Saturday, March 31, 2007

I am from Spain. . . And I am Catholic!

Visiting the relatives in Massachusetts this week. Hung out with Aunt Abbie. She's 87 now. . . we're 20 years out from when she took me to see 'Follow That Bird' with my cousin Heather who evidently just had twins and is married to a Hebrew teacher.

Anyhow, Aunt Abbie's actually been tracking down the heretofore unknown Pava Geneology that is half of who I guess I is bloodline-wise.

Here is what she found out:
  • The Pava family actually came from SPAIN. We actually immigrated to RUSSIA only after the INQUISITION
    • Evidently pre-inquisition, we Pavas started out CATHOLIC, but thought Jewish folks were more fun so we CONVERTED
    • After the Inquisition kicked in, the Pavas were given the following options instead of being KILLED outright
      • Convert back to Catholicism
      • Leave Spain forever
    • So we took the nice Inquisitors up on their offer of banishment and headed to RUSSIA right around the time Columbus was discovering America
  • The name PAVA means peacock in Spaniard. We were given that name because we were cuz we were proud and outspoken about how fun being Jewish was, and refused to be humbled back into Catholicism . . . something like that.
I'm getting this half right. . . but it does explain why me and the Genius (also a Spaniard) are so close. . . and why fun might be in my blood.

Mazeltov and Ariba. Something like that. . .

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