When you search for your origins you’re most often surprised. Whatever the surprise is, it is interesting and you will want to search and learn more.
I always knew that my family, on my father’s side, had come from Spain. It was the only information I had. When I started looking for my ancestors, I found that they came from Valencia. I’ve been to Valencia but found no record of my grandfather, who according to his death certificate had been born there. The obvious reason, I thought, was that my grandfather probably was born in some small town in the Valencian Community. I tried to find out, using a map, the city which he was be born, I found nothing and to this day I don’t know where he was born.
Looking for cities in the Valencian Community, the surprise I had, you see, was to find a city with my name: Alzira. This town, was for a long time, because of Franco, called Alcira, but recently when the Valencian Community decided to go back to using the Valencian as a language, the name reverted to the name that has always had: Alzira.
Many women in my family traditionally are named Alzira, which is not a very common name, so when I found the town of Alzira, felt that there was a strong bond with me and decided to visit the city with my name.
The town of Alzira is small, with a strong Arabic influence, the Moors. That’s because Spain was from the 8 century (701-800) to the 15 century (1401-1500) largely dominated by Arabs until they were finally expelled in 1492 by the Catholic Kings. The area of Spain ruled by the Arabs was part of the independent Emirate of Cordoba, called Al-Andalus.
Many of the Arabic words begin with the prefix al, which is the In English. For example: Al-Jazīrah, mean The Island. Several words in Arabic started in al are part of the vocabulary of many languages. See for example: algebra, alcohol, algorithm among others.
When I visited the town of Alzira, felt at home. I immediately identified with the arid soil, with the huge road of Palm trees and I started to like my name even more.
Now I see that my name with an Arab influence, but from a Christian family, is the typical example of the battles that Arabs and Spaniards fought for many centuries. The tradition and celebration of these battles continue until today, mainly in the cities of the Valencian Community where the festivities are called moros y cristianos (Moors and Christians). I want to talk more about these celebrations but, I’ll leave it to another opportunity.
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