Quotes About Heritage

Her land was warn and this land was cold, but this cold land became her land, and its ways, her ways, because she could recall no others. Only the pride she kept, the heritage which was somehow part of her bones and could not desert her.

She was right. After all, if she herself had wondered whether she was Indian enough -- she, who had always been to me a sort of epitome of Indian -- then who could be? Who could claim the sole right or way to an identity?

But maybe...maybe you have to know where you come from, and what you are, before you run away to become something new.

By the standards of the European industrial world we are poor peasants, but when I embrace my grandfather I experience a sense of richness as though I am a note in the heartbeats of the very universe.

By the standards of the European industrial world we are poor peasants, but when I embrace my grandfather I experience a sense of richness as though I am a note in the heartbeats of the very universe. He is no towering oak tree with luxurious branches growing in a land on which Nature has bestowed water and fertility, rather he is like the sayal bushes in the deserts of the Sudan, thick of bark and sharp of thorn, defeating death because they ask so little of life.

Bloody footprints staggering through this palace Generation to generation.

To destroy other people's culture is to rob them of immortality.

Tohono O'odham Nation chairman Ned Norris Jr. explained. "We feel very strongly that this particular wall will desecrate this area forever. I would compare it to building a wall over your parents' graveyards. It would have the same effect.

relies of the past. But the lovely Piedmontese must

My sense of the family history is somewhat sketchy, because my mother kept a great deal to herself.

The stewardess stopped beside their seats then and introduced herself. "I'm a full-blooded Apache Indian," she told them. "Barbara Slater is my American name and I was educated in public schools." She slipped into the empty seat beside Di. "My Indian name is too long to remember. So won't you please just call me Babs?

How does knowing where we are from inform who we are now?

Etsuko was given the name Esther by her teacher, Mr. Slater, on her first day of school. "It's his mother's name," she explained. To which we replied, "So is yours.

and at that point the church quietly articulated these words, which tell us something of the secret of old buildings: 'The worse I am threatened, the lovelier I become.

Eddy, Vita's cousin. Even better, if Vita herself had been born

Esta danza recibe el nombre de «Alegría de los famas».

Tus nociones sobre la verdad y la bondad son puramente históricas, se fundan en una ética heredada. Pero la historia y a ética me parecen a mí altamente dudosas.

momma help me turn the face of history to your face. - Getting Down To Get Over - Dedicated To My Mother

She's applying her lipstick; I've always believed that the universe invented the color red solely for Latinas.

Run a hand through your hair, like the white boys do, even though the only thing that runs easily through your hair is Africa.

I mean, shit, what Latino family doesn't think it's cursed?

My African roots made me what I am today. They're the reason I'm from the Dominican Republic. They're the reason I exist at all. To these roots I owe everything.

The next day at breakfast he asked his mother: Am I ugly? She sighed. Well, hijo, you certainly don't take after me. Dominican parents! You got to love them!

She was one of those golden mulatas that French-speaking Caribbeans call chabines, that my boys call chicas de oro; she had snarled, apocalyptic hair, copper eyes, and was one whiteskinned relative away from jaba.