Darius Muniz
Professor Weber
ANT 11 Section 3201
May 7, 2009
Kinship
My Kinship Diagram will be focused on the matriarch of the muniz family, my Grandmother on my father’s side. Known as a very strong woman, educated, opinionated and politically motivated. My grandmother has always amazed me in her front porch meetings with politicians in Puerto Rico, to the way her voice was law among her children. I have also decided on her because my family tree has always been bits and pieces of an overall picture. This project gives me the perfect opportunity to shed some light on the once unknown and elusive family history. My family is distributed throughout the island of Puerto Rico, New York, New Jersey, and many parts of Florida. So with the help of as many sources that are available to me, since my grandmother is deceased, I will proceed with establishing her Kinship Diagram.
My grandmother was born in the 1920's in Puerto Rico and she was one of four brothers and three sisters. Details about her siblings are vague, but we do know that two out of the three girls are deceased (including my grandmother ) and two out of the four boys are deceased.
My grandmother was married twice and never divorced. First to my grandfather, which lasted for fifty nine years. This relationship began in Puerto Rico and led eventually to Brooklyn, N Y. This would set the stage for the emergence of the second generation, which includes my aunts and uncles. My grandmother’s second marriage was towards the end of her life after the death of my grandfather and was very short lived. Six months was the estimate I think and she passed forthwith. The Psychological implications behind her last minute taste of life are endless but we’ll stick with our anthropological point of view.
My grandmother had four children, one girl and three boys. The oldest, my aunt, was married twice and divorced once. She had two children with her first husband, who she was married to for fifteen years, then divorced. They resided mostly in New York and her first husband is currently deceased. ( divorce prior to death ) The two children from this marriage consist of a boy and a girl.
The girl( my cousin )was married twice and divorced once and from her current marriage, she has two boys. The boy( my cousin )was only married once and is currently still married to his wife. From this marriage there are three children, two boys and one girl.
The oldest of my uncles, is married once and is currently still married to her. They had one child, which was a girl. They resided mostly in Puerto Rico and their daughter is also married with one male child. All have relocated to parts of New York.
My second uncle was married three times and has been divorced three times. From his last marriage, they had two children, two boys. He resided originally in New York, then Puerto Rico, and eventually ended up in Florida.
My father was married twice and also divorced twice. He had two sons from his first marriage and two sons from his second marriage. From his first marriage, my oldest brother has one child and has never been married. He resided mostly in New York, Florida and Puerto Rico. My second half brother has five children, one girl and four boys, has never been married and resided mostly in New Jersey. My full brother has two children, one girl and one boy, has never been married and resided mostly in Puerto Rico, Florida, California, New York, and Arizona. Finally, I have two children, two girls, and have never been married. I resided mostly in New York, Florida and Puerto Rico, and California.
I mostly observed patterns in the areas of settlement and also in the area of divorce. All four generations stuck more or less to the original habitats of the ego. These included mostly Puerto Rico and New York. The second generation, which consists of my aunts and uncles, flourished in New York and all found mates and began families in this region. The second generation would all but one settle in Florida and the lone sibling would settle in Puerto Rico. The second generation also introduced a new habitat which will set the path for most of the third generation. This habitat was called Florida and would be among the now trio of places that the Muniz family would inhabit.
As far as I can tell, the first generation were committed to marriage and had no divorces. The second generation started a trend of failed marriages that led to divorce. Out of the four siblings, only one stayed married and among the other three there were six divorces. The third generation , out of nine of us there has been multiple children all around the board but only two marriages and one divorce. I observed that with second generation families that had divorce, third generation children have either ended up in divorce or having children out of wedlock.
In contrast, the second generation families that have stayed married, third generation children tended to also stay married. I observed that we are all creatures of habit and we tend to shape our lives toward previous generations and occasionally adding new trends for future generations to follow.
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