Next time you read Don Quixote or hear Quixotic, just think he was "Jewish" (converso), like most probably Cervantes himself. Then a lot of things about the novel as an art form start to make sense.

Btw, you look totally Jewish to me. What you don't look at all is Ashkenazi. But that's a completely different story, the fact that the Ashkenazi experience has become *the* Jewish experience. If you want to be surrounded by pale-skinned brunettes looking exactly like you, just go to Southern Spain. We have so much Jewish (Sephardic) blood running through our veins you would stop looking Other and become "family".

So you look Jewish. You are also quite beautiful, and sexy as hell wearing a monocle. Just be glad you're not ugly. Now that is a tribe you do not want to belong to.

BTW, you have a twin, a girl I used to know named Sharona Schlein. Now she was Jewish. And absolutely stunning. Hell of a poet too.

Ion -- I am actually going to Spain for my honeymoon but haven't made any specific plans yet -- any suggestions for places we can go? I love Sephardic melodies and would love to go places where Sephardic musicians are.

I'm also interested in the observation that the American Jewish experience is almost exclusively Ashkenazic and that many Sephardic Jews therefore feel excluded. I'm sorry for my part in that, though I hope you'll be happy to know that in my novel-in-progress, which follows an Ashkenazic Jew as he comes to terms with what it means to him to be Jewish, there's at least an acknowledgment of Sephardic traditions, specifically some of the differences regarding what is prohibited during Passover.

Cheshire,
I'm sorry if I implied that the Ashkenazic voluntarily excluded the Sephardic Jews. Sometimes things just happen: in 1900 only one tenth of Jews all over the world were Sephardim, and crucial events for the Jewish people in the 20th century were things affecting primarily the Ashkenazim: the emigration to the Americas to create new communities in the US but also in Argentina and México; the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel in the late forties and fifties. I happen to be more interested in the Sephardic experience because of my Spanish origins. The history of the tens of thousands of Jews that converted in the 15th century and stayed in Spain after 1492 is an extremely interesting, complicated and paradoxical one. You can't really say it's part of the history of the Jewish people and at the same time modern antisemitism, based on "race" and not religion or culture was born in Spain in the sixteenth century.

As for places to go in Spain, I would recommed Toledo, Córdoba (it has a synagogue from the 13th century, restored in the 19th) and my hometown, Seville: the oldest remaining part of the city is from the 11th century, la Judería (the Jewry). The progroms of 1381 destroyed many of the jewries all over Spain, and centuries of the Inquisition erased whatever it was left, but here and there and in surprising places you can find remnants. I don't know of any festival devoted to Sephardic music, but if you go to these places you may be lucky to find concerts and events. They are not that common but not too rare either.

I pretty much fit the stereotype:
Dark, curly hair, not tall, bookish, more than occasionally kevetchish . . .

I'm a lawyer and my brother is a doctor, the high school we went to was 90% Jewish, as a result I occasionally slip out with Yiddish slang . . .my mother can completely obliterate self-esteem in two minutes . . .all except for one thing - I'm not actually Jewish! Though people just often assume I am.

I think my colouring comes from being part Mexican and part Scot. I lived with a Jewish woman for 9 years. I suppose I have a fairly good amount of insight into the culture for a Goy. That's not to say I know what being Jewish is like. Though I have even once in a while heard slightly anti-semitic comments behind my back from people like co-workers who assumed I was Jewish (try bringing up a cost-saving idea at a staff meeting!) On other occasions, the assumption has probably helped me a little - I've had Jewish co-workers and professors who seemed a bit more friendly or to cut me just a little more slack than average. At least that was my perception.

Well - in any case, you're a beautiful woman - juding from the photos you have posted here. I actually assumed you were Latina - given the name of your weblog and being from L.A. Ah . . . the assumtions we make!

Ion,
While my mother's side is Ashkenazi and very mutt-y (Austrian, Russian, Polish, etc.), my father's side is purebred Sephardic. They left Spain during the Inquisition (if you're interested, there's a lot of Chicha folklore about this time period), and settled in Northern Africa, were they were assimilated by the French. Then, after the Algerian War, they relocated to France; so, in terms of citizenship, I'm French (and American), but, in terms of genetic heritage, I'm much more likely Spanish.

speaing of belonging to the ugly tribe... I just checked out Cheshires site.

Hmm...I'm pretty sure that wasn't a compliment.

Barnswallow, I have no idea in hell what you're talking about.

Hum, "Chicha", that's an interesting last name. I don't think it's related at all, but in Spain at least, "chicha" is also used as "intellectual substance", as in that "that article has a lot of 'chicha'" or "that book has no 'chicha' at all". So "Cup of chicha" has another meaning for Spanish ears... a very appropriate description, I would say, of your blog.