23 and BS

If you are unfortunate enough to watch television, you have no doubt seen ads for a company that will analyze your DNA and tell you where your ancestors come from.A sample ad consists of a woman saying, " I used to think I was Hispanic. But when I got my results back, I discovered that I ' meverything!I have ancestors from all over the world. " A pie chart displays behind her showing percentages of ancestry from various places. " Now I know I ' m not Hispanic after all. When they ask my ethnicity, I check ' other ' . "Whoa. Talk about people unclear on the concept. She is the very paradigm of Hispanic, which means people who come from the Spanish speaking countries of the Americas. The current population of Latin America consists of the descendants of indigenous Americans, Spanish settlers, imported African slaves in some places, Africans who escaped from slavery, and lesser numbers of settlers from all over the world. The George Washington of Chile was named Bernardo O ' Higgins. Italians, Germans and Jews went to Argentina in large numbers, especially around the time of WWII. A key concept in Mexican nationalism is " la raza, " the " new race " that emerged from the mingling of peoples. The point is they all wound up speaking Spanish and adopting the nationalities and cultures of the places where they found themselves.Of course some people in Latin America have a narrower set of ancestors -- some are entirely indigenous, others European -- but mixed ancestry is pretty much ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs