Why Chilies & Shamrocks?

I know, I know…chilies and shamrocks is a bit of an off-beat combination, but it is a rough breakdown of my primary ethnic and racial blends. My first impressions and sole knowledge of any heritage-related stuff came from overhearing the adults in my family and extended family on both sides converse, in a loose tongue sort of way, at gatherings. Let me tell you, this was not just talk. Beer laden on one side and whiskey infused on the other gave way to a multitude of rants, banterings, and jovial indignations which were callous at best. I experienced this jest in dual form, as no aspect of my composition was immune.

By the time I had matured, (well, I guess I could still be considered a work in progress:), and garnered a more serious interest in my roots, so to speak, elderly relatives who likely held some pertinent and concrete heritage details had passed away. This left me with primarily the word-of-mouth information. My paternal grandmother had taken an interest in exploring some of her family tree and had even traveled to some locations to acquire documentation from churches and county resources. This initial evidentiary information peaked my quest to learn more. Since we are currently in the era which DNA testing can yield a further glimpse, at least in an anthropological manner, I jumped on that bandwagon to discovery.

Some of the results were as anticipated. Some of the results did not work into previously held passed down theories, which gave way to further questions. Some of the results were not only surprising, but in familial retrospect, actually ‘fit’ and made sense. The anticipated results yielded a very high percentage of European ancestry on one side with a substantial part of that percentage traced to the British Isles. The unexpected result came from the other family side which yielded over half European with a majority percent from Iberia and most of the remainder categorized as New World, which constitutes North and Central America.

As I put some of the Iberian and New World aspects together with additional findings, a first glance showed me that these roots were nothing more than an italicized, lower-cased word in one of my high-school daughter’s mainstream history text books. It was barely defined and mainly treated as a low-class societal rank of people versus an actual social construct of an independent accord. The name is Genizaro. The Genizaro are people with ancestral ties to both Spain and the Native Americans in the New World. Ties to Spain came via the conquistadors and all the Native American tribes which inhabited the lands in what is present day New Mexico and surrounding vicinity.

I have a parent from New Mexico and at least one if not more trips were taken each and every year to visit family who still reside in the area. I understood the culture due to frequent trips, but was too stubborn to learn the Spanish language. As I viewed it back in the day, I was born and raised in the Upper Midwest and saw no reason to learn gibberish. But make no mistake, my novice ears could pick up enough to know if I was being talked about.

Times were turbulent and harsh, as it has been throughout the course of history with human civilization. The Spanish conquistadors were fighting the Native American tribes, capturing and enslaving those they did not kill. Native American tribes were battling each other, capturing their opponents to use as prisoners for bartering with the Spaniards. The result of the Native American enslavement by the Spaniards yielded the Genizaro. They were a fusion of Spanish masters and Native American captives. To buffer the blow, Spain, as a Catholic country did not believe in slavery…so the term servitude was commonly used so as not to appear to contradict any religious doctrine. In addition, one of the goals of the Spanish crown at the time was to spread Catholicism. A forced indoctrination occurred. This resulted in a detribalization of their respective Native American cultures and subsequently loss of any tribal recognition.

That leads me to ask, where are the rest of the Genizaro today? Well, I am here with my rough percentages linked to them and living in the Upper Midwest, incorporating my booyah with chilies and my tator tot hotdish with whiskey. Some may know of their affiliation with the Genizaro, some may not, and some may just be perplexed within the penumbra of their origins. Nevertheless, the Genizaro are a biologically and culturally connected population group, native to North America, and still not even granted enough bearing to merit name placement on any demographic surveys, excluding the write-in options. I believe that those who have a Genizaro genesis are numerous and continue to reside within and extend vastly beyond the area once considered New Spain.

If you have Genizaro roots in your family tree, or think you may have, or know someone who has, or know of someone who may have, or just found this interesting or informative please share!