Share
BEVERLY HILLS — House Speaker Paul Ryan was surprised and proud to find out he has Jewish roots.
The Wisconsin Republican discovered his family history while filming a segment for the upcoming season of the PBS series “Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr.”
Show Explores Roots of Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard, Too
Also featured on the show’s fifth season debuting in January is Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii.
Gates said he chose Ryan because he was fascinated by him and not his politics. He picked Rubio because he wanted to include a Cuban and Gabbard because of her Pacific ancestry.
“Her genome looks like the rainbow coalition because it’s Asian and European and African and it’s beautiful,” he said.
Rubio’s history was traced to his fifth great-grandparents born in Italy and on his father’s side his seventh great-grandparents born in the Canary Islands, off the northwest coast of Africa.
Gates’ wife, Marial Iglesias Utset, is a Cuban historian and she had her graduate students research Rubio’s history in addition to hiring people in Cuba to find his family tree in parish churches.
“It was like a challenge, an intellectual challenge for me,” Gates said.
Gates said his purpose in doing the show is to deconstruct race and show how racism manifests itself in the current anti-immigrant feeling in the United States.
“We’re all immigrants. We’re all mixed up,” he said. “When the lights came down, everybody was sleeping with everyone else.”
Republican US House Committee Releases Thousands of Epstein Files
3 hours ago
They Were Convicted of Gang Crimes. New CA Supreme Court Rulings Trim Their Sentences
4 hours ago
US Congress Returns, With One Month to Avert Government Shutdown
5 hours ago
Trump Says His Administration Will Ask Supreme Court for Expedited Ruling on Tariffs
6 hours ago
Trump Says He’s Committed to Sending National Guard Troops to Chicago
6 hours ago
Fresno Police Arrest Teen After Traffic Stop Leads to Foot Chase, Firearm Recovery
6 hours ago
Trump Dismisses Rumors He Is in Ill Health, Calls Them ‘Fake’
6 hours ago
Fresno Man Caught With 1,500 Fentanyl Pills Sentenced to Five Years
3 hours ago
Categories

Fresno Man Caught With 1,500 Fentanyl Pills Sentenced to Five Years

California Jury Clears Pop Star Cardi B of Assault Allegations in Civil Lawsuit

Republican US House Committee Releases Thousands of Epstein Files

They Were Convicted of Gang Crimes. New CA Supreme Court Rulings Trim Their Sentences
