Being from a family with very little passed on, I found this series of postings on why emigrants may not have talked about their past very interesting. After reading them all, my conclusion is that their is no one reason and the reasons varied with the family and the circumstances. It also varies with gender. Mothers past onto daughters more than fathers past onto sons. David DeGrella Tennessee, USA On Fri, 3 Feb 2006 16:50:23 -0800 (PST) Luis Beal <luisbeal@yahoo.com> writes: > Luis, > Yes, one should be proud of his/her nationality. But also when > people immigrate they worry about being treated differently because > they don't talk or act like everyone else. The way many dealt with > the situation, and are are still dealing with nowadays here in the > US, was by either not talking about their roots or not speaking or > teaching their native language to their children. This way when the > kids grew up speaking like everyone else they were supposedly > treated the same and had as many chances in life as all other kids. > We see this with Mexican, Asians, Portuguese, and other > nationalities. There is a fear of being treated like minorities. > Being foreign myself I understand the feeling and need but I do not > agree that hidding the origins or not teaching their children their > native language helps. On the contrary, I believe that by teaching > children a second language we are opening more doors and > oportunities to them than trying to make them grow up like everyone > else. B! > ut that > is just my opinion. > On the other hand, these children who are now grown up, and their > children, are usually very proud of their roots. I have met many > women and men who told me they were portuguese, and silly me > thinking that being portuguese meant you were born in portugal and > spoke the language, and I find out that they are grand-children or > great grand children of native portuguese people. Usually they do > not speak the language, or if the do it is just a little bit and it > is because they are interested and love the language and made an > effort to learn. They are wonderful. So, what the portuguese > immigrants lacked in pride their descendants more than make up for > it. That is why we have so many wonderful people on this list. > Luis Beal > PS- E' verdade que nevou ai no fim de semana passado? Tinha um artigo > ontem online que disse isso. Ta' aqui: > http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060130/sc_nm/environment_portugal_dc > > Luis K W <luis_k_w@clix.pt> wrote: > Dear Luis B. > (Prazer em falar consigo de novo). > > I understand perfectly what your wrote. I know some people that > behave > exactly as you described, nowadays (i'm talking about people in the > 30's, > not about old people). > > So, I understand they didn't want to talk about their dead family. > But, shouldn't one be proud of his nationality? > Most emigrants we are talking about (those who didn't like to talk > about > their roots), went to the States in the turn of the (19-20) century. > "Nationality" was a very important issue in Europe. > Millions died for it... > Hmmm...! Probably THAT was the reason. :-) > > Luis K W > Lisboa-Portugal > ---------- > > From: Luis Beal > > > > It wasn't just the emigrants, it was just the way they were back > in those > days. And not just portuguese but all other nacionalities too. For > some > reason when someone in a family died the rest of the family no > longer > talked about that person. It was as if they never existed. The "let > the > dead rest" or " "leave the dead alone" is something older people > truly > believed in. My grandmother, for example, was one of 16 kids and yet > when > we would ask her her siblings names she would only list 5, because > she was > too young when the others died and her parents never told her > anything > about them. As I have helped people research their families I have > found a > lot of that happened to them too. Another reason was if they no > longer were > friends with someone in the family they treated them as if they had > died. I > find that in spouses that separated or children who ran away from > home > because of an argument of some sort. When couples split or the > father ran > away, especially if the father was a ! > > jerk, > > then he was as good as dead, and neither the mother or the kids > would > talk about him ever again. > > Go figure, I could never understand it myself but for our > ancestors > that was the way it was supposed to be. > > Luis Beal