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Traditionally our family history has always been passed down orally; unfortunately as our elders die,and families move away from each other our history is forgotten.
For me family history was kept alive by my mother. she was very close to her grandparents and always interested in history as a child. She listened, questioned and memorized the details of our history that were given to her. As my siblings and I grew older she'd share the knowlegdge with us and our cousins. She felt it was important not to forget our history.
Originally this project was done with the intention of it being the basis for my Masters Thesis. I wanted to trace one family's immigration and its effect on the the original immigrants and the generations that followed. But as I got into the project and discussed it with younger family memebers it pained me to realize that we had entire sections of our family that knew nothing of our history!
It was then that I decided to post this project on the internet so that I could share it with the family members that are scattered all over the United States.
It is my hope that this page will not only prove benefical in introducing our family history to our current generation but
to preserve it for future generations as well.
I still intend to use this as my thesis project, so it is still a work in progress and will probably several years before it is actually completed.
In the meantime enjoy what is here and learn from it.
A Few Paragraphs Of Acknowledgement:
To my parents Magda Quiles Suarez and William Suarez
My mother for doing the grunt work. Gracias for spending hours researching verifying the information she knew and digging up stuff we never knew. For reaching out to both sides of the family and requesting their cooperation in getting this project together.
My father for his encouragement and the photos of my great great grandmother,and great grandparents. My father is another one with great pride in being a Boricua. He flies the Puerto Rican flag year round not just when it's time for the parade.
I also must thank my parents for never letting us forget where we came from despite them being born and raised in New York. They never had an interest in assimilating instead they were proud of their culture and identity as a Boricuas and instilled in my siblings and myself the same pride.
Thank you for giving me the gift of visualization and pride.
To my late grandmother Delia Quiles because it was her that instilled the Boricua pride within my mother.
She exposed her to people and events throughout her life and that strengthened her pride at a time when being a Boricua in NY was met with racisim and sterotyping.
To my cousin Nyoka Acevedo for planting the seed. Niki has been saying for years we should do a family tree. Her desire to know about our family inspired this project.
Thanks Niki!
I'd like to thank my great aunt Guillermina Romero and cousin Rosemarie Romero for their valuable assistance in putting this page together.
Titi Mina provided the birthdates and birthplaces of deceased family members enabling me to go back and research census records and town records. Rosemarie sifted through family photo albums, scanning the majority of photos used on this site, contacting current generation members to verify birthdates and distributing a family questionnaire so we could document all the info we have here.
To my grandfather Ramon Quiles for sitting so patiently and going over his family history in great detail and understanding why I wanted to do this.
To my grandparents Josefa and William Suarez for being the keepers of the flame in our family and putting me in touch with the eldest member enabling me to get so much previously unknown information.My grandfather William also inspired me to take this project with his stories on literally having to fight for acceptance in New York. His stories and the stories of other family members are on this page as well.
If you're a family member and have some additional info I can add here please feel free to
Contact Me and let me know.
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