Cocktail mix

In the last while, I have had a few conversations with friends about immigration and identity. These talks ran along the line of questioning how much a person’s nationality/citizenship (either adopted or natural) attributes to that person’s identity. And to take this a step further, what other attributes, besides nationality, are major contributors: sex, language, race, religion, family roots, schooling, choice of profession, financial status, Heimat (adopted or natural), political conviction, sexual preference, etc. Can you name, let’s say, five primary attributes which determine your identity? Can you name them also by their order of importance?

Admittedly, there is no fixed formula, but even though we are talking about a cocktail mix, it must somehow be possible to figure out the ingredients and their proportions…

Julien showed us a video from the comedian Russell Peters. In it, he talks about human hybrids offspring: Jamaican/Italian, Pastafarian, Indian/Jew, Hinjew, French/Greek, Freek, Iceland/Cuba, Ice-cube… This was amusing to watch and led to more conversation at the dinner table this evening. We figured that our children are brica-germ and pasca-germ. Which doesn’t even begin to encompass all the permutations and combinations. 

If you list all of the possibilities on the part of the six grandparents (Canada, Italy, Sicilians (Sicilians don’t necessarily identify themselves as Italians), Austria, St. Vincent), three biological parents (Venezuela, Canada, Italy, Germany, Britain, St. Vincent), and the two children (Germany, Canada) it really is a rich cocktail of opportunity.