A "natural" person has outstanding ancestors
The term prosapia , which has its etymological origin in the Latin language, refers to the lineage of an individual. The prosapy of a human being is given by his ancestry : that is, by his ancestors .
Outstanding lineage
All people have ancestors , even when they don't know who they are: parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. In this sense, there is always a prosapia. However, the notion is generally used when that ancestry is aristocratic or illustrious .
Therefore, when it is said that someone is “de prosapia” or has a “de prosapia” surname, reference is being made to their outstanding lineage. This implies that, in the ascending line, it is possible to find powerful or recognized personalities in your family .
Take the case of Eugenia de Chikoff (1919-2014). This Argentine, a teacher of protocol and famous for teaching good manners on television, was the daughter of the Count of Chikoff , a Russian aristocrat. Thanks to the social and economic position of his relatives, he traveled to Germany , England and France to study and then returned to Argentine territory. It can be said that Eugenia de Chikoff was a woman of prosapia.
Money does not make prosapia
Generally prosapia goes beyond money . If a man wins a million dollars in a television contest, to mention one possibility, that material wealth does not give prosapia to his family group. On the contrary, a descendant of the nobility who is going through a bad financial situation continues to maintain the prosapia of his clan.
Prosapia, in short, is associated with the origin or roots . In this way, the construction of prosapia takes several generations and is linked to economic, social and cultural factors. Of course, for the family to reach this level of importance that in the future will allow it to be recognized with this adjective, money is practically indispensable, but this is related more to the weight of money in the organization of the world than to its specific role in the world. development of generations of influential families.
No matter how much we deny material wealth, unfortunately it represents the key to accessing most advantages, and has been so since time immemorial. If we have a rare disease, the treatment is likely to cost a lot of money; Similarly, if we have great ideas but lack the money and connections to share them with the world, they may die with us. The families that have done the most for culture and that bequeathed to their future generations a certain social status that currently places them among the "people of prosapia", surely had economic means and unusual contacts , reserved for a few.
But, returning to the beginning of this section, these last two resources are useless if they are not complemented with something to offer the world, with a point of view that changes everything, with the desire to travel and discover new cultures. Prosapia is not built by stacking gold coins in a safe, but by leaving a mark on the history of culture.
It is possible to reject the family legacy
At the height of prosapia
Just as Eugenia de Chikoff continued with her family's legacy and kept her surname high, there are opposite examples of people of prosapia who take a very different path and, in some cases, stain the surname of their ancestors.
Our parents' legacy is still a gift, and we are under no obligation to accept it. In some cases it is beneficial and we make the mistake of rejecting it, but in others it opposes our values and we consciously decide to write a new page in our family's history. But it is usually difficult to escape the gaze and comparisons of society , which demand that we live up to our heritage, regardless of our reasons.