Culture / Ethnicity

[Golden_Rhino]

As of late I have been trying to learn more about my ethnicity and culture. I was born in Argentina to an Italian father and German mother. I find that in my daily life German culture has had no influence on me, but the Italian and Argentine cultures affect me greatly. Most of my friends are Italian as well as the food I usually eat. I speak Spanish with my family, and I identify myself as an Argentine, even though I came to Canada when I was three years old.

I am curious about the ethnicity of the forum.

- What is your ethnic / cultural background?

- How big a role does it play in your life?

- How far removed are you from the immigrant generation of your family? (in the end we are all immigrants, except for the Natives)

- Do you maintain any traditions from the "old country"?

[Cancuk]

My father is a draft dodging American. Don't know his exact heritage, neither does he.

My mother was a dutch citizen who was born in Indonesia and immigrated to Canada when she was 3ish.

I was grown up in a pretty "alternative" (ie hippy) lifestyle. I started going to to political/social protests when I was a small child. I atteneded an "alternative" school until Junior high. My mom openly smoked pot infront of me before I even knew what it was. My social upbringing affects my life, politics, and how I view society greatly.

My parents "background", ie. heritage, has very little affect on my life. Besides me calling my grandma, "oma" and a couple of family trips to Holland.... not much.

[suzzer99]

Italian/Irish/Scottish/English

- How big a role does it play in your life?
Not much growing up. But my trips to Italy where I have met distant family have been magical. I really think they've changed my life some. My family on my Mom's side is really into tracing their Irish heritage.

- How far removed are you from the immigrant generation of your family? (in the end we are all immigrants, except for the Natives)
5 on my Dad's side - Scottish/Irish, many more on my Mom's side.

- Do you maintain any traditions from the "old country"?
My dad used to throw around a few Italian phrases. He also played one silly game with me where he said some Italian stuff and tried to grab my finger before I could pull it away. Interestingly my older relatives in Italy remembered this game and were able to translate what the Italian meant. (Apparently a boy named Salvatore is trying not to get burned by a lamp.) They said no one plays this game anymore in Italy. So I thought that was cool. Our one cultural relic.

[SNOWBALL]

I grew up in LA, so the only thing being white meant to me was that mexican and black kids would try to fight me at school. The food I eat, music I listen to, my political beliefs, my clothes, etc. aren't directly attributable to my 25% jewish, 6% mexican, 69% white ancestry.

As a teenager, most of my friends and peers were jewish. Their pride in their heritage was strange to me, but at least no one ever tried to fight me for being 75% goyem. I still think that group pride is only appropriate if you selected the group.

For example, I have pride in being an atheist, and a communist. I used to have some degree of pride in being a 2+2er before I joined the strat posters diaspora, and got hooked on the numerous pleasures of OTland.

[Coffee]

English/Scotch/Irish/German is my ethnic composition. However, my family has been in Texas for at least 8 generations on both sides. It may seem strange to act as though a state is a cultural background, but I believe this is one of those things that makes Texas different from most other places in the Union.

I was born and raised in Houston, a city of about 4 million(metro area). I had every modern convenience, so it is not as though I went to school on a horse in a red schoolhouse. But...even so, I had family that lived in deep east Texas, where it was about as rural as you could get. It is difficult to live in Texas and not get a sense of the past, either from the Western point of view, or the growing pains era from about 1950 onward.

The other thing that you gain as a native Texan is a rather odd sense of the size of things. It is not uncommon to drive an hour to get somewhere in the same city...and it's not because of the traffic. Driving from one of our cities to another will almost certainly take longer than that. A three-hour car ride is really no big deal to us. Being in Texas, you are constantly aware of its sheer magnitude.

It is because of this that I can say my only traditions that I carry from the "old country" are a love of Bass Ale, Guinness, and whatever that stuff they serve at the Hofbrau Haus in Munich is. Slainte! [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[jba]

[ QUOTE ]
I was born in Argentina to an Italian father and German mother.

[/ QUOTE ]

wow how old are your parents.

[jba]

my ethnicity is a mishmash of white Europeans. Some were present in the U.S. pre-civil war, mostly in new york, ohio, and illinois. My paternal line immigrated to the US from South Africa during the mid 1800s. But most came from Europe (primarily Britain) in the 1850s-60s. all of my ancestors were mormon pioneers that settled in the Salt Lake valley between 1847-1870ish.

this was definitely the overriding factor in the culture that I grew up in - the religion/theology actually was a fairly small part of it. Growing up almost every little thing was tied in some way to the church and lots of traditions and stuff were based on the experiences of the early pioneers. For example, every family was required to store a one year supply of food in case of emergencies. Whenever I complained about something as a kid the common response was "don't complain, your great great grandfather had to pull a handcart 2000 miles and he didn't complain" I worked on a church farm (the food went to those who needed it) one night a week growing up. People in other neighborhoods worked in the cannery processing the food. My boy scout group was affiliated with the church. Growing up I usually spent most of sunday, a couple hours two nights a week, a weekend a month, and a full week each year doing stuff with the church (only about 3 hrs/week was actual church-y stuff).

Now it doesn't affect my life much at all. I've been out of Utah for about 7 years and I don't associate with the church or any members outside my family. I don't like or agree with the theology at all, but I definitely miss the structure and community sometimes. sometimes I miss it a lot.

[Dids]

I'm a white American.

My mom's side of the familish is swedish, welsh and english.

My Dad's side hasn't been traced well. Probably a lot of scandanavian and some german.

Beyond very broad stuff, I have basiclly no culturel connections to Europe at all. I don't indentify as anything other than "American" (and even then, in terms of how I self-identify, that's not a huge part of it).

[tsearcher]

English/German

I was born and raised and live in the U.S.

The English side(Father's) of my family has been in the U.S since the late 1600's. My mother was a German immigrant and came to the U.S when she was in her 40's. She always had a thick accent.

I can understand German but can't really speak or read it. I have never been to Germany. Nevertheless, when people ask me my ethnicity, 95% of the time I will say German and leave out the English part. I've just always thought of myself as German.

As far as traditions, I keep them up as best I can. Most of the traditions revolve around Christmas and food. I love German pastries and candies. I never learned to like American candy (except for fig newtons and Reeses peanut butter cups).

[guids]

-Sicilian, on both sides

-A fairly big one, I live in st louis' "little italy", etc

-Both sets of grandparents came over from sicily.

-Yes, kind of, Columbus day isnt an "old country" tradition obv, but it is a big day here, Feast of St. Joseph, 2 or 3 la festa's sprinkled in there throughout the year etc. Mainly though, I spend most days over with my cousins and uncles at my dads place BS'ing, eating etc.