Basic Background

My name is Lauren Milatzo. I am 22 years old, born and raised in Cheyenne, Wyoming where I have lived all my life. But this hasn't always been the case for my family. Our roots started somewhere and now we are here. I do not know much about my mother's parents as they died when I was at such a young age. They also never talked much about our family history but I know some information. My father's side of the family, on the other hand is very proud of where we came from such as our culture, language and religion. From a young age, my Grandma ahs taught us about our family. She loves to inform us often about our family and our upcoming. 
It is interesting to me for what I know about my families, but my interest has sparked recently to know a little bit more. This blog will mostly be about my father's side, as I do not have easy access to detailed information on my mother's family history.

To start out, I will talk about my mother's parents: John Haney Quirk and Mary Elaine Quirk (Rodgers). From what I know as of now, my Grandpa was German and my Grandma was Irish. What a mix! My Grandpa's father died at a young age, so my Grandpa was adopted which makes things a little bit harder to narrow down the history. On my Mom's side of the family, she has one brother and two sisters. They are all married, but not all of them have children. I have three cousins between two of them. My Grandpa retired as a United States Marine and my Grandma was a housewife.

With my Dad's family basics and parents: Vito Milatzo (Vic) and Maria Gloria Angelina Milatzo (Naranjo). My Grandpa was born in Palermo, Sicily Italy and is full Italian. My Grandma was born in Mora County, New Mexico and she is full Spanish. There are some discrepancies in our family history as some say we originated  in Spain and others say Mexico.  She is very proud of our family history so I have semi got it sorted out. We have a very large family. My Dad has one brother and four sisters which are all married. Combined, I have 20 cousins from the five of them. Things tend to get a little chaotic when we are all together, but we love having such a big family!

For this blog I will be discussing my father's family history dealing with culture, language, religion, and how we became established here in Cheyenne, Wyoming!

Why We Are Here and Our Culture

Lets start off with how my family got here! 

My Great Grandpa was killed when my Grandpa was only 4 years old. My Great Grandma and my Grandpa (Vic) moved to Brooklyn, New York from Palermo Siciliy, Italy when my Grandpa was 14 because he started to get in some trouble. When they came from Italy to the United States, our last name was Milazzo but was changed to Milatzo to Americanize it. They didn't agree with the name change but they had no choice. This makes it more difficult to find family history. In Italy, then men in our family worked as farmers or fisherman while the woman, such as my Great Grandmother worked in a factory. From Brooklyn, New York, they made the decision to come to Cheyenne, Wyoming once my Great Grandmother remarried. My Grandpa became a very successful barber here in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

My Great *3 Grandma and Great *3 Grandpa came to the United States from Spain by boat. They came with only a few chickens, a few goats and some family. They settled in Espanola, New Mexico. They were farmers in Spain and also started out as farmers in New Mexico. Once settled in New Mexico, the men were bus drivers and the woman were housewives. My Grandma continued on the tradition of being a housewife and has held positions at the church we attend.

As stated in our textbook, "culture is the body of material traits, customary beliefs, and social forms that together constitute the distinct tradition of a group of people" (Rubenstein 86). There are so many different cultures out there that I feel that people are naturally a mixture of many. I personally fall into popular culture but when I started thinking about it more, some of the things that I do stem from what my parents or Grandparents have passed down to me based off of folk culture.

In my family, we have many traditions. On Christmas Eve, we go to my Grandparent's house for a 7 fish meal. This is part of the culture in Italy that my family has carried on and passed down the line. We have done this ever since I can remember! As my family is Catholic, we always pray before we eat a big family gatherings. Some Spanish dishes that my family makes are lam, pig/hog, and potato cakes. My Grandma also makes what is classified as Mexican food such as tacos, tamales, beans, Spanish rice, green/red chili, and arroz con leche (sweet rice). Some say that we are Mexican instead of Spanish because of the food that has always been made in my family but my Grandma says that it is also in Spain and we are Spanish. Some Italian dishes that my family makes are pasta dishes, brusheloli, pinyolatas, cannoli's, fish and pizzels.

Another family tradition we have is to go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve/Christmas and all of our big family gatherings.

All of these traditions were passed down and were a part of folk culture at sometime. We may not always think of things being folk culture, but it is. Culture is a big part of our lives and helps shape who we are!

Religion

My whole family are all Roman Catholics. Roman Catholic is a universalizing religion which is "a religion that attempts to appeal to all people, not just those living in a particular location" (Rubenstein 134).

Both my mother's and father's sides are both Roman Catholic. Not many people on my moms side actually practice religion or go to church since my grandparents passed away. They still go to church on rare occasions and they still believe in everything they use to. I think that it is something that use to bring us together but it just got lost with my grandparents.

Religion on my father's side is very important. My Grandma goes to church every day and has held many different positions throughout the years at our church. She is very old school in the since of all her beliefs so she hounds us a lot about attending church. In our family, you are expected to get baptized, do first communion/catechism classes, and then be confirmed at all the right ages. It is not really a choice in our family, but something my Grandma expects. As a Grandma of 22 grandchildren, she just wants the best for us. She also holds true to marrying a Catholic as a Catholic yourself. She doesn't really like anyone's significant other unless they are Catholic. We have a few traditions in my family of going to church on special holidays as a family such as midnight mass on Christmas Eve/Christmas, going to Easter mass, and getting your stuffed bunny blessed on Easter. We always do things as a family when it comes to church. There is quite a bit of us, so we are well known in the church. It makes a good time when we are all together whether we are at get together or church.

We attend St. Mary's Catholic Cathedral

Language

My family is pretty diverse when it comes to language which "is a system of communication through speech, a collection of sounds that a group of people understands to have the same meaning" (Rubenstein 110). Both of my father's parents are bilingual. My Grandpa can speak both fluent Italian and English as well as write it. He doesn't speak Italian much around our family because nobody else can speak it or understand it so I have maybe heard him speak it a handful of times. My Grandma has learned some Italian over the years of being married to my Grandpa but he mostly just speaks English. Italian is part of the Indo-European language family and is part of the Romance branch.

My Grandma can speak both fluent Spanish and English as well as write it. She is constantly speaking Spanish around all of us. My Grandma wants us all to be able to speak Spanish but it is hard now that we are fluent in English. Some of her siblings live in New Mexico so they never have had to learn English, so they speak Spanish around each other. Even when she is speaking to one of her siblings that does speak English, you always know when they are talking about something private because they speak Spanish so nobody knows what they are saying. It is also easier for them to speak Spanish because that is all they knew growing up. Spanish is a part of the Indo-European language family and is part of the Romance branch as well.

They did not pass Italian or Spanish down through our family. We all wish they would have but it didn't happen. Also it didn't make much sense for them because English is the lingua franca of the world so we have eventually needed to be fluent in English as well.  "A lingua franca is a language mutually understood and commonly used to communicate by people who have different native languages" (Rubenstein 128).  I do think that it would have been cool to be trilingual!

Sources

Rubenstein, James M. Contemporary Human Geography 3e. Pearson Education Inc., 2016.

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