Congressman, Genealogist Tout Possible Creole, Black Roots

By: bitcoin ethereum news|2025/05/09 09:00:02
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Topline Robert Francis Prevost, who was selected as the Catholic Church’s first American pope Thursday and took the name Leo XIV, has a family history that some were celebrating as uniquely diverse, with one genealogist claiming he has ties to “free people of color” in New Orleans. Cardinal Robert Prevost, newly elected as Pope Leo XIV, is seen on the St. Peter’s Basilica balcony, ... More at Saint Peter’s Square in Vatican City on Thursday. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Key Facts The maternal side of Pope Leo XIV’s family can be traced back to at least the 1840s among “free people of color” in New Orleans, according to Jari C. Honora, a genealogist with the Historic New Orleans Collection, a research center documenting the city’s history. Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., who represents New Orleans, also released a statement Thursday highlighting Pope Leo XIV’s “ancestral ties to our Creole and Haitian families,” saying he was proud “As a Black man” and “a proud son of New Orleans.” Pope Leo XIV’s maternal grandparents, along with his mother’s older siblings, were “identified in records as Black or mulatto,” Honora told Forbes, but the family “passed ... into a white racial identity” when they relocated to Chicago, where the pope’s mother—Mildred Martinez—was born in 1912. The pope’s grandparents resided in New Orleans’ Seventh Ward, an historically Black neighborhood, before moving to Chicago, Honora said. Pope Leo XIV was born in Chicago on Sept. 14, 1955 to Martinez and Louis Prevost, a World War II veteran of French and Italian descent. Martinez’s descent has been widely reported as Spanish, and Pope Leo XIV does not appear to have made major public statements regarding Creole heritage—the Diocese of Chiclayo, where Pope Leo XIV served as bishop between 2015 and 2023, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes. What Do Records Show About Pope Leo Xiv’s Family? Honora told The Times-Picayune a marriage license shows Joseph Martinez and Louise Baquié, the pope’s grandparents, married in 1887 at Our Lady of Sacred Heart church in New Orleans. Those records show Joseph Martinez listed Haiti as his birthplace, Honora told the newspaper. He added the family was listed as living at 1933 North Prieur St. in the city’s Seventh Ward, an area that was demolished during the construction of the Claiborne Avenue overpass, which critics say significantly disrupted vibrant Black neighborhoods in the city. Key Background Pope Leo XIV, 69, was born in Chicago to his mother, Mildred Martinez, a librarian, and his father, Louis Prevost, a World War II Navy veteran and school superintendent. He also has two brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph. He studied mathematics at Villanova University and earned a graduate degree in divinity from the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago. Ordained in 1982, his religious career took him to Rome and Peru, where he was naturalized as a citizen in 2014 around the same time the late Pope Francis appointed him apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo, where he became bishop. He took his position in the Vatican overseeing the appointment of new bishops in 2023, the same year he was made a cardinal. Pope Leo was elected following four ballots on the papal conclave’s second day of voting. He is viewed as more of a centrist than Francis, and has been an advocate for migrants and the poor, with possible recent social media posts suggesting he has been critical of President Trump’s actions toward migrants. Further Reading Who Is Robert Francis Prevost? What We Know About Pope Leo XIV—The First American Pope. (Forbes) Pope Leo XIV has roots in New Orleans’ 7th Ward. See his family lineage and history. (The Times-Picayune) Tweets Apparently Showing Pope Leo XIV Criticizing Trump Resurface—Here’s What To Know (Forbes) Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2025/05/08/pope-leo-xivs-ancestry-celebrated-congressman-genealogist-tout-possible-creole-black-roots/

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BeatSwap is evolving towards a full-stack Web3 infrastructure, covering the entire lifecycle of IP rights.

The core product "Space" is scheduled to launch in Q2 2026, driven by SocialFi


BeatSwap, a global Web3 Intellectual Property (IP) infrastructure project, is attempting to overcome the current fragmentation limitations of the Web3 ecosystem, building a full-stack system that covers the entire lifecycle of IP rights.


Currently, most Web3 projects are still in the stage of functional fragmentation, often focusing only on a single aspect, such as IP asset tokenization, transaction functionality, or a simple incentive model. This structural dispersion has become a key bottleneck hindering the industry's scale application.


BeatSwap's approach is more integrated, integrating multiple core modules into the same system, including:


· IP authentication and on-chain registration

· Authorization-based revenue sharing mechanism

· User-engagement-driven incentive system

· Transaction and liquidity infrastructure


Through the above integration, the platform builds an end-to-end closed-loop path, allowing IP rights to complete a full cycle of "creation, use, and monetization" within the same ecosystem.


Expanding from Web3 to a broader market: Restructuring the music industry's supply-demand structure


BeatSwap is not limited to existing crypto users but is attempting to take the global music industry as a starting point, actively creating new market demand. Its core strategies include:


Exploring and incubating music creators (Artist discovery)

Building a fan community

Igniting IP-centric content consumption demand


The current global music industry is valued at around $260 billion, with over 2 billion digital music users. This means that the potential market corresponding to the tokenization and financialization of IP far exceeds the traditional crypto user base.


In this context, BeatSwap positions itself at the intersection of "real-world content demand" and "on-chain infrastructure," attempting to bridge the structural gap between content production and financial flow.


"Space" to Launch in Q2 2026: Building the Core of SocialFi


BeatSwap's upcoming core product "Space" is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of 2026. This product is defined as the SocialFi layer in the ecosystem, aiming to directly connect creators with users and achieve deep integration with other platform modules.


Key designs include:

A fan-centric interactive mechanism

Exposure and distribution logic based on $BTX staking

User paths connected to DeFi and liquidity structures


Thus, a complete user behavior loop is formed within the platform: Discovery → Participation → Consumption → Rewards → Trading


$BTX Token Mechanism: Evolving from an Incentive Tool to a Value Carrier


$BTX is designed to be a core utility asset within the ecosystem, rather than just a simple incentive token, with its value directly tied to platform activity and IP use cases.


Main features include:


· Yield distribution based on on-chain authorized actions

· Value reflection based on IP usage and user engagement dynamics

· Support for staking and DeFi participation mechanisms

· Value growth driven by ecosystem expansion


With the increased frequency of IP use, the utility and value support of $BTX will enhance simultaneously, helping alleviate the "disconnect between value and utility" issue present in traditional Web3 token models to some extent.


Accelerating Global Exchange Layout: Enhancing Liquidity and Accessibility


Currently, $BTX has been listed on several mainstream exchanges, including:


Binance Alpha

Gate

MEXC

OKX Boost


As the launch of "Space" approaches, BeatSwap is actively pursuing more exchange listings to further enhance liquidity and global accessibility, laying a foundation for future market expansion.


Beyond Web3: Aiming for a Larger-Scale Integration of Content and Finance Markets


BeatSwap's goal is no longer limited to the traditional Web3 narrative but aims to target over 2 billion digital music users and a trillion KRW-scale content market.


By integrating content creators, users, capital, and liquidity into a blockchain framework centered around IP rights, BeatSwap is striving to build a next-generation infrastructure focused on "IP tokenization."


Conclusion


BeatSwap integrates IP authentication, authorization distribution, incentive mechanism, transaction system, and market construction to establish a unified structure that bridges the full lifecycle path of IP rights.


With the launch of the Q2 2026 "Space," the project is expected to become a key infrastructure connecting content and finance in the IP-RWA (Real World Assets) track.


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