Boza

(Father's mother's father)

Aunt B learned that the name comes from a drink sold on the streets in Istanbul, Turkey in the winter called Boozaa, and the places where you'd go to drink it. The drink itself is made of bulgher or millet and yogurt, and is supposed to be a little tart, a little sweet, not really very alcoholic, and extremely popular in the Ottoman Empire for strengthening people through the cold. There are recipes for making it and it's sold in bottles, and it's apparently one of those iconic drinks that come from a specific area.

Our name comes from Turkey. I wonder if we're actually Turkish on that side? This is especially interesting as my sister was born in Istanbul, we thought quite randomly, while we were travelling when I was a kid, and it sort of is a full circle for her, if we are!

Other new info:

We're definitely related to this one Armenian actor that was married to Barbara Eden for a short while in the 70s; the Armenian relative idea is less strange than it was before we knew about the Turkish connection.

In Cuba, where Papa's from, there was an attempted revolution organized in part by one Commandant Boza in the Cuban Army, held at the house of one Dolores Boza, and fought by several other Bozas and related families. They wanted to get the Spaniards out of Cuba, and fought for a time, than gave it up as a lost cause-- they didn't lose. My dad thinks this is interesting because it brings in the ideas of who is responsible for the rise of Castro-- who did he draw inspiration form? Was it our family? And what does that mean? And does it connect us to, say Che Guevara? To any of the other Western-Hemisphere Hispanic revolutionaries?