Looking out to the sea to find Great-Grandma Clementina Lopez

My great aunts always spoke about their mother as a beauty whose long curly hair betrayed her Spanish roots. Clementina Lopez was the last survivor of her people in my island home. Her mother's ancestors today are described as Tainos, indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. At school we were taught that her people were cannibals and that the Spanish educated and Christianized them. There were two groups: Arawaks and Caribs. We were led to believe that the Arawaks were gentle and the Caribs warlike and cannibalistic. Thus the Spanish had the right to civilize them.Clementina's ancestors were enslaved and placed under the 'encomienda system.'A Spanish gentleman (an 'encomendero') could be awarded a few acres of land, round up a number of Indians who would work for him. In return, he would feed, clothe, shelter, teach them Spanish and Christianize them. Understandably many did not survive. This was the first Holocaust in the Caribbean: many dying of starvation, forced labor, depression. Their simple lifestyles were dramatically changed and their women stolen as concubines. Many also died from European diseases such as small pox and measles. Clementina would never have known her Spanish ancestors but she would bear their name. Nonetheless, a new race was born. She lived, survived! She would become the matriarch of our diverse families, now scattered in the Caribbean, North America and UK. How often I dreamt of meeting her! She remains hidden in time, almost forgotten. This is my way of communicating with her, of showing this photo of a Taino Indian from the Greater Antilles. While writing these words on the Adriatic coast, I pictured young Clementina looking across the Atlantic Ocean, probably wondering where her great-great grandfather was born. Perhaps a poor 16th century peasant from Spain who boarded Columbus' Santa Maria in search of fame and fortune in the New World? Perhaps he left a wife and family like my own Chinese great grandfather seeking the same at a different period in time? So few details of their lives exist

Only one line from my grandmother's birth certificate:daughter of Clementina Lopez! Each of us looks towards the sea. Their blood runs in my veins like the undulating waves around me! Perhaps this reflection does not affect many of my readers in any particular way. However, I do think that 'digging deeper' into our own ancestry can help us face the challenges of the future.