re: #285 KGxvi

My family on the Cuban side is mostly “white” in that we have pretty clear lines back to Spain (in fact some of my mom’s aunts moved to Spain after the revolution). But we believe my mom’s paternal grandfather might have immigrated to Cuba from the Middle East. And there is a fairly long history of racism within a lot of Latin countries, the Spanish and Portuguese empires basically created a caste system with whites (Europeans) on top. And since we are often molded by things that happened long before we were born…

Yeah I think a lot of people not familiar with the community assume it’s either people descended from Spainards, indingeous people, or African slaves in the Hispanic world but there’s so much more than that. In fact, the current Pope’s parents were from Italy and I remember reading that Argentina was a huge destination for people from the former Yugoslav republics, one of which is where my grandfather’s parents were from. It’s a fascinating place. My favorite Peruvian dish in fact was influenced by Chinese immigrants to Peru- Lomo Saltado.