In a recent episode of PBS's Finding Your Roots, Sunny Hostin, co-host of The View, was surprised to discover that her ancestors may have been involved in the slave trade. Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. revealed to Hostin that she is only 7% Puerto Rican indigenous, contrary to her previous assumption that she was half Puerto Rican. The shocking revelation came when researchers discovered that Hostin's third great-grandfather, Fermín, was the son of a merchant likely involved in the slave trade. Fermín himself owned at least one enslaved person. This discovery traced Hostin's ancestry back to Galicia, Spain, revealing her family ties to Spain's colonial past.
Hostin expressed shock at the information but also saw it as an opportunity to share this newfound knowledge with her children. Her husband, Emmanuel "Manny" Hostin, also has shared roots with Spanish and Haitian ancestry. Hostin believes it is important for her children, Paloma and Gabriel, to learn about their family history, including the uncomfortable truths of their ancestors' involvement in the slave trade.
