones. (Note: I've rearranged the posts a bit, so this technically isn't the last post for July anymore but that's still okay :D)

Valentin is another one my 3rd great grandfathers, distant yet so close like Buenaventura Ortiz Rivera. Because Valentin was born in 1828, he comes from an older line in my family (aka a family that waited longer to have children), he seems much more distant than Buenaventura. Valentin was born according to a record I found in his marriage consanguinity record (more to come on that in a bit) on the 13th of November 1828 in Corozal, Puerto Rico. Even though he was born in Corozal he spent the remainder of his life in Toa Alta and that's probably because at that point the towns were in limbo between together and separate entities. Valentin is the son of Juan González and Isidora Quiñones, who sometimes appears as María Vásquez on other records. Valentin's birth record is mentioned to be in the "pardos y morenos" section of the books in Corozal.

I was able to find Valentin's marriage record thanks to the FamilySearch Toa Alta church records and it shows that he married my 3rd great grandmother Feliciana Mojica González on the 12th of September 1863. What's interesting is that Feliciana was 15 years his elder, who had five previous children and was widowed. In their marriage record it mentions that they were "2º grado de consanguinidad" which means that they were related to one another. At first I was kind of indifferent about it, I knew it was common in Puerto Rico for endogamy to occur and I didn't really know how the grados worked so I wasn't too creeped out by it. But it does make me think: Was this some sort of arranged marriage by the family to save Feliciana's status? Or maybe Valentin's status? He wasn't coming into this marriage as a widower like Feliciana was but he was also 35, an old age for the "average" couple having children in colonial Puerto Rico. I knew that Feliciana's mother was Juliana González and figured that the relationship had to be through that surname since Valentin didn't have Mojica in his tree.

When I visited Puerto Rico last summer, I headed to one of the offices where records are stored wanting to find consanguinity records for Toa Alta. Luckily, they did have the years I was searching for and the lady kindly pulled the records from the back room before I arrived to have them ready. I arrived, gave in my ID to have it photocopied, and started looking through the files. I was very discouraged at first because I had searched all the marriages within the 1860s with consanguinity records but didn't find a Valentin marrying a Feliciana. Towards the end of my search I looked in another packet that wasn't that set of years and found the record (almost giving me a heart attack from the excitement!). I was too excited, I actually had found the actual consanguinity record of 1863 for my 3rd great grandparents.

What the record pretty much stated, in short, was that they were related and there were witnesses that came forward to attest to their relation and their wanting to get married. In order to respect the Dioceses of San Juan I'll put some of the transcriptions of what the records say in stead of the images, which rereading them now is very interesting:

"Valentin González natural del pueblo del Corozal y vecino de este partido de Toa Alta, soltero e hijo lego [legitimo] de Juan y de Isidora Quiñones difuntos ante V.I. respetuosamente dispone: que habiendo tenido la desgracia de vivir en el concubinato con Feliciana Mogica [sic], hija lega de Valentin y Juliana González, natural y vecina de Toa Alta y viuda de Remigio Mogica, descando?? ponerse en estado de gracia alejándose para siempre de aquella mala vida, sin que en su concepto […] el 28 de enero 1862, por haber hecha diligencias antes del tiempo allí preferido para con aquella dispensa del parentesco de consanguinidad en segundo grado, cuyas diligencias no tuvieron efecto en atención a la insuficiencia de sus […] según la consta el noble padre cura de este pueblo de Toa Alta y a los testigos de que intentan valorme para que justifiquen…" [bold added by me for emphasis]

The words I highlighted myself because it seems like the church had no problem calling out Valentin and Feliciana on the sins they committed by having 1) having sex without being first married and 2) with someone from the same family in such a close range of cousins. Looking at it now, my 2nd great grandmother Laureana González Mojica was born out of wedlock in 1855 when Valentin was only 27! It is evident that they applied for the ability to marriage because they wanted to remove themselves from that bad life of disgrace in which they were living in, which the church called concubinage. Seems very extreme to me, but in the mid-1800s in a very Catholic-centric Puerto Rico I can image how serious it really was. Even today, we can feel the influence of the church on the island and in the Puerto Rican culture.

The records goes on to state: "Sí saben que Juan González y Juliana González difuntos fueron legítimos hermanos, primer grado, si de Juan procedió el pretendido Valentin y de Juliana la pretendida Feliciana, primeros hermanos y segundo grado." 

Here we see that their parents Juan and Juliana were brothers and sisters therefore making Valentin and Feliciana first cousins (of the second degree consanguinity). Various witnesses came forward to attest their relationship and consanguinity, for example: Facundo de Rivera, Alejo de Rivera, Joaquin Rodríguez, and Severo Camacho. These "de Rivera" men are probably related to me somehow through my 4th great grandfather Joseph/José de Rivera. The most important witness of them all was José María González, hermano mayor del pretended… al referido hermano Valentin." So here we see that his older brother José María González came forward for his little brother's marriage.

Valentin lived a relatively long life, until the age of 78, when he died of cirrhosis on the 3rd of July 1907. Valentin was still living in Toa Alta (the barrio of Río Lajas) and Feliciana had recently passed away three years before him.  His daughter, my 2nd great grandmother, was still alive and still living herself in Río Lajas. Again, I can only retell the information that the records have provided me. I can't tell if he was happy in his marriage with Feliciana, whether they chose to marry each other or whether it was a move by the family to protect themselves from something. I'm not sure how aware the family was of this marriage and that they were fairly close cousins, I'm not sure if it was something they talked about. And I really do wonder around what circumstances this was all happening!

This post was rather long winded and no pretty pictures to distract you guys but I do hope you've enjoyed hearing about Valentin and probably a somewhat (from what I imagine) difficult life he might have had. 

52 Ancestors – #28 Buenaventura Ortiz Rivera (1850-1925)

I'm kind of on a roll here so I'm going to continue with my 28th post about my 3rd great grandfather Buenaventura Ortiz Rivera!

It's kind of funny to think about a 3rd great grandfather. I was fortunate to meet two of my great grandparents and my father meet his great grandfather (My second great grandfather) – so in reality a third great grandfather isn't actually that far removed. I unfortunately don't have any stories or knowledge of Buenaventura; he passed away in 1925 when my great grandmother would have been in her late teens. I unfortunately didn't get to meet her and I wasn't raised around her son (my grandfather) so therefore another chain is broken. Kind of sad that I didn't hear too many stories of my ancestors but thankfully with records I can start to reconstruct some of their lives and pass on what I've learned about them!

Buenaventura Ortiz Rivera would have been born around 1850 in the town of Corozal, Puerto Rico. Corozal is the same town my great grandmother Mercedes Ortiz Marrero was born in herself and I have various other ancestors/extended family who lived there, many via the town of Toa Alta. Very possible that Buenaventura was born in the town of Palos Blancos since that is where he stayed the rest of his life. He was one of nine children and was the son of Ramón Ortiz and Sotera Rivera Pacheco, unfortunately I don't have Ramón's second surname since it seems that he passed away before 1885. Buenaventura's siblings include: Felipa, Manuel, Ramona, Francisco, Juan, Estanislao, Estevan, and Isabelo (the last three I haven't been able to find documents for yet).

Somewhere around 1869, Buenaventura would marry my 3rd great grandmother Blasina Pérez Vásquez (also spelled Vázquez). Very interesting name Blasina, I hadn't heard it until I found her in my tree. Buenaventura and Blasina also had a big family themselves, 10 children in total so far, including: Santos, Clemencia, Martin, Mercedes, Isidro, José, Juan, Buenaventura (Jr.), María, and Julia. Martin Ortiz Pérez was my 2nd great grandfather and I was fortunate to hear a few stories about him from my great-aunt before she passed away.

It's interesting to note that in 1910 the family was listed as living in Palos Blancos, Corozal, Puerto Rico and all as mulattos. There is a house guest named "Petra Figueroa" living with them. Buenaventura according to the census lived in a farm which he owned and worked on. No one in the house was able to read or write, so I'm proud to see that Buenaventura owned his own farm (and he is the one only on that sheet to be living on a farm!) Next to Buenaventura's house on the next page of the census was listed Manuel Ortiz Rivera his brother who also owned a farm, could they have inherited some type of land from their parents?

1910 Census - Corozal, Puerto Rico [Ancestry]

1910 Census - Corozal, Puerto Rico [Ancestry]

Later in 1920, the last census Buenaventura would appear on shows him still living in the barrio of Palos Blancos, Corozal, Puerto Rico. This time there is a new daughter listed named Mercedes and this time there are three house guests or boarders with the last name López. I'm not aware of any López ancestors on that side of the family but potentially they are some cousins or the neighbors children whom they let live with them. The family is still listed as mulatto and unable to read or write, it's interesting that none of the children were sent to school yet the children listed are girls so who knows if that's the reason they were never sent (of course, there is the possibility or rather the reality that they probably lived in poverty and couldn't afford education for multiple children). On the census out of the 25 people listed on the page, only three are able to read and write. Two are siblings, Juan and Casimiro, aged 13 and 10 respectively and the other, another Casimiro, is 14 years old. Again we see that he is living on property he owned and was working de su cuenta which pretty much means of his own accord. I'm guessing he sold and grew whatever he wanted and felt was necessary; according to the census it seems he grew mostly coffee!

1920 Census - Corozal, Puerto Rico [Ancestry]

1920 Census - Corozal, Puerto Rico [Ancestry]

Buenaventura would later pass away at the age of 75 passing away from "Enterocolitis Enteritis Crónica". What's interesting to note on his death record is his identification of race. His race is placed as "Yndia". At first I thought "Indian?!? as in from India?" But with the names Buenaventura Ortiz Rivera I was pretty sure that he was not from the country of India. My next guess was that he most likely looked very mulatto or pardo that they identified him as indio. I haven't seen this categorizing on many records and really can't think of any other in my family besides this one. Checking the next few records I did find a few more "raza india" individuals, so I'm guessing that for the man writing down the information he used three classifications: blanca (white), negra (black), and india ("indian/native"). 

Raza India [FamilySearch]

I wish there was a picture of Buenaventura to see how "native" he really looked. I do have a picture of his granddaughter (my great grandmother) and she definitely has some color to her. When Blasina, Buenaventura's wife, passed away in 1945 she was categorized as mulata. So I do wonder how much Taíno ran through their blood, or even African at that! So thanks to the power of documentation I have been able to learn about my 3rd great grandfather. Hopefully I'll be able to meet some descendants of Ramon Ortiz and Sotera Rivera Pacheco, as well as Buenaventura and Blasina, who can share more information or even pictures with me!

52 Ancestors – #27 Sebastián Rodríguez Rodríguez (1779-1819)

This post will focus on my maternal 6th great grandfather Sebastián Rodríguez Rodríguez.

Sebastián according to his death certificate would have been born around 1779 in Coamo, Puerto Rico. It was very exciting when I found his death certificate because Sebastián is part of a maternal line that took a VERY long time to crack, this line coming from my Correa ancestors. By the time Sebastián was born the town had already been founded for over a good 100 years. The town is located in a valley towards the center of the island and original was known as "San Blas Illescas de Coamo" to its first settlers.

Coamo, Puerto Rico [Wikipedia]

Iglesia San Blas de Illescas [Wikipedia]

Sebastián Rodríguez Rodríguez was the son of Donato Rodríguez and Prudencia Rodríguez. His death record states that he died in Coamo on the 29th of December 1819. His wife, María de Gracia Ruiz Sánchez was still alive at the time of his death. Together they had ten children (to date) and one of them, María de la Cruz Rodríguez Ruiz, was my 5th great grandmother.

There are a few interesting things to note about Sebastián: He was written as "pardo" on his death certificate. I have talked about this identity in records a while back and there are theories that pardo means a mix of Spanish and Taíno parents/ancestors. 

Also, there is a part that states: "...del Baño fue…" and literally that means "he was from the bathroom" (which was pretty hilarious to read at first). After some digging, I ended up finding out that he wasn't actually from a bathroom but likely from an area of Coamo known as "los Baños de Coamo". Los baños are actually the only thermal spring source on the island of Puerto Rico. Originally used by the natives, the springs were thought to have healing powers and eventually drew the interest of the Spanish to that area. Due to the attraction, a resort was built and incorporated the springs. 

According to Wikipedia: "According to local legend, the first governor of Puerto Rico Juan Ponce de León, heard about the healing powers of the Baños from the Taínos. Believing that the baths were the Fountain of Youth which he was seeking, Ponce de León asked where they were located, however he misunderstood the instructions given to him and instead headed by sea towards a new land which resulted in the discovery of Florida and his death". 

I'm not sure if that story is true or not of course but it's a pretty good story to tell! And even more interesting knowing that one of my ancestors lived in that area!

Here is a picture of the baños from Google Maps based on the coordinates. When you zoom in on Google Maps you can actually see the waters and the hotel/resort built around it. 

Los Baños de Coamo [Google Maps]

Besides that information, I don't know too much else about Sebastián Rodríguez Rodríguez. For example: could his parents have been cousins/distant cousins since they both share the surname Rodríguez and live in Coamo in the mid-1700s? Also, was Sebastián actually born in Coamo? I searched the church records of Coamo between 1778-1783 for a Sebastián Rodríguez Rodríguez and didn't come across anything. Could his family have been from a nearby town or the capital of San Juan? Also interesting that he is pardo, I have other ancestors with that racial categorization yet I haven't been able to find a Spanish ancestor on those lines since they are very old and the documents aren't readily available for many of the years. 

None the less, super interesting and I can't wait to find out more!!

52 Ancestors – #26 Severina Padilla

Ok! So I'm back to posting about my ancestors and I'll keep going with the ones I had scheduled! Today I'll be talking about my 4th great grandmother Severina Padilla.

I actually don't have too much information about Severina and her life. Documents point to her origin being in the town of Yauco, Puerto Rico – a town located on the South-Western side of Puerto Rico. The town of Yauco has a couple of nicknames such as: "El Pueblo del Café" (The Coffee Town), "Capital Taína" (Taíno Capital), and "Los Corsos" (The Corsicans). Yauco is known for both its coffee and for being the center of the Corsican immigration most likely during the Cedula de Gracias in 1815. Also, it was the capital of Borikén during the reign of Agüeybana, the most powerful Taíno Cacique of the island.

Yauco, Puerto Rico [Wikipedia]

I'm not exactly sure which barrio in Yauco Severina was from or lived in because her descendants would later move to Lares, we can speculate that they lived on the north side closer to Adjuntas and Lares. Severina's daughter and my 3rd great grandmother, Antonia, was already living in Lares by the 1910 Census and would eventually pass away there in 1944. Severina's husband, though never officially married through the church, was Juan González (a very common name and hard to track because of that fact). Equally, Severina's parents are currently unknown to me as well. Based on the age of Severina's children, I would guesstimate that she was born around the 1830s-early 1840s the latest.

Something interesting to note is that Severina is Dionisia González Padilla's grandmother meaning that the maternal haplogroup passed down to my father's generation comes originally from Severina – the sixth generation carrying the mtDNA haplogroup L2a1.

Haplogroup L2a1 [23andme]

Hopefully, I'll be able to find more information one day on Severina as well as the origin of the L2a1 haplogroup in my family. I haven't been able to find any Corsican family members yet in my family but maybe somewhere with my family from Yauco there is an ancestor waiting to be found! 

Where in the World is Luis (SanDiego)?

I have totally been ignoring this blog all summer but for good reasons! This summer I began my graduate studies in Spanish and I was so swamped with work that I didn't even get a chance to sit and do some genealogy! (Which is truly shocking if you know me -- I've been doing genealogy almost every day for years now).

But, I'm finally back in New York for a few weeks and I'm excited to catch up! I'll be heading to Madrid for the year in about two weeks but I promise to keep writing while I'm in Spain, it'll be a regular school year so I won't be rushed like how I was these past six weeks.

I'm about six 52 Ancestors Posts behind and want to probably talk about some more stuff so those posts will be flooding this blog in the next few days. I am a little happy I stepped away from the blog for a bit because now I have more of a drive to continue, I've definitely missed writing these posts and talking about my ancestors. So get ready for some new blog posts and material!

Excuse any English grammar mistakes you might see, I've been immersed in Spanish for 6 weeks so I might have some influence from Spanish in my English (well, more than the usually)! :D 

Emigration/ Migration / Immigration (Book of Me -- Prompt 43)

I bumped into this topic from the Geneabloggers emails which posts prompts (amongst other links) from a blog by Anglers Rest. Pretty much the prompts are created for you to fill out, that way you are building up some genealogical information about yourself as well! I think it's a great idea, especially since we focus so much on the past that sometimes we forgot -- one day we'll be a part of that past! And prompt #43 is a great prompt for me for many reasons, so I decided to give it a go!

Here are the questions for the prompt. I've reorganized a bit to my liking since I want to tackle them in a certain way. 

1. Have you ever lived overseas from your place of birth? Would you want to? Could you?
2. Did your ancestors or even a more recent generation?
3. Do you feel akin to another country from that in which you were born?
4. If so have you found any ancestral links in your research that perhaps explains those feelings?

The process of emigration, migration, or immigration have always been completely interesting to me -- And I think mostly because my parents are Puerto Rican. When they came to this country they technically weren't "immigrations", yet a lot of the experiences we share are those of "immigrants" (The language barrier, custom/cultural differences, etc.). I never saw my family as immigrants but more so as emigrants. Yet, I can't fathom the courage it takes to uproot your family (or yourself) and completely move away from everything you know, love, and cherish. 

I've experienced living abroad through my experiences from study abroad. I was able to spend a semester in Yaroslavl, Russia as an exchange student. And those four months changed my outlook on life completely. Being disconnected from the outside world (barely any internet to Skype back home properly) and the complete change of culture and language was definitely hard on me. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Russia yet I had the luxury of emails, Facebook, and occasionally Skype. I can't imagine how my mom came here at the age of 18 and her only communication with her own mother was through the occasional phone call and letters (and she 'migrated' in the late 1980s). I definitely think living abroad (even for just a short period of time) definitely makes you a stronger, more independent, and just overall livelier person. Now with my next adventure of living abroad on the way, I'm excited to compare and contrast how living abroad in Spain will be to Russia. Obviously, language, locality of country, and similarities in culture will play a huge role in my "easing" into the country but I wonder how easy it will be in Spain. I actually didn't suffer from culture shock in Russia but will I in Spain? 

Before my parents coming to the USA, pretty much every generation dating back to the 1800s/mid 1700s had been living in Puerto Rico. I can't imagine the jump from (A) to (B) being easy, both in the case of A being Puerto Rico and B being the United States. But also the jump of A being Spain and B being the new territory of Puerto Rico. Did the fears and concerns my family had in the 1980s mirror those of my ancestors in the 1600s/1700s? Leaving family and friends behind for a new land which they had only heard about through stories. 

My fourth great grandparents are currently super, über intriguing to me -- they immigrated (since they were crossing territories of countries) respectively from Guadeloupe and Martinique. I can't even begin to imagine their journey from a land of French/Créole to that of Spanish. A least when I went to Russia I had an idea of what Russian sounded like; I could read, write, and speak in the language pretty well by the time I landed in Moscow. But what about Gustave Jean-Charles and Julienne Malvina Lautin? Where did they muster up the courage to travel from their home islands and make their way to Vieques (a small island of Puerto Rico on its eastern coast). Were they scared they wouldn't fit into the culture there? Had they heard such wonderful stories of Puerto Rico and its people that they had to see, experience, and live it for themselves? 

How well did they 'mold' into the culture when they first arrived and in their first years? Living on Vieques probably wasn't an issue, they must have known some other immigrant families settling themselves in the island. But were they nervous when the appeared before the church in 1869 to get married? Or when they had to baptize and register the birth of their children? Did Julienne whisper songs in créole to Paulina and Tomás as small children? Did she feel the need to preserve her Martinican traditions, words, and mannerisms? Did she lug them from Martinique to Vieques and finally to Río Jueyes, Salinas or did they stay behind in Rivière Salée?

I often wonder and worry that as time continues I'll begin to lose my "Puerto Rican-ness". That I won't teach my children Spanish, how to sing La Borinqueña, or share with them the traditions, customs, and superstitions my family passed down to me. (Never walk with one shoe off and one shoe on, it means you want your mother to die!). Yet, deep down I know (and hope) this won't happen. My ties to the island, my culture, and the way I was raised are too strong and too important to just let go. But yet I still worry -- did Julienne and Gustave feel the same way? In just three generations, it seems that the ability to speak French/ Créole was lost (my great grandfather being one of the few who I was told spoke French). Will three generations after me not care what their 4th great grandfather Luis Rivera talked and preached about culturally? 

Hopefully, living in abroad in Spain will give me some more insights. Remind what it is to be in a land that isn't your own (no matter how similar they might seem). I wish to learn more about the immigrants who came from El Puerto de Santa María, from Huelva, and from Pastrana and made their way to Puerto Rico. To learn the stories of those who came from unknown towns to the beautiful island of Borikén and settled there. To learn the stories of those who against the odds made the various towns of Puerto Rico their home, their nest, their humble abode. Did other people in my family move to Puerto Rico without knowing Spanish? Or maybe those of different religious backgrounds into a Catholic territory? 

I don't know where I'll end up -- where I ultimately will set up my own nest and home. But I do hope that wherever that may be (either here in the USA or else where), that I bring along my heavy yet important Puerto Rican bags. That I open them up, air out the contents inside, and let them breathe old yet new life into my home. That my children and grandchildren will run around saying "Bendición papi, bendición abuelo". That most importantly, they'll know and care what it feels like to be Puerto Rican. Because I know I definitely do!