Mariana da Silva#147478Social Work and DevelopmentUniversity of ArubaCourse: Diversity and Social WorkAssignment: Family TreeLecturer: drs. Yolanda Richardson & Ronald Serrant, MAMarch 30th, 2018

Family Tree Reflection

My father, mother and I immigrated to Aruba from Curacao when I was one year old.

Reflecting back on the making of my family tree made me realized that I have formed my

identity from the different cultures and backgrounds present in my family, but also from living in

Aruba. Taking a look at identify from a sociological conception, according to Hall, it bridges the

gap between the personal and the public world of a person. “The fact that people project

themselves into different cultural identities, at the same time internalizing their meaning and

values, making it part of them, helps to align the subjective feelings with the objective places we

occupy in the social and cultural world”. I identify with this statement because, my identity was

formed from different aspects and features from different cultures and surrounding. According to

the article of Luc Alofs, “In the Caribbean, cultures do not disappear, they mix, they combine,

and they create new forms of culture, life style and identity”. I identify with this statement,

because I see that in my family and myself. The life style and identity that I have right now is a

mix of Portuguese culture, Dutch culture and Latin culture. Some key things are the celebration

of “Noche Buena”, “Sinterklaas”, eating signature dishes from these cultures. A family secret

that I have discovered in writing my family tree is that my grandmother from my dad side, was a

child born out of wedlock because my great-grandmother had a secret relationship with a married

man. My grandmother told me she had some contact with her father but not enough for a father-

daughter relationship to blossom. This was something I did not know and was surprised to have

discovered that.

Family Tree: