Although there are probably people who still think of the Twin Cities as 99 percent Scandinavian, we've been an ethnic mosaic since the days of the Native/white mixed-race fur traders and merchants who first owned land here. Our earliest diversity was European--Germans, Eastern Europeans, and Irish made as big a contribution here as the Swedes and Norwegians. The foundations of our Jewish, Arab, African-American and Asian communities were laid in the 19th century, and in the 20th we welcomed  immigrants from around the world, particularly refugees from war: Vietnamese, Hmong, Cambodians, Ethiopians, Oromo, Eritreans, Somalis, Liberians. Mexicans and other Latin Americans are bringing new energy to our neighborhoods, to retail and the professions, as are West Africans, Indians, Pakistanis, and many others.