"Leyth Kabera Minen": There is Not Many of Us

I like to think that I know anything and everything about my culture…that’s not always the case though.

Recently, I was writing a speech for my public speaking class about my Chaldean heritage. I was looking up the places that are highly populated by Chaldeans. I mean I knew where we were located and whatever by the places that my cousins are in and random family members, but I never knew why or how many were in the states they were in.

So I hate to say it, but I did research.

I found out that there are no accurate numbers on how many Chaldeans are in the United States. And the reason behind that was because that the US Census doesn’t represent my culture.

So, second best would be estimation.

According to http://www.everyculture.com/, Chaldeans first major migration to the US was in 1910 and the state they chose was Michigan. At that time Michigan was booming because of the auto industry. So most Chaldeans just followed one another and that’s why today most Chaldeans are located in the Metro- Detroit area.

There is said to be only about 70,000 to 80,000 Chaldeans in the Metro-Detroit area. Other states like California, Arizona and Illinois have less than 2,000 to 3,000 Chaldeans at all.

I knew I was a dying race, (hence my blog title) but I never knew the exact number of Chaldeans in America. I would have at least guessed 500,000. I just never took the time to look my culture up.

No matter how much I know, I should always want to know more.

I never knew that I was so rare and special to this world. And yet I think back to elementary school where all I wanted to be was of European decent to just have blond hair and blue eyes.

It makes me thank God that I am different and have such a profound voice. I want to share my culture with everyone and just show a whole new world through my eyes. Maybe others of rare cultures can do the same to open up their eyes to how beautiful each and every one of us is beautiful.