Participent created agenda wall
Topic: Curiosity Corner: Sharing our cultures and backgrounds
Location: Table E
Convened: At 5:45
Attendees and Affiliations:
1. Richard Baugh
2. Katie Higgins
3. Carolyn Frank
4. Marly Flores
5. Kristen Wall
6. Diane Roll
7. Allison Sachs
8. Warren Strickland
9. Kevin Lanoue
Notes:
We discovered two people who are distantly related by a common ancestor on the Mayflower!
Southern culture: gracious, polite, can be liberal and pro-civil rights; raised on gumbo, fried food
Southern accent ; different kinds of BBQ – depending on state; Southern rural – can be uncomfortable to be exposed to new culture; personal interaction can change attitudes; people who look “different” can become friends, neighbors ; Gaylights fiddlers convention – my West coast granddaughter saw all these Confederate flags and was really freaking out; down in Alabama when we integrated schools, they were saying “kill those people,” you couldn’t talk to a black person unless they were your maid; there are rural areas with a large African-American population down south and you don’t get that up North; you see Stonewall Jackson High School. Lee Davis high school. At football games they would fly the confederate flag. In 64 – it’s recent history that public places were integrated. I see the same type of distrust from white people in regards to Kurds and Hispanics here, and it is sickening; ancestors who fought in the Civil War
Virginian identity; most ancestors here before 1800, grew up in Richmond, used to being some of the “early” Americans – lots of people came much later.
1st Generation from Belarus, came from lower class, used to be slaves before the Revolution; family members was killed by KGB;
North: so many different subcultures; Pennsylvania Civil war culture – the history was glossed over, and we didn’t know how bad the South lost – it’s not really thought about that much. New York, New Jersey
Italian immigrants in 1880s; we’re mixed and are doing genealogy;
Mob boss for Albany mob in Massachussets because he was Catholic and Italian and couldn’t find other work; whole family was educated thanks to C.I.
Yugoslavian: worked the coal mines, they were uneducated had 8 kids, 4 went through college, 4 not. The American Dream. You can do it on your own – work ethic WWII, my ancestors made all the;
Mayflower descendants
Jewish Eastern Europe immigrated mid 1800s
Indian ancestors who immigrated to Peru – married Incan heritage; they worked in the Peruvian embassy and that’s how we came to the US
Don’t know ancestry; but our family is family oriented - we all sit down together for a meal;
