Olivier Amiel is a doctor of law and former deputy mayor of Perpignan.
It is one of the most watched morning shows in the United States: "
Live with Kelly and Ryan
" has changed its name several times but has been in existence since 1975.
During its edition on October 7, the two presenters announce from the New York studio of the WABC-TV channel the name of the winner of the “
Live's Healthcare Hero
” which rewards an everyday hero from the medical community for his dedication during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In partnership with a credit company, the prize awarded by the show is assistance of $ 100,000 to repay a student loan in a country where the average cost of a year in college is $ 50,000.
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The winner is a nurse from Brooklyn who works in the intensive care unit at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York.
The first member of his family to have studied at university, he was rewarded for having worked tirelessly during the peak of the epidemic in his establishment.
He is also the co-founder of the
Greater New York City Black Nurses Association,
which works to bridge the gap between the African-American community and the medical system (establishment of a program of health education for families in schools in poor neighborhoods, collection and distribution of drugs and shopping for the elderly, prevention of opioid overdoses among young people, screening programs, etc.).
He also volunteered to lend a hand to Texas caregivers in cities bordering Mexico particularly affected by the virus.
It has therefore often been customary to give the name of the city where people come from, so where they no longer live.
Despite the altruism of this rewarded nurse on the other side of the Atlantic, there is no reason that this information calls out to France except for the name of the winner: Jose (pronounce Joe-Z) Perpignan, like the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales .
After some research we discover that less than 500 people in the world have the same surname as the city, with only 155 in France and 174 in the United States.
The problems of homonymy and the risk of confusion of people led from the Middle Ages to the development of a second name - called "family" - in order to better differentiate individuals.
We often find a combination of first names, sometimes modified with an affix, or a reference to the particularities of the individual: his physical characteristics, his profession or his city of birth.
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It has often been customary to give the name of the city where people come from, so where they no longer live.
This is why we find a majority of Mr. or Mrs. Perpignan in territories close to the Catalan city as in Occitania or New Aquitaine but with a concentricity that recedes over the centuries until crossing the ocean. for the United States of America…
An American Mr. Perpignan therefore necessarily had an ancestor so named because he "came from" the city of Perpignan.
It can be a question of a distant ancestry linked in particular to the colonization of New France (Acadia, Louisiana, part of Canada) between the XVIth and the XVIIIth Century before the territory was ceded to Great Britain.
Since American independence, by consulting the archives, we can see that only three “Monsieur Perpignan” have officially emigrated to the New World.
More recently since American independence, by consulting the archives, we see that only three “
Monsieur Perpignan
” have officially emigrated to the New World.
We do not have the first name of the first who joined Philadelphia on April 24, 1820 on the ship "La Hermione" (which could not be the famous military frigate "
L'Hermione
" sunk in 1793) from Bordeaux.
But by cross-checking in the archives in relation to the age of the migrant, we come across a possible Etienne Auguste Perpignan used to crossings of the Atlantic Ocean before his arrival in Pennsylvania each time from Bordeaux: in 1792 to Saint Thomas in the Islands virgins of the United States which includes a French linguistic isolate, and in 1793 to Haiti which was then the French colony of Santo Domingo.
In addition to the fact that the family of this third Mr. Perpignan seemed to be settled in the south-west of France, the frequent trips to the Caribbean from the Gironde can be interpreted twice: either in a dark way given the important place of the the slave trade that Bordeaux was at the time with frequent landings in the French possessions in America, especially in Santo Domingo.
Or in a glorious way since we find the trace of an Etienne Auguste Perpignan in the military archives linked to the American War of Independence in which he could have participated a few years earlier on behalf of the Kingdom of France.
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Two named François (father and son?) Disembarked in New York from Le Havre in 1924. The first, 25 years old, arrived on September 2 on board the liner "
La Savoie
", the second, old. age 59, a month later on board the liner "
De Grasse
".
The two ships belonged to the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, ambassador of luxury and "French taste".
This does not necessarily indicate the social class of our two migrants because after demobilization this company has removed from some of its boats the first class and pre-war luster.
On the other hand, it is admitted that between 1820 and the 1950s, France represented a very small contingent of European migrations in the United States compared to Great Britain for historical reasons, but especially compared to countries like Ireland. or Italy for economic and social reasons.
At that time, the reason for the departure of the French to the United States was also often considered to be more linked to the economic situation across the Atlantic which would be attractive (the
American Dream
) than to that of France which was not. sorry to the point of leaving her.
Between 1820 and the 1950s, France represented a very small contingent of European migrations in the United States compared to Great Britain
Only a very thorough genealogical study could perhaps provide a precise answer on Mr. Perpignan our American cousin.
Contacted after the awarding of his prize, Jose Perpignan explains that he has always wanted to know more about this French city from which he bears the name and that he tries with his family to find out more about his ancestors even if the information are hard to find.
The courageous nurse of 2020 may have an ancestry from New France or linked to one of the three “
Monsieur Perpignan
” who emigrated to the United States after the country's independence ... But even if this is not the case, the various hypotheses are the occasion to evoke this particular historical bond between our two nations since centuries.
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Above all, the most important thing is to be able, through a roundabout way, to highlight the voluntarism of one of these many American caregivers, heroes in the face of the pandemic, who thinks that a second wave of the Covid is inevitable with the winter season conducive to influenza, but who hopes that it will be less virulent in a State which has paid the heaviest price in the country with nearly 33,000 deaths, or as much as in all of France: "
we pray that it does not come back to this point
”testifies Jose Perpignan from New York.