Sunday, April 30, 2006

Who Have We Married ?


I think people with roots going back to the former Dutch East Indies have the most diversity- long before "diversity" became a popuplar sociopolitical term. It is reflected in our patterns of marriage. Whether they are a totok (pure Dutch), an Indo (Dutch-Indonesian mix) or any other European-Asian mix or even the Blanda Hitam (African) they sure do know how to make the world go round so-to-speak. Just in my circle we have married Jews, French-Vietnamese, African-American, French, Chinese-Indonesians, Norwegian-Americans, Italian. Other families I know of have married Puerto-Ricans, Lebanese, East Indian, Mexican, Native American. The Dutch East Indies in its hay-day was a microcosm of a United Nations. Please share your stories of the rich diversity of this legacy.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's ours:

My husband- Norwegian-American
Sister's husband- Irish-American
Sister's husband- German-American
Sister's husband- Iranian
Brother's fiancee-Chinese-Irish-American

They all like our food too!

Anonymous said...

Hi Bianca,

Love your blog! Just one little detail: the term for 'pure-blooded' or 'pure Dutch' is 'totok'.

talk to you soon,

Griselda

Anonymous said...

I too am a Dutch-Indoni and have dated many races. I have been lost in this here USA. Have gone back to Europe and tried to live in Austria and other places in Europe. Now want to try Hawaii. Hopefully, there I will find peace.

Anonymous said...

I found Hawaii to be very welcoming and peaceful. Having the island look myself I have been to Greece and been mistaken for Greek, mistaken for a local in Hawaii, a Mexican in San Francisco, an Italian and also African American as well. People don't know where to place us. Only one time did someone guess that I was Dutch Indonesian and that was a stranger that walked up to me and said Dutch Indonesian right away. He told me that I looked like all of his cousins. It's a small world after all. He ended up being the nephew of my father's business partner.

Anonymous said...

I am Dutch Indonesian and married an american with the name Holland. Go figure.