But I doubt many of them have survived a half-century of Fidel.

Family oral history tells me my father's side of the family used to have money and influence, but were already on the decline by the time of the Revolution against the Spanish Crown at the time of the Revolutionary wars (the last half of the 19th century). Supposedly, I have a great-grandfather who was a poet and landowner who freed his slaves to fight against the Spaniards, and who died of a fever while campaigning, while his twin brother remained loyal to the Crown; but the source of this family legend is suspect; a drama queen aunt who is still expecting to collect an inheritance from that era. On my mother's side, my grandfather had some education, but little else is known about his side of the family, except his father was from Santiago de Cuba, the island's second city.

My mother's mother was of "Islander" stock, that is, my ancestors on that side of the family left Spain for the Canary Islands (probably in the 1600s), and then emigrated again to Cuba (probably two hundred years later), then again to North America. But nobody really knows for sure.

The only thing I am certain of is that all four of my grandparents were born in Cuba but came to the US in their 20s, and my parents were born in the US, in 1911 and 1920.

Although I must admit it would be neat to know more about my family history, I don't think it really makes much difference. We can neither take blame or credit for what our ancestors did or who they were. We had nothing to do with it. It really doesn't matter.

But perhaps family history had some effect on me, at least through natural selection. My grandparents left Cuba, and their ancestors left Spain. So I am descended from a pretty rootless bunch of wanderers. The only other clue is from physical appearance. Most of my relatives on both sides of the family are fair skinned, curly haired brunettes. Only my maternal grandfather is olive-skinned with jet-black straight hair and I have inherited both. He also has an Indian (or Arab, or Jewish) nose, which I have also inherited from him.