We are from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, one of the most racially and culturally blended countries worldwide. I created this collage of my peoples after receiving my DNA results this week. I was floored by the official confirmation of my mother's wisdom: "yuh have de blood of many peoples; never judge others or else, yuh judge yourself!" She believed that the heart of wisdom is learning tolerance and patience.
My father, grand father, great-grandfathers in my family who married local or foreign women, be they Spanish, Irish or Creole had to be understanding and tolerant of each other. Every right they claimed for themselves had to be the same for the new faces they met and embraced. It was not an easy process. Whether they were Spanish, Portuguese, African, Chinese or Mongolian; they were still proud men. Over the centuries ingrained in my own mother was the value of patience, she would often say to me "yuh have de Spanish pride in yuh! Yuh just can't allow anger to take over!" It took me many decades to understand these words and the value of patience. Mother as pictured in the last photo next to my Mongolian father (the baby is me) was a patient teacher.
Today I appreciate more than ever the twin 'virtues' of patience and tolerance, the keystone of our family's diversity. Tolerance and patience are not signs of weakness. They were and continue to be our strengths of character. They have been the learning torch of my family's reality for centuries under all kinds of circumstances. Today our strengths - tolerance and patience - are waiting to be rediscovered in a new generation.
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