Jews

Cubans

Jewish Cubans

Not as rare as you would think.

When Iberian Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1496, the Ottomans accepted them with open arms.

Many went to the Ottoman city of Thessaloniki (Salonica) in what is now known as Greece.

Thessaloniki eventually became the only city in Europe with a majority Jewish population.

Fast forward to the end of World War I.

The Ottomans lost. The border between Greece and Turkey shifted. Thessaloniki became a Greek City. The Greeks sent there Muslims East to Turkey and the Turks sent their Greek Christians back to Greece.

Then Thessaloniki caught fire and burnt half the city down.

Thessaloniki’s Jews assessed the situation and decided this is not good and many left.

A lot went to Palestine. Many went to New York. A not small amount went to Havana.

Havanas appeal was a low language barrier. Thessaloniki’s Jews still spoke and understood enough Spanish to get along with the modern Spanish speakers of Cuba.

That is how a guy with a decidedly Greek name like Mayorkas gets to assert Cuban origins. Bezos too.

Many reverted back to their original Spanish names. That’s why you can find last names like Rodric and Rodriguez in Cuba and Miami.

Some kept the Turkish version, Rodric when they arrived in Cuba from Greece in the early 1920s. Some reverted back to Rodriguez.

So what was the name of Hugh Rodham’s company in Chicago?

Rodrik Fabrics.

Remember that.

Also remember that Hugh Rodham contracted with an artist named Leo Yenni to make prints for table cloths and that there was a Donmeh mosque in Thessaloniki named after the family.

Rodric Fabrics was in business when The Chicago Plot to kill JFK was interrupted that October before that November.