John H. Sununu
Birth Name: John Henry Sununu
Place of Birth: Havana, Cuba
Date of Birth: July 2, 1939
Ethnicity: Arab [Palestinian, Lebanese], one quarter Greek
John H. Sununu is an American politician. A Republican, he was Governor of New Hampshire, from January 6, 1983 to January 4, 1989, Chair of the National Governors Association, from July 28, 1987 to August 9, 1988, White House Chief of Staff, from January 20, 1989 to December 15, 1991, and Chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party, from January 17, 2009 to January 22, 2011. He was New Hampshire’s first Arab-American governor.
He has described himself as “a third-generation American, a Lebanese American and an Arab American.”
John was born in Havana, Cuba, while his father was there on a business trip. He is the son of Victoria Dada Basiliadis and John Saleh Sununu, an international film distributor. His father was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, U.S., to Palestinian parents. His mother was born in San Vicente, El Salvador, of Lebanese and Greek descent. His parents were of the Orthodox religion, with roots in Jerusalem, Beirut, and Athens. John visited Beirut as a child in the late 1940s. He grew up in New York, and graduated from the La Salle Military Academy on Long Island.
John was married to Nancy (Hayes), until her death. The couple has eight children, including politician John E. Sununu (John Edward Sununu), who was a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Hampshire, from January 3, 1997 to January 3, 2003, and a U.S. Senator from New Hampshire, from January 3, 2003 to January 3, 2009; and politician, businessperson, and engineer Chris Sununu (Christopher Thomas Sununu), who has been Governor of New Hampshire, since January 5, 2017.
John speaks Spanish fluently.
John’s paternal grandfather was named Thomas/Tanas Sununu/Sununuhajjar.
John’s paternal grandmother was named Julia Johariah/Goohariah.
John’s maternal grandfather was Miguel Jorge Dada Tadros (the son of Jorge Dada and Justini Tadros).
John’s maternal grandmother was named Isabel/Elisabeta Vasiliadis/Basiliadis. Isabel was born in Athens, Greece.
Sources: https://www.nytimes.com
Obituary of John’s mother – https://www.nytimes.com
Well yeah certain Christian groups such as Armeanians, Assyrians, and others may not be considered Arab but most of them however are Arab Christians, Arabs who practice Christianity, whether it be Greek Orthodox, Catholic, etc.
Those are absolutely not Arabs
I’ve seen Christian Lebanese identifying as “Phoenicians”. Your opinion?
Well,Phoenicians technically don’t exist anymore, there are descendants but that’s it. If an Italian identified as Roman, it wouldn’t necessarily be wrong but romans don’t really exist anymore, just their descendants like Spaniards, Italians, Portuguese, and other romance peoples.
Well as a person who has known plenty of Levantine Christians (mostly Lebanese, I’m originally from Detroit), I can assure you they do consider themselves Arab and in fact are proud of that, So yeah, as Oaken 5 said, there are many Christians in the Arab World such are Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and many others.
Hey, neighbor (originally from Metro Detroit). There are certainly Arab Chrisitians who bristle at being called Arabs. Chaldeans do not like it, though it’s usually the older and more religiously devout ones. I’ve found they have this weird superiority complex, when no one else in this country sees them as anything but ethnically Arab.
But, yeah, in any case, almost all other groups define themselves as “Arab” in the larger concept of ethnicity in the U.S., regardless of their national origin or religion. So, I do not see any overriding reason to further separate out any other group from the larger ethnicity than maybe Chaldeans.
In any case, on this specific page, I do not doubt the Sununus describe themselves as Arab in the American ethnic context, especially since one half of that line appears to be Palestinian.
“Arabs of the Orthodox religion”. Good one.
What strikes you strange about that? It’s as descriptive as anything else on the site, and correctly so. There are different kinds of Christians in the Arab (Greek Orthodox, Chaldean Catholics, Maronites, Copts, etc) world just like anywhere else, and it’s how they self-identify and it’s helpful on a site that discusses ethnicity and various connected identites related to ethnicity.
To begin with, it’s rather controversial to associate the label “Arab” to Levantine Christians. That is kinda trolling, in fact they largely refuse to identify as such.
Christians from the Levant of any denomination are NOT Arabs and it should be stopped to use such term in this site.
Other thoughts?
Well as a person who has known plenty of Levantine Christians (mostly Lebanese, I’m originally from Detroit), I can assure you they do consider themselves Arab and in fact are proud of that, So yeah, as Oaken 5 said, there are many Christians in the Arab World such are Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and many others.
There are actually many Christians in Arab world who refuse to identify as “Arab”.