I’m from Long Island. The North-West tip of the region considered to be the North Fork. Otherwise known as “Peconic County.” This name is unofficial but we use it because we are elitists and feel as though our part of the Island is much better than the rest. I suppose if you asked a political proponent of the term he or she might tell you it is used because the region does not really bear resemblance to the rest of Suffolk County.
When I learn how to upload pictures… I will. I have a cool one of a rooster in the sky! That may sound strange but…

Anway, I think the point of this “About me” is to talk about my heritage.

My father is 100% mixed Italian. My last name (my grandfather’s name; DelliCarpini) means (basically) Little people of the town Capri. The “little” part comes from the diminutive “ini.” My grandmother’s maiden name (Martello) means hammer (so much for Italians in construction being a meaningless stereotype…..) My dad’s grandparents were first generation immigrants and spoke mostly Italian. They came to the US around the early 1900s. There is a sort of a rumor that the part of our family from Naples may have been part African (which was common to Naples because it is so far south.) My father’s father (my Grand Father) fought in WWII. My dad was stationed in Germany during the tail end of the Vietnam war…

My Mother’s heritage is a bit more complicated. Her father is supposedly 100% Irish. No one alive now really knows if this is true. His mother died a few years ago and toward the end of her life her daughters got it out of her that the 100% Irish theory is not necessarily factual. Anyway there is talk of Scottish, English and Welsh influence but I figure if it was good enough for all the members of my “Irish” family to say they were strictly Irish then its good enough for me. His father’s family came to the US around the early 1900s and his mother’s family was driven out by the Potato famine in the 1800s. I would imagine that the famine would be why his mother would deny any English blood in the family line. Anyway his father also fought in WWII. I have funny story about his military experience… During Vietnam he was in officer training camp in Augusta, Georgia where my Grandmother hated to live. They were young and my Grandmother had just gotten pregnant with my mother and so she wrote a letter to Bobby Kennedy (then senator of NY) begging him to honorably discharge my grandfather before he shipped out. Senator Kennedy obliged. We love the Kennedy family….
So my Mother’s mother is half Spanish and half Puerto Rican. Her father’s family came from the North of Spain, a region named Asturias, and went to Cuba in around 1910 before entering the US around the mid 20s (this was a common route for people from that region in Spain.) Her father was born in Spain. Her Mother (my great grandmother) was born in Puerto Rico and their family came here around the late 20s or early 30s when she was a young girl. My great grandmother’s father (Mother’s mother’s mother’s father) was from Spain, the shore of Barcelona to be exact, and we are not positive when he went to Puerto Rico where he met my great grandmother’s mother. My great grandmother’s mother was Puerto Rican. Puerto Rican is not a simple term, however. Since my great grandmother and her siblings all resembled native Puerto Rican Islanders we assume that her mother was mostly native Puerto Rican. But the Caribbean is generally a big mix of Native Islanders and Spanish settlers or conquerors and Africans.

So where does this leave me?
Well, 50% Italian, 25% Irish, 12.5% Spanish and 12.5% Puerto Rican. But really that 12.5% PR is 6.25% Spanish and 6.25% PR and that 6.25 %PR is…. well I could go on forever, not to mention the questionable Irish-ness and Italian-ness.

On a separate note I am currently volunteering at a cat shelter. So if you live in one of the boroughs and you need a cat… you know where to find me. (You probably don’t.)