One of my great grandfathers was a pacifist born in Ukraine in the 1890s. He was a poor farmer and a hard core pacifist. When he was drafted into a war he injured himself rather than fight. He had a close friend who was dying of disease, who gave him his name and passport so he could flee to the US.

He kept his friend's name for the rest of his life to keep his memory alive. And at least one child has had that name in every generation of his descendants.

Idk even know how to explain my mom's side. She had a lot of internalized racism so she would never tell me about her super cool taino ancestors (her bruja bisabuela lived to over 100 and I met her). Instead my mom emphasized her french and spanish ancestory. She wouldn't even teach me spanish.

Thankfully she overcame her internalized racism before she passed away, but she never got around to telling me much more about her family.

My colombian family is cool but I've never been able to get close to them due to the language barrier. My spanish is so bad. I hated my stepdad when I was a kid. He was always trying to get me to "man up." Ironically, once I came out he was super supportive. But we're still not close.

He was like "oh! That makes sense why you err um. Well you know a lot of transsexuals would come to the family pharmacy back in colombia, you know for the estrogen, and they were friends with me when I was a young man. I gave them their shots. You're going to be a beautiful woman. I'm proud of you."