Bird of Paradise

by Raquel Cepeda

  * * *

  It turns out that Latina teens across the country are so weighed down by emotional baggage that some don’t have the energy to articulate the pain. Latina teens have the highest suicide rates in the country, far higher than their white and Black counterparts. The epicenter of this problem is right here in New York City, the most diverse city on the planet.

  When I first came to the center to talk to the girls about careers in the media, Beatriz told me about the cultural and societal factors at play. “The stress of acculturating, Hispanic culture, socioeconomic stress, and discrimination are some of the issues,” she said. The girls then shared their stories, some of which sounded all too familiar. Many of the teens at the center were bullied by their white classmates for not being American enough, for being “illegal.” Black-Americans bullied them because of their “Spanish-people accents” and for not fitting neatly into their ideal of what it means to be Black and American. When I told them about my own genetic adventure, some of the teens expressed a strong desire to investigate their own.

  When all the girls are present, I begin.

  “Sisters, we’re gathered here today for me to reveal the results of the mitochondrial DNA tests you took a couple of months ago.” Their mothers, most of whom are single, gave me permission to explore their maternal ancestry and document the process on film. Beatriz and I wanted to focus on the girls and their mothers, hoping the project would bring them closer and bridge the cultural divides of both generations.

  The girls are anxious, giggling and guessing one another’s backgrounds. “I hope we’re sisters,” Maria says to me. “We are,” I say. “There are aspects about the results that are going to bring us even closer.”

  Before I divulge the results, I need to make something clear to the girls. This is one aspect of who they are, and they’re not getting their Latina cards revoked. “Whatever your results are, it doesn’t make you less Ecuadorian, Honduran, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican, Panamanian, or whatever you identify as,” I say. “You can still rock your boricua flag on your tube socks, key ring, T-shirt, headband, book bag, and even attend the Puerto Rican Day Parade, Marisol.” The girls laugh.

  I explain that what the results may do is enhance who they are, maybe confirm something they felt intrinsically. “Bueno,” says one of the Mamis. “My grandmother told me we walk with indias, here and in Puerto Rico, but you know, that’s just a spiritual thing.” Mami provides the perfect segue. There’s a thin line between who we are and what we feel we are.

  “Mami, your direct maternal ancestors, as well as theirs,” I say, referring to two other Puerto Rican girls in the room, “came back as Amerindian—that is, there is evidence that your maternal ancestors, after analysis, are indigenous to the island of Puerto Rico.”

  “What? You mean like the Taínos?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh my God, that is so cool, but my teacher said they all died,” says one of the girls.

  “Your maternal ancestor was a warrior. She found a way to survive, and I think maybe it’s your mission to survive, too,” I say. “Perhaps it was meant for you to get this information now, at this time of your life.”

  The girls are quiet, smiling, thinking.

  The Honduran teen with the fresh portfolio has maternal ancestry in Meso-America, with a genetic match in Honduras and others in Central America. She isn’t surprised. “Somehow I felt it.”

  “Beatriz, your mtDNA also came back as being indigenous to Ecuador, likely from the Incan empire,” I say.

  “I feel so proud, regardless of what else may come out if I test other people in my family,” says Beatriz, “that the women in my family ultimately descend from a woman who endured Spanish colonialism.”

  There’s a theme of survival emerging in the conversation.

  “How about me?” asks a sixteen-year-old born to Dominican parents.

  “Like me, you and your sister and the other dominicana sitting next to you, we have maternal origins in sub-Saharan Africa.”

  “Wow, Africa?” replies the sixteen-year-old. “That is so cool.”

  “And after receiving analysis on your results, we can say that your biblical Eve came from Lower Guinea, which today encompasses Nigeria and Cameroon.” The sisters are smiling. The girl who drew herself as a blonde isn’t.

  “I wish I was something else, like Australian or Japanese,” says Priscilla. “I don’t want to be from Africa.”

  “But why?” asks one of the sisters.

  Priscilla shrugs. “Can I get somebody else tested?”

  “Sure, if you want to do it independently and your parents agree, but remember, this is just one aspect of your makeup.”

  “Well, I think we should have a party and celebrate,” Marisol says. “We should celebrate the women we came from.”

  * * *

  Several weeks later, I ask Beatriz how the girls are doing. I’m told they are going to create self-portraits reflecting their results.

  “And how about la dominicana?” I ask.

  “She had a hard time at first and goes through her moods,” Beatriz says, “but then I overheard her say something really interesting. She and another girl were talking about—what else—hair.”

  The girls were arguing about the difference between “good” hair and “pelo malo.” La dominicana said, “I don’t have bad hair. It’s just stronger than yours, unbreakable, like where I come from.”

  “I knew she’d come around,” I say. “Our identities are a work in progress and really up to us and nobody else to ultimately define.”

  The fact that Priscilla is reflecting on what that means for her is all that really matters.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  It takes great effort to bring all things to life, this book included, and for this and more, I’m indebted to the following people for their respective roles as literary midwives.

  My remarkable and wickedly cool agent, Ayesha Pande, embarked on this journey with me at the beginning and, years later, still walks with me, offering her unwavering support. My editor, Malaika Adero, gave me a home at Atria and committed herself from day one to realizing my vision, and I will be forever grateful to her and Judith Curr. I must acknowledge Jane Rosenman for rearranging her schedule to work with me on my final draft and for always being super-accommodating.

  Family Tree DNA’s Bennett Greenspan never ceases to amaze me with how he waxes poetic about all things related to ancestral DNA and migration, and how readily he made himself available to help me understand it all.

  Explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society and geneticist Spencer Wells granted me an interview despite his whirlwind schedule, as did Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mark Potok, and the historian and anthropologist Lynne Guitar. I will forever appreciate the magnanimous spiritual teacher Rav DovBer Pinson for taking the time to speak with me at his home, and Daniel Seliger for making the introduction. Two new—and, I hope, lifelong—friends were made somewhere along this journey: I admire Jorge Estevez’s unyielding commitment to preserving the legacy of our Indigenous people on the island; and Frank Moya Pons for his kindness and willingness to bridge the generation gap even if we don’t always speak the same language.

  Beatriz Coronel is someone I hold in high regard for her friendship and for allowing me to play a small part in the important work she’s doing at Life is Precious. I can’t thank the program’s founder, Dr. Rosa Gil, enough for identifying and doing something to empower and save the lives of many young Latina teens.

  My friend Ambassador Julissa Reynoso took the time to read drafts of the manuscript while transitioning from the State Department to her new post in Uruguay. Michelle Maisto also made time to read pages and gave me useful feedback. Dominican genealogist Milciades Nuñez helped me unearth some nuggets about my family history. My generous friends Rita Sciarra and Rafael Juliá gave me a place to rest my head and space to write during my time in Santo Domingo. Sarah Edwards provided research assistance when her schedu
le allowed and always made time to gift me a kind word.

  Speaking of which, I’d like to recognize and thank the following people for their support and words of encouragement: Henry and Kathleen Chalfant, Steve Zeitlin, Lisa Leveque, John “Jonone156” Perello and family, Tamara Warren, Lee Quiñones, Lorraine West, Joan Morgan, Kimberly Eisson Simmons, Gisella Baque, Michelle Jimenez, Melody Moezzi, Julia Rose, Anthony Perrone, Carmen Rodriguez, Ursula Williams, Andrew Kilgore, Jeff Mazzacano, Mauricio and A. J. Hernandez Anderson, Tracy Levenstein, Lisa Leone, Prince Paul, Cybel Martin, Lauri Lyons, Michael Dinwiddie, Mary Ann “Ladybug” Vieira, Margarita Guillermo, Fernando Ramirez, and Renato Rosaldo (for introducing me to Gloria Anzaldúa’s work).

  Todd Hunter at Atria provided much needed assistance, and art director Jeanne Lee and artist Thomas Ng get props for their work in designing the book’s cover; Family Tree DNA’s Max Blankfeld and Amy Whitman designed the discount coupon. Chakib Ghadouani of the Moroccan Tourism Board, Adnane Snoussi, and Mounir made my trip to Morocco one that I’ll never forget.

  The kind souls at Garden Café, especially Regina Christoforos, allowed me to sit and write all day for the price of a cappuccino or three. Because of the sanctuary that the Writers Room afforded me, I was able to read, think, and write in an ideal environment. Coach Moíses Sanchez—a befitting name, indeed—at Mendez Boxing pushed me to my physical limits and, at the end of every morning, made sure I left with the mental strength and inner peace I needed to work. Francisco Mendez showed me how boxing can do the body, the soul, and the mind plenty of good.

  I’m grateful to all of my family members who granted me interviews, especially my maternal grandmother, and for my uncle whose blunt and razor-sharp sense of humor I partially relied on to reconstruct the earlier chapters of this joint.

  My roller-coaster relationship with Dad was an impetus for this book, and he is the person to whom I’m most grateful, despite the past, because of the stories he entrusted me with and, more important, the love he shows my family every day. My stepmother, who always had a hand in raising Djali with me, stood by him all these years, and that couldn’t have been easy: She deserves kudos.

  My husband, Sacha Jenkins, and daughter, Djali, were patient and supportive during this process. Sacha, himself an accomplished writer and editor, read every draft and served as a sounding board. We both have love for and roots on the island of Hispaniola, Sacha in Haiti by way of Queens. We also love New York City and the hip-hop culture that reared us, all of which made for lively debates over which borough reigns supreme. Marceau, our son, waited one full week after I filed the book to arrive, and I can’t thank him enough for that.

  I couldn’t have written this joint had life not happened the way it did and, as a result, drawn into my orbit the people you’ve met within these pages (and many more whom you did not). For that and more, I’m thankful to all of my ancestors, and the sprit guides who have led me here, to this very moment.

  ANCESTRAL DNA TESTING: NOW IT’S YOUR TURN

  For more information about ancestral DNA testing, please visit FamilyTreeDna.com or call their Houston-based world headquarters at 713-868-1438.

  FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS1

  MtDNA (mitochondrial DNA)

  What do I get when I test for the mtDNA at any of its levels?

  Testing your mtDNA uncovers the deep ancestral origin of your direct maternal line (your mother, your mother’s mother, etc.) and connects you with genetic cousins. Because your mtDNA has been passed on to you generation after generation by your direct maternal ancestors, it offers the most exact information possible for that line.

  How do you perform mtDNA tests?

  We perform mitochondrial DNA tests at Family Tree DNA by direct (Sanger) sequencing of both forward and reverse sequence values. We use test panels that return values for overlapping segments of the mtDNA. For mtDNA (HVR1) and mtDNAPlus (HVR1 and HVR2) tests, we perform an additional backbone haplogroup confirmation test. Specifically: HVR1: uses two panels plus one or more tests for haplogroup confirmation. HVR1 and HVR2: uses four panels plus one or more tests for haplogroup confirmation. MtDNA Full Genomic Sequence: uses ninety-six panels.

  The results are reviewed by quality assurance, and any segment panel without a result or with a questionable result is rerun.

  What are mitochondrial DNA haplogroups?

  Haplogroups are genetic population groups, and mitochondrial haplogroups are composed of people who share a common ancestor on their direct maternal lineage. Your haplogroup tells you the branch on the mitochondrial tree of humanity to which you belong.

  How are mitochondrial DNA haplogroups named? What are mtDNA macro-haplogroups? What are supergroups? Are they the same?

  Mitochondrial DNA haplogroups are named according to their major branch with a capital letter. Subclades (branches) are then named with alternating numbers and letters; H, H1, H1a, H1a1, etc.

  Macro-haplogroups (sometimes called supergroups) are the foundation for a number of other haplogroups. They represent older shared ancestors on the maternal tree. Macro-haplogroups link many of the more common haplogroups found today.

  For example, haplogroup M is found throughout Eurasia and is especially common on the Indian subcontinent. Haplogroup M is considered a macro-haplogroup because it includes the haplogroups D, C, E, G, Q, and Z as subclades.

  NOTE: Although mtDNA naming conventions are much like those for Y-chromosome DNA (Y-DNA), they are separate systems.

  Don’t we all go back to Africa?

  Yes, all of our mitochondrial lineages trace back to a common ancestor who lived in Africa 100,000 to 150,000 years ago. Some lineages migrated out of Africa about 60,000 years ago, while others remained.

  This map shows each of the major (backbone) maternal haplogroups’ paths out of Africa.

  The path that our ancestors took tells a story about human history. Testing your own and your relatives’ DNA can help you understand both the diversity and commonalities of your part of the human story.

  How many generations back does mitochondrial DNA testing trace?

  Mitochondrial DNA testing covers both recent and distant generations.

  To find connections in recent times, it is necessary to test multiple people who have suspected shared ancestry. This is done by careful examination of traditional genealogical records. Making connections with people in genealogical and historic interest groups can also be helpful.

  Matching on HVR1 means that you have a 50 percent chance of a common maternal ancestor within the last fifty-two generations. That is about 1,300 years. Matching on HVR1 and HVR2 means that you have a 50 percent chance of a common maternal ancestor within the last twenty-eight generations. That is about seven hundred years. Matching on the Mitochondrial DNA Full Genomic Sequence test brings your matches into more recent times. It means that you have a 50 percent chance of a common maternal ancestor within the last five generations. That is about 125 years.

  Mitochondrial DNA testing at Family Tree DNA also includes haplogroup testing. Your haplogroup represents your ancestral origins, tens of thousands of years ago.

  Why don’t I have low-resolution (HVR1) matches?

  You are the first person with your particular HVR1 sequence to be in our database. This can mean that your result is relatively rare and that, as a result, few people have it. It can also mean that no one else from your lineage has tested yet. The good news is that the database is constantly growing. The system will continue to search for matches whenever new results come in, and we will notify you by email when a new match arrives.

  Why don’t I have high-resolution (HVR1 and 2) matches?

  If you do not have HVR1 matches, you will not have HVR1 and HVR2 combined matches. This is because anyone who is a high-resolution match has the same HVR1 result and is by definition also a low-resolution match. You will not have high-resolution matches if you have not tested your HVR2 region, or if none of your low-resolution matches have tested the HVR2 region. Your HVR1 ma
tches who have tested HVR2 will have “(HVR2)” next to their names.

  As our database grows, the system will continue to look for high-resolution matches for you, and we will send you a notification email when a matching result comes into our database.

  Why do I have many mitochondrial DNA test matches?

  There are some result haplotypes that show a high number of matches. There are two possible explanations.

  Many people with the same results as your ancestors lived thousands or tens of thousands of years ago. The majority of their descendants carry their signature.

  A more recent common ancestor—within the last one or two thousand years—with this haplotype had many daughters who in turn had many daughters and so on, leading to you having many distant cousins.

  Increasing your testing level to the Mitochondrial DNA Full Genomic Sequence—the HVR1toMega or the HVR2toMega upgrade—will separate these two cases. This will allow you to focus on your relevant matches.

  Why am I matching both men and women?

  A mother passes on her mitochondrial DNA to both daughters and sons. Only daughters can pass it on to the next generation. Both men and women can take the mtDNA test. You will then match both men and women.

  Y-DNA

  What do I receive when I get tested for the Y-DNA at any of its levels?

  Y-DNA testing can confirm your genealogical connections on your direct paternal lineage and expand your understanding of your deepest paternal ancestral origins. Because your Y DNA has been passed on generation after generation by your direct paternal ancestors, it offers the most exact information possible for this line.