hey there random person that's watching
this right now my name is nathaniel drew
and i just became a portuguese citizen
that's not a joke
in a way it feels like i've tricked the
government though because i don't live
here and i don't even have any
portuguese family at least not for the
last 20 generations i've been working on
this for nearly four years i want to
tell you the incredible story of my
ancestors how i got here and how a
little bit of persistence and
forgiveness can completely change your
life good morning good morning i have
news
finish the sentence i am i am a
a
portuguese
citizen
okay so to properly explain to you how
this is even possible i've got to give
you a little history lesson first part
one 1492 was a big year but to get to
that i'm going to have to go even
farther back a big part of my bloodline
has a troubled history in portugal and
spain which together make up what is
known as the iberian peninsula you see
everybody on my dad's side is jewish my
mom comes from catholic background so
she's gonna play a much smaller role in
this story except for the fact that she
made me along with my dad so she's
always a part of the story i guess
quick thank you to my parents for making
me exist
okay let's keep going this story
actually has to do with my dad's mom my
wonderful polyglot grandma who is
sephardic which are the jewish people
that come from the aforementioned
ivarian peninsula and this is in
contrast to jews that come from other
parts of the world right like the
ashkenazi jews which come from eastern
europe those are the ones that we have
to thank yiddish and bagels for for
example now for long periods of history
jews actually got along better with
muslims than christians many jews
actually thrived under islamic law
because they were considered people of
the book which was like a protected
status now the moors who were the muslim
people of northwest africa invaded the
iberian peninsula in the year 711 and
took it from the catholics this was
great news for the jews there because
they had been eating under the
catholics for far too long over the next
800 years though the catholics slowly
took back the iberian peninsula
culminating in 1492 when king ferdinand
ii of aragon and queen isabel the first
of castile conquered the nazareth
kingdom of granada in the south of
modern day spain this is sounding like
some game of thrones but i'm dead
serious i promise you then came what is
known as the alhambra decree made on
march 31st that same year which ordered
the expulsion of practicing jews from
their territory christians by the way
had been doing this all around the
continent where from the 13th to the
16th centuries european countries
expelled the jews from their territories
on at least 15 different occasions and
this by the way was a decree for all the
jews who had not yet converted under the
brutal rule of the christians and look i
mean i come from a sovereign family that
does not like to be told what to believe
so there were two options remaining die
or escape and so they escaped and
created communities in north africa and
later in the middle east where they came
and went until my grandma escaped on a
boat from egypt when she was 13 years
old now here's the crazy thing i didn't
even know i had sephardic background way
back in 2018 when i started this whole
process i was just looking for a way to
stay longer in europe to be able to live
here because apparently i like living in
places where my ancestors were abused i
was feeling frustrated with the
three-month limit that i had coming to
europe as a tourist if you will and i
was looking for a longer-term solution i
thought maybe i could get the italian
one because i have ancestry from italy
from a few generations back it turned
out to be quite complicated and then i
stumbled on a little law that was passed
in 2013 in portugal and then another one
that was passed a year later in spain
that basically said that if you could
prove your ties with sephardic ancestry
that you could basically get double
citizenship maybe they felt bad about
their horrible treatment of the jewish
people whatever the case may be this is
the kind of thing that catches my
attention and makes me perk up i did a
little bit of poking around i mean i
knew i had jewish background but i
didn't know if it was sephardic or not
and then i kind of put two and two
together when i realized that my grandma
came from egypt and that's when i knew
that i was onto something now look i'm
not a practicing jew and i wasn't raised
jewish just didn't come from a religious
family but regardless its role in my
family history has been massive i mean
my ancestors have escaped at least a
dozen countries due to religious
persecution i mean in many ways it feels
like i'm kind of a child of the world
because my ancestors have lived in
almost every continent across
more countries than i can count over the
last few centuries and we've been forced
to adapt so linguistic and cultural
immersion is almost like a part of my
dna maybe it's because of that or in
part because of that that i do what i do
now it does feel in a weird way that
living in europe is a return to my
homeland if you will it is amazing to me
that
there's an unbroken line of my ancestors
that had to survive and procreate for me
to exist it's thoughts like that that
make me really
try to
value as much as i can the preciousness
of life part two a small trip to lisbon
this is kind of a cool shot
it's insane how comfortable i feel
shooting in public now
i could not give a what people
think man i feel like i just finished
telling you guys the story of how i got
my apartment in paris which was a
nightmare and here we are again
bureaucracy my old friend you're not
gonna win
wow
okay so check this out this is insane i
just did the math i'm about 24 and a
half years old okay i started this whole
process way back in 2018 nearly four
years ago that represents almost 16
of my life 16 of the time i have been
alive it honestly represents the vast
majority of my adult life i'll spare you
most of the details although i will say
i had to jump through hoops that i
didn't even think were possible like
tracking down a photo of my great
grandfather's tomb i'm not kidding after
an enormous amount of paperwork and
proving my links to sephardic ancestors
as well as a donation to the jewish
community of porto my file was submitted
they were expecting it to take somewhere
between a year and a half and two years
however i was placed in a small town by
the name of ishpuzen where my file
arrived and got stuck and basically
nobody worked on it for like a year and
a half and things went on for so long
that i began to lose hope honestly until
a few weeks ago when i received this
news i just got texted
that i am now a portuguese citizen
oh my god
oh
i knew in that moment that i had arrived
at the final stage of this long long
journey and it was time to take a trip
to lisbon this is kind of what
bureaucracy
looks like it feels like you're running
around blind entering room after room
getting in cars getting out of cars
waiting in line submitting documents
being told there's some issue with the
documents trying again just did
biometrics i signed a bunch of stuff
this should technically lead to the id
card which then can lead to getting the
passport it feels like going insane
you're following all the instructions
and then you're told no it's not good
enough but you know what they say if you
fail try try again and eventually you'll
get there
so i can tell broski who's filming this
right now is a little overwhelmed by my
energy levels we just need to head to
the lawyer's office right now
and get the passport itself that's
something that i've been dreaming of for
years so i cannot wait let's go okay how
do you feel about this
terrible i can't believe this is
happening and i remember when we were
first talking about it i mean we were
like west coast of the us working with
people halfway across the world and i'm
like are you sure it's not a scam
because like i didn't know anything
about it and you know fast forward four
years later you're about to get a fake
password no no
let's go let's do this let's go let's go
are we doing this are we do i put these
on yeah let's go
[Music]
keep going i can speak portuguese and
then they just continue in english so
it's just like
okay here is your passport for five wow
dang that's a nice looking color nice
looking passport i like the color a lot
[Music]
what an ugly color
part three the bizarre timing of life it
is weird to say the least that it felt
like my life was on hold in many ways
for such a long time and suddenly it's
like everything is falling into place i
guess this is just how life works it
isn't linear however much we'd like it
to be this is the beauty of playing the
long game of planting seeds and watering
them of gazing at the horizon and
imagining what you'd like to see when
you get there it's not always clear how
you'll get there but when an opportunity
arises you've got to jump on it the
rules around getting the citizenship are
not tightening because apparently it has
been abused by russian billionaires and
corrupt rabbis
i knew the best way to celebrate was to
spend time with my two favorite
portuguese people this is bernardo bacca
and marta
they both have channels that are
absolutely fantastic you have to check
them out what's up my fellow portuguese
citizens
i had to ask them what their thoughts on
portugal were i do love my country
[Laughter]
do you feel european
yeah portuguese first or european first
portuguese first but i'm also i don't
think i'm also super nationalistic i i
respect and i value the things that each
country has and this country has in
particular but i'm not
really like oh
this is my flag or like i really stand
by everything that this country
represents like it's just a country
where i happen to be born in that i
that has many beautiful things that has
other things that obviously could
be
improved but yeah i'm good i'm okay here
but
i love that answer so much yeah i kind
of feel the same way honestly maybe if i
was born somewhere else i would
you know be more into that culture but
other than that it's just a place that i
like and that i
that i find
my home i think every culture has its
things to value including the united
states which i've been a little bit
harsh on in the past i'm not the kind of
person that really
is into like nationalistic pride but
ultimately
you know i don't feel like
any single country can really fully
capture my identity the ability to stay
here without having that pressure that
time limit always ticking down in my
head of how long i would have the visa
valid for that yearly stress of like oh
god here we go again it's gone now and
it's a privilege honestly i feel
extremely lucky because some people
struggle with this for far longer than i
have
i'm not sure what's going on back then
it's weird that we live in a world
i'm not sure what to do it's weird that
we live in a world where a few papers
can completely change your life like
this is going to have a very clear
impact on where i can be and how long i
can stay there
[Music]
so to celebrate this new chapter in my
life we're coming back to the place the
exact spot where you took me to get
busted
like a year and a half ago
so symbolic symbolic celebration famous
spot it's called
jibilang
has a good portuguese
i'm really happy to be here i'm very
grateful to the portuguese government
for doing this i've had incredible
experiences here in portugal and every
time i come back it's like i fall deeper
in love with this place
[Music]
this video is sponsored by nordvpn and
i'm very grateful for their support
because one it allows me to have the
resources to create the things that i
create but also i'm actually going to be
needing their help for something as a
portuguese citizen now i don't have very
many excuses not to speak excellent
portuguese i'd say i'm still
conversational in the language since i
studied it in 2020 but there's room for
improvement i definitely don't feel
fully fluent in the language so i think
it's time to work on it again now when i
first got nordvpn back in 2017 i did not
fully realize the amount of use cases
with a vpn you can actually unlock
access to content like music or videos
that are only available in certain
countries i can guarantee the amount of
portuguese language content that i have
access to is way
way bigger if i put my vpn which makes
it look like my computer is in another
country in a place like portugal or
brazil or angola most young people that
i know have learned english by watching
a lot of content online in english and i
think that's an excellent approach it
takes something that can feel like a lot
of work and very difficult and it turns
it into this fun experience and this
sort of cultural absorption at the same
time that's something i plan to do more
of in the coming months for portuguese
they've also recently added a new
anti-malware function into the vpn which
is called threat protection it prevents
you from accidentally visiting malicious
websites look i've never had any issues
with nordvpn it works really well it's
easy to use it connects quickly so if
you're interested in checking them out i
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nordvpn for sponsoring this video and
unlocking a world of content for me
two and a half years ago i began what i
called my european project creating a
life and a feeling of belonging and home
in this continent and it has been a
bumpy ride for sure with everything from
lockdowns to struggling massively to
open a bank account but finally
it feels like everything is falling into
place and it's a reminder i think that
all good things take time so look europe
i had to break it to you but it looks
like i'm here to stay
[Music]
this is not an obnoxious lamp
could you give me like a nice like
expressive
okay
give me a kiki
okay give me the give me the portuguese
version now
this is so it's so out of control
i'm just really excited to have the
passport in my hands it's just a
symbolic sort of thing
oh you just hit my hands okay look
what's going on