Leslie Mateus

As mentioned before, I was born in America, but all of my older siblings, older cousins, and just family grew up in Africa. My father grew up in Angola and he had a pretty herd time growing up. Due to the constant war between Angola a Portugal, my dad had a rough childhood. His father being part of a military faction died along with his mother when he was just a child. He grew up with his younger and older siblings trying to get by in life, but many years later he met my mother and her family in Congo; they fell in love then got married; my father had already three children from past relationships, but once he brought them in from having some of his sister’s take care of them, they lived very happily with my mother, just as if they were her own children. My family was actually pretty wealthy in Africa being in the diamond business, so when political issues got a little rocky in Angola, he didn’t hesitate to bring his family, and my mother’s family to America, and it was easier for the due to their wealth. Sadly, due to some reasons they couldn’t bring my grandmother, so I have never met her face to fact, but because of that one of my aunts stayed with her in Africa to this day. My family settled in America and more babies were born which started the first generation of our families true Americans; some of the family dispersed; one went to Germany, one to France, another to Canada, but we are all still connected by blood and love. I grew up eating lots of traditional African foods, and I grew up listening to 4 different languages in the house; there was English of course, but Lingala, Portuguese, and French as more fluent languages, and even sometimes a little Spanish. I didn’t however pick up on all those languages, but I do know French fluently due to school and speaking at home, and I am picking up now on the Portuguese and Lingala; I am not quite ready for the Spanish yet. I know that this is a lot, but it is nowhere near the full story. I may be the first generation, but I know there will be many more to come!