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Howdy, My name is Noel Melendez, I am 18 years old and am currently living in El Paso Texas. I am a Melendez from Puerto Rico and i have a situation similar to yours. Both of my grandfathers were in the Army and dont talk much about were they came from. My grandfather on my fathers side (Melendez) now has alzheimers so all of my information is through research and just plane luck. From what ive gathered the Melendez house started in the Austria Hungary region and were a group of brave nights. They aided a spanish lord in his journey from there regian to his homeland of Spain and then settled in the region. Thats one story ive come across. Another story is that Melendez was the name of a Visigoth (barbarian if you will) who was a tenacios leader in the sacks of Rome. The Visigoths were the only people who had ever done that. The visigoth tribe also came from the Ausrtia region so im pretty sure the Melendez family comes from that region. A lot of famous artists came from the Melendez family along with a lot of soldiers and Warriors. It hasnt been confirmed, but im pretty sure that when the Spanish started there conquests of the new world the Melendez family settled in regions of Puerto Rico and Mexico.
As for Puerto Rico, the tiny island nation was first inhabited by the Taino tribe of native Americans who were a very interesting group of people. Again they are skilled warriors. I read of a story were the Spanish first tried to enslave the people, and one warrior whos cannoe had tipped of shot arrows into the spanish while at the same time swimming. A very proud people. They had a theocracy involving high priests. They have stories and beliefs much like the christians and most every other society about the origin of themselves and the world. But since they werent Christians the Spanish tortured, killed and raped our proud people aside from the few that converted, and the great amount that were the illegitimate children of horney conquestadors. The spanish made our people there slaves, but the spanish brought diseases with them that wiped out even more of the Taino, so the spanish brought over the Africans, mostly from the nigeria region. The three cultures mixed and eventually made a group of people in one nation, Us, the Puerto Ricans. The Spanish treated us like every other country they conquered. Those of pure spanish decent were on the top, every one else wasnt. Those of Pure castillian desent sat and watchd as the others picked sugar cane and worked other hard labours. Even though the taino religion was almost wipped out of existance, some of the natives seeked refuge in the hills and mountains in Puerto rico,so if yu look real hard you might be able to find small village even today, and there are lots of ruins and evedence of them. The Africans that came however never lost there religion. Today the religion of Lukumi and other relgions still live strong. The religion of Santeria is an African religion based on faith in the Saints. It is not a belief in many Gods as many people think, but even though the Africans were beaten and killed until they hid there religion or converted.
All of these beliefs make us who we are, and we are proud of it. We as a people suffered a great deal but we did fight, die fighting, or know when it was smarter not to fight. We are the best of every people because we are every people. Those alive today are those who were strong enough not to die and smart enough to live. We are those who make every one else jelous and green with envy (if you find yourself specially prey to envy get an asabache).
If you have any questions please dont hesitate to contact me, i believe my e-mail is attatched to this. Take care and God Bless
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