Your ancestry?

Question

Even if born in the United States , your mom and dad maybe born here too, BUT where were the grannies from ? Iam trying to find out how people loose their original language , culture ,even religion . The third generation oh Hispanics [no matter from what country] born in the United States either do not speak Spanish or have difficulty with speaking it! The old custums and religion beliefs are mostly lost , yet they [we] continue to say we are Hispanics! I know 4 generation Italians who dont speak Italian , are not catholic , and are loyal to the United States , WHAT GIVES? How is this possible? I being Puertorican [not born here] relate to my ancestors , speak spanish , have lost religion a bit, but Iam loyal to Puertorico and the Independence party, my sons , on the contrary are very much americanised, but speak Spanish fluently, what makes a human being loose their original ancestry?

Answer 1

America has a culture all its own and my ancestors left their beloved homeland to come to the land of Opportunity. In doing so, they knew that their lives (as well as the lives of their children) would change forever. That is not to say that they weren't proud of their heritage. They knew though, that they would have to assimilate themselves into their new culture and their new homeland. My ancestry is mostly Dutch and when they came to America, church services in their new community were held in both Dutch and English because just about everyone in their community was also Dutch. They didn't come here with the expectation that their descendants would continue speaking Dutch, though many of them are still members of the Reformed and Christian Reformed churches. If every immigrant held onto their original language, our country wouldn't be the UNITED States of America. We would be divided and I think our country would resemble Babel.

Immigrating is kind of like a marriage. You have a basic set of core beliefs; however, when you marry, you must always consider the beliefs and customs of your spouse. Same with immigration and your new homeland.

Answer 2

Oh sure I have one for you my mothers fathers family all came to america in 1625 devoted Quakers turned Baptist, heres the ringer she was raised Catholic so go figure, my family tended to follow what ever faith was available in that area at the time as long as it was Christian, And my fathers family I guess are rare I do know they were Scottish Presbyterians since the late 17th century fled Scotland went to Ireland and then came to the American colony in 1732 and believe it or not we are still presbyterians to this day, my mother even pratices it now, even after being raised Catholic, my German ancestry were Lutherans up until my great grandfather who became a Baptist, but my grandma was raised in the Salvation Army churches in the dust bowl era in Oklahoma
so go figure .I think some families will remain what there ancestors were some will not so I guess its really up to the person and we only speak english and our german blood don't know never heard it spoken around my grandma so they must have forgotten it as well. I think it just has to do with assimilation a desire to sound like and be like the people you come into contact with, thats my belief.

Answer 3

Because after the first generation or two, most immigrants mix freely with the rest of the population. They lose the prejudices of the old country and intermarry. Unless you're one of the groups that isolate themselves (like the amish) or have enough people to refuse to deal with outsiders (hispanics) you don't have a daily need to speak the language. Most kids will learn a language to speak at home, but resist learning a langauge just to link with a country, which they don't see as home.

Knowledge of their family history, intermarriage, & equality of the sexes soon give the average American a dizzying number of family histories to keep track of. One extra language might be practical, but two? or four? or 8?
Mutts we're mutts who value our mother's families as much as our father's and that makes for a lot of traditions. Those italians you talk about? Just as likely they're Italian-Irish or Italian-Polish these days.


Religion, well the nature of American Religion is individual choice and the nature of American Protestantism is this only more so. Most Protestant famlies can name a dozen different religions by going back a few generations.



Oh thanks for the comedy of someone who takes advantage of PR's status to move, but declares it should be a seperate country, would you move back there if that happened? Renounce your US citizenship in favor of one in PR?

Answer 4

That was the original idea of the US: People were welcome from all cultures and background and countries. There were no real restrictions, as long as you wanted to be honest and work for a living. Their only requirement was to become an American and learn the language.

It's been a blessing for those who came from oppressive countries wanting freedom. The attraction is still there, but most no longer want to become part of the country, they just want to take what they can and send it back to their oppressive country, thus degrading what was once a good thing.

It's a shame, really.

Answer 5

My family is 4th generation here from Sweden same with my fafs side of the family from Germany..my son has English blood from the UK but plans on taking German is school my grandparents did not speak the language of their ancestors neither did my parents....It's odd that I speak more Spanish than anything else besides English..

Answer 6

We aren't losing anything hunny we are just gaining a little bit of everybody else. If my ancestors are from Africa... what am i going to say... my background is Irish? Just because you lose a little language doesn't mean you lose who you are. Something I'm confused about is you being loyal to Puertorico is you aren't there. This is your home now... why would you be loyal to some Other place.???

Answer 7

On my mom's side, I'm like a tenth generation 'American' (pilgrims). On my dad's side, I'm a third-generation German/Austrian. My grandfather spoke nothing but German until he was five, my father took six years of German (4 in highschool and 2 in college) and went to a Catholic all-boys school. I'm just starting German, and I'm not doing all that great... yet.
I'm also not that religous, compared to my father and grandpa.. I think that unless you have a lot of enthusiasm, it wanes after a while.
We still do some traditions, though, like making kolbas and going out for Oktoberfest.

Answer 8

The prevailing language of the U. S. is English. No national language has ever been adopted by congress. However, you can imagine the cost if we had to provide schools for English, Spanish, Italian, German etc speaking people. People who immigrated here wanted to blend in and wanted their children to speak English.

Some areas this is a sensitve matter. For instance in Old San Antonio, a large portion of the Hispanic population is colonial(correctly pronounced San AnTONEyo, not San AnTone nee o) Their ancestors did not immigrate to the U. S. or a U. S. territory. They came to that area in the early 1700s when it was governed by Spain. Actually Texas was part of Mexico for 15 years. Those people can speak English but frequently speak Spanish among themselves or to one of their Spanish speaking employees. In the past, young men (particularly from the northeast) in the military insulted those people when they heard them speaking Spanish, hissing at them, making crude noises at them etc. Kids can be smart alecs. They would tell them to speak American. During WWII, a man of colonial Spanish ancestry returned much decorated from the war. He had a kid to get in his face with "speak American, speak American." He landed the kid on his backside and told him, "son, I am sorry to do that, but no second generation American is going to come into this town where my family has lived 15 generations, AT LEAST,and tell me what language to speak." This statement became the response of the colonial Spanish in San Antonio. One had that statement on a sign in his business. Another had it printed on little calling cards.
Usually one of the kids would wind up at St. Mary's rectory in downtown San Antonio with one of those little calling cards stating, "this is antiCatholic." All the priest as well as the Archbishop were 2nd generation.
They would send the kid to Father Frank Kilday who would tell them, "descendants of Catholic colonials do not have to take abuse off of descendants of Catholic immigrants." It got so bad there for awhile they expected open warfare betweem what the clergy there called "the immigrants and the colonials." Archbishop Lucey stated anytime open warfare did break out, they were to back their colonials to the hilt as you could expect the guys at the Catholic military vicariate in New York to back the immigrants and when that happened he(Archbishop Lucey) would be on his way to Rome. Anyone who knew about Archbishop Lucey would tell you that if the Cardinal Archbishop of New York took on Robert E. Lucey he would have been in a fight he would never forget. Some Diocese and Archidiocese in the U. S. clear things through the New York Archdiocese as a matter of tradition. That is not true everywhere and certainly not down in the south and in Texas.

In Texas and the Southwest we are close to Spanish speaking countries and I believe it is easier for people to hold on to their language and still be quite fluent in English.

Louisiana is another interesting place. The people down in the swamp lands speak a Cajun dialect of French. Actually, a lot of French speaking people don't understand them. The French of New Orleans language is more pure French. Cajuns were already there when the United States bought the Louisiana territory from France. They arrived in the mid 1700s and the French in New Orleans arrived earlier. There was a time when all of southern Louisiana was Cajun speaking. Lake Charles was a Cajun speaking city and English was moving South a little at a time. Then some smart people decided it would be a good idea if all of Louisiana was English speaking. They decided to send people South to get them to speak English. One Louisiana congressman said they went down there like missionaries gone to convert the heathen and they were lucky to get out with their lives. As a result the Cajun French speaking people have dug their heels in and the progression of English moving South all over Louisiana has come to a halt. Sometimes it is best to let things be and they take care of themselves.