Dear Arturo:
I finally had a moment to sit down and review page 29 in the Most Recent Common Ancestry and ancestry in medicine. Just wanted to say thanks for pointing out the page on the percentages with that nifty color-coded map and the other medical article. It is important to let everyone know how much your race or make-up thereof is to your medical history. Certain diseases and how the body is treated or reacts to different races or even sexes can mean the difference of life or death. This may be the single most important reason to know your family history. I even have a database in my genealogy software that calculates what percentage of people died from what cause and also the percentage of ages at death.
My husband had a medical emergency this winter. He does not look Hispanic, as he is light-skinned and the only thing that gives his nationality away is his name. He does look American Indian with high cheekbones and the slender facial features similar to what I have seen in the Navajo tribe. We knew through oral family history, that the family may have had Indian ancestors and recently some of the documents I have uncovered points to this. Anyway it was important that the medical personnel knew he was of Hispanic descent as it sometimes makes a difference in what medications which would have better effect or negative effects on the Hispanic population. This is true for all races, so maybe saying I am Irish-American is not such a bad idea after all! We had a debate on this a month or so ago and being just American or American and something else. Eventually we may well intermix, so that there will be only one race and thus no one can point fingers, do racial profiling and discrimination through race may be a thing of the past. Imagine...yes I am a 60's child, can you tell? By the looks of it though, the Hispanics have a jump on the Heinz 57 perfectly blended world!