Greek Americans: Struggle and Success

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Struggle and Success Second Edition

Charles C. Moskos iSTANBUL BiLGi UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Transaction Publishers New Brunswick (U.S.A.) and London (U.K.)

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Dedicated To: PFC Peter Shukas (1923-1944), uncle, killed in action, France; SP4 James C. Shukas (1948-1970), cousin and f?0dson, killed in action, Vzetnam; Patricia Shu/ws (1923-1977), aunt, of Scotch, Irish and German descent, she became the center of a Greek-American Family. Third printing, 1990 New material this edition copyright (c) 1989 by Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903. Originally published in 1980 by Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mech~mical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, Witllout prior permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Transaction Publishers, Rutgers-The State University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903. Library of Congress Catalog Number: 88-37387 ISBN: 0-88738-778-0 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Moskos, Charles C. Greek Americans, struggle and success / Charles C. Moskos, Jr., with a new preface and two additional chapters by the author. p. cm. Bibliography: p Includes index. ISBN 0-88738-778-0 1. Greek Americans. 1. Title E184.G7M67 .989 973'.04893-dcI9 88-37387 CIP

MAY THEIR MEMORY BE ETERNAL

Contents Preface to the Transaction Eriition

IX

CHAPTER. ONE

The Greek Comes to America

1

Beginnings and False Starts, 2 The Era of Mass Migration, 8

CHAPTER TWO

Greek America Forms

30

Returness and the End of Mass Migration, 31 Disorder and Early Progress, 33 From the Thirties to the Fifties, 46 The New Greeks, 54

CHAPTER THREE

The Greek-American Community

62

The Greek-American Population, 63 Greek-American Institutions, 66

CHAPTER FOUR

Greek-American Themes

90

Across the Generations, 90 The Greek Imagination in American Fiction, 97 Ideology in Greek America, 104

Vll

"iii

CHAPTER FIVE

Mahing It in America

111

Preface to the Transaction Edition

Greeks in American Politics, 116 Greeks and Restaurants: An American Phenomenon, 123 Images of Greek Americans, 126

CHAPTER SIX

Growing

Up Greeh American: A Family and Personal Memoir

127

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Sociology of Greek Americans Greek-American Studies: Contrasting Perspectives, 142

CHAPTER EIGHT

Greek America in the 1980s

150

CHAPTER NINE

Politics and the Greek Roots of Michael Du/wkis

172

APPENDIX

lV/odern Greek a'l/,d Greeh-A1tI.erican Studies

187

Selected Bibl£ograjJhy

194

Index

The reception to the first edition of Greek Allin/milS: Slmggll' and was gratifying, Published in 1980, the book went out of print three years later. I n light of a continuing demand, Irving Louis Horowitz of Transaction Publishers proposed that I reprint the lirst edition with an epilogue, This was well before Michael Dlikakis's advent on the national political scene gave Greek Americans a certain trendmess. What began as a reprint with a modest sequel became a substantial expansion with the addition of two new chapters, an appendix, and an updated bibliography. Chapter 8, the first of the new chapters, covers events in Greek America during the eventful 1980s. Chapter 9, the second new chapter, describes the Greek roots of Michael Dukakis in the context of Greek Americans in politics. The new appendix examines the problems and potential of modern Greek and, especially, Creek-American studies. In this eclition, as in the first. I have tried to present a perspective on the Greek experience in America by employing those insights of sociological, historical. and cultural learning of which I have been a beneficiary. At the same t.ime, the writing of this book was a personal statement inseparable from my background as a Greek American. Greek Americans are sometimes a contentious people and there will be few who will not take exception to some of what is written here. This too is par! of the Greek-American experience. Ifthis study has value, it is because of my reliance on all those who have toiled in the vineyards of Greek Americana. First I would like to acknowledge my brother, I-larry, who has been my secret sharer in this venture. For tracing down elusive materials, I am especially indebted to Costas Caraganis, Paul Denis, Peter Dickson, Steve Frangos, Andrew T, Kopan, and Peter N. Marudas. I am grateful for the insights provided by Demetrios J. Constante\os, Chrysie M. Costantakos, Eugene Diamond, Stanley S. I-Iarakas, Harris P. Jameson, Alexander Karanikas, Alexander Kitroeil', Yiorgos A. Kourvetaris, John T.A. Koum()ulides, Fotios K. SUU'(>SS

200

IX

x

PREFACE '1'0 THE TRANSACTION EDITION

Litsas, I-Jelen Zeese Papanikolas, I-larry.J. Psoll1iades, Alice Scollrby, Eva Catafygiotu Topping, and Evan C. Vlachos. My gratitude is especially warm to my former students at Northwestern University who have joined with me to advance the cause of Greek-American studies: Kathryn Marie Jaharis, Leon M. Vainikos. and Evan Vassos, In addition to ongoing observations and readings. this new edition benefits greatly from personal interviews. For sharing their time with me, I am grateful to Michael S, Dukakis, John Nassikas. Paul S, Sarbanes, Basil Vlavianos, and George Vournas. Most of all I am indebted to Euterpe Dukakis for her generosity of spirit and information in retracing the immigrant odyssey of her family and that of her husband. All errors in hlCt of interpretation in this book are. of course. my sole responsibility, C.C.M. EVANSTON, ILLINOIS

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The first Greek to set foot on these shores was Christopher Columbus. Such at least is the belief of many Greek immigrants in America. Columbus's purported Greek lineage was to be given credence in a full-~ength treatise--Christopher Columbus: A Greek Nobleman-by SeraP:11m G. Canoutas, a mc~or figure in Greek-American letters dunng the fIrst half of this century.l Canoutas, himself an immigrant, devoted the last years of his life to prove that Columbus was a member of a distinguished Greek family that had gone to Italy from Byzantium. Whatever the ancestry of the Great Discoverer-and one is obliged to admi,t th~t Columbus's Greek background is not accepted by non-Greek iustonansthe belief in his Greekness does reveal two enduring qualities of Greek immigrants: their overweening pride in their Hellenic background, and their striving to 'lssert some psychic precedence over the dominant groups in American society. 1 .J The Greek experience in the United States has been a blend of ethnic pride and resourceful participation in American society. In its early years it is the story of immigrants who suffered incredible hardships, many of whom, nevertheless, eventually became secure members of the middle class. It is a story of the children of the immigrants, the second generation, most of whom have enjoyed levels of education and income surpassing the American average, and some of whom have been outstandingly successful in the country of their birth. And there a~'e the third and fourth generation who are still half-sketched figures 111 the unfinished canvas of Greek America. It is also the still unfolding story of the new immigrants from Greece who have been coming to Am.erica !n large numbers over the past decade and a half. The Greek expenence 111 the United States also has a darker side: immigrants whose lives drained away in poverty and loneliness after serving the demands of a~ expanding industrial economy, exploitation of Greek by Greek, conflICts across

The Greek

Comes A to mericQ

'Seraphim G. Canoutas. Christopher Columbus: A Greek Noblemall (New York: St. Mark's Press. 1943). Canoutas's treatise is not the first on the subject. In 1937 Spyros Cateras of Manchester, New Hampshire. privately printed a small book entitled Chril·topher Columbus Was a Grel?k Prince alld His Real Name Was Nikolaos YIIsilantisfrom the Greek Island of CMos.

2

THE GREEK COMES TO AMERICA

generations, and misunderstandings between older and newer immigrants. Yet in its broad outlines, the sociological portrait of what are today some one million Greek Americans is one of an ethriic group that has maintained a remarkable degree of communal and family cohesion while also comfortably accommodating itself to the achievement standards of the larger society. This almost self-congratulatory "best of both worlds" adaptation may well be the distinguishing quality of Greek Americans. BEGINNINGS AND FALSE STARTS

Leaving aside the tenuous and self-serving belief that Columbus was descended from Byzantine nobility, one may ask who was the first Greek to arrive in America. This distinction goes to Don Teodoro or Theodoros, a sailor and ship caulker serving aboard the expedition of the Spanish explorer Panfilio de Narvaez. In October, 1528, Narvaez anchored off what is now Pensacola, Florida, to secure fresh water. An agreement was reached with the Indians on the land who, however, insisted on keeping a hostage while the water was to be procured. Don Teocioro volunteered himself as the hostage and went ashore. He never returned to the ship and was presumably killed by the Indians. Though his life ended tragically, Don Teodoro is the first Greek known to have set foot on American soil. 2 The Eighteenth Century

We are fortunate that the historian E.P. Panagopoulos has given us a full and absorbing account of the first large migration of Greeks to America-the ill-fated New Smyrna colony.a It involved a trans-atlantic odyssey that started with high hopes and was to end in privation and misery. The story began in 1763, when Florida passed from Spanish into "The fate of Don Teodoro is related in The Journey of Alvar Nunez Cab/lia de Vnca and His Comlmnionsfrolll Florida/o the Pacific, 1528-1536. trans F, Bandelier (New York: A.S. Barnes & Co .. 19(5), cited in E.P, Panagopoulos. "The Greeks in America during the Eighteenth Century" (paper presented at the Bicentennial Symposium on the Greek Experience in America, University of Chicago, 1976), p. 2. The question of who were the first Greeks in America is one that has many answers in diverse Greek-American sources. It has been asserted that Greek sailors accompanied Columbus during his various voyages. Some claim the Spanish admiral and explorer. Juan de Fuca. who in 1592 discovered the straits south of Vancouver Island that bear his name, was a Greek sea-captain, Ioannis Phocas, from the island of Cephalonia. Panagopoulos, who has made the most thorough and reputable examination of the early Greeks in America. holds that these and similar claims are plausible. but that there is no solid historical evidence to sustain them. "E.P. Panagopoulos. New Smyma: An Eighteenth Century Gn:ek Odyssey (Gainesville: University Presses of Florida, 19(6). The account of the New Smyrna Greeks given in the text is essentially a paraphrase of Panagopoulos.

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THE GREEK COMES TO AMERICA

British hands. Several influential people in Great Britain became intrigued with the idea of establishing plantations in the newly acquired territory by bringing in Greek settlers. Among these was Andrew Turnbull, a Scottish doctor, who was married to Maria Gracia Rubini, the daughter of a Greek merchant in London. Maria Rubini had been born in Smyrna, Asia Minor. Turnbull secured a royal grant of twenty thousand acres (eventually to grow into a land area of over one hundred thousand acres) about 75 miles south of St. Augustine, Florida. He named this land New Smyrna to honor the birthplace of his wife. Funded by a generous subsidy from the Board of Trade in London, Turnbull was able to sail in April, 1767, into the Mediterranean to recruit his colonists. These were to be indentured laborers, the terms of whose contract specified that after completion of their service-between five and eight years-they would acquire a certain amount of land in their own right. Turnbull first stopped at the island of Minorca to arrange an assembly point for his settlers. There he found willing volunteers for his venture, Italians from nearby Leghorn, as well as Minorcans. By the following year, Turnbull had been able to recruit a total of 1,403 people for his Florida colony, about four to five hundred of whom were Greeks, principally from Mani on the southernmost tip of the Greek mainland. He then left for Florida with eight ships carrying the colonists. On June 26, 1768, the first ship arrived at St. Augustine. The others caught up soon afterwards. From St. Augustine the colonists continued southward to the site of New Smyrna. A contemporary report stated this to be the "largest importation of white inhabitants that was ever brought into America at a time."4 The conditions the settlers encountered were appalling. Over half of the colonists died within two years of their arrival in New Smyrna. Not only was food scarce, but also the colonists were put to brutally heavy labor in clearing the wilderness under the supervision of former noncoms of the British army. Flogging was common. On August 19,1768, the colony exploded in anger. A riot started, overseers were attacked, and a ship was seized and readied to set sail for Havana and freedom. Quickly a British frigate was dispatched and prevented the colonists' escape. A detachment of soldiers was landed, which was able to suppress the rebellion. Three of the leaders of the rebellion-two Italians and a Greek from Corsica, Elia Medici-were sentenced to death. The Court, however, in what seems to have been an obvious attempt to create divisiveness among the colonists, promised the Greek his life on condition that he personally execute the two Italians. A Dutch surveyor who eyewitnessed the event gives us the following description: 1

4Ibid .• p. 54.

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THE GREEK COMES TO AMERICA

, On this occasion I saw one of the most moving scenes I ever experienced; long and obst.inate was the struggle of this man's mind, who repeatedly called out, that he chose to die rather than to be executioner of his friends in distress: this not a little perplexed Mr. Woolridge, the sheriff, till at last the entreat.ies of the victims themselves, put an end to the conflict in his breast, by encouraging him to act. Now we beheld a man thus compelled to mount the ladder, take leave of his friends in the most moving manner, kissing them the moment before he committed them to an ignominious death. 5

After the suppression of the rebellion, the colony sullenly resumed working operations. Things were going badly for the landowners. When colonists applied for discharges after serving their work time, they were turned down and a few thrown into confinement. Finally, in the late spring of 1777, the several hundred surviving colonists simply picked up and moved to St. Augustine. Because of their repeated petitions seeking freedom, the conditions of the colonists had become an open scandal within British circles. ~rhe British courts formally freed the colonists from their indenture on July 17, 1777. By that time New Smyrna had already been completely abandoned. The Greek remnant of New Smyrna-probably no more than about one hundred-found a new life in SI. Augustine. A census in 1783 reports that most of the Greeks in St. Augustine were prospering, some had established themselves as merchants, and a few even owned slaves. John Giannopoulos left a deep imprint in the educational history of Saint Augustine by establishing a school in his house; now restored, it stands as the oldest school building in the United States. But the first Greeks in the New World were to disappear without a trace by the middle of the nineteenth century. Although some left Florida for other places, the m
THE GREEK COMES TO AMERICA

5

citizen by act of the General Assembly of Maryland in 1725. 7 ~rhis makes Ury the first Greek positively known to reside permanently in what is today the United States. The first Greek-American scholar was John Paradise. 8 Persuaded to come to this country by B'enjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson whom he met in Europe, Paradise in 1787 married into the Ludwell family, one of Virginia's most distinguished. (The Ludwell-Paradise home was the first to be restored in Williamsburg, Virginia). Coming to America by the back way, so to speak, of the Bering Strait was Eustrate Delarof, a native of the Peloponnesus in Greece.!) From 1783 until 1',91 Delarof was in charge of all Russian trading operations in the Aleutians and Alaska and is considered by some reckoning to have been the first de facto governor of Alaska. The first marriage between two Greek Americans we know of occurred in 1799 in New Orleans, when Andrea Dimitry, a native of the Greek island of Hydra, married Marianne Celeste Dracos, the daughter of Michael Dracos, a well-to-do merchant who had come to New Orleans from Athens around 1766. With indisputable Greek lineage from her father's side (her mother was of mixed French Acadian and American Indian ancestry), Marianne Celeste, who was born in Louisiana on March I, 1777, may qualify as the Greek "Virginia Dare." The children and grandchildren of Andrea and Marianne Dimitry were leading professionals and business figures in the antebellum South. One of their sons, Alexander, became the first superintendent of education in the state of Louisiana and was assistant postmaster-general of the Con federacy. The Nineteenth Century

Passing out of the mists of Greek-American antiquity we come to a remarkable episode of Greek-American relations. The Greek. War of Independence (1821-1827) against the Ottoman ~rurks had gamed ~he sympathy of many American and European phllhellenes. One major impetus for philhellenism in the United States was that our own founding fathers had consciously looked to the culture of classical Gree~e as a model for their own endeavors. Thus, when the Greeks began their own war of independence only a generation after that of the Americans, it seemed only fitting that the Hellenic cause would garner support m leading circles in this country. Throughout the United States groups were set up to raise funds and supplies for the beleaguered. Greeks. A few individuals-notably, Lieutenant General George JarVIS, Colonel >

7George J. Leber, TIll! His/my o{ tIll! Order of AhelJ(1 (Washington. D.C.: Order of Ahepa, 1972), p. 7. HIbid., pp. 7-8. "Thomas Burgess, Graks in Amerzca (Boston: Sherman. French & Co .. 191:-1), p. 192.

6

THE GREEK COMES TO AMERICA

Jonathan P. Miller, and Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe-went so hll' as actually to fight with the Greek insurgents. One of the fascinating results of this outpouring of American philhellenism was that a remarkable group of about forty orphans was brought to this country during or shortly after the war. IO Some were ~rough~ over by individual patrons, while others came through the efforts of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (Congregationalist). The Foreign Missions Board sponsored the education of Greek boys in America with the intent of eventually returning them home, where they would contribute to the uplift of their native country (and presumably spread the Calvinist gospel). Several of these orphans did, indeed, return to Greece. Alexander Paspatis, an Amherst graduate, spent his last years in Athens where he acquired an international reputation as a Byzantine scholar. Christodoulous Evangelides, after graduating from Columbia College, returned to his native Syra, where he established an American type of school. Evangelides is said to have been the inspiration for William Cullen Bryant's poem "The Greek Boy."11 Our interest, however, is with those who stayed in America, many of whom became quite prominent in their adopted country. Among those whose later careers can be documented are: John Zachos, an educational pioneer among blacks after the Civil War and early proponent of equal education for women, who served as the curator of Cooper's Union in New York; Evangelos Sophocles, who became professor of Greek at Harvard University; Constantinos and Pantias Rallis, brothers who established a worldwide commercial firm; and Luca Miltiades Miller, U.S. Representative from Wisconsin (1891-1893), the first GreekAmerican Congressman. Several of the orphans were to make names for themselves in the U.S. Navy: Photius Fiske, who became a Navy chaplain and left his estate to the abolitionist cause; George Marshall, who wrote the first manual on gunnery to be used in the American fleet; and Captain George Colvocoresses, who commanded the Saratoga in the Civil War (his son, Rear Admiral George P. Colvocoresses, fought in the Spanish-American War and was commandant of midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy). Another Greek orphan, Michael Anagnos, came to the > "'The first and still most informative account of the orphans brought to America d~,nr~g or shortly after the Gr~ek ~ar of ~ndependence is Burgess, Gralls in America, pp.

1.l2-207> A useful systellllzed hst of the ong1l1s. educauon, and adult careers of the Greek orphans is George A. Kourvetaris, "Greek-American Professionals: 1820's-1970's," Bailian Sludies, 18. no. 2 (1977),318-23. The two most prominent of the nineteenth-century Greek Amencans have been thesubject of extended study: sec Franklin Sanborn, Miclwe! Anagnos 1837-1906 (Boston: Wnght and Potter, 19(7); and Eva Catafygiotou Topping, "John Zachos: American Educator," Grt?ell Orthodox Theological Review. 21, no. 4 (winter. 1976), ,151-66. II Burgess. Greek, in Amaica, p. 194.

THE GREEK COMES TO AMERICA

7

United States in 1867 at the bequest of the philhellene Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe. Eventually, he married I-lowe's daughter and succeeded his father-in-law as head l)f the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston, a position he held for thirty years. Under Anagnos's administration, the Perkins Institution became the leading school for the blind in the world. At about the time the Greek war orphans were making their mark, another group of Greeks appeared on the American scene. Starting in the 1850s a small number of Greek merchants began to set up their import-export business in such port cities as New York, Boston, San Francisco, Savannah, Galveston, and New Orleans. It was in New Orleans that the first Greek Orthodox church in America was established in 1864. 12 The founders were mainly Greek cotton merchants-Nicholas Benakis being the prime mover-but the church also served non-Greek communicants of the Orthodox faith, as well as Greek sailors in port. The parish minutes were kept in English-reflecting the pan-Orthodox nature of the congregation in the early years-until 1906, when Greek prevailed. Maintaining its existence into the present, Holy Trinity in New Orleans can rightfully claim to be the oldest Greek church in the Western Hemisphere. Almost three decades would pass before another Greek Orthodox church would be organized anywhere else in America. Another trickle of Greeks to come to this country in the nineteenth century consisted of sailors from ships arriving in American ports. Most of these Greek sailors began to work on ships in the Great Lakes and on steamboats plying the Mississippi River and its tributaries. A few became oyster fishermen in the Gulf states. The number of such Greeksprobably several hundred-working and residing in the United States was sufficient enough to merit the attention of aNew York Times story in 1873. 1:1 In whatever employment they found in America, Greek sailors were praised for "their abstinence from drinking and their hard work."14 Neither the educated Greek Americans of the orphans' generation, nor the Greek merchants, nor the Greek sailors were, of course, typical of the waves of Greek immigrants who were to come to these shores in a 12The best account of the founding of the New Orleans church is Alexander Doumouras, "Greek Orthodox Communities in America Before World War I," St. Vladimir's Seminmy Quarterly, II. no. 4 (1967), 177-79. Doumouras also reports fra~mentary evidence of the founding of a Greek church, Sts. Constant1l1e and Helen, 111 (,alveston, Texas. in 1862. Lillie is known of the Galveston church except that it served a small pan-Orthodox community of Serbs, Russians, and Syrians as well as Greeks and that it later passed into the hands of the Serbs who had split from the Greeks. On the Galveston church see also Orthodox America 1794-1976 (Syosset, N.Y.: Orthodox Church in America, 1975), pp. 37-38. > > 13"The Greeks in Amedca." NI!W York Times, August 4. 1873. repnnted 111 Hecker and Fenton, The Gralls in Anwrica, pp. 61-64. !>lIbid., p. 63.

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THE GREEK COMES TO AMERICA

later age. Nineteenth-century Greek arrivals did not establish deeply rooted Greek-American institutions. This was to be the accomplishment of the poor and uneducated, but energetic and resourceful, immigrants who came to this country later, from the villages of rural Greece. It is the saga of these immigrants that was to mold the Greek experience in America. THE ERA OF MASS MIGRATION

The world of the Greek peasant at the turn of the century was desperately poor. Simply having enough to eat was a constant concern though actual starvation was rare. Whatever the glories of its classical monuments and the beauty of its seas and mountains, Greece was a harsh land from which to wrest a living. But the Greeks of the countryside knew they were poor. They made invidious comparisons with the small bourgeoisie and the petty government functionaries of their homeland. The notion of moving to better places-anticipated in the Greek maritime tradition and entrepreneurialism in the cities of the old Ottoman Empire-was already part of the common worldview. As the refrain of the folk song went: Mother, I want to go to joreign lands. To j01"l:ign lands I must go. I"

It was a world in which the Greek Orthodox Church was an embodiment of historical, cultural, and social as well as religious experience. The ~oly days, of the liturgical calendar dominated the year-long cyclethe clImax bemg the Passion of the Holy Week. It was a society of parental authority, puritanical strictness, and sexual segregation. Fathers a~d br?ther.s were committed to come up with a suitable dowry-the prtka-If their daughters and sisters were to marry. Not to do all that was possible to insure the marriage of female relatives would be a violation of one's philolimo-a concept hard to translate, but connoting values of self-esteem, dignity, and obligation. If, , I.;Helen Zeese 'papanikolas: Toil and Rage in a New Land: The Greek hmmgmnts in Utah, 2nd edl',,(S.alt L~ke CI.ty: .Utah I-hstoncal Soci~ty,.1974), p. 107, , DISCUSSion of plulotzlIlo and lis ce11lrahty 111 the Greek national character is found III Dorothy Lee, Freedom and Cultm'e (New York: Spectrum Books, 1959), pp. 141-49; and ~ohn G. Penst~a~y, "Honour and Shame in a Cypriot Highland Village," Honour and Shallle, cd." Penst~any (London: University of Chicago Press. 19(6), pp. 171-90. In June, 1978, Preslden~ JImmy Carter called a meeting of Greek-American leaders at the White H0l!se to explam why he reneged on a campaign promise to retain the U.S. arms embargo agalllst Turkey (passed by Congress,in the wake of the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus). One of the Amen~an-bo:n Greeks III attendance. Christos Spirou, Democratic leader of ~he. Ne~ Hampslure .1C!~lslat~re, characterized the Administration's bid for support as o~fendmg Greek phlloumo. When reporters asked what the word meant, a chorus of vOIces shouted back, "Love of honor." Washington Post, June 23. 1978, p. A 14.

THE GREEK COMES TO AMERICA

9

It was a time in which the nationalism engendered by the Greek War of Independence still burned strong. The pantheon of Independence heroes was more vivid and empathetic than the distant immortals of classical Hellas. At the time of its independence, in 1830, Greece consisted of the Peloponnesus, the peninsula forming the southern part of Greece, the acljacent mainland regions of Roumeli and Attica, and certain nearby islands. The still "unredeemed" Greek lands waiting to be liberated only exacerbated the Greeks' hypernationalism. The Ionian Islands were ceded to Greece by Great Britain in 1864. In time (principally through wars with Turkey and Bulgaria) Greece expanded to include Thessaly (1881), Crete (de facto in 1898), Macedonia and Southern Epirus (1913), the Aegean Islands (1914), and Western Thrace (1919). Despite the territorial expansion of modern Greece, the maximum goal-the "Great Idea"-of a reconstituted Byzantine Empire was to be irrevocably shattered in 1922, when Turkish forces inf1icted a catastrophic defeat on the Greek Army in Asia Minor. The 1922 disaster was a watershed event for modern Greece: a three-millennia Hellenism was eradicated from Anatolia, over 1,300,000 refugees had to be absorbed by the mainland population, and Greece was destined to remain a minor nation, a perpetual pawn of the major powers. Even today, the "Great Idea" still evokes memories of opportunities lost. After World War II the Dodecanese Islands were acquired from Italy. Hopes to incorporate Northern Epirus (in southern Albania) are periodically raised, but the claim has not been pushed seriously in recent decades. The issue of Cyprus enosis (union) with Greece resulted in a compromise of sorts with the establishment of an independent Cyprus republic in 1960. But following the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974, the ultimate status of Cyprus has remained unsettled. Throughout the twentieth century, the Greek-American community has played an important role in Greek irredentism. The Greek immigrant around the turn of the century was coming out of a homeland where internal politics had become highly personalistic and often turbulent. Seeking to usher Greece into the modern era, a group of reformist military officers in 1909 summoned a Cretan liberal, Eleutherios ~os (1864-1936), to head the government. Soon Venizelos was to'be locked in a bitter struggle with the newly crowned King Constantine I (1868-1923). The schism between the royalist adherents of Constantine and the more republican supporters of Venizelos was to dominate Greek political life for a generation. It was a political schism that was to be carried over with a vengeance into the Greek community of America. It cannot be overstated that the overriding motive for Greek migration to the United States was economic gain. The intent of the overwhelming majority of immigrants was to return to Greece with sufficient capital to enjoy a comfortable life in their home villages. At the least,

10

THE GREEK COMES TO AMERICA

they expected to insure the proper marriages of their daughters and sisters by building up dowries with their American earnings. The onlv m<~or exception to the immigrant goal of returning ho;ne were th~ Greeks who came from what is today Turkey. Correctly foreseeing that the aborning Turkish republic would reverse the relative tolerance that the older Ottoman order had displayed toward its non-Muslim minorities, these Greeks saw their move to America as a permanent one. (One important impetus was the 1908 promulgation that Greeks must serve in the Turkish army.) Why is it that many Ottoman Greeks chose as their destination the faraway and strange America over the nearby and familiar "free Greece"? Again the answer is simple-money, Thus whether from "free" or "enslaved" Greece, the move to America was to become a virtual exodus. A Greek writing in 1909 observed: "So and so from such and such village sent home so many dollars wit.hin a year," is heard in a certain village, and the report, flashed from village to village and growing from mout.h t.o mouth, causes the farmer to desert his plow, t.he shepherd to sell his sheep, t.he art.isan t.o t.hrow away his tools, , . and all set aside the passage money to that they can take the first possible ship for America and gat.her up t.he dollars in the streets before they are all gone. 17

In the early decades of the twentieth century, whole villages were stripped of their young and middle-aged males. When sons went, driven by the hope of escaping a limited existence, there was the tearing away from distraught mothers and grim fathers. When husbands went it was with the promise that they would soon return after making their fortunes. Many husbands did not return to the old country; some sent for their wives, others never did bring their families over to America. Because so few young men remained in the villages, moreover, dowries became exorbitant, in order to attract the eligible males still residing at home. By the time the men who had emigrated to America were themselves ready to marry, they sought girls younger than the ones they had left behind in their own generation. It was a cruel piece of historical irony that precisely because so many men went to America to insure their sisters' marriages, many young women in Greece had to face the probability of remaining single or marrying old men. The great roll of the Greek mass migration to America is headed by Christos Tsakonas, who was born in 1848 in a village near Sparta. 1S 17Seraphim G. Canoutas cited in Henry Pratt Fairchild, Greek Immigration to the United States (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1911), p. 224. I8Christos Tsakonas is described as t.he precursor of the Greek immigrant in Theodore Saloutos. The GJ"/?ekl in the United States (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 19{H), p. 24. Andrew T. Kopan identifies Tsakonas as settling ill Chicago. See Kopan. "Education and Greek Immigrants in Chicago, 1892-197:1: A Study in Ethnic Survival" (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Chicago. 1974), p. 113.

THE GREEK COMES TO AMERICA

11

Tsakonas was a prototypical immigrant in many ways. After completing a few years in the village school, he sel. out to improve his financial circumstances, first in the Greek port of Piraeus, then in Alexandria, Egypt. Making little headway in his ambitions, Tsakonas decided to leave for America in 1873-an unprecedented step for a man of peasant background-thereby earning the sobriquet the "Columbus of Sparta." Tsakonas found America to his liking. He returned briefly to Greece and, in 1875, left for America again. This time he was accompanied by five compatriots from Sparta. This party of Spartans-the precursor of the succeeding waves of Greek immigrants who came to Americasettled in Chicago where they became fruit peddlers. During the 1880s about two thousand Greeks came to America, mostly from Sparta. During the 1890s over fifteen thousand Greeks coming from a wider regional base left for the United States. The departures of the nineties were precipitated by the collapse in the European market for raisins, Greece's principal export, and the greater impoverishment which resulted in the countryside. But the flood of Greek immigrants occurred in the first two decades of the twentieth century, Indeed, from 1900 to 1915, close to one in every four Greek males between the ages of fifteen and forty-five departed for America! The outlines of this mass migration are shown in Table 1-1. In the decade 1901-1910 some 167,000 Greeks came to these shores, and from 1911 through 1920, despite the interruption of World War I, over 180,000 Greeks migrated to America. These figures refer only to Greeks born in Greece proper and, therefore, do not include immigrants of Greek heritage who came from Turkey, the Balkan countries, Egypt, or

TABLE 1-1. GREEK IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES BY DECADES

Decade

Number*

1881-1890 1891-1900 1900-1910 1911-1920 1921-1930 19:11-1940 1941-1950 1951-1960 1961-1970 1971-1980**

2.308 15.979 167.519 184.201 51,084 9.119 8.97:1 47.608 85.969 102.000

*Refers only to those born in Greece proper. Persons of Greek ethnic stock coming from outside Greece not included. **Imllllgratioll figures for 1977-1980 estimated at 9,000 annually. Source: Immigration and Naturalization Service. 1976 Annual RI?fJOrt (U.S. Government Printing Office), pp. 87-88.

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Cyprus. We do not have accurate statistics as to how many Greeks came from outside Greece, but one hundred thousand is an informed estimate.]!) Thus, well over four hundred thousand Greeks-the vast m£~or­ ity males-arrived in the United States between 1900 and 1920. Once the first group of immigrants had settled in America, they wrote to their home villages to encourage other male relatives to follow. A typical letter from an older brother in the United States to a younger one still in the old country went as follows. 20 December 28, 1908 Dear Costa, The time we have been so long expecting has at last arrived. Our business has reached the point. where we need another helper, and we want. you to come over and help us. I enclose a complete ticket from Tripolis [a t.own in the Peloponnesus] t.o Chicago, all paid for. All you have to do is show it to t.he men as you go along. Have dear mother give you a written paper showing t.hat you have her permission t.o come, as you are not yet sixteen. We will pay you the same wages as we would pay any ot.her clerk. Take t.he great.est. care of yourself. dear Costa, and come quickly. Kiss our beloved mother and sisters for me. I kiss you on the t.wo eyes.

Those without relatives in America to bring them over were often recruited by labor agents scouring the Greek hinterland. Sportily dressed and wearing a gold watch, the agent promised passage money and ajob in America working in a factory, packing house, mine, or on a railroad gang. Repayment for the ticket would come from garnishments on one's wages in America. The agent was usually a Greek himself who had come from America and his retelling of the "gold in the streets" legend found willing ears. Too many of these agents were unscrupulous individuals who fleeced the unwary peasant of his few acres by demanding collateral. Too often the promised jobs did not exist. Even when the work was there, the living conditions were shocking. More than one shepherd boy, accustomed to sleeping under the stars, would find himself in America, sharing quarters with six others in a room with no windows. However he acquired his passage money, the immigrant's trauma began even before he left for America. Wrenched from his familiar surroundings, he was assembled into groups at the point of embarkation-usually the ports of Pireaus or Patras. Brusquely when not rudely treated by port authorities and steamship personnel, the immigrant was consigned to the nether regions of his ship. The crossing in unbelievably cramped quarters could take as little as three weeks or as

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13

long as several months, depending upon the number and length of stays in other Mediterranean ports. But discomfort and humiliation were nothing as compared to the one absolute fear gripping all immigrants: that a cough or an eye infection might cause one to fail the physical examination required for entry into America. In the early years the physical examinations were conducted in the Castle Garden buildingsthe kastengardi of Greek immigrant lore-on Ellis Island. Starting around 1910, however, preliminary examinations were increasingly held at the ports of embarkation. Once through the processing of Ellis Island and admission to the United States, the newly arrived immigrant would head by train toward his destination: the relatives who had preceded him, or the job promised him by the labor agent. If he had no firm destination, he would seek out a place where some of his fellow villagers might be found. The flood of Greek immigrants who arrived in America before 1920 can be traced along three major routes: l. Greeks going t.o t.he West.ern states t.o work on railroad gangs and in mines; 2. Greeks going t.o New England mill towns to work in t.he text.ile and shoe factories; 3. Greeks who went to t.he large Northern cit.ies, principally New York and Chicago, and worked in factories, or found employment as busboys, dishwashers, boot.blacks, and peddlers.

Each of these groups shared many things in common, but also differed from one another. The West

As early as 1907 the Greek Consul General in New York estimated that there were between thirty and forty thousand Greek laborers in the American West. 21 These Greek workers found employment in the mines and smelters of the Rocky Mountain region-especially Colorado and Utah-and on the railroad gangs throughout the West. In some locales the Greeks constituted the largest ethnic group among such workers. Greek railroad laborers were especially concentrated in California, where in 1910 there were more Greeks proportionate to the total state population than anywhere else in America. Men would be hired through labor agents representing the big companies. 22 Often they would have to pay a bribe to a "padrone," a fellow Greek who would act as intermediary between the recently ar2'Stephanos Zotos, Hellenic Presence in Aml?rica (Wheaton, Ill.: Pilgrimage, 1976), p.

"'Theodore Saloutos, "Causes and Patterns of Greek Emigration to the United Stat.es," Penpectivl?s in Ame1"iwn His/ory, 7 (197:3), p. 390. 2"Fairchild. Gn?Cll Immigration, p. 96.

92. 2"The discussion on early Greek immigrants in t.he Rocky Mountain states is adapted from Papanikolas, Toil and Rage.

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rived worker and his employer. The most powerful and notorious of the padrones was Leonidas G. Skliris, the "Czar of the Greeks." Ski iris's power was based not only on the money he extorted from his compatriots, but, more important, on the fact that he could supply men to the managers at lower than prevailing rates and, when labor troubles broke out, he could provide strikebreakers as well. For these services, Skliris was given the authority to deduct his charges directly from the workers' wages. Though occurring in a decidely American context, Skliris's position resembled nothing so much as that of an Ottoman despot. It was as strikebreakers that the first sizeable group of Greeks arrived in the West. A 1903 strike of Italian coal miners in eastern Utah was broken by Greeks quickly brought in from the East. (The striking Italians had been brought into the area several years earlier as strikebreakers themselves.) Though most Greeks were not to be stirred by the workers' movement gaining strength in the West in the years before World War I, they did, nevertheless, take a leading role in some m~or strikes. But it was more a sense of violation of their dignity-the Greek's philotirno-than class consciousness that caused them to strike. Greeks in the West, especially those from Crete, were quick to strike when they found others were making more money for the same work, when they were cheated on the mine's weighing scales, or if they could seize an opportunity to escape from the control of the padrones. In 1912 copper miners in Bingham Canyon, Utah, went out on strike. The main issue for the Cretan Greeks among the strikers was to force the company to get rid of Skliris. Thi~ was finally accomplished, but not before blood was shed and the Cretans had taken up armed positions in the surrounding mountains, a tactic they adopted in other strikes. Meanwhile, Skliris had brought in mainland Greeks to take over from the striking Cretans. The use of Greek against Greek in labor strife was to poison intra-Greek relations in the West for a generation to come. In 1922 Greek coal miners were involved in a major strike that took place in Carbon county, Utah (the same area where Greeks nineteen years earlier had first entered the West as strikebreakers). The Greeks' immediate cause for participation in this nationwide coal strike was their being shortweighed on the coal scales. Animosity between Cretan and mainland Greeks, however, prevented a united front. A truly heroic Greek labor leader-Louis Tikas, a Cretanappeared in the 1913-1914 coal strike at Ludlow, Colorado. Tikas was killed on April 20, 1914, when he was caught in a crossfire between strikers and national guardsmen, while attempting to escort women and children to safety under a flag of truce. Upon hearing of Tikas's death, hundreds of Greek workers left their jobs and walked across the mountains of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico to take part in his

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funeral. On a monument erected by the United Mine Workers in memory of those who died at Ludlow, Tikas's name is the first of many.2:l If conditions in the mines were harsh, the situation for those working in the railroad gangs was not much better. A Greek passing through the American West in 1911 writes in his diary: A Greek traveling by rail over these immense western states cannot but feel grief and sorrow and be plunged into sorrowful thoughts, Wh~ll he. sees at nearly every mile of railway little groups of IllS own people with pick and shovel in their hands. All these have left their beloved fatherland, their families, their fellowcountrymen, and their lands, and come here to build and repair railroads in the hope of acquiring a few thousand fI:ancsinstead of which they acquire rheumatism, tuberculosis, venereal chseases. and those other ills. while others are deprived of feet, hands. eyes. and some their lives! This is unhappily the biller Irulh.24

With good reason the Greek workers feared they would die young or be permanently maimed in America. Doctors were accused of amputating limbs too quickly, and injured men often asked to be first taken to folkhealers among their own kind. Still, thousands must have died from work injuries. In isolated Western towns it was common to have a "Death Wedding" funeral-a Greek custom for the unmarried dead. The young man would be dressed as a bridegroom in his casket: a wedding crown on his head, a gold band on his finger, and a white Hower in his lapel. Without Greek women, there was not even the solace of the funeral wailing of the rnirologhia-the "words of fate," an extemporaneous account of the departed's life and unfulfilled promise. Life in the mining towns and railroad camps was, perhaps inevitably, coarse. Gambling was endemic and prostitutes were the only available women. Male comaraderie based on shared nationality and present circumstance could suddenly change into hostility if one's honor was slighted. Men fought over transgressions to that honor; political disputes between royalist supporters of King Constantine and republican adherents of Venizelos were always an ever present cause for intra-Greek bitterness in America as well as in Greece; lifelong feuds could spring from marriage arrangements that went awry after the woman reached America. ""Grim testimony to the number of Greeks who labored in the mines is found in the death 1011 of m~or mining disasters. On OClOber 22. 1913.26,\ men were killed in the "No. 2" mine at Dawson. New Mexico, of whom about a hundred had :delllifiable Creek names. Another explosion in Dawson on February 8. 1923. killed 120 miners of whom about twellly were Greek. F. Stanley. The Dawson Tragedies (privately printed. 19(4). pp. 8-1 G. An explosion on March 8, 1924. in the Castle Gate mine near Price. Utah. caused the deaths of 172 men including 50 Greek miners. Papanikolas. Toil and Rage. p. 177 ~ 24Seraphim G. Canoutas cited in Burgess. Grt'eks in America, pp. 4:\-44.

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A perceptive account of the early Greek-American West has been given us by an unusual Greek woman. Maria S. Economidou, the spirited wife of an Athenian publisher and well educated in her own right, took upon herself to report on the conditions of the Greeks in America in 1914. 25 Usually understanding of what she saw, Mrs. Economidou was, nevertheless, disgusted with the enthusiasm the Greek men in one mining town showered on a "Madame Sophia," a somewhat tarnished Greek performer who toured the mining camps. "She danced and sang," Mrs. Economidou wrote, "with the grace of an elephant and the voice of a wolf." But, as one of the miners explained, "If we did not have even this diversion from time to time, we would become animals completely."2H As in other parts of the country, the Greeks in the West were to confront a virulent nativistic reaction. But it was in the West, where their relative numbers made them more visible, that the Greeks faced the most serious incidents. In McGill, Nevada, three Greeks were killed in an antiforeign melee inJune, 1908. In Utah conflict with Mormons seemed to compound the general prejudice against foreigners in the air. A sampling of the characterizations of Greeks printed in Utah newspapers in the years just before and after World War I include "the scum of Europe," "a vicious element unfit for citizenship," and "ignorant, depraved and brutal foreigners."27 In 1917 a Greek accused of killing the brother of the boxer Jack Dempsey was almost lynched in Salt Lake City. In 1923 in Price, Utah, local citizens took matters in their own hands by breaking up Greek stores and ordering the "American girls" who worked in them to return to their homes. When the Ku Klux Klan was active in the Utah of the early 1920s, Greeks were singled out as a special target. The Greeks always believed their robed enemies were Mormons jealous of the newly successful Greek businesses. The most publicized anti-Greek assault took place in 1909 in the city of South Omaha, Nebraska. 28 On the outskirts of the city was a shantytown of several thousand Greek laborers, a number swollen by unemployed railroad workers waiting out the winter. Anti-Greek feeling in South Omaha was already intense owing to the carousing and gambling of the Greeks and, possibly, because many of them were viewed as strikebreakers. The precipitating incident occurred on February 19 when a Greek, John Masourides was stopped by a policeman, while he 2·Maria S. Economidou, Til/! Greek, of A1IlImca as I Saw Them [E Helli1les tis Amaikis opos tou Eida] (New York: D,C. Divry, 1916). 2"Cited in Papanikolas, Toil and Ragt!, p. 138. 27Ibid., p, 112. 2"The account of the 1909 anti-Greek riot in South Omaha, Nebraska, is based on Saloutos. Gruks in till! Uniled Slates. pp. 66-70; Zotos. Helll!7lic Presence. pp. 96-99; Papanikolas. Toil and Ragt!. p. 112; and my own conversations with elderly Greek men who had personally witnessed some of the events in their early days in America.

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17

was with a prostitute. An argument ensued and Masourides killed the officer. The Greeks claimed the policeman was drunk and enraged in seeing a Greek publicly walking with a "white" prostitute, and that Masourides killed in self-defense. In any event, the townspeople were ready to be whipped into a frenzy ("One drop of American blood is worth all the Greek blood in the world!") at.a mass meeting presided over by local officials. A mob rampaged through the Greek quarter burning most of it to the ground, destroying some thirty-six Greek businesses, and driving all the Greeks from the city, The South Omaha riot was given wide coverage in the Greek press in America and in Greece. The Greek government lost no time in protesting the acquiescence of the local authorities to the brutality of the mob. The Greek government lodged a formal demand that the victims be compensated with $135,000. In 1918 the U.S. Congress did indemnify the Greeks but only to the amount of $40,000. Although Greeks were often targets of native American hostility and although they came to the West as manual laborers, many began to move into the middle class early on. Even before World War I, but especially in the 1920s, many Greeks began to leave the mines and railroads to become store owners. They established restaurants, bars, candy stores or confectioneries, hotels, and other businesses at a rapid rate. Some Greeks became quite well to do by investing shrewdly in real estate. Another group of Greeks in the West became sheepmen, ironically the very occupation they had left Greece to avoid. The sheepmen attained a modicum of prosperity in the 1920s, although most of them were to lose their holdings in the Depression. The appearance of a Greek-American middle class after World War I, however, should not obscure the many Greeks in the West-and elsewhere-who remained blue-collar workers for all of their lives. But the main development was clearly toward the emergence of a Greek-American bourgeoisie. In time, as women arrived from the old country, a normal family life was made possible, which further accentuated middle-class aspirations. This pattern was to be recapitulated among Greek Americans throughout the country. New England

A second major destination of Greek immigrants was New England, to work in textile and shoe factories. In the first decades of this century sizeable Greek colonies could be found in Manchester and Nashua in New Hampshire, Bridgeport, New Britain and Norwich in Connecticut, and Chicopee, Haverhill, Lynn, Peabody, New Bedford, and Springfield in Massachusetts. Early on there was a major Greek concentration in Boston centering around Kneeland and Washington streets. The settlements of Greek workers in New England had counterparts in the factory

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towns of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and upstate New York. But for Greeks the foremost mill town was Lowell, Massachusetts, a community that has a special significance in the history of Greek Americans. In 1906 the first Greek Orthodox church in America with a Byzantine motif, Holy Trinity, was erected in Lowell. By 1910 Lowell, with a total population of about one hundred thousand, had at least twenty thousand Greeks. Even as late as 1920, Lowell had the third largest Greek population in America, trailing only New York and Chicago. The reception accorded the new Greek arrivals by the larger community was generally hostile. An observer of early Greek immigrants noted that the "average American citizen" of Lowell regarded Greeks as "a quarrelsome, treacherous, filthy, low-living 10t."Z!l But it was with fellow immigrant workers that the Greeks ran into the most. difficulty. The Greeks were the third mctior immigrant group to come to t.he mill towns, following French Canadians and the Irish. Each migration in turn underbid the wages of the earlier workers. Moreover, the Greeks also had the reputation of being less inclined to drink than the Irish or French Canadians and therefore more reliable workers. A contemporary account describes the situation the Greeks encountered: From t.he very beginning t.hese t.wo dominant races [t.he Irish and French Canadians] attacked and ill-used the new Greek laborers and hounded them from good lodgings. Their attacks grew as the Greek colony grew. At night when t.he mills poured out t.heir operat.ives. the poor. scared Greeks would gather twenty or so toget.her. take t.he middle of the street. scatter to their lodgings and dare not stir out till morning. an

In the later decades of the 1930s and 1940s, a generation of Greek Americans who grew up in the mill towns would remember childhood experiences of taunts and fights with the children of other immigrant. nationalities. Anot.her account is given in an interview in 1966 with a retired non-Greek foreman of one of the mills. He reminisced about the first Greek workers over a half century earlier. Every time we'd hire one. he would tell us of brothers or cousins or ot.her relatives who were planning on coming to this country, We noticed that there were more and more Greeks every year. and I never believed what some of them told me that they were going back to the old country again. They stuck pretty much to themselves. If you happened to go down near the shanties in the evening, especially on weekends. you'd hear loud talking, arguments. or weird singing. They drank Greek whiskey and Turkish 2"Fairchild. Grel~h Immigration. p. 144. :IIIBurgess. Greekl in Al1l1!rica. p. 141.

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coffee. At work they were friendly with the otl1ers. but they always talked Greek. Somet.imes we laughed at them and at the way t.hey were living. But they were good workers.:!!

The living conditions of the early Greek immigrants in the mill towns were, to say the least, frugal. Extreme parsimony was the operating principle, the object being to save as much money as possible to send back to Greece. Modern hygiene and a balanced diet were not commonly practiced. Tuberculosis was a frequent scourge and has always been a special dread in the Greek-American community, Usually a half-dozen or so men would rent a cheap apartment and share expenses collectively. Often one among their number might be designated as cook and housekeeper and be excused from working in the mills. The permanent menu, too typical, of one such household was::l 2 Monday: rice and wieners Tuesday: potatoes and wieners Wednesday: eggs and wieners Thursday: lentils and wieners Friday: greens and wieners Saturday: beans in cottonseed oil Sunday: meat. soup. and beer

"Greektowns" appeared in all parts of the United States wherever a sufficient number of Greek immigrants had located. Lowell, Massachusetts, had one of the first and most extensive of such Greektowns. In 1913 a Greek business district centered on Market Street included: 2 drug stores 2 newspapers 3 ticket agencies 2 photographers I importing house several dry goods stores tailor shops shoemakers :IlQuoted in James W, Kiriazis. "A Study of Change in Two Rhodian Immigrant Communities" (unpublished doctoral thesis. University of Pittsburgh. 19(7). p. 75. But a superintendent of a leather factory in Nashua. New Hampshi:·e. could describe the early Greek workers in less favorable terms: "They had no sense of honor: you can't rely upon them: they lie and do it wnningly." Peter Roberts. TIll? New Immigration (New York: Macmillan Co .• 1912). p. 99. :l2Theodore Saloutos. Thev Reml!lllbl!r America (Berkeley: Universily of California Press. 19(6), p. 18. ~

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4 restaurants some 30 groceries a wholesale meat dealer 6 bakeries 25 or coffee houses 1 model saloon about 10 confectioneries and fruit stores a number of barbers and a number of shoe shine parlors.:!:!

,Hl

Although nearly all of these shopkeepers were of peasant. origin and had been in America only a few years, the nascent entrepreneurialism of the Greek immigrant was already evident. In fact, it was common for a Greek businessman first to start a business limited to Greek clientele and then to expand his horizons-and if need be to change locations-to the larger buying public. Many of the Greek immigrants in New England, however, were to remain in the mills for at least a decade or two if not for their entire working lives. Yel, even those Greeks who stayed in the factories played only a marginal role in labor union activity. An observer in 1911 describes the Greek mill workers in the following terms: Socialism finds no followers among the people of this race in the United States. though it is beginning to get a slight foothold in Greece. Greeks are app
Two years later another commentator similarly concluded, "In Lowell and elsewhere the Greeks ... care naught for labor unions nor the I.W.W.":!5 ,Greek mill workers had practically no working-class identity. Several factors accounted for this. The mc00rity of the Greek workers in the early years saw themselves as temporary sojourners in the United States. Strikes, layoffs, and even union dues could only detract from the immediate go~l of ~ccumulating as much money as possible. Linguistic and cultural IsolatIOn also played a part. Greek immigrants could organize themselves, but only in self-contained and ethnically homogeneous groups. They were more concerned with common national identification than with working class solidarity. Also, enough of the Greeks did set up :l3Burgcss. GredL~ in Amaiea. pp. 146-47. :14Fail'child. Gra/{ Immigration. pp. 209-10. :15Burgcss. Greeh ill Amalea. p. 154.

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small businesses early on to serve as role models and local leaders for their countrymen who stayed in the factories. In time. nearly all the Greek immigrants, whether behind the looms in the mills or the counters of their stores, sought to enjoy the material comforts and emulate the middle-class standards of their adopted country. In this regard the Greek workers in New England were very much like their compatriots in all parts of the United States. The Big Cities

The third m,~or destination of the Greek immigrants was the big cities of the Middle Atlantic and Great Lakes states. By the eve of World War I there were at least several thousand Greeks in each of such cities as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh. Buff~llo, Cleveland, Toledo. Detroit. Gary, and Milwaukee. But Chicago and New York became the preeminent Greek-American cities, a position which has solidified over the decades. A conservative estimate of the Greek population in 1913 placed the number at about t.wenty thousand in each,:!B which augmented to at least fifty thousand by the early 1920s. With some hyperbole Chicago's Greeks would claim that theirs was the third largest Greek citysurpassed only by Athens and Thessalonica-in the world. The Chicago Greek community was the most geographically concentrated of any in America. An early Greektown in the 1890s formed at Clark and Kinzie streets just north of the city's Loop. But. beginning around the turn of the century, Greek immigrants settled on the near West side at the "Delta," a triangular area bordered by Halsted and Harrison streets and Blue Island Avenue. This "Halsted Street Greektown" became the largest in the country, Wit.h about twenty thousand inhabitants between the two world wars, Chicago's Greektown developed into an ethnic enclave with its own churches, schools, businesses, coffee-houses, restaurants, newspapers. doctors, lawyers, and voluntary associations. It remained a viable community for over half a century and served as the focal point of Greek life in metropolitan Chicago until displaced in the early 1960s by the erection of a new campus of the University of Illinois. Chicago's Greektown was acUacent to Hull House, Jane Addams' famed settlement project, whose activities played an important and beneficial role for many early Greek immigrants. The <;pecial attention Jane Addams gave to Greek immigrants and her espousal of Greek culture did much to buttress the ethnic pride of the sorely tried Greek immigrants of Chicago. The Hull House Theater opened its doors in 1899 with a production of the classical Greek tragedy "The Return of Odys:WFairchild, Gn?ell Immigration. pp. 125. 148.

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seus" with a cast made up of Greek immigrants from Chicago. After seeing one performance Loredo Taft, the renowned sculptor, wrote: The thought which came over and over again into every mind was: These are t~l~ re~ll sons of HeI~as chanting the songs of their ancestors, enacting the life of thousands of years ago. There is a background for you! How noble it made these fruit merchants for the nonce; what a distinction it. gave them!:17

Many Chicago Greeks, like their compatriots in other big CItIes, found work in meatpacking plants, steel mills, and factories. But many others took the entrepreneurial route. It was in this capacity that the Greek immigrant was to make his most distinguishing mark on American society. Greek immigrants, newly arrived and often still boys, would start out as bootblacks, busboys, or peddlers of fruit, candy, and flowers. Somehow setting aside a portion of their meager profits, their mercantile future seemed almost predestined. Thus, Henry Prall Fairchild, an otherwise caustic observer of the early Greek-American community, could, nevertheless, write: The average Greek immigrant does not. bring enough money with him to establish himself in a fixed business. But he can buya push cart, or even a small tray hung over his shoulder, on which he can place a small st.ock of can~ly or E~·uit.,
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23

The Greek reluctance to work for wages was remarked upon almost from the very start. A Chicago Tribune story in 1897 stated the "Greek will not work at hard manual labor like digging sewers, carrying the hod ... He is either an artisan or a merchant, generally the latter.":lH Further recognition of the pecuniary acumen of the early Greek immigrant is found in a 1909 article on Chicago's Greektown in the American Journal of Sociology: During the short time he has been in Chicago the Greek has established his reputation as a shrewd businessman. On Halst.ed Street they are already saying, "It takes a Greek to beat a Jew."40

Thus it was in the role of small businessmen that Greek Americans were to find their archetype. Greek businesses in Chicago, as in other cities, tended to concentrate in certain areas: confectioneries or sweet shops, food service, retail and wholesale produce, floral shops, hatters, dry cleaners and pressers, and shoeshine parlors. In Chicago the Greek monopoly on sweet shops was virtually total. By 1908 there were already 237 Greek-owned confectioneries in the city. It is claimed that the sundae was first invented in a Greek-owned ice cream parlor in Chicago!41 The Greek proclivity in the food service business was evident early. In 1913 there were several hundred Greek-owned lunchrooms and restaurants in Chicago. 42 In addition to the bulk of the Greek business community that catered to the general public, of course, there were the stores in Greektown that serviced the needs of an almost exclusively Greek clientele. The Greek population of New York City was about the same number as that of Chicago. The earliest Greek neighborhood was centered around Madison Street between Catherine and Pearl Streets in Manhattan's Lower East Side, but this area never developed into a definable enclave. Other smaller Greek neighborhoods were scattered throughout Manhattan and in the other boroughs. After World War I the main body of Greek immigrants settled along Eighth A venue, between 14th and 45th Streets. Even though New York never produced a concentrated Greektown in the manner of Chicago, it could always lay claim to being the most important in the national Greek-American community. New York became the home of the first Greek-American

:InCited in Kopan. "Education and Greek Immigrants." p. 12:1. 4"Grace Abbot!. "A Study of the Greeks in ChICago." A11Iaicrm jOl/mal oj" SOciology. 15. no, ,I (November. 1909). p. 386. "The dominance of Greeks in confectioneries is described in Fairchild. GI"I!ell I11Imigration. pp. 127-28 and Burgess. Greek, 17I America. pp. ,14-36. The claim that Greeks in America invented the ice-cream sundae goes back some years. See LOllIS Adamic. "Gr'eek Immigration to the United States." C01T111Ionweal Magazine. :~3 Oanuar'Y ,I I. 1941), pp. 366-68. reprinted in Hecker and Fenton. The G1"I!elis in Ameriea ) . 88-92. __ 42Burgess. Greehs il1 A11Iaiea. pp. 37. , . .

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daily newspapers with national circulation and became the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Church in America. The Greek entrepreneurial spirit noted in Chicago was equally evident in New York City. The kinds of businesses toward which New York Greeks gravitated, moreover, reflected the common GreekAmerican business pattern. A 1909 survey of Greek-owned businesses in Manhattan reported: 151 bootblack parlors, 113 florists, 107 lunchrooms and restaurants, 70 confectioneries, 62 retail fruit stores, and 11 wholesale produce dealers.43 A few wealthy Greeks were in the travel and import business. Except for cigarette manufacturing, only a small number of New York Greeks worked in factories. Many who did not have their own businesses or who did not work for other Greeks became peddlers and pushcart vendors. One New York occupation that did not have a m£tior counterpart among Greeks elsewhere in the United States was the fur industry. And Greeks employed by furriersespecially in the years between the two world wars-constituted one of the few Greek workers' groups to be attracted to communist labor organizations. But the clearly significant trend in New York, Chicago, and other cities was for the Greek immigrant to start off in menial tasks and then move on to a small but self-owned business. A uniquely Greek mainstay in the early immigrant economy was the shoeshine or bootblack business. 44 Throughout the North there were literally scores or even hundreds of shoeshine parlors in each of the big cities. For the boy who had no better choices, there was always work to be found in a shoeshine parlor run by a fellow Greek. From our present perspective it is hard to realize how lucrative a shoeshine parlor could be in the early decades of this century. It was a time when walking was more common and shoes became dirtier than today; it was a time when the full high shoe was in fashion and standards of shoe presentation more particular than at present. With the cheap labor of young boys, the owners of bootblack establishments could do quite well indeed. Some of the more enterprising owners managed to set up chains of shoeshine parlors. The bootblack business also led to some of the most unsavory exploitation of Greek by fellow Greek. Owners of shoe shine parlors developed a padrone system which was little more than indentured labor. Passage money was sent to boys in Greece to come and work as bootblacks in America. Once under the control of the padrone, the bootblack might not be paid anything for a year, after which he might ':'Fairchild. Greek Immigration. p. 150. .... The description given on bootblacks in early Greek America is based on Saloutos. Greekl' in the United States. pp. 48-56: Fairchild. Greek Immigration, pp. 171-84; and the reminiscences of old Greeks who worked as boys in the shoeshine parlors.

THE GREEK COMES TO AMERICA

25

earn a salary of twenty dollars a year! (This compared to about ten to fifteen dollars a week for a mill worker in New England.) The working conditions were wretched. The shops opened up at about 6:00 A,M, and closed at 9:00 P,M, on weekdays, and later on weekends. There were no days off. After the doors were closed at night, the boys had to clean the shop and prepare things for the following day. Unbeknownst to many of the bootblacks, all they had to do in order to escape their situation was simply to walk away from the shoe shine parlor. The padrone tried his best to keep his charges ignorant of this option or at least to overstate the bleakness of alternative employment. He would censor their mail lest complaints crossing the ocean cut into his future supply of bootblacks. After Greek-American newspapers raised their voices against the "flesh peddlers," some improvement did OCCUr. 45 Yet the fact remained that most of the boys considered their privations worthwhile if they were the only way to get to America. In time, partly as a result of increasing familiarity with American opportunities, partly due to the decline of the shoe shine business, most of the bootblacks found employment in other fields. But for many years bootblacks and Greeks were synonymous in our large urban centers, The South and Tarpon Springs

Only a small number of Greek immigrants headed toward the South. Of all the Greeks who came to America before 1920 fewer than one in fifteen settled in the states of the old Confederacy. A region with little industrial employment or commercial opportunity and one in which antiforeign sentiment was most pronounced, the South played a minor role in the early Greek experience in America. Those Greeks who did live in the South, however. prospered; almost all ran their own small businesses-restaurants and lunchrooms. confectioneries. fruit stores, and shoe shine parlors. A Greek or two could be found in almost any Southern city, but their numbers were most visible in places such as Birmingham, Alabama, Greensboro, North Carolina. and Savannah and Atlanta in Georgia. There is a small community in the South, however, which does occupy a singular position in Greek America-Tarpon Springs, Florida, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. 4 !i Founded in the 1880s as a spa and 45Saloutos. Greeks in the United States. p. 54. "'Accounts of the Greek colony in Tarpon Springs. Florida. are found in: Helen Halley. "A Historical Functional Approach to the Study of the Greek Community in Tarpon Springs" (unpublished doctoral thesis. Columbia University, 1952); George T, Frantzis. Strangers at Ithaca (St. Petersburg, Fla.: Great Outdoors Publishing Co .. 19(2); and Edwin C. Buxbaum. "The Greek-American Group of Tarpon Springs. Florida" (unpublished doctoral thesis. University of Pennsylvania, 19(7).

26

THE GREEK COMES TO AMERICA

winter haven for wealthy Northerners, Tarpon Springs underwent a dramatic transformation at the turn of the century. In 1905 under the entrepreneurship of John Cocoris and his brothers, five hundred Greek spongers from the Aegean and Dodecanese Islands were brought to c:arpon Springs. From that time until the end of World War II, Tarpon Spnngs was the sponge center of America. Greeks dominated the indus~ry tJll:ou~h all of !ts stages-diving, hooking, cleaning, sorting, stringmg, clIppmg, packmg, and buying. During Prohibition times the Greek ~oat o~ners were. also known to augment their incomes by smuggling liquor mto the Umted States from Cuba. With the thriving sponge industry as its basis, Tarpon Springs became more than a "Greektown" enclave; it became a Greek town in fact. From 1905 into World War II Tarpon Springs had a m£~ority Greek population, a situation withou~ parallel in any other town in the United States. In 1940 there were 1,000 men engaged in the sponge industry who, with their families, constituted about 2,500 Greek Americans in the town's total population of 3,402. Although the Greeks of Tarpon Springs were concentrated in an area known as "fishtown," bordered by Pinellas and Tarpon Avenues and Dodecanese Boulevard, they were in political control of the town for most of the years between the two world wars. Some attribute the departure of the earlier established families of Tarpon Springs to the Greek ascendancy. As early as 1907 the spongers established their own Greek Orthodox church, St. Nicholas, named after the patron saint of seafarers, and much of their communal life centered around the liturgical calendar. The high point of the year still is the feast of the Epiphany on Janury 6, when local boys dive to retrieve a cross cast into the waters by a Greek prelate. . After World War II the sponge industry of Tarpon Springs went mto a precipitous decline. The spongers were unable to withstand the double catastrophe of the introduction of syntheic sponges on the market and the "red tide" which decimated the sponge beds of the Gulf of Mexico. Today the sponge industry is only a remnant of its former self and has become part of a tourist scene accentuating the local Greek ambiance. By the late 1970s the town had a population of around thirteen thousand of whom about a third were of Greek descent. Although the non-Greek population was growing at a rapid rate, some fresh Greek infusion was also apparent. Greek-American retirees from the Northseveral score a year-were increasingly finding Tarpon Springs an attractive place to spend their remaining years. Small numbers of young men from the Greek islands were also coming over. Though nominally entering the United States to work in the town's small sponge and shrimp fleet, most of the newcomers, it seemed, were likely to become busboys and waiters in the local Greek restaurants.

The Greek Immigrant Woman

It was the arrival of Greek women in significant numbers that anchored the Greek community in this country. It was on these women that the main burden and credit of the Greek-American family came to rest. Before the turn of the century only a trickle of Greek women entered the United States, each of whom must have been a pioneer in her own right. Between 1900 and 1910 less than one in twenty Greek immigrants were women, and only one in five between 1910 and 1920. According to the U.S. census the ratio of males to females among Greek-born Americans was a remarkably high 2.8 to one even in 1930, and a still disproportionate 1.6 to one as late as 1960.41 The preferred way for a Greek woman to come to America was to be accompanied: with her husband or in the company of brothers or cousins. But since marriages were frequently arranged across the ocean, many "picture brides"-who came from the same or nearby village of their prospective grooms-had to travel to America on their own. Whether betrothed or not, the trip to America could not be but a wrenching experience for single women. As Helen Zeese Papanikolas writes: Such women suffered not only from the fear of coming alone to a country whose language they did not know, but from violating the rigid code of their people. In the Mediterranean countries where a poor man's only possessions were his self-respect and his daughters' virginity, women were chaperoned with paranoid obsession, Women traveling alone to America were u-agically burdened with the anxiety that they would be suspected forever of having questionable morals. 4H

By and large Greek immigrant women-married and unmarried-did not work outside the household, If a man's wife, daughters, or even sisters had to seek gainful employment, it was considered a poor reflection on his ability to provide, Indeed, many immigrant men never married precisely because they knew they could not support a family without reliance on a wife's income. There were, however, some exceptions to the general pattern, For a woman to work in the family store was acceptable, although even t.his was not. a rule, In the West. in the early years, moreover, many married women ran boarding houses for Greek laborers. But it was in New England that the likelihood of women working was highest. A large proportion, some say a m<~jority, of the .'7Evan C. Vlachos, "Historical Trends in Greek Mi):{ralion to the United States" (paper presented at the Bicentennial Symposium on the Greek Experience in America, University of Chicaw), 1976). p_ 67, ""Papanikolas, Toil and Rap;I!, p. 142.

27

28

THE GREEK COMES TO AMERICA

Greek immigrant women in the mill towns were operatives in the textile and shoe factories. But even there most women did not continue working once they were married or after their husbands had secured a modicum of economic stability. The clearly dominant standard-and one that was usually adhered to--among early Greek immigrants was for women not to work. A Hull House study of Chicago's Greektown in 1909 reports that out of 246 women investigated only five were found to be employed. 49 In a culture where men were supposed to be concerned mainly with the rigors of earning a living, the mother often became the emotional center of the family, If the husband was a responsible man the wife usually stayed at home. Though formally submissive to her husband, the wife was frequently dominant in the practical affairs of running the household and disciplining the children. Not only tradition but practical sense enforced this division of labor; it took so much energy just to cook, clean. shop and bring up the children. A wife was to be treasured more for her abilities as a /inli nilwllim-good housekeeperthan for any marketable skills outside the home. The Greek immigrant woman typically learned little Englishthough perhaps more than she let on-especially in the urban Greek enclaves. She led a full, if circumscribed, social life which revolved around her family. a circle of Greek friends, and church activities. The Greek immigrant wife of the early era could expect realistically a long period of widowhood, inasmuch as she was often a decade or two younger than her husband. She fervently prayed that her grown children would marry "Greek" and that, once widowed, she might move in with them. Whatever the immigrant woman's personal circumstances, it was only with her arrival that the groundwork for a permanent GreekAmerican community could be laid. The migration experience was a profound culture shock-for women and men alike-for which it took many Greek immigrants years to adjust. Some never did. The traditional peasant life of the mass of the immigrants was mean and should not be romanticized. But at least it was a thoroughly familiar way of life .to these people. To move into an urban setting, not to know the English language, to be targets of hostility by most people, including other immigrant groups was, of course, a painful transition. Little wonder that the dominant mood among the immigrant Greeks of the early decades was an upswell of nostalgia for the old country. Yet, for all the difficulties encountered by the pioneer Greeks in America before World War I, the basic fact remained that almost all of 40

Abbott. "Greeks in Chicago," p. 'l88.

THE GREEK COMES TO AMERICA

29

them were able to make more money here than they would have at home. Slowly, with resistance, but inevitably, the Greek immigrants became persuaded that their future was to be found in this country.

c

H

p

T

E

R

T

w GREEK AMERICA FORMS

Early Greek immigrants in America, regardless of employment or location, were almost exclusively male. Prior to World War I about 90 percent of all of them were males. Some of the immigrants married American women, but many others never married at all. Still others had wives but left them in Greece. Even among those men who did eventually bring brides over from the old country, marriage would not often occur before their middle years. The Greek-American community in its early years was thus mainly a bachelor's community. The bachelor existence of the large m<~ority of the Greek immigrants gave rise to a uniquely Greek-American institution-the Iwfenion or coffeehouse. Almost from the time of the first arrivals, an enterprising Greek would rent a space in a cheap location, install a few tables and chairs, purchase a dozen decks of playing cards, and serve sweets and thickly brewed coffee in the manner of the old country. A few basil plants might be planted in rusty tin cans. The decor would include lithographs of classical or revolutionary scenes"The Vengeance of Achilles" or "Lord Byron Taking the Oath of Allegiance." Though sometimes frowned upon by established Greeks who saw the coffeehouse as a place for idlers and gamblers, it was the Iwfenion where Greek men could find surcease from this strange land. Theodore Saloutos gives us a good description.

Greek America Forms

The coffeehouse was a community social center to which the men retired after working hours and on Saturdays and Sundays. Here they sipped cups of thick, black Turkish coffee ... played cards. or engaged in animated political discussion. Here congregated gesticulating Greeks of all kinds: railroad workers, factory hands, shopkeepers. professional men. the unemployed. labor agitators, amateur philosophers, community gossips, cardsharks, and amused spectators. The air of the average coffee house was choked with clouds of smoke rising from cigarettes, pipes, and cigars. 'Through the haze one could see the dim figures of card players or hear the stentorian voices of would-be statesmen discussing every subject under the sun.'

The coffeehouse. especially in the larger cities, could also be the scene of more planned entertainment. A bouzouki or mandolin player, a 'Theodore Saloutos. TIl/! Gmd(s in tIll! United Sltltes (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964). p. 79.

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31

belly dancer, or a strong-man act-the inevitable "Hercules"-would occasionally appear and earn a living from a tray passed through the coffeehouse audience. Much more common were the performances of the kamghiozi. Coming out of a Turkish tradition, the karaghiozi-shadow silhouette shows performed on a white sheet-were a popular form of entertainment throughout rural Greece in the nineteenth century.2 Although there were innumerable variations, the basic plot was one in which the seemingly stupid but actually sly Greek. Karaghiozis, would always get the better of the officious and superordinate Turk.:! As oneman shows the karaghiozi were readily adaptable to performers who traveled from Greektown to Greektown throughout the United States in the early decades of this century. The karaghiozi were to disappear in America by about the end of the 1930s, but not before they had become an indelible part of the Greek immigrant experience. In Greece itself th: live Iwraghiozi lingered on into the 1960s, but now appear only on televIsion. RETURNEES AND THE END OF MASS MIGRATION

The mass of the Greek immigrants-railroad and mine workers in the West, textile and shoe factory workers in New England. peddlers and bootblacks in the large Northern cities, nascent entrepreneurs everywhere-somehow managed to save money from their meager earnings. Funds in large amounts were sent back to Greece; remittances from Greeks in America totaled over $650 million in the years between 1910 and 1930. Many immigrants, moreover, accomplished exactly what they had set out to do-to make money and return to Greece. Estimates are that about forty percent of all Greeks admitted to the United ~tat~s before 1930 went back to their homeland: some after only a short stmt m America. others after five or ten years here. 4 Some 45,000 returned to volunteer in the Greek army during the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, a most remarkable testimony to the Hellenic patriotism of Greek immigrants in America. 5 We do not know how many of these early returnees eventually decided 1.0 come back to America and stay for good. For sure, many Greeks counted as "repatriated" were simply returning to the old country to bring relatives or newly acquired wives back to America. Certainl? the number of such two-time immigrants in the early decades of thiS "Linda S. Myrsiades. "The Karghiozis Performance in Nine!eeIllh-Cell!ury Greece." Bvwntine (Ind Modern Creell Studies, 2 (1976). 83-98. "L. Danforth, "Humour and Status Reversal In Greek Shadow Theater," Byzantine and Modml Greell Studies, 2 (1876). 99-112. 4Theodore Saloutos, TlU!y Rt!1nem/;a America (Berkeley: University of California Press. 1956). p. 29. "Theodore Saloutos, "Causes and Patterns of Greek Emigration to the United Slates," Perspectives in American History, 7 (1973). p. 407.

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GREEK AMERICA FORMS

33

century was considerable. In fact, almost any tracing of a GreekAmerican family tree will uncover ancestors who crossed and recrossed the Atlantic several times before finally deciding to settle in America or remain for good in Greece. It was with the utmost reluctance that the Greek immigrant gave up the idea of returning home. A 1930 survey of twenty-four nationality groups showed that Greeks ranked last in aquisition of American citizenship-holding length of residence constant. 6 Yet, contrary to their initial intentions, those immigrants whose economic fortunes turned out best were the most likely to put down roots in America. Those who earned only a livelihood or little more, on the other hand, were the ones most likely to return permanently to Greece. Even among the less economically successful of the immigrants who did stay in America, a disproportionate share never did marry. In fact another wave of returnees started in the 1950s-and continues into the present-which consists of elderly bachelors retiring to Greece on their social security benefits. 7 In brief, those immigrants who prospered in America, or at least had steady employment, were the most likely to establish families here. It was this element that became the bedrock of the Greek-American community. The transformation of the Greek immigrant colony in America into a Greek-American community was presaged by the passage of restrictive immigration starting in 1917. It was not until 1921, however, that Congress first passed immigration legislation based on nationality quotas. The move toward restrictive immigration culminated in the Reed-Johnson Act of 1924, in which the number of entering immigrants was determined by a formula based on nationality distribution of the 1890 census. The clear intent and accomplishment was to exclude immigrants coming from southern and eastern Europe. The Greek quota was set at only 100 immigrants per year! This number contrasted with 28,000 Greeks who came to this country in 1921, the last year of relatively open immigration. In 1929 the annual Greek quota was raised to 307, where it remained for most of the next three decades. Nonquota immigrants, however, were allowed-principally through the mechanism of reuniting immediate family members-and Greek entry into the United States averaged about 2,000 yearly between 1924 and 1930. The immigration legislation of 1921 and 1924 closed what had been a virtually open-door policy for Greeks and other European immigrants. The halt in mass migration had two profound consequences for

Greek America-one immediate and the other long-term. First, there was a frantic scramble to acquire American citizenship. The immigrant realized that only a naturalized citizen could hope to bring over family members, or even he himself if he sought to return to America after visiting Greece. Where in 1920 only one in six Greek male immigrants had acquired American citizenship, by 1930 half of these immigrants had become naturalized Americans. 8 Second, without the transfusion of new arrivals from Greece, American-born Greeks would eventually replace the immigrants as the core Greek-American population. Proponents of maintaining traditional Greek culture in the adopted country would dominate for a generation, but the arithmetic of the American ascendancy was inevitable. In 1920 only one in four Greek Americans was born in this country, but by 1940 American-born Greeks were in the mctiority.H Thus legislative restrictions on immigration set into motion both individual and demographic forces that molded the GreekAmerican community. The formation of the Greek-American community was also affected by the regional origins of the immigrants. The first small group of Greek immigrants in the 1880s came from Laconia, a province located in the Peloponnesus. By the 1890s most came from Arcadia. another province in the Peloponnesus. In time, Greek immigrants would be drawn from all parts of "free" Greece as well as the unredeemed lands. The expulsion of the Greeks from Asia Minor by Turkey in 1922 resulted in a number of these refugees coming to Americajust before the closing of the immigration gates. But the Peloponnesus, the southernmost region of mainland Greece, has always remained the main place of origin of Greek Americans. By way of comparison, about one in seven persons in contemporary Greece lives in the Peloponnesus, whereas at least four out of seven Greeks who ever came to this country were Peloponnesians.

"Frances]. Brown and Joseph S. Roucek. One America (Englewood Cliffs. N.].: Prentice-Hall. 1945). p. 657. 7In the mid-1970s. there were an estimated 19.000 Greek Americans residing in Greece receiving social security pensions. New York Times. Nov. 26. 1976. p. 31.

"Saloutos. Greeks in the United States. p. 239. "Evan C. Vlachos. "Historical Trends in Greek Migration to the United States" (paper presented at the Bicentennial Symposium on the Greek Experience in America. University of Chicago. 1976). p. 35.

DISORDER AND EARLY PROGRESS

The Greek Church

The basic organizational unit of the Greek immigrants was the kinotis or "community." When a sufficient number of Greeks had settled in one place, a community would be formed which broadly included all the Greeks in the area. In practice, however, the kinotis consisted of those who took part in the community'S general assemblies-increasingly lim-

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GREEK AMERICA FORMS

ited to dues payers-which elected their own board of directors or symvo'Ulion. The main purpose of the kinotis was to raise enough funds to found and maintain a local Greek Orthodox church. The first step in this was to acquire a charter of incorporation from the state, and then to find a priest. A priest could be obtained through a request sent to either the Church of Greece or the Patriarchate of Constantinople (Istanbul in Turkey). Often enough, however, a Greek Orthodox priest could be found from among the immigrants themselves. Among the earliest church communities were New York's Holy Trinity established in 1892 by the Society of Athena, Chicago's Annunication founded in 1893 by the Society of LYClll'gUS, and Boston's Holy 'Trinity founded in 1903 by the Society of Plato. The liinotis in a typically Greek way symbolized the immigrant's dual pride in their classical heritage and commitment-perhaps even more in America than in the old country-to their Byzantine Church. In 1916 there were about sixty Greek churches in the United States, and about 140 by 1923. The significant point of the appearance of Greek Orth~dox churches in America was that they originated from the actions of the immigrants themselves and were not instituted by the ecclesiastical authorities in Athens or Constantinople (Istanbul in Turkey). Unlike the situation in the old country, moreover, priests in America were hired directly by the kino tis rather than assigned by bishops. The governance of the church community in the early years was something like that of Congregationalism, with decisive power in the hands of the locally elected symvo'Ulion. The priest was usually regarded as an employee who must minister the sacraments and attend to the spiritual needs of his congregants, but not make too many demands of them. Each church community "was governed by a board of trustees, many of whose members were small independent businessmen, marked by that commanding l · ·m 1 propnetary cllr so 0 f ten founc t 1e seIf-ma d e man. "!O Democratic control of the parishes by the laity did not by any means imply that a state of harmony existed within the churches. Quite the contrary; personality clashes and disputes over administrative matters and the qualifications of the priest were commonplace. Frequent schisms were disaffecting many congregants. Clerical commercialism and parish raiding also marred the early Church scene. It was becoming apparent that a more systematic organization was required and one which would be consistent with canonical principles, that is, authority deriving from a recognized Eastern Orthodox episcopacy in the old world. Early efforts towarci affiliation with other Eastern Orthodox bodies in the United States-principally Russians-clid not succeed. Pan-Orthodoxy with its dilution of the essential Hellenism of their >

•

IOSalolltos. Greek, in the UlIitui Stales, p. 129.

GREEK AMERICA FORMS

35

Church was not a congenial choice for the Greek immigrants. The Church for them was as much a vehicle for the transmission of Greek national values as it was a religious vessel. The early Greek Orthodox churches in America, although independent for all practical purposes, were under the spiritual aegis of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In 1908, however, the Patriarchate formally placed the Greek churches in America under the authority of the Church of Greece led by the Metropolitan of Athens. At this point a brief explanation of the jurisdictional structure of Eastern Orthodoxy is required. There are four ancient patriarchates of which the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople ranks first in honor. There are also autocephalous ("self-headed") or independent national Churches, such as the Church of Greece and the Church of Russia. Thus, although the Constantinople Patriarchate and the Church of Greece are identical in theology, liturgy, and Hellenic culture, the two bodies have for historical reasons become jurisdictionally independent of each other. The 1908 decision of the Patriarchate to place the American churches under the authority of Greece was in large part dictated by the threat of Turkish reprisals against the Patriarchate for the anti-Turk agitation of Greek immigrants in the United States. There was also the Patriarchate's apprehension that it would be unable to counteract efforts by Russian Orthodox bishops in America to bring the Greek-American churches under their control. Placing the Greek Orthodox churches in this country under the authority of the Church in Greece did not bring order to the GreekAmerican community. Quite the contrary. The Holy Synod in Athensthe ruling body of the Church of Greece-became embroiled in a game of musical chairs, as the royalist supporters of King Constantine and the liberal backers of Venizelos alternated in power. The consequences of the royalist-Venizelist struggle in America led to a situation which has been aptly termed "the civil war within the Church."!! In 1918, the Metropolitan of Athens, Meletios Metaxakis, came to America to organize the Church in this country. Metaxakis returned to Greece promising to establish a bonafide American Archdiocese. However, Metaxakis, a Venizelist, was deposed in 1920 as head of the Church in Greece and replaced by a royalist. Metaxakis came back to the United States, claiming to be rightful head of the Church of Greece; and, as such, he assumed the administration of the Greek churches in this count.ry. In turn, the Church of Greece sent its own bishop to America to rally royalist congregants to its fold. In 1921 Metropolitan Metaxakis convened the first clergy-laity conference of the Greek communities in the United States. This laid the "llnd .. pp. 281-309.

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GREEK AMERICA FORMS

groundwork for the formal incorporation, under statutes of the state of New York of the Greek Archdiocese of North and South America. Shortly after founding the Archdiocese, Metaxakis-in a dramatic turn of events-was elevated to the position of Patriarch of Constantinople. Once enthroned as Patriarch. Metaxakis transferred the Archdiocese in America to dependency on Constantinople and appointed a trusted supporter, Archbishop Alexander. as its head. Throughout his archbishopric-from 1922 to 1930-Alexander was bitterly opposed by royalists along with those Greeks in America who preferred Athens over Constantinople as the seat of their Orthodoxy. Alexander faced several rival claimants to his leadership of the Greek churches in America. The most formidable opponent was Archbishop Vasilios, an ardent royalist, who waged a relentless campaign to bring the Greek-American communities under his sway. Court battles ensued, excommunications were exchanged. and there was "hysterical violence even within the sanctuary of the Holy Altar. Police were stationed at strategic positions within some of the churches 10 prevent actual bloodshed."12 There were some 200 Greek Orthodox churches in the United States in 1930. about two-thirds of which were under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese under Archbishop Alexander with most of the remainder following Archbishop Vasilios. Although the royalist- Venizelist schism cut across class and regional lines. there were some discernible patterns. 'rhe more traditional and working-class Greeks--especially in New England-were the most likely to be found in the royalist camp and with Archbishop Vasilios. whereas the more assimilationist and middleclass elements-especially in the Middle West-were the most likely to be supporters of Venizelos and Archbishop Alexander, Although the contending ecclesiastics certainly displayed little talent for accommodation. they were in actuality reflecting the more basic proclivity of the mass of the Greek immigrants to continue the royalist-Venizelist struggle in this country. By the close of the 1920s the Greek Orthodox churches in the United States were in a state of acute disarray and demoralization. The time for reconciliation was overdue. In 1930 the Constantinople Patriarchate with the concurrence of the Church of Greece dispatched the respected Metropolitan Damaskinos of Corinth on a peacekeeping mission to America. After much acrimony and negotiation it was agreed that all the feuding bishops in America would accept reassignments in Greece. Further, upon Damaskinos's recommendation. Athenagoras, the Metropolitan of Corfu. was selected to head the Archdiocese in America. Athenagoras's long tenure as Archbishop here-actually eighI"Peler 1'. Kourides. The Evolution olthe Gmdl Orthodox Church in America and ILl Presl!7l1 Problems (New York: Cosmos Prinling Co .. 1959), p. 8.

GREEK AMERICA FORMS

37

teen years, 1931-1948-proved to be of major significance in the development of the Greek-American community.l:! Athenagoras's first task-in which he well succeeded-was to defuse the royalist-Venizelist collision in this country. Through personal trips to each of the Greek Orthodox parishes and by patience and tact. he calmed and then dissipated the royalist-Venizelist conniCL To be sure Athenagoras's efforts were aided by a changing political situation in Greece which was moving beyond the events of the World War I period. and by the increasing number of American-born Greeks for whom the old country fights of their predecessors were irrelevant if not incomprehensible. Yet, while external factors facilitated the Archbishop's achievements. it was his own time-consuming pastoral visits that finally laid to rest the generation-long political feud which had divided the Greeks in America. Athenagoras's second and more controversial goal was to centralize the administration of the Greek churches in the Archdiocese. He was ultimately successful in this endeavor, but not before setting off another round of intercommunal fighting. Starting in the 1930s. the Archdiocese began to implement policies to regularize its revenues and to enforce uniform bylaws in all parishes. Bishops previously in control of their own dioceses became auxiliaries of the one ruling archbishop. Athenagoras sought to increase the prerogatives and prestige of the clergy, which necessarily meant a diminution of the inf1uence of the laity in parish affairs. Thus it was made mandatory that priests be appointed by the Archbishop and not directly by the parish. To say the least. many congregants took exception to vesting so much executive power in the Archdiocese. At the same time. Athenagoras's efforts to professionalize the clergy met with resistance from those priests who feared the new order would jeopardize their positions. The opposition to Athenagoras's centralization policies coalesced around the priest Christopher Kontogeorge of Lowell. Massachusetts. Having been unfrocked by the Patriarchate at Athenagoras's behest, Kontogeorge was ordained a bishop in an irregular ceremony and declared himself head of his own independent "Archdiocese of America and Canada. Inc."14 The Kontogeorge forces catered to dissident groups of various stripes and posed a continuous challenge to Athenagoras's authority for over fifteen years. Court battles and litigation again ensued. In a moment of despair Athenagoras would write of his opponents: "They opened drains and sewers and. with their hands. scattered _ "'An indispensable history of Greek Orthodoxy in Ihe UllIled Siaies is George Papajoannou. From Mars Hill to Manlwllrw; The Greeh OrtllOdox in America IInder AtlU!nap;ortls I (Minneapolis: Light and Life Publishing Co .. 1976). "Ibid .• p. 105.

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everything that was filthy."15 The cause of the decentralists faltered after Kontogeorge's death in 1950 and collapsed entirely by the mid-1950s. Although never receiving widespread support, the Kontogeorge movement did appeal to arch-traditionalist elements-for example, supporters of the old Julian calendar-and thereby acted as a brake on Americanization trends within the Archdiocese itself. The Press and Voluntary Associations

The internecine events occurring within the Greek Orthodox Church were mirrored on the secular side. The Greek language press in America was quick to take positions-and, some would say, exacerbate mattersin the conflicts between royalists and Venizelists and between contending church factions. 'rhe mortality rate of Greek newspapers was exceedingly high, but two--the Atlantis and National Herald [Ethnikos Kyrix]were destined to playa powerful role in the immigrant community for many decades. The two newspapers were the only Greek-American dailies to last more than a few years and both operated from New York City. The Atlantis was published first in 1894 as a weekly and then as a daily starting in 1904. Its publisher. Solon J Vlastos, was a fervent admirer of King Constantine and defended the monarch's policy of Greek neutrality in World War l. Ardently royalist during its early years. the Atlantis continued to take conservative positions on political matters in Greece and backed the Republican Party in this country. The National Herald made its appearance in 1915 in support ofVenizelos and Greece's entry into the war on the side of the Allies. Under the editorship of Demetrios Calli machos. it consistently identified with liberalism in Greece and later the New Deal in America. For over a half century the two rivals competed with each other. At their peak circulations in the 1920s, they each had daily press runs of around thirty thousand. By the end of the 19:30s, though still wielding m<~or influence, their circulations had dropped to about thirteen thousand each. Although both newspapers maintained national readerships, their constituencies hardly overlapped. To read either the Atlantis or the National Herald was to choose sides on the issues dividing the Greek-American community. Those who read the established dailies or weeklies could take comfort in the reinforcement of their already held political attitudes and in the fact that these newspapers informed them of the larger events throughout the Hellenic world. Indeed. during the World War I period the Atlantis in America enjoyed a circulation exceeding that of any daily newspaper in all of Greece! lH There were also the more marginal Greek 15lbid .. p. lO'1. I"Viclor S. Papacosma, "The Greek Press in America," Journal ol/he Hldlenic Dia.lpora, 5, no. 4 (wimer, 1979), p. 49.

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newspapers of the early era that must be seen less as ventures in journalism than as parochial voices in a communal dialogue. Such newspapers were heavily laden with effusive accounts of baptisms and weddings and laudatory coverage of the social affairs of Greek-American associations. There was also a journalistic genre of an extremely personalistic nature. Saloutos describes some of the more unseemly types. Men presuming to be editors wrote vituperative articles against a particular individual, showed these handwritten pieces to rivals of the attacked man, received from them the cost of the newsprint or the salary of the typesetter, and then printed the articles as "newsp,~pers" , .. And th~re were newspapers which on one day would heap praIses on Mr. X, calhng him a merchant, a man of eminence, a friend of the people, and a pat.riot, and on t.he next would denounce him as a nonentity, a trallor, an illiterate, and a bootblack. 1 7

The high fecundity rate of Greek newspapers in the early years was more than matched by a plethora of Greek fraternal societies. There were over one hundred such societies in this country by 1907,18 It seemed that wherever a score or so of Greek immigrants would come together, a voluntary association would spring forth--complete with lengthy constitution, colorful banners, and adornments for the officers' uniforms. The large m<~ority of these associations were toPi/w somateia, societies whose members came from the same region or village in the old country. Besides offering social opportunities among familiar compatriots, the regional associations would often collect money for projects benefiting the home village. Dissidence and personality connict, however, were a chronic trait of the Greek fraternal societies, and their demise was about as frequent as their appearance. Moreover, unlike the kinotis that sought to establish the institutions of a permanent Greek community in America, the early tOjJi/w. somateia were groups of transitory Greeks preparing for the-hopefully not too distant-day when they would return to their true home in Greece. The idea of a national association that would embrace all Greek immigrants was initially voiced by Michael Anagnos, the director of the Perkins Institute for the Blind and America's most renowned early Greek immigrant. In 1904 Anagnos did obtain a charter for a National Union of Greeks in the United States, but the association died with him in 1906. Shortly thereafter and in part inspired by his efforts, the first truly national Greek organization in America was established in 1907The Pan-Hellenic Union. I!) By 1912, probably with some exaggeration, the Pan-Hellenic Union claimed a nationwide membership in 150 17Sa!OUtos, Gmells in tIll? United Stall!s. p. 89. 18Ibui., p. 75. I!1Thomas Burgess, Greeks in America (Boston: Sherman, French & Co., 1913), pp. 63-67.

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branches throughout the United States. The appeal of the Pan-Hellenic Union was helped by its simple ceremonies, small dues, and promise of welfare benefits. Increasingly, however, the organization harked to old country patriotism. With the open support of the Greek Embassy, the Pan-Hellenic Union unabashedly promoted the Greek cause in whatever way it could. When the Balkan wars of 1912-13 broke out, the PanHellenic Union served as a recruiting office for the Greek government in this country. These activities brought the organization under severe attack-from Greek Americans as well as American sources-for what was regarded as patent disloyalty to America. Suffering as well from financial mismanagement, internal squabbles, and political confusion in Greece, the Pan-Hellenic Union withered away by the time America entered World War I. The pattern of fragility and localism of Greek-American associations was broken in 1922. In that year, a group of Greek businessmen in Atlanta, Georgia, founded the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association-usually referred to by its acronymn as the Ahepa. 20 A fraternal association with Masonic influences, the Ahepa was to become the leading Greek-American lodge. The official headquarters in 1924 was moved to Washington, D.C.-symbolically important because of its location in the nation's capital rather than in a city with a large Greek population. By 1928 the Ahepa had over 17,000 members and 192 chapters in all parts of the United States. By 1930 the "Ahepa family" had expanded to include a women's auxilliary, the Daughters of Penelope, and counterpart organizations for boys, the Sons of Pericles, and girls, the Maids of Athena. The growth of the Ahepa is to be understood in large part as an answer to the prevailing feeling against foreigners in postwar America. One of the objectives of the Ahepa was "to advance and promote pure and undefiled Americanism among the Greeks of the United States."2! English was the official language of the organization and membership was not limited to persons of Greek descent or Greek Orthodox religion, although in practice virtually all of the membership was of Greek ethnic stock. Prominent non-Greek Americans would be initiated into the Ahepa, but with the implicit understanding that their obligations did not extend beyond lending their names to add to the lodge's public luster. The trend toward Americanization was captured more revealingly in the names of some of the organization's leading members. An inspection of the 1924 roster of the Ahepa convention shows, in addition to the usual

History

2!'Much of the material dealing with the Ahepa is drawn from George J. Leber. 71lC of the Order of Ahej)(j (Washington. D.C.: Order of Ahepa. 1972). 2IIbid .• p. 150.

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polysyllabic Greek names, Anglicized ones such as Miller, Nixon, Walker, Adams, Campbell, and Kirby.22 Even though its official face was one of assimilationism, the Ahepa, nevertheless, was from its inception deeply committed to Greek identity, albeit in an American context. There was much more to the purpose of the order than outflanking American nativism. It represented the social aspirations of a growing Greek middle class, which could not be met by traditional, if not obscurantist. Greek associations. Most important, the Ahepa acknowledged the wrenching reality that most Greeks were in this country to stay. An Ahepa president in 1925 could finally state the unthinkable: Today ninety per cent at least of our compatriots have definitely decided to remain in America permanently, They are fast becoming American citizens; are acquiring American culture; are establishing their homes and businesses here; and are rearing their children to be real Americans. This is the country where they will die-the country where their children will live. 2 :!

The Ahepa also believed that only American fraternal forms would enable its membership to escape the morass of intercommunal fighting which had become synonymous with Greeks in this country. By having an American referent, the lodge would transcend the battJes of royalists and Venizelists. By being secular, the Ahepa would stay removed from the partisanship of opposing church groups. In avoiding these entanglements the Ahepa was in large measure successful. But Ahepa's own internal politics could generate a factionalism of its own. Aimost from the start competing groups coalesced around the personalities of V.I. Chebithes and Harris J. Booras, two men who labored prodigiously for the organization, each in his own way. The two Ahepa contending parties they led would outlive them both and continue to animate the lodge into the present day. Despite the acrimonious maneuvering as to who would lead the organization, the Ahepa was always in the forefront in pressing the good name of the Greek American. No opportunity toward this end seemed to be passed by. The Ahepa was involved in many activities during the 1920s and 1930s. Classes on naturalization procedures were held by the local chapters. A statue was erected to commemorate George Dilboy, a Greek immigrant posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for valor in the battle of Belleau Woods of World War I. Banquets were held in which U.S. Senators and state governors gave ad2"Ibid .. p. 177. ""Ibid .• p. 178.

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dresses extolling the Greek contribution to civilization in general and to America in particular. Yale University was criticized in 1931 for abolishing the Greek or Latin language requirement for the baccalaureate. Jim Londos, the world's wrestling champion, was regularly honored. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was initiated into the lodge while governor of New York. An Ahepa sword was given to each graduate of Greek descent from the service academies at West Point or Annapolis. Dialogue considered derogatory of Greeks was removed from the movies The Yellow Ticket (1932) and Bureau '!l Missing PeJ:50ns (1934). The first National Olympiad of Ahepa was held in 1939. Placing third in the 100yard dash was a boy named Spiro T. Agnew. The Ahepa was not without its strong critics in the Greek community. Even among those who recognized the permanency of the Greek settlement here, there were many who viewed the Ahepa as an instrument of unwarranted de-Hellenization. Because it adopted English as its official language, the Ahepa came under severe attack from much of the Greek language press, notably the National Hemld. Moreover, even though Ahepans as individuals and through their lodge have been m
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but it was fighting a rearguard action against the tide of Americanization. I n later years the organization would become increasingly moribund. Unlike the Ahepa, the Gapa found it difficult to make the transition from an immigrant to an American-born membership. Nevertheless, some of the Gapa philosophy did carry through. As early as the 1930s, the Ahepa had retreated from the ultra-assimilationist policies of its founding and took many actions to show it was. neither anti-Greek nor anti-Church. In the post-World War II penod, the Ahepa would become a m;~or factor in the preservation of Greek ethnic identity in America. Crime and Gambling

The Greek quest for respectability in America was in part indicative of sensitivity to charges that the immigrant enclaves were breeding grounds for crime. A 1908 campaign in Chicago against "Greek dives"-icecream parlors (!)-purportedly used for purposes of prostitution, brought much unfavorable publicity to the Greek cOmm1ll1ily.24 In 1932 the Wickersham committee, a panel appointed by President Hoover to investigate criminality in America, included in its report some statements that were construed as reflecting badly on Greek Americans. The Ahepa immediately reacted by assembling documentation on the sparse number of Greek immigrants in American penal institutions. 25 Certainly the early Greek community was worried about the incidence of crime, more t.han it allowed itself to say in public or admit to non-Greeks. But much of the crime could be regarded as "innocent." resulting from not knowing whom to pay graft, for example. Peddlers could not avoid breaking local regulations if they were to make a living. Health code violations in Greek-owned lunchrooms could be invoked capriciously by inspectors. In the everyday life of the Greek community, however, crime was a marginal phenomenon, one which Greeks more quickly attributed t~ the mnerilwnoi. This was to become even more the case once women arnved and normal family life could be established. Hardly any of the Greek immigrants had either the training in, or understanding of, or appetite for, criminal methods. In time, as the possibilities of American enterprise became clearer, a few-a very few-Greeks found their way to more sophisticated crime and became highly placed in the Mafia. But in the main, crime--certainly violent crime-was a source of shame. It was never at the center of Greek immigrant life. There was, however, one illegal activity which was recurrent among 2"Theodore N. Constant, "The Greek and the Law in the U.S." Athcl1l?, 4 (December,

1944), p. 48. 25Leber. Ordl?r of Alwpa, pp. 282-87.

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the Greek immigrants-gambling. For many a coffeehouse owner, the margin of survival rested on the tips he garnered from the gamblers who frequented his premises. The Greek propensity to wager on games of chance was in part a carryover of habits from the old country, where gambling was common and legal, and in part an outcome of the virtually all-male makeup of the early Greek settlements in America. A researcher who conducted a survey of Greek Americans concluded: "Almost every answer to my questionnaire mentioned gambling as the chief evil among the Greeks in America."2H It is no surprise that one of the most famous of all Greek Americans made his reputation at the gaming tables and race tracks. Nick "the Greek" Dandolos was born in Crete and came to this country at eighteen, in 1902. After trying his hand in the fig business, Nick began his gambling career in the coffeehouses of Chicago's Greektown. His willingness to risk extravagant sums became legendary. In a memorable game in 1926 between Nick the Greek and Arnold Rothstein there was $797 thousand on the table, the biggest pot in the history of stud poker. 2i Nick the Greek's reputation in betting circles was enhanced by his unusual behavior. He not only was unconnected with the rackets, but also he disdained ostentatious living and often made allusions to classical Greek philosophy. A millionaire for IUuch of his life, Nick's luck turned sour in his later years. When Nick the Greek died in Las Vegas in 1966, he was broke. Greeks in Business

More than a few Greek immigrants had already become proprietors and entrepreneurs before World War I. But it was the general rise in American affluence in the 1920s that carried a large number of them into ownership of their own small businesses. In big cities and small towns throughout the United States, Greek immigrants were joining the middle class more and more. Bootblacks moved into their own shoe-repair, hat blocking, and dry cleaning establishments. Fruit peddlers and flower vendors became owners of groceries and florist shops. Confectioners opened up their own stores to such an extent that sweet shops became virtually a Greek monopoly in this country. Pool halls were another venture with a heavy Greek concentration. Still other Greeks wem into business for themselves in a variety of retail, wholesale, and manufacturing enterprises. Many Greeks became wealthy in real estate and stock market speculation. The affinity between Greeks and food service be2"].P, Xenides, The GI'I!I!ks in AlIwrica (New York: (;eorge H. Doran Co .. 1922), p. 89. 27Cy Rice. Nicillhe Greek (New York: Funk and Wagnalls. 19(9). p. 14l.

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came an American social phenomenon about which more will be said later. For the time being, however. it suffices to note that the Greek entry into American capitalism was most notable in the restaurant business. A new area of business in which some enterprising Greeks flourished was movie theaters. One of these was Alexander Pantages, who came to this country as a boy in 1893. 28 He first sought to strike it rich in the Klondike gold rush but lost his grubsrake in a card game. He did make a fortune, however, by becoming a purveyor of commercial entertainment for the miners. Upon his return to Seattle. Pantages set up a one-man movie theater operation. Unschooled but. shrewdly ruthless. he parlayed his movie theater holdings to the point where in the late 1920s he owned a chain of about eighty theaters. Pantages claimed to be the first to combine movies with vaudeville. His indubitably Greek name became a permanent fixture on many West Coast "Pantages Theaters." The three Skouras brothers 211 brought even greater prominence to the Greek name in the ent.ertainment indust.ry. Charles, the eldest. came to this country in 1908 at the age of nineteen. He settled in St. Louis, where he worked as a waiter and bartender. In the typical Greek immigrant manner. Charles soon sent for his younger brothers, Spyros and George. All three brothers worked in menial tasks during their first years in America. Spyros, however, also went to night school, where he studied English and learned elementary business methods. By 1914 the brothers were ready to step into the business world on their own and begin a Horatio Alger climb to the pinnacles of monetary success. They bought a nickelodeon which they converted into a movie theater and renamed the "Olympia." By 1926 the Skouras brothers controlled thirty-seven theaters in St. Louis. It was in a Skouras SL Louis theater that the first precision dancing team-the Missouri Rockets-appeared as a stage presentation, the lineal ancestor of the Music Hall Rockettes in New York's Radio City.3u During the 1930s the brothers had a chain of over four hundred theaters and were m~or figures in the motion picture industry in Hollywood itself. In 1942 Spyros Skouras became president of Twentieth Century-Fox. He and his brothers were movie magnates of the very first rank in this country. Though operating at the top 2"This capsule biography of Alexander Pantages is adapted from Saloutos. Greekl in the United Stales. pp. 273-78. 2!lOn the Skouras brothers. see Ibid., pp. 278-80. George Anastaplo, a secondgeneration Greek American who teaches at the University of Chicago and Rosary College. tells the following story about his father. Anastaplo's father. when he was a young immigrant confectioner in SI. Louis. was approached by the Skouras brothers to Join them in their new movie venture. He declined and admonished the Skouras brothel'S to "stay in candy." :l°NI'w York Times. April 2. 1978. p. 015.

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levels of finance, the Skouras brothers always remained active in the Greek-American community and were mcuor benefactors of the Greek Orthodox Church and Greek charities. The Skouras brothers and Pantages were, of course, the rare exception and not the rule of the Greek immigrant experience. They did demonstrate, however, that it was possible for immigrants to become millionaires even if they came to this country without money, without the English language, and without much formal education. Larger than ordinary life to be sure, the Skourases and Pantages typified the hopes of lesser Greek entrepreneurs that they too could grasp a part of the American Dream. FROM THE THIRTIES TO THE FIFTIES

The Greek advance into the American middle class was abruptly set back by the Depression. The thirties were grim years for most Americans and Greek Americans were not an exception. Working-class Greeks suffered a significant drop in earning power, even among those fortunate to have a job. Marginal Greek-owned businesses went under in dismaying numbers. Individuals who had made paper fortunes on Wall Street or who had invested in real estate saw their stocks become valueless or their holdings taken over by creditors. Import houses and travel agencies dealing with Greece-the initial mainstay of the Greek-American bourgeoisie-suffered especially and were never to regain their influence in the Greek-American economy. Greek-American voluntary associations declined in membership and the Greek language press saw its circulation and advertisements shrink. Even the Greek Orthodox Church was sorely pressed to find the funds to maintain itself. For the only time in history, the outflow of Greeks back to the old country exceeded the numbers coming over to America during most of the 1930s. By and large, however, the middle-class aspirations of Greek Americans were shaken but not destroyed by the Depression. Many small businessmen persevered by the simple means of working excrutiatingly long hours. The immigrant entrepreneurial spirit also received a respite following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, when many Greeks gravitated to the bar and package liquor business. Mitigating to some extent the trauma of the Depression years was the additional fact that most of the Greek immigrants were at the peak of their physical vigor. Many would look back upon this period of their lives as the time when they enjoyed good health and found satisf~lCtion in raising their young families. A certain amount of resiliency and maturation was evident as well

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in the Greek-American community collectively. Old country regionalism and politics were giving way to a more composite Greek-American culture. The royalist-Venizelist feud was dying out, along with much intercommunal rancor. To be sure, when the quasi-fascist General Metaxas became dictator in Athens in 1936, his supporters and opponents in this country reacted accordingly. But the acrimony and numbers of the contending partisans never came close to the virulence of the earlier political feuds that had split Greek America. It was apparent in the 1930s that Greek-American energies were increasingly drawn from and focused upon the American scene. Somehow the Greek-American community found the wherewithal to establish an extensive network of Greek-language afternoon and Saturday schools. In the late 1930s there were 450 such schools with 25,000 students. 31 The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese was winning its battle to bring the local churches under its central direction. One immediate outgrowth of the Depression was the Archdiocese's centralization and the reinvigoration of the women's church organization, the Philoptochos, or "Friends of the Poor." The Philoptochos undertook many charitable activities and continues today to be a major outlet for women's volunteer work within the Greek Orthodox community. The permanency of the Greek community in this country was reinforced by the founding of a Greek Orthodox seminary, Holy Cross, in Pomfret, Connecticut, in 1937 (which was relocated in Brookline, Massachusetts. ten years later). This laid the base for American-educated Greeks to enter the clergy in significant numbers. It also showed that the church was no longer a Greek immigrant church but a true Greek-American church. From a political standpoint the Depression moved the large mcuority of the Greek community into the Democratic party. Whereas the Greek commercial community was strongly Republican in the 1920s, small businessmen came to identify closely with New Deal recovery measures as much as working-class Greeks. Even today the Greek business community largely supports the Democratic party. Certainly there was a recognizable Republican element among Greeks even during the Depression, but Franklin Delano Roosevelt was probably supported by over three-quarters of the Greek-American electorate. The liberal National Herald was an early and consistent supporter of Roosevelt and even the conservative Atlantis moderated its stand toward the President to conform more closely to the New Deal sentiments of its Greek-American readership. Unlike some other immigrant groups, the Greeks in America never produced a major socialist constituency even during the Depression. 31Papaioannou, From Mars Hill to Manhattan, p. 149.

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There was a vocal radical press in the Greek language, but it was always at the margin of the Greek-American community.:!2 A monthly Greek publication of the Socialist Labor party, Organization (Organosis) , appeared during World War I and survived for about a decade. In 1918 the first in a succession of Greek communist newspapers, the Voice of the Worker (Phone tou Ergatou) , commenced regular publication. It changed its name in 1923 to Forward (Em bros) and declared itself the official organ of the "Greek section of the American Communist Party." Forward was superseded by Freedom (Elr:/theria) in 1938 during the Popular Front era. Then, in 1941, the Greek-American Tribune (Virna) replaced Freedom as the voice of the Greek-American left. The Tribune had a readership of several thousand, was well edited, and included occasional English pieces. The Tribune continued publication until after World War II, when it was suppressed under provisions of the Smith Act. True to its ideology, the Greek leftist press composed articles in the demotic speech of spoken Greek and avoided the more formal and stilted Greek conventionally adopted by Greek newspapers both in America and Greece. Although the left was never to exert a mc~or influence on the Greek-American community, it did and continues to display certain enduring strengths. The Greek-American left initially consisted of immigrant workers in communist leaning unions and a sprinkling of Marxist intellectuals. The International Workers Order had an active Greek branch from the 1920s until after World War II when it was banned under the anti-communist legislation of the Smith Act. A Greek Seamans Union of indeterminate Marxist lineage and membership size has existed for over forty years. By far the most significant left-wing Greek group was local 70 of the Fur Workers Union. Most of the four thousand or so Greeks working in the fur industry of New York City were members of Local 70. During the thirties and forties, the communist hold on the furriers-then afliliated with the CIO-seemed unbreakable. In the years just before and during World War II, the Greek furriers of Local 70 could be counted upon to give some mass to Greek-American leftist demonstrations. But in the McCarthyite atmosphere of the early 1940s, the Fur Workers Union was vulnerable and an anti-communist drive in the CIO threatened to destroy it. Grappling for survival, party strategists sought sanctuary in the AFL and the furriers became a division of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union in 1955. This step along with sectarian infighting effectively compromised the militancy of the furriers. 3 :l The lack of broadly based support for leftist causes among Greek immigrants is at first glance surprising. After all, the immigrants almost to a man started off in menial labor. In the years before World War I, as 32The summary of the Greek-American leftist press is adapted from Papacosma. "The Greek Press," pp. 54-55. . 33Irving Howe. World of Our Fathers (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1976). pp.340-41.

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the Greek countryside began to empty a large portion of its male vouth into the work gangs and mills of the United States, a Greek-Am~rican proletariat appeared which preceded that of Greece proper.:!·' On closer inspection, however, the failure of the left becomes perhaps a little clearer. The split between Venizelists and anti-Venizelists over the issue of the monarchy deflected enormous political energies into a conflict basically unrelated to class formations in Greek society. It was even more so a complete irrelevancy to the immigrants' position in American society. Also, most of the Greeks who initially came to this country saw themselves as temporary workers here; class-based activities in America could only detract from the goal of returning home. Greek participation in strikes in the American West was sparked more by feelings of discriminatory treatment as Greeks than by notions of an encompassing ~orking-class identity. In the mill towns as well, Greek immigrants were hnked much more to those who shared their tongue and heritage than to abstract "fellow workers" in the new world. Even after Greeks began to root themselves a little in America, socialist organizing seemed not to answer the immediate wants of their ~xistence. ~ife in America was hard, work exhausting, and the imperatIves of dally need overwhelming. Organization, especially that which looked outward toward the American milieu, was always difficult for the Greek immigrants. The kafenion, the workers' most common grouping, drew minds away from America and back toward nostalgic memories of the old country. Moreover, in the twenties and thirties, it seemed foolish to align oneself with "unpatriotic" causes at the very time Greeks were questing for American acceptance. There was the family in which the concerns of children, brothers, sisters, and other relatives were more pressing than those of something called "labor." And there was the final overriding factor that a large number of Greek immigrants had moved out of the working class into small businesses of their own; for such petty bourgeoisie, socialism was anathema. The Italian invasion of Greece in the fall of 1940 brought Greece into World War II. The initial successes of the Greek army i~ throwing back the Italian invaders had an exhilarating effect on the GreekAmerican community, The heroism of the Greeks was given laudatory coverage in the American media and Greek Americans basked in unaccustomed glory. In a matter of days following the Italian invasion, a Greek War Relief Association (GWRA) was formed.:!5 Archbishop "4Detailed accounts of the emergent working class and nascent socialist activity in Greece itself at the time of the mass migration to the United States arc found in the studies of George B. Leon. See his The Greek Socialist Movemelll and IIll! First World War. East European Monograph Series (New York: Columbia University Press. 1976); and "The Greek Labor Movement and the Bourgeois State. 1910-1920,"Joumal of tIll! Hdlmic Diaspora, 4. no. 4 (winter. 1978). 5-28. . "'The organization and activities of the Greek War Relief Association arc covered in Saloutos. Greeks in the United States. pp. 345-53; and Papaioannou. From Mars Hill to ManlUlttan. pp. 134-39.

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Athengoras was designated honorary chairman and Spyros Skouras elected the first national chairman. Greek church communities and associations all gave support. but it was the Ahepa which provided most of the volunteer labor at the local level. In the five-month interval between the Italian attack and the subsequent German occupation of Greece. over $5 million ill money and supplies was raised. Though Greece became an occupied country, many Greek Americans believed that Hitler's rescue of the Italian army in Greece postponed his invasion of Russia, and thereby set in motion the final defeat of Nazi Germany. During the fascist occupation of Greece. the GWRA devised a program by which seven hundred thousand tons of food. clothing, and medicines were shipped to Greece on neutral Swedish vessels. It is estimated that a third. of the Greek population were saved from death because of the efforts of the GWRA. The relief work of the GWRA during and after the war was a sincere reflection of the love Greek Americans retained for the mother country. Once America itself entered World War II on December 7. 1941, Greek-American support for the war effort was wholehearted. After Pearl Harbor, Greece and the United States were united in the struggle against the Axis powers. Greek and American interests came together as tl;ey never had before. In 1942 Archbishop Athenagoras issued an encyclical directing Greek Orthodox priests to make supplications to God during the liturgy for the President of the United States and the American armed forces.:!!> T'he Ahepa, in cooperation with the Treasury Department. launched a drive which eventually sold a half billion dollars worth of U.S. war bonds. The first bond in the drive was purchased by Sam Rayburn. Speaker of the House. from Steve Vasilakos, a peanut vendor who worked the White House sidewalk. Another Ahepan, Michael Loris, was named champion U.S. war bond salesman in 1943, a year in which he sold 24,142 individual bonds.:17 One need not read too much into it, but it is worth remembering that the Andrews sistersLaverne, Maxine. and Patty-whose "support-our-boys" tunes made them the most popular singing group of the war years were secondgeneration Greek Americans. Certainly World War II was a watershed in Greek America: the war effort became a matter that combined Greek ethnic pride with American patriotism. In Greece itself during World War II a resistance was mounted whose main body was a coalition of leftist groups in which communists increasingly took the lead. The valor of the Greek resistance under the occupation was so exceptional that it evoked great admiration from Greek Americans of all political stripes. But even before the Germans ""Ibid .• p. ISO. "7Leber. Order of AhelJa. p. 345.

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were defeated, Greek political differences were being felt in the GreekAmerican community. The communist-led resistance in Greece and the British-supported government in exile were both girding for control of a liberated Greece. Closely following upon the heels of the German evacuation in late 1944, the British-supported royalist government returned to Athens. A vicious civil war broke out between the government and the communists that lasted until 1949. In this country. a group of GreekAmerican liberals and leftists formed in 1945 the Greek American Council as a means to lobby against. first. the American acquiescence to the British actions in Greece and. later. American aid to the Greek government. But it was abundantly clear that the large m,uority of the Greek-American population and all mcuor Greek-American organizations were committed to a pro-Western government in Greece. One of the historic consequences of the Greek civil war was that. under the mantle of the 1947 Truman Doctrine. the United States replaced Great Britain as the Western patron of Greece. American military aid and advisers were crucial in the final defeat of the communist forces. The Truman Doctrine initiated a military alliance between Washington and Athens which was to lead over the next generation to increasing American inf1uence in Greek political and economic life. 3H The foreign policy initiatives that brought Greece into the American sphere were also to make President Harry Truman popular within the Greek-American community. (There is no evidence. however, that Truman ever canvassed any Greek Americans before he implemented the policies which so directly affected Greece.) Archbishop Athenagoras hailed Truman as "a man sent from God.":w When the Truman Doctrine was promulgated. the Archbishop was so gratified that he ordered a special thanksgiving service in which a traditional hymn invoking the blessings of God for Orthodox kings was revised to name President Truman and his family.40 When in 1948 Athenagoras was elevated to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. some say with the help of the American government, he was flown to Constantinople on the President's personal airplane. Truman was also the only President to be initiated into the Ahepa at a White House ceremony. In 1963 the Ahepa erected a Truman memorial statue in Athens. Truman's own personality and small business background always seemed to resonate with the immigrant Greek Americans who could understand the plain talk of the man from Missouri. If Franklin Roosevelt was venerated by most Greek Americans, Harry Truman was much more an object of genuine affection. "HA balanced view of American influence in Greece is found in Theodore A. Couloumbis. John A. Petropulos, and Harry J. Psomiades. Foridgll III InjimmCI: ill Grt:t:ll Politics (New York: Pella. 1976). pp. 113-53. ""Saloutos. Greekl In tIll! United Stntl!s. p. '\6S. 4"Papaioannou. From Mars Hill to Manhattan. p. lSI.

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GREEK AMERICA FORMS

The postwar period was one in which the bulk of Greek Americans became solidly entrenched in the middle class. In point of f~lCt. it was the prosperity generated by World War II which brought about a m,:uor social ascent exceeding even that of the 1920s. The Greek-American occupational structure in its main body of immigrants was dominated by small businessmen. Among the American born. the large m,uority were in white-collar occupations and the professions. By the end of the 1950s it almost seemed abnormal for Greek Americans to work for wages. Although overall economic improvement was felt by many Greek Americans, there were important exceptions. A minority. principally old bachelors. were still trapped in poverty. In the factory towns of the North there was still an immigrant proletarian segment. but it was shrinking in both absolute numbers and relative weight. The general picture was indisputable. Greek Americans had comfortably arrived in American society. The fifties were also a time of general serenity within the GreekAmerican community. To be sure the social base of the most traditional immigrant associations was approaching dissolution. but those incorporating the American born-such as the Ahepa-were displaying sufficient appeal to insure their longterm viability. The Greek Orthodox Church eI:uoyed a period of unaccustomed equanimity. Archbishop Michael succeeded Athenagoras as head of the Greek Archdiocese in 1949. Under Michael's stewardship. the Church took the first steps to accommodate second- and third-generation Greek Americans. The Greek Orthodox Youth of America. an organization in which English was the official language. was established in 1950 and grew rapidly over the next few years. At the time of Michael's death in 1958, there were about 250 Greek Orthodox churches in this country. all of which were in the fold of the Archdiocese. Michael also pressed for acknowledgment of Eastern Orthodoxy as a major religious group. along with Protestantism, Catholicism. and Judaism. Toward this end. twenty-six state legislatures passed resolutions recognizing Orthodoxy as a m,uor faith: 1I A symbolic threshold was crossed in January. 1957. when Archbishop Michael became the first Orthodox hierarch to take part in the Presidential inaugural ceremony. On a more mundane level. the Defense Department finally authorized an Eastern Orthodox "dog tag-" in 1955. No longer would Greek-American servicemen resign themselves to the nebulous "Other" categ-ory or force fit themselves into misleading Catholic or Protestant designations. The postwar period was also one in which Greek immigrants ag-ain began to arrive in this country. Greek-American associations. notably the Ahepa. along wit.h other Eastern and Southern European nationality ·"Ibid., p. 190.

GREEK AMERICA FORMS

53

groups exerted pressure on Congress to liberalize immigration laws. The Greek quota had been set at 307 annually since 1929. but. under special refugee legislation in 1948 it was made possible to borrow from the future. By 1952 the Greek quota was mortgaged to the year 2014! Hopes for less restrictive immigration policies were set back by the passage of the McCarren-Waiter Act of 1952, over President Truman's veto. The nationality quota system was maintained and the Greek quota raised by only one person-to 308 per year. Legislation passed in 1953 and 1954. however. permitted non-quota Greeks to enter either as displaced persons or through preferences given to close relatives. Under these acts. some 17,000 non-quota Greeks came to this country in the middle 1950s. All told, about 70,000 Greeks-either by borrowing on future quotas. by qualifying for displaced persons st.atus. or by utilizing provisions enabling citizens to bring over relatives--came to America between the end of World War II and 1965. Another group. numbering several thousand at least. were Greek students who received their advanced education in the United States and eventually acquired permanent residency or American citizenship. This development led to the appearance of an immigrant professional class in the 1950s and early 1960s-physicians. academics. engineers. and others-which added a new dimension to the Greek-American community.42 Although there were fewer postwar arrivals than there were during the era of mass migration. they still had a retarding effect on the assimilation of the Greek-American community. The fresh wave of immigrants replenished Hellenism in America. Greek Orthodox membership grew, the circulation of the Greek-language press revived, travel to and from Greece expanded, and Greek food and other items were increasingly marketed. Although the new arrivals meant the Greek-American community would not be completely cut off from the wellsprings of Greek culture, it did not imply that the processes of Americanization were being reversed. The American-born ascendancy was undeniable. There were no longer any Greektowns in which young children were brought up to speak Greek as their first language. Throughout the United States. the Greek community was moving from one made up of Greeks with American citizenship t.o one consisting of Americans of Greek descent. A thoughtful observer in 1960 would have predicted a lingering sort of Greek ethnic consciousness within an overarching American social identit.y. The power of the immigrant past was fading. 'rhis seemingly natural progression of events, however. was not to happen. at least not at its expected speed. Instead, Greek America entered a period of .2George A. Kourvetaris. "Greek-American Professionals: 1820s-197()s," Balkan Studies. 18, no. 2 (1977), pp. 285-323.

54

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growth and turbulence. This development was partly a result of the new ethnic pride in the descendants of the immigrants which was to become part of the American mood in the sixties and seventies; but it was especially due to the reopening of the immigration doors to large numbers of Greeks. THE NEW GREEKS

The Immigration Act of 1965 finally abolished the basis of selecting immigrants according to country of origin. An annual ceiling of 170,000 immigrants from the eastern hemisphere and 120,000 from the western hemisphere was established. with no more than 20,000 from any one country. From 1966 to 1971, during the first flush of the new legislation, about 15,000 Greeks came to this country annually, Since the mid1970s the figure has stabilized at around 9,000 Greek immigrants per year. That Greeks account for such a disproportionate share of the total eastern hemisphere allotment is due almost entirely to that feature of the 1965 Act giving preferential advantage to persons who have close relatives in the United States. Since 1966 over four out of five Greek immigrants have entered under the preferences enjoyed by relatives. 4 :1 Thus, for example, a Greek with American citizenship would send for a brother, who would then bring over his wife, who would in turn send for her brothers and sisters, and the chain would continue until a whole clan had arrived in America. It may not have been its intent, but the new immigration legislation in fact has given special advantage to nationalities with strong kinship ties such as the Greeks. The new arrivals ~ere more likely to be better educated and more urbane than their predecessors. Indeed, enough Greek professionals have migrated to America in recent years to cause concern of a "brain drain" from Greece:H Most newcomers, however, have come from a rural background, although they might claim otherwise. But the most signifant difference between the older and newer immigrants was in their sex ratio and familial status. The demographic composition of the recent arrivals since 1966, unlike the original immigrants who were mainly single men. was much more balanced, with almost as many women as men coming over. Moreover, many of the new Greeks were arriving in this country as married couples with small children. Most of the women with blue-collar husbands have themselves entered the labor

GREEK AMERICA FORMS

55

force. principally in light factory work. This differs sharply from the stay-at-home Greek women of the earlier immigration. The large proportion of employed mothers among the new arrivals has led to a growing acceptance of day-care centers. But resistance to the idea of leaving one's children with strangers dies hare\. Some families with working mothers bring over grandparents from the old country to watch over the children; a few will even send their young children back to Greece where they will be cared for by relatives. The old pattern of exclusively male arrivals from Greece. however. continues in one enduring form-the illegal immigrant. In point of fact, more Greek seamen have abandoned their ships in American ports than any other nationality. From 1957 through 1974. over thirty thousand Greek nationals jumped from their ships and disappeared somewhere in this country (in distant second place were the thirteen thousand Chinese who illegally left their crafts during the same period).45 The life of illegal immigrants is difficult to research but we know they can work only on the margins of the economy-as dishwashers. assistant cooks, garage attendants, and movers. 4H Often they work for established Greek Americans in manipulative if not extortionate relations. Even if illegal immigrants do somehow manage to acquire a decent job. their status is fraught with uncertainty and apprehension. One Greek ship jumper put it as follows: "Each of us has two nightmares. One is that he will die here in America. The other is that he will be caught by the immigration authorities and sent home to die in Greece."H

Many of the recent Greek immigrants followed in the path of their predecessors and went into the food service business. Greek cuisine restaurants increased dramatically with the advent of the new migration. In 1966, for example, there was only one Greek cuisine restaurant in the entire city of Chicago. By 1978, there were over twenty full-menu Greek cuisine restaurants in the city and hundreds of establishments featuring a selection of short-order Greek foods. Almost all of the new Greek-food restaurants were owned by recent arrivals. In New York Cit.y and New England, in a curious ethnic turnabout, new Greek immigrants began to operate pizza parlors. Throughout America a large number of the newcomers from Greece had become owners of bars, small restaurants, and I

·"Vlachos. "Historical 'frends in Greek Migration." p, 22. -I4George A. Kourvetaris. "Brain Drain and International Migration of Scient~sts." The Greek Review oj Social Research, nos. 15-16 Oan.-June, 1973), pp. 2-13. In 1974 Knkos. an association of Greek-American scientists, engineers. educators, and other profeSSionals. was formed to reverse the brain drain by devoting expertise to the development of Greece.

wfheodore Saloutos. 'The Greeks in America: The New and the Old" (paper' presented at the Bicentennial Symposium on the Greek Experience in America. University , of Chicago. 1976). p. 18. 4tIHanac staff, The Ne/?{is oj the Growing Greek-American Community in the City of New York (New York: Hellenic American Neighborhood Action Committee. 1973), pp. 38-39. '7Hellemc Tinws, Sept. 23, 1976. p. 6.

56

GREEK AMERICA FORMS

coffeeshops, more than replacing the decline of older Greek tavern keepers and restaurateurs. Besides being involved in the traditional food and drink business, the new Greeks were also becoming proprietors of tailor shops, shoe repair shops, dry cleaners, grocery and produce stores, and, in New York especially, taxi cabs. As in the past, many of the new Greeks were finding first employment as push cart vendors of frankfurters, ice cream, and sandwiches. Even hot chestnuts, which had not been seen on American streets in well over a generation, were making a comeback in New York City. A glance at the classified section of the Greek-language press revealed an array of advertisements offering push carts, hot-dog wagons, and restaurant trucks. In a rerun of the tribulations of the first immigrants, the new Greek push cart vendors and peddlers ran into frequent trouble with the health departments and licensing agencies of city governments. Most of the new Greek immigrants, of course, were not proprietors or even peddlers, but worked for someone else. Some went into factories, but more were moving into construction, painting, and maintenance work. A large number also became waiters, grillmen or chefs in Greek-owned restaurants. Those employed by fellow Greeks were sometimes Guoled into working "off the books."48 Employers would convince the new immigrants that in this way they could make good money because they would not have to pay taxes or union dues. Under such conditions, workers were not eligible for health insurance, paid sick leave, or unemployment benefits. If they were laid off or a family member became seriously ill, the situation could only be described as desperate. The new Greeks were located in all parts of the United States, but especially in communities where relatives had previously settled; mainly in the cities of the North and West Coast. New York City and Chicago, however, have attracted by far the largest number of recent arrivals. Both cities witnessed the reappearance of Greektowns, swelling neighborhoods where the newcomers from Greece overlaid earlier concentrations of Greek Americans. The Astoria section of Queens with sixty to seventy thousand Greeks became the largest Hellenic settlement outside of Greece or Cyprus. Sizeable numbers of Greeks were also to be found in Washington Heights in Manhattan and Bay Ridge in Brooklyn. In Chicago, the new Greektown centered at Western and Lawrence avenues and had a population of between 20,000 and 30,000 Greeks. (The old Chicago Greektown on Halsted Street, though now devoid of Greek residents, has acquired a second life with its Greek restaurants, nightclubs, and retail stores). The metropolitan dailies of New York and Chicago found the new Greektown always good for colorful if 4BI-Ianac staff. Needs of the Growing Greek-American Com1llunity, p. 42.

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57

stereotypic copy. Described as law abiding and hard working, the new Greek immigrants seemed to be recapitulating the success story of their predecessors. In the main, the picture of acUustment of the recent arrivals to their new land was probably accurate. But beneath the surface, especially in the New York community, one could hear disturbing things--deplorable housing, exploitation of new immigrants, family fights, adolescent misbehavior, and mental health problems. Encouraged by a group of Greek-American activists including many prominent members of the Ahepa, a Hellenic American Neighborhood Action Committee (HANAC) was founded in 1972 and began a network of services for the Greek-American population of New York. Substantial public funding was obtained and by 1978 HAN AC had a staff of sixty paid members working in over a dozen offices throughout the city. HANAC established programs for youth, the aged, job placement, and family counseling. It has sponsored symposia on Greek-American social needs, initiated English language instruction for Greek adults, and worked for GreekEnglish bilingual education in the public schools. HANAC defined its mission as serving all Greek Americans in New York City. but its major thrust was geared toward the problems of the recent arrivals from Greece. The Hellenic Foundation of Chicago, though operating on a much smaller scale, was engaged in parallel activity in the nation's second largest Greek community. The new Greektowns-Astoria, in Queens, Western and Lawrence in Chicago--were very visible to the casual observer. A stroller in these Greek neighborhoods of the late 1970s would have seen full-menu restam-ants serving only Greek cuisine, produce stands, fish stores, bakeries and sweet shops, stores retailing Greek newspapers, books, musical recordings and souvenir items, offices of Greek-language newspapers, radio, and television programs, social clubs (that could also serve as the home for amateur Greek-American soccer teams), travel agencies, and funeral parlors. There would be more Greek grocery stores than one could readily count, each with their selections of Greek cheeses, six kinds of olives, cuts of lamb unfamiliar to American butchers, Greek bread, olive oil, and jars of sweets made from orange or watermelon rinds. These stores were patronized not only by neighborhood Greeks, but also by large numbers coming from the suburbs for weekend shopping. Cars in the neighborhood have the telltale Iwmpoloi (Greek worry beads) dangling from inside rear-view mirrors. Offices abounded in which Greek-American professionals practiced medicine, dentistry, or law for their predominantly Greek clientele. The public elementary schools of the neighborhood would operate on a bilingual Greek-English curriculum. The parish churches would find it necessary to offer the Sunday liturgy in shifts to accommodate overflow flocks.

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The number of Greek nightclubs catering to both Greek and "American" trade has mushroomed in recent years in both New York and Chicago. The new cabarets have eclipsed belly dancing acts-which were, after all, a Turkish rather than a Greek art-and are instead places where the foremost singers and musicians of Greece can be heard. Contemporary Greek popular music dominates but the traditional folk music of the villages can also be heard and, if one is fortunate, the rebetika as well:1!I The rebetilw, which emerged out of the bars, brothels, and drug dens of Greek port cities and spread abroad with the diaspora of Greek laborers in foreign countries, has been likened in theme and origin to American jazz and blues. The preferred housing pattern in Greektown-today as in times past-is to buy a two or three bedroom flat, then move into the ground floor and rent the upper stories to tenants who are also Greek. It is a source of wonderment how a Greek working in a menial job somehow manages to make the down payment on a building after only a few years in this country. The new Greektowns are not as thoroughly Greek as those that appeared around World War I. Non-Greek residents are interspersed throughout the neighborhood. Chain supermarkets and fast food operations along with other "American" stores juxtapose purely Greek shops. Yet on most summer nights the old time ambiance seems to come back. In the early evening Greek men stand on street corners talking loudly and gesticulating. Women visit with each other on the front steps of their houses or in nearby parks. Children shouting in Greek and English play street and alley games. Later at night the married men will return to their families, while the single men retreat to their "social clubs"-the modern day equivalent of the venerable Iwfenion-or neighborhood nightclubs. The merchants and homeowners of Greektown are constantly vigilant lest their neighborhood acquire a bad reputation and attract unsavory types. Efforts to prevent gambling are persistent but Sisyphean. Greek youth gangs of a rudimentary sort have surfaced in both the New York and Chicago Greektowns, apparently in reaction to the incursions of Puerto Rican youths. Still it is no accident that Chicago's Greektown was singled out in 1975 as the city neighborhood where property values were increasing most rapidly.50 The long-term viability of the new Greektowns directly depends upon the arrival of new immigrants. If new Greeks ceased to come in, the neighborhoods would soon change. Many of the newcomers move out of Greektown once they are financially able, usually to higher in4DNichoias Gage. "Grcek Cabarets Changing," New York Times. May 7,1976, pp. Cl, C9. An interpretation of the rcbctika is offered by A.A. Fatouros, "Night Without Moon," journal oft/III Ht:llenic Diaspo1'(l, 3, no. 4 (December, 1976), pp. 17-18. 50 Chicago Daily News, Oct. 18, 1975, p. 14.

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59

come neighborhoods in the city or to the suburbs. Most of the children of the immigrants will move out when grown and on their own. A core of middle-class people does remain in Greektown simply because of old neighborhood ties and conveniences, but most of those who stay are those with no language skills and with limited economic opportunities. It does appear, however, that the infusion of new immigrants will be sufficient to maintain the Greektown of New York and Chicago into the foreseeable future. The newcomers did not always meld easily into the existing Greek-American community. On the whole, they were more cosmopolitan than their predecessors and some may have tended to view the Greeks already established in America as boorish and uncultivated. They could demean the humble origins of the earlier immigrants by referring to them as bootblacks or f}iatades-dishwashers. The recent arrivals were perhaps too quick to contrast their good Greek with the deteriorated Greek-which in any event was less polished to begin with-spoken by most of the oldtimers. The new Greeks saw a Greek Orthodox Church and a Greek-American community in which Hellenism had been diluted to an extent unrealized by the older immigrants. On their part, the older generation of immigrants was put off by what seemed to be an antiAmerican if not socialist tendency among some of the new Greeks. The old Greeks often described the new arrivals as being adverse to toiling long hours and unwilling to appreciate the privation which had led Greek Americans into the middle class. There was also some concern that the new Greeks were too calculating, too grasping, and would ruin the good name the Greeks in America had worked so hard to attain. The old Greeks might say of the new that they expected too much for nothing, "they found the table all seL"51 It was perhaps inevitable and understandable that there would be some strain between the new immigrants from Greece and the earlier arrivals. It would be a gross exaggeration, however, to assume that the newcomers and the old timers fell into two antagonist groups. In many cases extended families were reunited with extreme cordiality. To be able again to converse comfortably in one's native tongue with members of a younger generation was a boon many older Greeks thought they had forsaken forever. There was also the common recognition that, without the infusion of the new Greeks, Hellenism in this country would never have maintained itself. If on occasion the new and the old Greeks found themselves at odds. both groups, nevertheless, found that what they shared in common overrode what separated them.

51Saloutos, Greeks in the United Stall!s, pp. 380-81.

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Relations between American-born Greeks and the new immigrants are much more problematic. Excepting relatives, most of the second and third generations come into contact with new Greeks only at church services and Greek-American social aff~lirs. The social distance between the American-born and the new Greeks finds expression in diverse ways. There is the bemoaning of the apparent unwillingness of the new arrivals to contribute either time or money to Greek Orthodox parishes or Greek-American voluntary associations. (That both time and money may be in short supply for many of the new immigrants is rarely acknowledged.) The new Greek, on the other hand, is dismayed by the lack of Hellenic consciousness among American-born Greeks as typified by their alleged indifference to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. (It is rarely acknowledged that the considerable domestic pressure brought to change American foreign policy toward Cyprus and Turkey was spearheaded by American-born Greeks.) The term "D.P." (from Displaced Person) has become part of the Greek-American lexicon and is used as a generic expression by the second and third generations to describe negatively recent arrivals from Greece. One of the surprising differences between the two groups is that American-born Greek women often describe the new male immigrant as too forward and taking too much for granted in his contacts with the opposite sex. In a gathering in which several young Greek-American women were present, the term D.P. was being used rather frequently. I asked the women to define a D.P. "Well, you know, a D.P. is a D.P." Still not satisfied, I asked for further explication. "Just go to a Greek dance. then you'll know what a D.P. is." With this Delphic answer, the conversation turned to other matters. The negative stereotype many American-born Greeks have of the new Greek immigrants can be understood as a form of filial respect for their parents and grandparents. The recent arrivals from Greece, that is. are held to a standard-self-sacrifice, moral rectitude, feeling for family, commitment to Greek-American institutions-that is ascribed to an idealized older generation. Whether in fact the new Greeks are all that different from the older immigrants is a question that cannot be answered with precision. Certainly Greece today is not the same as it was before World War II; neither is modern urban America with its street crime and social disorder the same America of the early immigrants. Although there are real differences between the old and the new Greek immigrants, there are many more important similarities between the two groups. It is not fair to say that the vast majority of the recent arrivals are not just as hard working as the early immigrants. Indeed, the economic advancement of the newcomers may be even more impressive than that of their predecessors. If some of the new Greeks may espouse a politically more liberal line than the old timers, this should not obscure

GREEK AMERICA FORMS

their continuing basic conservatism on family and personal matters. If the new immigrants do not participate in the Greek-American community to the purported degree of the older immigrants, this is largely due to the fact that it is a community which they did not shape and whose control has increasingly entered the hands of the American-born generations. When all is said and done, both the old and the new Greeks share in common a strong motivation to succeed in American society while retaining an abiding pride in their Hellenic origins. It also seems that many of the "old" new immigrants-those who have been in this country for five or so years-take the same critical attitude toward the "new" New Greeks as do the old immigrants. a kind of process whereby earlier immigrants look upon newcomers as less morally upright than themselves. Our newly arriving cousins from Greece are indeed very much like our immigrant parents and grandparents.

c

H

p

T

E

R

T

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E

A commonly told tale in Greek-American circles relates the adventures of a Greek immigrant in the days of the untamed West. A covered wagon train on which the Greek is traveling is suddenly attacked by Apaches. After each assault, the survivors retrench and fight back, but to no avail. Finally, only the Greek is left. Just as he is about to be scalped by Geronimo himself, the Greek falls to his knees, crosses himself, and pleas-in Greek-"Mother of God, save me!" Geronimo casts his knife to the ground, pulls the Greek up, embraces him, and exclaims-in Greek-"What, you a Greek too!" The ubiquity of the Greek is a popular topic in Greek-AIJerican parlor conversation. Every Greek American has his or her favorite "Geronimo story" of a personal encounter with another Greek in the most unlikely place or situation. This perception of the omnipresence of Greeks in America, however, can lead to gross exaggeration as to the actual umber of Greek Americans. The uestion of the total Greek-American opulation is a continuing one and ,not be answered with precision. come up with relevant figures inves matters of definition as well as measurement. Is descent from Greek stock the determining variable? How does one count those of mixed Greek and non-Greek ancestry? Is it more an issue of affiliation with GreekAmerican communal institutions? Or is it the social-psychological sense of being ethnically Greek in American society that matters? How does one categorize permanent residents with Greek citizenship, those on student visas, or illegal aliens? These are all questions that generate controversy. We also know little of the birth rate of Greek Americans. One can note, impressionistically. that the Greek-American family has never been a large one. Among earlier as well as more recent immigrant families, three or four children tend to be the outer limits. The American-born generations are barely reproducing themselves, if that. The broadest definition of Greek Americans is to include all descended from Greek stock-immigrants from Greece or elsewhere, and those born in America of fully Greek or mixed ancestry. To define them based on their participation or at least affiliation with organized GreekAmerican institutions would lead to much lower estimates. And to use self-identity as the criterion for defining them would probably result in a

The

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THE GREEK-AMERICAN COMMUNITY

figure somewhere in between. This is all to say that although the actual numbers of Greek Americans are undetermined, we can, nevertheless, begin to draw conclusions based on available data and by keeping in mind the terms of the discussion. THE GREEK-AMERICAN POPULATION

The U.S. census adopts a lineage definition of ethnicity. The 1970 census reports 177,275 Greek-born Americans (first generation) and 257,296 native-born Americans of fully Greek or mixed parentage (second generation), or a total of some 434,000 persons of "Greek stock" in this country. These numbers have been challenged as undercounting Greek Americans, especially the new arrivals in New York City and other m
350,000 450,000 350,000 100,000 1,250,000

This total figure is based on a broad definition: all persons descended from Greek stock, including those in the later generations with at least one Greek grandparent. This is far below the two, three, or even four million sometimes claimed by Greek-American spokespersons. When we use more qualified-but more socially significant-definitions of who is a Greek American, the figures are lower. National survey items that allow for ethnic or religious background measures show between seven and eight hundred thousand who consider themselves either

'Hanac staff, The Needs of the Growing Greek-American Community in the City of New Yoril (New York: Hellenic American Neighborhood Action Committee, 1973). pp. 13-20.

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THE GREEK-AMERICAN COMMUNITY

Greek Orthodox or Greek American. 2 Although offspring of mixed marriages are less likely to identify as Greeks than others, this is not necessarily the case. The manner and degree to which ethnic identity transmits across the generations through mixed marriages is one of the most tantalizing yet least understood mechanisms of ethnic imprinting. In any event, the outer limits of the self-identified Greek-American population most likely falls short of a million persons. The Greek-American population can also be described in terms of its regional distribution. The historical narrative of the Greek arrival in this country is reflected in the census trend data given in Table 3-1. In 1910, in addition to sizeable numbers in New England, the Middle Atlantic, and the Middle West, we find the largest Greek settlements in the trans-Mississippi states, areas in which Greeks labored on the railroads TABLE 3-1 REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF GREEK-AMERICAN POPULATION BY SElECTED CENSUS YEARS (in percent) Region

New England Middle Atlantic Middle West Sout.h Plains and Mountain Pacific Total (census total)

1910

1930

1950

1970

17.0 17.7 20.1 5.6 2,1.7 15.9 100.0 (98.771)

14.5 32.4 30.4 6.1 6.8 9.8 100.0 ( 175,3(2)

13.3 35.7 27.8 7.4 5.2 10.6 100.0 (169,083)

13.5 36.1 25.3 9.3 4.1 11.7 100.0 (434,571)

Source: 71lirtel!T!th Census of the United States: 1970. Abstract of the Census. Tables 14 and 15; Fifteenth Cln/SUS oj the United States: 1930, Population, Vol. II, General Report, Statistics by Subjects, Tables 6 and 7; U.S. Census oj Population: 1950. Vol. IV. Special Reports. Part 3. Nat.ivity and Parentage. Tables 12 and 13; U.S. Census of Population: 1970. Vol. I. Characteristics of the Population, United States Summary. Section I. Tables 144 and 145.

"The American Council on Education (ACE) national survey of college freshmen in 1972 included a self-identifying ethnic measure. Among all respondents .. 035 pel'cent identified themselves as "Greek." The ACE Greek-ethnic data were made available by a special computer run commmissioned by the writer. We can conjecture that college freshmen understate the Greek-American population by t.he underrepresentation of new immigrants, but overstate the Greek ethnic popUlation in that American-born Greeks are twice as likely to matriculate in college than the American average. Thus. in balance. we can surmise that the proportion of Greek Americans who are freshmen probably comes close to the proportion of Greek Americans in the total U.S. population. A 1975 Gallup poll of American religious preferences found .031 percent who identified as Greek Orthodox. This information was obtained through Tom Reinken of the Gallup organization on August 4. 1976. If the ACE and Gallup figures are extrapolated to a total U.S. population of 222 million (the census proJect jon for 1980) and rounded off. there are approximately 800,000 self-identified ethnic Greeks in this country, and 700.00() who identify themselves as Greek Orthodox.

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65

and in the mines and smelters. By 1930, however, the Greeks in the West diminished in number, and the largest concentrations were almost entirely in the states of the Northeast and the Great Lakes region, a pattern which has continued into the present. A breakdown by states in the 1970 census shows the largest number of Greeks to be in New York-about one in four of all Greek Americans-followed by Illinois, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan. It is revealing that in 1910, four Western states-California, Utah, Washington, and Nebraska-were among the eight states that had the largest numbers of Greeks, while in 1970 California remained the only Western state in that category. To look at the total number of Greeks by state or region, however, does not give an indication of the proportion of Greek Americans in these areas. It helps also to know something about the relative numbers of Greek Americans. This can be done by computing the 1970 census figures of the Greek-American population over the total state population. New Hampshire has the highest ratio of Greek Americans of any state in the union, closely followed by Massachusetts. Other states with disproportionately high ratios of Greek Americans are, in descending order, New York, Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, and Michigan. Conversely, Texas-which ranks thirteenth among the states in aggregate Greek population-has the lowest proportionate number of Greeks. Other states with low Greek-American ratios are Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Thus, though there has been some outward movement in recent years toward the Sun Belt, the main body of Greek America continues to be found in the states of the Northeast and the Great Lakes. Greek America is overwhelmingly urban. The 1970 censuS shows 94 percent of all Greek Americans residing in urban areas (compared to 73 percent of the total American population). Well over half of all Greek Americans live in or near one of the nine American cities: New York (250,000-300,000); Chicago (125,000-150,000); Boston and nearby mill towns (over 125,000); Detroit (40,000); Los Angeles (30,000); Philadelphia (25,000); Cleveland (20,000); and Pittsburgh (20,000). The figures in parentheses are cautious estimates based on information from knowledgeable sources, projections from the census, and Archdiocesean data. All these estimates are lower than those usually claimed by local Greek community leaders. The pervasive trend toward suburbanization of the middle class in America is one that also characterizes the Greek-American population, especially for the American-born generations. For example, in 1960 in the Chicago area, 98 percent of all Greek Orthodox Church members lived in the city proper; in 1978, half of them were in the city's suburbs. Even more dramatic change could be observed in Philadelphia, Cleve-

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land, and Detroit (though the remnant of Detroit's Greektown on Monroe Street remains as a prosperous Greek commercial and entertainment area). Some of the Greek-American movement out of the cities can be attributed to rising affluence and the pull of suburban life styles, but there is also the push of racial change in the inner city. An almost endemic fear among urban Greek Americans is with the encroachment of themavroi-the blacks. Unlike some ethnic groups who have developed a strong sense of territoriality in our older Northern cities, Greek Americans seem to be among the first to leave at the earliest signs of black advances in still distant neighborhoods. Were it not for the new arrivals from Greece who still locate in the older neighborhoods, the Greek-American flight from the center cities would be almost complete. Today we encounter three rather distinctive groupings in the Greek-American population: an older immigrant cohort usually demarcated as those who came to this country before World War II or in the years immediately following; a recent wave of immigrants who have arrived in this country since the reopening of the immigration doors in 1966; and the main body of the Greek-American community which consists of the children and grandchildren of the immigrants. Each of these groups, while sharing something of a common Hellenic heritage, relates to and participates in the Greek-American community in a different fashion. GREEK-AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS

Greek America can be likened to an archipelago, a scattering of communities-some larger, some smaller, some more Greek, some ~ore American-across the continental expanse. It was natural that with the pas~in~ of the older generation and the move to suburbia, immigrant lI1stItutIons would be profoundly changed. Yet among most second- and third-generation Greek Americans there is a reluctance to abandon all f~atu.res of the parochial life of the immigrants. The overriding impresSIon IS that wherever Greek Ame(icans come together there is a commitment to something more than just going through ethnic motions. This is how we are to understand the structure of Greek-American institutions. The Greek Orthodox Church

The central Greek-American institution is the Greek Orthodox Church. During the Ottoman era the Church constituted the primary force for the preservation of Hellenism among the subjugated Greeks. Thus, Greek Orthodoxy and Greek nationalism became inextricably linked. For the immigrant in America, the church community became the arena

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in which one worshipped, attained social recogmtlOn, and made friends-and sometimes enemies. Its major function was not so much religious as social-to confer a sense of bondship within the perplexity of American society. For the American born. even as the immigrant past fades, the church community becomes the prime definer of Greek ethnicity in this country.:! Any rearrangement of Greek-American life that would not have the Church at its core would likely be little more than a reminiscence of immigrant forebears, a dim awareness of an ancestral Hellenic homeland. It is mainly through the Church that new generations continue to be aware of sharing a destiny somehow connected with other people called Greek Americans. Though Greek Orthodoxy and Greek ethnicity are intertwined, they do not completely overlap. In Greece, despite ongoing harassment, Jehovah's Witnesses have made gains. In this country. as well, some numbers of Greek Jehovah's Witnesses are to be found. Among the early Greek immigrants, particularly in the smaller towns and cities where no Greek Orthodox church was available, there was a drift toward established American Protestant churches; Episcopalianism had a special attraction because it possessed both doctrinal affinity with Eastern Orthodoxy and high social acceptability. There are also a few Greek Jews in America, coming out of the post-Holocaust remnant of the large Sephardic communities in Thessalonica and Yannina. but they rarely take part in Greek-American activities, even of a completely secular nature. Despite these exceptions, it would be reasonable to estimate that about four out of five persons who regard themselves as ethnically Greek in this country are Greek Orthodox-whether actively or only nominally.4 The embodiment of the Greek Orthodox Church in this country is "The relationship between Greek ethnic identity and Greek Orthodoxy among American-born generations has been examined in Alice ScoUl'by. "Third Generation Greek Americans: A Study of Religious Attitudes" (unpublished doctoral thesis. New School for Social Research. 1967); Chrysie Mamalakis Costantakos. "The American-Greek Subculture: Processes of Continuity" (unpublished doctoral thesis. Columbia University. 1971); and George A, Kourvctaris. First and Second Generation Gre"'l.> in Clllwgo (Athens: National Center of Social Research. 1971). See also Theodore Saloutos, "The Greek 01'- I thodox Church in the United States and Assimilation." Intarlatjollal Migration Review 7. no. ' 4 (winter. 1973),395-407.
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the Archdiocese of North and South America. s No other institution in Greek America approaches the Archdiocese in membership, commitment, national visibility, and grass-roots organization. Since 1959. Archbishop Iakovos has been primate of the Archdiocese. In 1970. the Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul conferred on the Archbishop the rank of Patriarchal Exarch Plenipotentiary, signifying the large degree of autonomy the Archdiocese possesses in internal matters. Archdiocesan administration is centralized in the New York headquarters and to a large degree in the person of the Archbishop. The archdiocese owns not only its immediate property but also controls the assets of the parishes under its jurisdiction. In addition to some 440 churches in the United States, the Archbishop oversees a panoply of Archdiocesan activities, such as an orphanage, a home for the aged, a summer camp in Greece for Greek-American youth, programs of religious instruction, and Greek Orthodox parochial schools. The Archdiocese newspaper, the Orthodox Observer, has a circulation of over one hundred thousand, by far the largest of any periodical in the GreekAmerican community. The keystone of the Archdiocesan institutional structure is the undergraduate Hellenic College and the Holy Cross graduate school of theology located in Brookline. Massachusetts. Although priests are still brought over from Greece because of a perennial shortage of Greek Orthodox clergy in this country, the majority of new priests for some time have been American-born graduates of the Holy Cross seminary. Women now also matriculate at the Brookline campus with the usual intent to pursue careers in church related work. The 1977 inauguration of the first lay president of Hellenic College/Holy Cross, Thomas C. Lelon, an American-born educator, signified the coming of age of Greek Orthodox higher education in the United States. The Archdiocese is organized into eight districts that cover the United States (other districts encompass Canada and Latin America). Each district is headed by an auxilliary bishop, the holder of a title of an ancient ecclesiastical see, who operates with only limited organizational authority. In the late 1970s there was a beginning recognition that the Archdiocese had grown too large to be administered adequately from New York. This has led to steps toward establishment of a "synodical" system, thereby decentralizing the Archdiocese. The restructuring of the Archdiocese entails the creation of true regional dioceses in which bishops-with a title referring to an American city-would have in"For all practic:l~ purpo.ses. the Archdio.cese is cotermino.us with Greek Ortho.do.xy the Umted States. I here are, ho.wever. a few breakaway churches. a handful o.f sto.refro.nt churches o.f dubio.US cano.nicity catering to. so.me o.f the new immigrants, and so.me archtraditio.nalists who. fo.llo.W the o.ld Julian Calendar no.w thirteen days behind the mo.dern calendar. ,

IJ1

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creased authority to handle church matters. such as assignment of priests, and in which the synod of diocesan bishops would have a voice in the selection of the Archbishop. Completing the picture of Church governance in the United States are the Archdiocesan Council and the clergy-laity congresses. The Archdiocesan Council, a standing group made up of the Archbishop and appointed laypersons, approves and implements decisions made at the clergy-laity congresses held every two years. It is at the clergy-laity congresses, attended by priests and parish-elected lay delegates, where mcuor decisions, if not initiated. are at least ratified by a representat.ive body. Though sometimes criticized for being too orchestrated, the clergy-laity congresses can alternately be viewed as a workable blend of Byzantine ethnarchy and the American convention system. The individual parish community reflects an adaptation of a centralized institution to local circumstances. Archdiocesan appointed clergy share practical authority with the broad lay control exercised by the board of trustees, who are elected at large from the members of the parish. A certain amount of conflict between the priest and factions in the parish is almost expected. Such factions usually coalesce around wealthy lay leaders upon whom the parish depends for financial support. The I-fire-dishwashers-every-week-and-I-can-do-the-same-forpriests attitude is less apparent today than in times past, but st.ill occurs often enough to bring a priest to grief. In theory, a priest can be assigned to a community for life, but the rule in practice is for a transfer to come every few years. especially early on in a priest's career. But a measure of stability is found in most communities because of the uniform regulations of the Archdiocese and the continuity found in longt.ime members of the local church board. Greek Orthodoxy allows an aspirant priest to marry only before ordination; even a widowed priest is forbidden to remarry. Bishops are elevated solely from the celibate clergy-about one in eight of all Greek Orthodox priests in this country. This means, in effect, that while priests born or educated in America predominate in the married clergy, nearly all bishops are Greek born. It is very possible that selecting qualified bishops in the near future will involve reaching into the married clergy. The priest's wife-the !Jresbytera-is almost as likely as her husband to be an object of approval or approbation from the parish membership. Her role is a particularly delicate one, as she must take a leading part in church activities while not appearing overbearing. Divorce among the clergy, while not common, is enough of a problem to account for a number of priests who leave the cloth. Greek Americans can be described as a church-going though not overly pious people. The central religious experience is the liturgy. a high church service appealing to all senses with its colorful icons, ornate

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priestly vestments, incense, singing of the liturgy by priests, chanters, and choir, kissing the church icons, gifts of bread following the close of the service, and sugared wheat memoralizing dead parishioners. The Holy Week services are the focal point of the liturgical calendar. Even those who have not gone to church the rest of the year now come early to be sure of a place inside. On Great Friday, the flowered tomb of Jesus is carried three times around the inside of the church to the accompaniment of dirges. In many communities, the symbolic tomb is taken outside and around the block. Police hold up traffic and Americans gawk curiously at the procession. On Great Saturday night, the church is in black stillness. At midnight the priest lights the candles of those before him, and they in turn give light to their neighbors. The Resurrection song begins: "Christos Anesti"-Christ is Arisen. '/> It is remarkable not so much that the religion of the Greek immigrants left an imprint on their children and grandchildren, but that the American generations are in many ways more Greek Orthodox than their contemporaries among middle-class youth in urban Greece. The tie the Church has with its young people speaks not only to the appeal of the Orthodox heritage and a clergy responsive to youth, but also to the gallant efforts of their forebears to establish a Greek Orthodox presence in a strange lane\. During the 1950s, a ll1
of adoration that a Jewish cantor might receive from a temple congregation, the I}saltis is subject to the audial scrutiny of the worshippers. Over the decades, the position of the I}saltis has !l(iven way more and more to mixed choirs with organ accompanimenylrhe choir group. made up of American-born young men and women, is often the main youth activity of the church community. The I}.mltis is stilI indispensable, however, for baptisms, weddings, and, especially, funerals. Regrettably. iCw if any of the American born move into the role of I}.mltis. Were it not for replenishment from among the new immigrants, the psaltic tradition in this country would die. The process of Americanization of the Church is nowhere more evident than in steps to introduce English into the service. The language question has become one of the most divisive in the Creek Church in America. As early as 1927, a Boston bishop held that t.he Greek Orthodox could be considered faithful even if they did not know Greek. 7 But this was a cry in the wilderness at the time. Archbishop Athenagoras was a conservative on t.he language issue. In avoiding a fight with community leaders, he may have lost an element of the youth. s Even Sunday schools were required to use Greek as the language of instruction up through the 1940s. Proposals for an English liturgy were seriously advanced in the 1950s, but Archbishop Michael authorized English only in sermons. GOY A, however, was allowed to use English as its official language. In 1964, the clergy-laity congress allowed certain readings and prayers in the liturgy to be repeated in English. In the important clergylaity congress of 1970, following the personal appeal of Archbishop Iakovos, an English liturgy was permitted, depending upon the judgment of the parish priest in consultation with his bishop. The progression to English would have been inevitable and relatively smooth had it not been for the large influx of immigrants from Greece since 1966. Older traditionalists could now join forces with a new constituency committed to the Greek language. The Greek Orthodox Church was more ready, in effect, for English in 1960 than it is today. Yet, despite obstinate resistance, the Church in America has begun to adapt to linguistic change. In the late 1970s, most lit.urgies were still predominantly but not exclusively in Greek. Language use varied widely. Churches in the immigrant neighborhoods of the large cities in the North and East offered their services entirely in Greek. Churches in the metropolitan suburbs and in the West and South, those most likely to be attended by the American born, had services increasingly in English. In a manner of speaking, a kind of local option system was evolving.

"James Steve Counelis. "A New Church: The Americanization of the Greek Orthodox Church" (paper presented at the Bicentennial Symposium on the Greek Experience in America. University of Chicago. 1976). p. 26.

1George Papaioannou. From Mars Hill to Manhattan: The Gn:dl Orthodox in Amaiea Under Athell(lgor!ls [ (Minneapolis: Light and Life Publishing Co .. 1976). p. 151. "[bul .. pp. 142-43.

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The Americanization of the Greek Church is also apparent in its aesthetic side.!! Highly talented and professionally trained Americanborn musicians have composed church and choral music and organ works that blend non-Greek with traditional liturgical harmonies. lo An American idiom is also found in the architecture of new Greek churches. several of which have received distinguished architectural awards: San Francisco's Holy Trinity. Milwaukee's Annunciation. Chicago's suburban Holy Apostles, Atlanta's Annunciation. and Oakland's Ascension. Greek-American theologians and church commentators are seeking to shape a religious tradition and organizational structure according to the needs of Greek Orthodoxy in America. 1I In church iconography, however, there has been a return to an older tradition. Newly commissioned icons are more likely to represent a more pure Byzantine style than older icons. which reflected the sentiments of nineteenth-century Western Romanticism. The changing role of women in the church also reflects an Americanization process. Some church historians argue that an autonomous role for women is quite consistent with Byzantine tradition, a tradition that was only submerged during the subsequent Ottoman era. Although there are still a few communities where women cannot vote in parish assemblies, the overall pattern is clearly toward greater representation of women in leadership positions. Women have been inCl'easingly elected to parish boards and also serve on the Archdiocesan Council, the highest lay body in the Church. The issue of ordination of women, however, is one that has not surfaced in the Greek Orthodox Church. Indeed, the move in that direction by the Episcopal Church has ruptured the formerly close ties between Episcopalianism and Greek Orthodoxy in this country. Perhaps the ultimate in the Americanization of the Greek Orthodox Church is the growing number of non-Greeks who are joining it. Nearly all of this non-Greek infusion consists of people who become a "A good discussion of the aesthetic aspects of the Americanization of the Greek Orthodox Church is Counclis, "A New Church," pp. 27-34. For a collection of primary sources reflecting the changing concerns of the Archdiocese from 1922 to 1972, sec Demetrios J. Constantclos, cd .. Encyclicals and Documents of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America (Thessalonica: Patriarchical Institute for Patristic Studies, 1976). "'The musical church works of Frank Desby, Tikey A. Zes, Anna Gerotheous Gallos, and Dino Anagnost are particularly to be noted. Counelis, "A New Church." p. 27. II A partial list of Greek Orthodox theologians and writers who strongly reflect the American experience would include: Constantine Cavarnos, Anthony M. Coniaris, Demeterios J. Constanclos. Kimon Doukas, Alexander Doumouras, Stanley S. Harakas, Nikon D. Patrinacos. John Rexine, Katherine Valone, and Nomikos M. Vaporis. The Gr/!l!k Orthodox Theological RI:view, published in the United States by the Holy Cross seminary, has become a recognized m,uor journal in general Christian thought as well as in Eastern Orthodoxy. Insights on the contemporary church in America are to be found in the periodic writings of James Steve Counclis, Andrew T. Kopan. Harris P. Jameson. George Papaioannou, and Harry Psomiades.

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part of the community through marriage. As early as 1926, it was estimated that one in five Greeks in this country entered a mixed marriage. 12 In the 1960s, mixed couples accounted for t.hree out of ten church marriages. and by the mid-1970s the figure was about half. Although a nationwide occurrence, intermarriage is most frequent in the communities of the West and South. In Portland, Oregon, for example, of 163 church weddings between 1965 and 1977, there were only 37 in which both partners were Greek. I:! In most cases, the non-Greek spouse plays a minor role in church functions, but there are some who do become actively involved. Non-Greeks, in fact, increasingly have been elected to church boards in many communities. Such converts-a very, very few who learn to speak Greek-will become a new element in the impetus toward Americanizing the Church. On social issues, the Church combines American pragmatism and traditional dogma. Birth control is not disapproved of. as it is in the Eastern Orthodox Churches of the old world, though one of the primary purposes of marriage still is procreation. Abortion is opposed, but tacit approval is given when medical advice holds that the life of the mother will be endangered by childbirth. The Church in America has not been prominent in the organized antiabortion movement. Divorce is permitted, but only after determination of just cause by an Archdiocesan ecclesiastical court. Homosexuality is regarded as immoral and perverse. Gambling is frowned upon, but many parishes resort to bingo games to raise funds. On race relations, Archbishop Iakovos has taken a strong civil rights position, even marching in the forefront with Martin Luther King,]r., in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. There is little question, however, that the Archbishop's actions on civil rights were far in advance of the majority of his flock. In many ways, the Greek Orthodox Church in America possesses the qualities of the "communal church" that Andrew M. Greeley has described and prescribed for the Roman Catholic Church in this country.14 This is a church whose members affiliate selectively with traditions and who seek a sacramental ministry at such times in life when such a ministry seems appropriate-for some, every week, for others. only at times of passage, like baptism, marriage, and death. Like Greeley's communal church, the Greek Orthodox Church is not one in which important instruction is expected from the ecclesiastical structure on contemporary political and social issues. The Greek Orthodox Church stands midway between what has been termed ethnic religion and mainline religion. 15 Its ethnicity is self12Saloutos, "The Greek Orthodox Church," p. 399. I'Thomas Doulis, A Surge to the Sea: The Greeks in Oregon (Portland, Oregon: privately printed. 1977). p. 87. I4Andrew M. Greeley, The Communal Catholic (New York: Seabury Press, 1976). I·Martin E. Marty, A Nation of Behavers (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976).

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evident, but its striving for mainline status is also to be recognized. This explains the benedictions given by Orthodox clergymen at national political conventions and presidential inaugurations, and the persistent efforts to be recognized as the "fourth faith" of the United States, side by side with Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. The move toward the mainline is also found in the acceptance by the Church of the legitimacy of other religions not on sufferance or tolerance, but as a tenet of its own religion in the pluralism of America. Although neither in the state of disarray of many mainline churches, nor a victim of eroding ethnicism, the Greek Orthodox Church has been buffeted by religious currents with which it is only beginning to grapple. Several deserve special comment. One is the embryonic movement to return to an unadulterated Orthodoxy, an American equivalent of the higher spiritual tradition of Byzantium. In place of Americanized church activities, viewed as hollow in theological substance, the neo-Byzantists stress devotional observances-such as frequent and severe fasting--or even forms of lay monasticism, thereby placing Orthodoxy at the center rather than the margins of personal experience. A second is the charismatic movement with its emphasis on the gifts of the Holy Spirit.!H Although the Church appreciates the religiosity of the charismatics, it is wary of what seems to be an almost Protestant evangelicalism. The charismatics have been contained within the Church up to now, but there is apprehension that their growth could introduce a subjectivism that temperamentally and sociologically would undermine what is essentially a sacramental church and an ethnic community. Though coming from two opposite directions, both the protoOrthodox stirrings and the charismatics bring the Archdiocese into conflict with dissenting priests. Another development on the religious front concerns relations between the Archdiocese and patriarchates in the old world and its sister Orthodox churches in the United States. The urgency in inter-Orthodox relations was caused in 1970, when the patriarch of Moscow granted autocephalous status to the main body of the Russian Orthodox Church in America, commonly known as the Metropolia. 'fhe establishment of a truly independent and canonically legitimate Eastern Orthodox Church in this country upset existing understandings between Orthodox bodies. The 1970 decree not only granted complete self-government to the Metropolia, but also established its claims to be the instrument of unity for all Orthodox Christians in this country, a sentiment expressed in its new name-the Orthodox Church of America. Although these claims are not recognized by the Greek Archdiocese or most other Eastl('Eusebius A. Stephanou, TIll? Charimzatic Renewal in the Orthodox Church (Fort Wayne, Ind.: Logos Ministry, 1977).

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ern Orthodox churches, a discordant note has been struck within Christian Orthodoxy. The actions of the Russians have also stimulated the latent issue of whether or not the Archdiocese ought to press for complete independence from the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, and become itself an autocephalous church. There is little indication of such a step in the foreseeable future; it runs counter to spiritual and ethnic ties, and could well be the death knell of a precarious Patriarchate in a hostile Turkish environment. An important precedent has been set, however, in the way one m<~or Orthodox body in this country has been ready to shed its immigrant origins. The conflict and potential in the Greek Orthodox Church in this country arise from a clash of two cultures. The new culture emerged with the ascendance of the American born. Proud of its Greek ethnicity, it is nevertheless receptive to the vision of an open church, holding itself out to all baptized Orthodox. The old culture, fortified by recent immigrants, rejects these premises. It looks back to a church serving as the repository of the Greek language and national survival. It f~lVors a fortress church amidst the battering of Americanism. The significance of the religious turmoil in the Church today can only be appreciated against the background of this cultural struggle. Archbishop Iakovos, himself a product of both cultures, has balanced the Church between these two contending forces, if not always happily, at least skillfully. Lodges and Associations

Greek-American voluntary associations tend to f~lll into two groupingsY On the one side, there are those organizations that seek to perpetuate national and regional ties with the Greek homeland, while providing the opportunity for persons of the same place of origin to come together socially in this country. On the other side, there are those associations whose members seek to work out some relation between themselves and America. Whether or not English is the usual language in which the meetings are conducted is a fair measure of distinguishing between the two. The leading Greek-American voluntary association is the Ahepa, ever since its inception over a half century ago. The organization has a membership of around forty thousand in good standing, including l7S tudies of Greek-American voluntary associations are: Mary B. Treudly. "Formal Organization and the Americanization Process with Special Reference to the Greeks of Boston." American Sociological Review. 15 (February. 1949),44-53: Constant me Yeracans, "A Study of the Voluntary Associations of the Greek Immigrant of Chicago from 1890 to 1948, with Special Emphasis on World War I and the Post-War Period" (unpublished master's thesis, University of Chicago. 1950); and Robert James Theodoratus. "The Influence of the Homeland on the Social Organization of a Greek Community in America" (unpublished doctoral thesis. University of Washington. 19(1).

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female and youth auxiliaries. A much larger number of Greek Americans have been initiated into the lodge at one time or another and are considered to be permanently part of the "Ahepa hlmily." With about 430 chapters, mostly active, the Ahepa has grassroots nationwide. The association has its national headquarters in Washington, D.C., with its own building and paid permanent staff. In its first decades, the lodge served to Americanize many Greek immigrants through its official use of the English language, promotion of loyalty to the United States, and quasiMasonic rituals. In recent decades, when the demographic balance has shifted to the American born, the Ahepa has been in the forefront of supporting Hellenic ethnicity and has often spoken for the GreekAmerican community at large. h'-I- ,\ The Ahepa, in addition to generating many local phiI1mthropic activities, raises money at the national level for worthy causes. Among its continuing good works have been disaster relief in Greece, funding hospital and health care facilities in Greece, and the establishment of an extensive scholarship program for Greek-American youth. Its most recent m,uor pn~ject has been to foster research and treatment of "thalassemia" (also known as Cooley's anemia). a genetic blood deficiency that afflicts perhaps as many as one in nine Greeks and other peoples from the Mediterranean region. The Ahepa is most vibrant during its annual conventions attended not only by chapter elected delegates, but also by thousands of ot,?ers who look forward to the premier social event in Greek America.JNational offices are hotly contested at convention time, and elections revolve around a two-party system whose origins in the lodge go back to the 1920s. Though substantive differences between the two parties are not always easy to discern, members feel strong allegiance to one or the other. On more than one occasion, fractious infighting has caused the lodge embarrassment when grievances between factions have been brought into open court litigation. Yet, somehow, even though it has never settled down in harmony-some would say because of this-the Ahepa continues to attract a sizeable portion of the Greek-American middle class. The longtime rival of the Ahepa. the more traditionalist and Greek-speaking Gapa, has faded as the original cohort of early immigrants passed on. Gapa still exists, however, and hopes to get a second wind with the recent arrivals from Greece. If new immigrants do join voluntary associations, though, they are more likely to become members of existing tOjJika sornateia. associations based on common origin from a region or even a village in the old country. It is hard to convey the loyalty the Greek has for his or her place of birth. a devotion that far surpasses the hometown identity of most Americans. A roster of the regional associations reads like a Greek gazeteer: Arcadian, Athenian. Cassian, Cephalonian, Chian, Cretan, Elian, Epirotic, Euboean, Kasterlorizoton, Kasterian. Laconian, Lemnian, Macedonian, Messinian, Rhodian. Thes-

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salian. Thracian, and Zakinthion. And these are only the larger regions. If the village associations were also counied. the list would be almost endless. By and large. however, the regional associations do not carry well into the American-born generations. Old country localisms tend to be worn down into a common Greek-American identity. Along with the vast number of unlettered Greek immigrants. there existed early on a small coterie of Greek university students and professionals. Never fully at ease with their American colleagues and socially distant from the main body of their co-ethnics. they gathered together and formed their own associations. They sought both to raise the cultural level of the Greek immigrants principally through public lectures and to bring the Hellenic heritage to the general attention of the American community. In 1911. Aristides E. Phoutrides, a Harvard undergraduate, and other Greek students from the Boston area founded Helicon. the first Greek-American intellectual association. IH In 1918, in New York City, the Hellenic University Club (known as the GreekAmerican Intercollegiate Club until 1945) was established by Dr. George N. Papanicolaou. A group of Chicagoans formed the Hellenic Professional Society of Illinois (originally called the Greek Professional Men's Club) in 1924. All three of these pioneer associations have cont.inued to thrive into the present. An outlet for the Greek-speaking intelligentsia of New York has been the Filiko society. founded in 1933 by Maria Vryonidou. More consciously Hellenic than Greek American. Filiko still holds its public lectures only in the Greek language. This stricture ied in 1958 to the formation of the Parnassos Society of New York, whose intent was to extend appreciation of Greek culture beyond the Greekspeaking world. By the 1950s Greek-American professional associ at ions existed in most m
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acting in contact with those they know intimately rather than for abstract causes. This is also how we are to understand the petty but intensely personal politics of Greek-American organizations. "Nenikikamen"-we are victorious-was the battle cry of the ancient Athenians and Spartans returning home from their Persian wars. "Nenikikamen" was the happy cry of the majority Ahepa party after winning the lodge offices in the 1977 convention held in New Orleans.!!} There is probably no place in Greece where such victory exaltations still prevail. The Greek Press in America

The first Greek newspaper in the United States, New World [Neos Cosmos] of Boston, appeared in 1892.20 Since that time, well over a hundred Greek newspapers in America have appeared at one time or another. 21 An informed American observer of the early immigrant community maintained that the Greeks published more newspapers proportionate to their numbers than any other nationality in this country.22 The golden era of Greek journalism in America was the time between World War I and the Depression. The inHuence of the Greek language press was remarkable because so few of the early immigrants brought with them the habit of reading newspapers. Reading a newspaper regularly was something they learned to do in the United States. Greek newspapers have been published in many cities, but two New York dailies-the conservative Atlantis and the liberal National Hemldhave dominated the national scene from their inception. It was only in 1972 that the Atlantis finally succumbed. Its publisher, Solon J. Vlastos, nephew of the newspaper's founder, was forced to stop seventy-eight years of continuous publication in the face of rising costs and union disputes. Thus the National Herald, with a circulation of around twenty thousand, stood alone as the only Greek language daily in the United States. In 1977, however, another Greek language daily, Pmini, began publication in New York City. Whether Pmini would be able to develop a national readership in the manner of the National Herald remained to be seen. Greek weeklies, biweeklies, and monthlies are also found in a few of the larger cities. In a special category are periodicals such as Campana and Satyms, which for many years successfully upheld a Greek journalistic tradition of iconoclastic and satirical news. The longterm viability of "'H!!lltmic Tillll!s. Sept. 29.1977. p. 14. 2°Bobby (Charalambos) Malafouris. Grel!ils in :L'lIl!I"iw 1528-1948 [HI!llines tis Amerikis 1528-1948] (New York: privately printed. 1948), p. 227. NI!W World [Neos Cosmos]. under the editorship of Constantine Fasoularides. came out for only a few months in 1892. 21S. Victor Papacosma. "The Greek Press in America"Joll17lal of the Hdlenic DiwjJOra. 5. no. 4 (winter. 1979). pp. 45-61. On the Greek-Amqican press. see also Malafouris. Greeks in Amaiw. pp. 227-48. 22Henry Pratt Fairchild. Greek Immigratio1l to the United States (New Haven: Yale University Press. 1911). p. 209.

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the Greek language press in the United States, however, is problematic. It is not uncommon for a Greek language newspaper to receive a letter in English from a son or daughter asking that a subscription be canceled because an aged parent has died or is no longer able to see well enough to read the paper. It cannot even be assumed that the new influx of immigrants will assure another reading generation of Greek newspapers published in America. Different media circumstances preclude a recapitulation of the golden age of Greek journalism that followed World War 1. Eight different Athens and Thessalonica newspapers are Hown to New York and Chicago daily. There is a growing number of Greek radio programs in America. from an estimated 30 in 1955 to over 160 by 1979. Greek television programs also appear regularly on ultrahigh frequency channels in the very same cities where local Greek newspapers must make a go of it. The electronic media relentlessly draws both readers and advertisers away from the Greek press. Faced by diminishing numbers of Greek newspaper readers, the press has searched for a wider audience among the American born. The clearly dominant trend in Greek-American journalism has been the replacement of Greek language newspapers by either bilingual or fully English papers. A gauge of the language preference of readers of Greek-American newspapers can be derived from reported circulation figures in the late 1970s. Of the Greek-American readership, slightly over half read papers published solely in English; about a third read bilingual papers (usually more English than Greek), and the remainder completely Greek. 2:l In 1922. the American-Hellenic World, the first Greek-American newspaper in English was published. Under the editorship of Demetrios A. Michalaros. it came out regularly for several years in Chicago. 24 This was definitely a very exceptional press venture and it 2!1Editor a1ld Publisher International YI'fl1' Booil (New York: Editor and Puhlisher. 1976). p.33!). 240n the American-Hi!llenic World and the early Greek press in Chicago. see Andrew T. Kopan. "Education and Greek Immigrants in Chicago. 1892-1973: A Study in Ethnic Survival" (unpublished doctonll thesis, University of Chicago. 1974). pp. 139-44. Kopan states the A7Il/!rican-Hell/!7lic World started publication in 1922. Another researcher. however. places its beginning in 1925. and notes The Democrat (city unidentified) which appeared in 1923 and billed itself as "The First Greek Newspaper Published in English." Papacosma. "The Greek Press." p. 58. A subgenre of the early Greek press in America consisted of periodicals representing sectors of the immigrant business commullity. Because they represented efforts to present a good image of the Greek immigrant rather than serious journalism, such periodicals typically contained articles in both English and Greek. One example was The News of the Bootblacils AssociatIOn of Chicago. which appeared on a monthly basis during 1923 and 1924. An English-language monthly. the Hi!llenic Spectator. was published in Washington. D.C .. in the early 1940s. The import of the Hellenic SIJectato1' was not in its durability or circulation-it came out for only a few issues and had a limited readership-but. in the fact that its editor. Constantine Poulos. was an American-born Greek. 'rhis appears to be the first Greek-American periodical edited by a member of the second generation. See Louis Adamic. Commonweal Magazme. 33 (January 31. 1941). pp. 366-68. reprinted in Melvin Hecker and Heike Fenton. eds .• The Greelis in America 1528-1977 (Dobbs Ferry. N.Y.: Oceana Publications. Inc.. 1978). pp. 88-92.

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would not be until more than a generation later that the shift to English would gain momentum. Supporters of the Greek language regarded such tendencies as anathema. Even as late as 1962 when an Americanborn columnist-writing in Greek, moreover-stated that the use of English was inevitable, he was assailed by traditionalists with a particularly harsh epithet, ':janissary," the historical referent being Greek boys kidnapped by Turks who were raised in the Islamic faith to serve as Ottoman soldiers against Greeks. One outcome of the shift to English in the Greek-American press has been, paradoxically enough, a narrowing of coverage to include only events in Greece or Cyprus and the Greek-American community. Where the Greek language press served as the principal source of outside information for the immigrant reader, the second- or third-generation Greek American will follow the general news scene through American newspapers. There are about a dozen Greek-American weeklies or biweeklies printed mainly or solely in English. Some are rather anemic in their content, but a few of the more interesting ones warrant mention: the Hellenic Chronicle, published in Boston, has by far the largest paid circulation of any Greek-American newspaper in the country (over thirtyfive thousand subscribers); the Hellenic Times of New York gives candid and insightful accounts of Greek-American voluntary associations; the Hellenic journal of San Francisco offers its reader sophisticated reviews of modern Greek literature and arts; Chicago's Greek Star, Republican oriented and founded in 190;3, is the oldest continuing published Greek-American newspaper; and the Greek Press, Chicago's Democratic paper, presents extensive coverage of the Greek-American social scene. One can get an idea of Greek-American newspaper coverage and the interests of the Greek-American community from looking at the content of representative issues during 1978. Lead stori/!s: U.S. arms embargo against Turkey lifted; Greece ready to enter European Common Market.; Greek Americans lose good friend in death of Hubert. Humphrey. Feature stories: t.he U.S. Post.al Service issues a commemorat.ive stamp to honor the lat.e Dr. George N. Papanicolaou; Greek Letters Week to be observed at Hellenic College; the Ahepa to raise $300 thousand to build a surgical theater for Evangelismos Hospital in Athens; the Parthenon Dancers tour America; East Marion, an unincorporated community near the northeastern tip of Long Island, becoming a summer resort for Greek Americans of New York City. Short. biographies of Telly Savalas, baseball player Milt Pappas, and Dionysios Solomos, the national poet of Greece. Leiters to the editor: Columbia University professor Edward Malefakis demolishes a critic who in an earlier letter opposed establishment of a modern Greek studies program at Columbia (the first writer favored a grandiose center at George Washington University devoted to the "complete Hellenic Ideal").

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Numerous obituaries. Favorable review of Midnight EX/Hess, a film portraying brutal conditions in Turkish prisons. Calendar of events: The Philoptochos charities of Brooklyn and Staten Island are sponsor!ng a benefit fo~' th,e Gre.ek Ch~ldren's Carc.lia,c Center :It New York HospItal; the Hellelllc CounCIl on Education of ChICago Will host a cheese and wine party at DePaul University; there will be an exhibit of Byzantine style icons by the contemporary artist Stathis Trahanatzis at the Greek Orthodox church in Belmont, California; the film Phaedm 10 be shown in the New Zorba Room, Olympia Restaurant, Lowell, Massachusetts. Full page advertisement in Greek by Olympic A}rways: "Come Back to Greece BefOl'e They Are Gone"-photograph of old man and woman in village waiting for visitor, Classified a(k counseling and representation in all ma~ters before imn:igration and naturalization authorities; Greek teacher willI lito!' YOllr child at your home; hot dog pushcart for sale-owner returning to Greece.

language and Schools

It was always true that the unlettered Greek immigrant could bask in a kind of reflected glory coming from the esteem in which classical Greek culture was held among the highly educated in t.his country. But. the cultural links with ancient Hellas were tenuous at best., and became even more so as the immigrants grappled with the practical affairs of meeting their bills. Even for their better-situated children, the immigrants typically viewed education as something that should lead to a comfortable living rather than as learning for its own sake. There was one feature of t.heir culture that the immigrants strenuously tried to pass on to their children-the Greek language. Along with the Greek Orthodox faith, the Greek language had formed the fundamental constituent elements of modern Hellenic nationalism. But matters were complicated because virtually two different. languages had developed in Greece itself. One was Iwtharevousa or puristic Greek, an aritificial form largely the inspirat.ion of the early nineteenth-century philologist and nationalist Adamantios Koraes, based on classical Attic Greek and fenced off from changes in the living language or foreign intrusions. The other was the demotic or spoken language of the people, the same vernacular brought over by the Greek immigrants to this country. Symbolically, the puristic language harkened to an idealized classical Hellene, while demotic represented the language of the common, actual people of Greece. To this day in Greece Iwtharevousa-t.hough fighting a rearguard action-is still a status symbol of the social su periority of those who 'are able to use it. Though the Greek Orthodox Church in America was for too long a time committed to katharevousa in its language maintenance programs, the demotic is now the form used almost exclusively in the United States. The immigrants' confrontation with the English language was one

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of shock. They faced a language with hardly any cognates in ordinary speech-what did it matter that scientific terms were based on Greek roots?-as well as a different alphabet. Few were able to attend night classes where English was taught. Those who started in the service trades and later moved on into their own small businesses learned the new language by trial and error. Those working in the factories and labor gangs often did not learn English adequately, their co-workers being fellow Greeks or other immigrants. Women, especially in the Greek colonies of the North and East, could live in this country for more than a half century and still never learn more than a handful of English phrases. Many American-born children would not hear English regularly spoken until they entered the first grade, thus making the initial months of public school a time of trauma. Some immigrants forbade the use of English in the home. The typical conversation between the generations, as the children grew older, was for parents to address their offspring in Greek and be answered in English. Between Greek and English there developed an overlap that native speakers on both sides were aware of but could do nothing to prevent. 25 English syntax often prevailed among the American born when they spoke Greek, and even crept into the language of the immigrants themselves. Many words were coined from English--banha, helli, gasolini, grosaTia, polismmws, tsehi, valwsio (respectively, bank. cake, gasoline, grocery, policeman, check, vacation). Some would humorously call this hybrid language "Grenglish." More poignantly, many of the immigrants came to realize that after decades in this country they were unable to speak either Greek or English correctly .. Whatever their own language problems. the immigrants went to great lengths to see that their own children would learn Greek. 2 (; Two forms of organized education developed in this effort. One was the fulltime day school. A handful of these appeared before World War I with the idea to establish a replica of the primary school in Greece. This conformed with the early immigrants' notion that they and their families would soon be returning to Greece for good. The language of instruction was Greek, with English taught as a foreign language! In time, however, as the need for state accreditation arose, English became the main language of instruction, though the Greek language-along with 250n spoken Greek in the United States. see the studies by Paul David Seaman. Mod/!l'n Greek and American English in Contact (Paris: Mouton. 1972); and Panos D. Bardis. The Future of the Greek Language in the United States (San Francisco: Rand E Research Associates. 1976). 2H All researchers interested in the Greek educational system in this country must refer to Kopan. "Education and Greek Immignmts." Annual statistics on the number of Archdiocesan parochial schools, Greek language schools. and the students enrolled therein are to be found in the yearbooks of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America.

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Greek Orthodoxy and Greek history-continued to be heavily stressed. Also the day schools eventually came uncler Archdiocesan governance and evolved into a parochial school system. The Greek-American community. however, never developed an extensive day school system. Not only did budgetary problems overwhelm. but. especially before 1960. it was felt that the Greek-American schools might not properly prepare children for American higher education. In the late 1970s. there were eighteen day schools under the Archdiocese-mostly in New York and Chicago-serving about 5.000 students. the usual grade range being from kindergarten through the eighth grade. Belying the earlier skepticism as to the quality of the Greek day schools. graduates in recent years have placed uncommonly high in citywide school examinations. How to teach their children Greek has been a perennial concern for immigrant parents; it is still a concern of second-generation parents. The Greek day schools reached only a small segment of the younger generation. Afternoon Greek language schools actually had much greater impact on Greek-American youth. Usually held somewhere on the church premises. these schools are what Greek Americans usually refer to when they say they went to "Greek school." Such schools have existed for decades in most communities large enough to maintain a Greek Orthodox church. Greek classes in the early years were usually given by the priest himself. but the rule today is more for such instruction to be offered by trained language teachers. In 1978 there were close to four hundred afternoon Greek schools functioning under the Archdiocese with an enrollment of over thirty thousand students. an increase of more than 20 percent from 1970. Beyond the Archdiocesan schools. there existed independently run Greek schools in m,~or cities along with an extensive. if informal, system of private tutors in the Greek language. Over the years the Greek schools and teachers have helped tens of thousands of children to become at least acquainted-and often learn quite well-the language of their parents and grandparents. To be sure, attendance at Greek school was often accompanied by much dragging of feet. partly alleviated by parental bribery. But it seems to be one of those laws of hindsight that nearly every adult who resented Greek school as a child looks back upon the experience as worthwhile and rewarding. A new development in Greek language education in America comes out of the Bilingual Education Act passed in 1968. Under provisions of this act, bilingual programs were to be established in public schools where a sufficient number of non-English speaking children warranted the special curricula. In the Greek-American case this has led to bilingual education in the public schools of those New York and Chicago neighborhoods where there are heavy concentrations of recent Greek arrivals. The goal of the bilingual program is to eliminate the

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educational handicaps faced by children who enter an English-speaking classroom without adequate knowledge of the language. Its pedagogical principle is that the schooling of the immigrant child will be facilitated by first teaching the child in his or her native language, and then weaning the youngster to a full English curriculum. The difference in Greek bilingual education is that, unlike the Greek day and afternoon schools, it is funded entirely by public tax money. Bilingual education has generally received the enthusiastic support of the ethnic groups it serves, but Greek Americans have had a mixed reaction. When it was proposed in 1972 for the Budlong elementary school, located in Chicago's new Greektown area, an acrimonious dispute broke ouL On the one side, supporting the bilingual approach, were liberal educators who wanted the schools to recognize and accept a larger responsibility for non-English speakers, the Hellenic Council on Education (consisting largely of second-generation Greek-American teachers and school administrators), the Greek ethnic press, and many of the immigrant parents in the neighborhood. On the other side, opposing bilingual education, were the large majority of second-generation Greek-American residents, as well as some of the new immigrants of the neighborhood, the Budlong parents association, and the parish board of the local Greek Orthodox church (whose own afternoon Greek school was just across the street from Budlong). Although unable to stop the program at Budlong, the opponents of bilingual education raised some provocative points. They argued that the bilingual approach would retard the immigrant child's entry into the American mainstream, that it subjected Greek-American pupils to a questionable and unproved teaching method, that immigrant parents were pressured into accepting a program they did not understand, and that it would stigmatize Greek-American youth as being akin to the poverty stricken Spanish-speaking population. More cutting, the foes stated the number of children who would presumably benefit by a Greek curriculum was falsely inflated to increase the job opportunities for Greek-speaking teachers. In balance, it appeared that, if educational conservatives tended to overlook the numbers of non-English-speaking youngsters who had not made it during the sink-or-swim days of American pedagogy, it was also the case that some supporters of the bilingual program were just as likely to lose sight of the simple and only justifiable goal of bilingual education-to provide the English-language tool for learning, and doing so as rapidly as possible. Culture and Hellenism in America

Stronger in sentiment than in learning, the society of the early immigrant Greeks did not possess a "high" culture. It lacked a leisure class that could validate intellectual pursuits, it had few books. little art, no

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theater, no symphonies, no opera or ballet. Yet somewhere between the Greek-language bound existence of the immigrant mainstream and the American scholarly world. there existed early on a handful of immigrant intellectuals and persons of letters whose work was published in the English language. Their premise was that Greek culture-ancient, Byzantine, and modern-was unfettered by nationality lines. They were, in a manner of speaking, Greek-American Hellenizers. Some of the early Hellenizers were from among the few Greek immigrants who held university positions. Others did not hold academic posts and were, if men, often dependent upon benefactors within the emergent Greek-American bourgeoisie, or, if women, upon their husbands' earning abilities. But, whatever the source of their livelihood, their mission was to bring the Greek word to a larger American audience. It was a mission that was also to captivate some American-born Greeks. What appears to be the first English edition in America of modern Greek short stories was published in 1920. 27 The translators were Demetra Vaka Brown who, born of Greek parentage in Asia Minor, later established a reputation as a Greek-American belletrist, and Aristides E. Phoutrides, the founder of Boston's Helicon society. The archetypical Hellenizer was Chicago's Demetrios A. Michalaros, who edited At/wne, an "American Magazine of Hellenic Thought," published entirely in English. Athene came out as a quarterly from 1941 to 1967 and contained articles on all aspects of Greek history. pieces on happenings in the Greek-American community, as well as advertisements of the Greek merchants who supported it. Painstakingly and lovingly edited by Michalaros, Athene was pathbreaking in that it regarded the culture of the Greeks in the United States as a continuing and dynamic part of the Hellenic tradition. The ChaTioteer, "A Review of Modern Greek Culture," has been published off and on by the Parnassos Society of New York since 1960 and offers translations of modern Greek literature along with articles covering the historical range of the Hellenic experience. The Coffeehouse, a lively but occasional publication since 1975, presents contemporary Greek poerry and short fiction in English translation. The}oll1"11al C!fthe Hellenic Dia,lpom, published since 1974, has evolved into a high quality review of modern Greek literature and critical commentary on current Greek issues. 28 27Modan Grl!l!/i Stor/I?S, trans. Demetra Vaka and Aristides E. Phoulrides (New York: Ams Press. 1920). 28A full listing of the various Greek-American cultural periodicals that have appeared over the years is hard to come by. but in addition to those discussed in the text mention can be made of Argouautl?s (in Greek) which came out in three volumes in 1959, 1963, and 1967: Trirl!lIl1? (in Greek), irregularly published in the late 1960s; and Pilgrimagt? (in English) with several issues in 1975 and 1976.

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Another developmcnt has been the appearance of what might be termed middle-brow illustrated magazines. Many of these come and go, but one that has had an impact on the Greek-American scene is the bimonthly Greek World, "The Magazine for the Friends of Greece," which started publication in 1976. Under the energetic hand of Emmanuel Plaitakis, who came to an untimely death in 1978, Greek World developed a successful formula by dealing in about equal measure with events in Greece and in Greek America. The most ambitious publication effort to project Hellenic culture to a wide audience was Greek Heritage, "The American Quarterly of Greek Culture." The periodical was first published in 1963 and came out regularly for five years before it succumbed to publishing costs (it never carried advertisements as a matter of policy). Greek Heritage represented the epitome of the Hellenizing spirit of this country. The first edition was introduced with: "We wish ... in this periodical to emphasize the still living heritage of the Greek way of life, and in no chauvinistic sense, for it has long since passed national boundaries and become the environment of modern man ... "2!l Greek Heritage was a hardcover periodical, exquisitely illustrated, with an almost coffee-table-book format, which carried translations and articles covering the whole gamut of the Hellenic culture. What made Greek Heritage sociologically interesting was that its founding impetus was the product of the second generation. Its publisher was American-born Christopher G. Janus, a wealthy Chicago financier, The editor was Kimon Friar (who came to this country at age three), indisputably the leading Greek American of Hellenic letters. His English translation in 1958 of Nikos Kazantzakis's The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel was hailed as one of the literary events of the decade.:!n Friar was that special kind of Greek American who was intellectually more at home in his ancestral land than he was in the United States. Yet he evaded both the nat.ional parochialism of Greece and the assimilative processes of America. Kimon Friar is a celebrant of the highest form of the universality of the Greek word. The focal point of Greek-American cultural interest has definitely shifted in recent decadcs. Where formerly there was a somewhat affected and strained focus on classical Hellas, the contemporary awareness is much more in tune with the literature of modern Greece. This shift has almost been entirely due to the increasing availability of English translations of modern Greek writings, for not many American-born Greeks comfortably read novels or poetry in the original Greek. The beginnings of the new mood can be traced to the translations of the 2"GTIlell IiaitflWI. I (winter. 196:-1). p.

102.

:!IlNikos Kazantzakis. The Odys.I'I:Y: A Modllm Sllquet, trans. with an introduction and synopsis by Kimon Friar (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1958).

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novels of Nikos Kazantzakis in the 1950s. These also stimulated interest in other Greek writers, notably the poets Constantine P. Cavafy, a product of the Greek diaspora in Alexandria, Egypt, and George Seferis, who won the Nobel literature prize in 1963. In the late 1960s and through the 1970s, English translations of modern Greek writers quickened in pace. Much of the recently translated literature is of the "social protest" variety, an outcome of the repression suffered in Greece during the 1967-74 rule of the colonels' junta. The poet Yannis Ritsos has become something of a cult figure in certain Greek-American circles. The appearance of high quality Greek-American book publishing firms in the 1970s has been one important instrument in introducing Greek authors to an English reading audience.:lI Yet all of this must be put into perspective. Certainly there is new interest in Greek-American literature. But it would be fair to say that the main body of the Greek immigrants and their American-born children and grandchildren remain largely unaware of the modern Greek literary scene. Modern Greek studies are beginning to take root in more structured academic settings. The driving force behind such efforts has been due to Greek-born scholars who have settled in this country, secondgeneration Greek-American professors, and modern Greek literary critics of non-Greek origin. The first formal effort in this direction was the Center for Neo-Hellenic Studies founded in 1965 at the University of Texas by George G. Arnakis. Essentially a one-man enterprise, it was problematic that the Neo-Hellenic Center would continue following Arnakis's death in 1976.:12 Hopes for developing a nationally based and sustained interest in modern Greek society and culture came a long way toward realization with the formation of the Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA) in 1968. By the late 1970s, the MGSA had a membership of around four hundred, most of whom were of Greek descent and held university positions allowing them to engage in research on modern Greece. The symposia of the MGSA-held every two years and dealing with themes such as modern Greek literature, the Greek War of Independence, forces shaping modern Greece, the impact of the 19405 on Greek society-have become the center of attraction for Greek scholars in this country. The audience in attendance at the MGSA symposia usually draws widely from the general Greek-American community. Breaking away from the traditional offerings in classical Greek found in most universities, the seventies have witnessed a growing in:!'Greek-American publishing houses that appeared in the 1970s include Caratzas Brothers. the Pella publishing company. and the Wire Press. :l2The history and intent of the Center for Nco-Hellenic Studies is given in George G. Arnakis posthumously published Grllilk Essays/rom Texas [Hellinilw DokimU/ (11)0 to Tex(ls] (Austin. Texas: Center for Nco-Hellenic Studies. 1978). pp. 65-7:3.

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struction in the modern Greek language and even some courses dealing with contemporary Greece. M<~or efforts to implement a modern Greek program have been pursued in such universities, among others, as Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Ohio State, Kent State, Illinois at Chicago Circle, Minnesota, and Queens College of the City University of New York. More limited programs, too often dependent upon the energies of a single faculty member, appear at many other colleges and universities throughout the country. All endeavors to introduce or expand modern Greek offerings face the problem of raising funds from outside donors and persuading straitened university administrators to release money or teaching time. Most likely, modern Greek studies will be regularized at a few universities while maintaining a tenuous and sporadic existence on many other campuses. Greek-American studies as distinct from modern Greek studies can hardly be said to exist as a separate subject field.;I;1 Several books came out just before World War I describing the early immigrant settlements. Over the next half century a handful of articles dealing with Greek Americans appeared in professional journals or edited volumes. Across the decades there have also been accounts rendered in Greek by travelers from Greece or immigrant commentators.:J.j It was only in 1964 that the first full-length scholarly history of Greek Americans appeared, Theodore Saloutos's monumental The Greeks in the United States. a5 Since that time more works have appeared on the subject: a score of published monographs and articles in social science journals, a dozen or so doctoral dissertations, and a few histories of local Greek-American communities. au Almost without exception, this literature has been written by immigrant or second-generation Greek Americans. ""Greek-American studies have not made any significant entrance into the undergraduate curriculum. Only two professors have ever taught a course on the topic. Charles C. Moskos, Jr.. has given "The Sociology of Greek Americans" at Northwestern University in 1974, 1977, and 1980. Alice Scourby offered a course on "Greek-American Communities" in 1978 at Queens College of the City University of New York. :wrhe most comprehensive of the secondary sources in the Greek language is Malafouris, Hldlines lis Ameri/iL, 1528-1948 [Gn:i!lls in America 1528-1948). Malafouris's book is often drawn upon. though not as often cited. by researchers of Greek America. Although not presented as a scholarly contribution. Malafouris's work is of special value in that it put into print information on Greek-American history and institutional life gathered at a time when many of the pioneer generation. the same group as Malafoul'is himself. were still alive. The volume concludes with a collection of photographs and capsule biographies of the Greek-American businessmen and professionals, immigrants all. who contributed financially to its publication. ""Theodore Saloutos. The Greeks in IIu: UlIlll:d Siaies (Camhridge: Harvard University Press. 1974). :!UThe major studies on Greek Americans. whether published or in doctoral dissertation form. are listed in the selected hihliography in the back of the book. For more extensive bibliographical listings of primary and secondary sources. see Evan C. Vlachos. An Anno/aled Bibliograj)hy of Greek Migration (Athens: National Center of Social Research. 19(6); Michael N. Cutsumbis. A Bibliograj)hic Guidi: 10 Malaiafs 011 Gm:ks in tlu: United States. 1890-1968 (New York: Center for Migration Studies. 1970); and Saloutos. Tlu: Gm!lls in the Umled S/a/l:s. pp. '~89-400.

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An era of self-reflection within Greek America may have been ushered in by the MGSA symposium on "The Greek experience in America" held at the University of Chicago in 1976. Never before had a scholarly conference been held dealing solely with the Greek-American experience. Funded by Greek-American donors and a grant from the Illinois bicentennial commission, representative speakers came from history, sociology, psychology, education, philosophy, and literature. Also in 1976, the Maliotis Cultural Center was established on the Hellenic College/Holy Cross campus in Brookline, Massachusetts, to present cultural work pertaining to the Greek-American as well as Greek and Orthodox heritages, such as lectures, films, art exhibits. In 1978 the Greek Theater of New York and the journal f!lthe Hellenic Dia.lpo)'a announced a playwriting competition on the Greek experience in America to be produced in both Greek and English versions. In 1978, as well, the National Endowment for the Humanities allocated $797 thousand, contingent upon matching funds, to produce a documentary television series on the Greeks in America. If one can hazard a single generalization about Greek Americans in the contemporary period it is that they lend themselves less to stereotype than in times past. The Greek-American experience today is an increasingly diverse one. It consists of a declining cohort of older immigrants. It includes the adult children of the older immigrants and their own children. It is the still evolving history of the new immigrants from Greece. Between, and to a lesser degree within, each of these groups there are m~or differences in class position, loyalties to the old country, commitment to Greek Orthodoxy, language use, life style. and politics. Yet in some important ways these differences ought not obscure the larger steadiness of the Hellenic presence in America.

T

IF

u

R

'rhr~mghout Greek America a set of themes keeps recurring: the persisten.oes. and changes in Hellenic culture over the generations, much of WhlcJ~ ~s capt~lred in Greek-American fiction: the uneasy ideologicaljuxtapOSIlJOn of the m
G'7r',Oek-

American Themes

ACROSS THE GENERATIONS

If the Greek family in America could not exactly replicate that of the old country, it was not for lack of trying. 1 Husbands insisted on their moral authority over their spouses, though the formal submission of the wife could mask her practical dominance in household affairs. Mothers and fathers tried to enforce a strict disciplinary code over their children. though this could be softened by frequent parental indulgences. or subverted by clandestine activities with American friends outside the home. Thus, along with what can be fairly called a kind of peasant family structure, every recollection of early Greek immigrant family life notices the dislocation with traditional patterns. . 'On the Greek-Amerkan family. sec James W. Kiriazis. "A Study of Change in Two Rhochan Immigrant Communities" (unpublished doctoral thesis. University of Piltsburgh ~9(7), pp. 107-42. 2G8-:lOl; Phyllis Pease Chock. "Greek-American Ethnicity" (unpub~ hshed doctoral thesis. University of Chicago. 19(9), pp. :\6-136; Chrysie Mamalakis Costantakos .. "TI~e Amc;rican-Gre.ek Subculture: Processes of Continuity" (unpublished doctoral thesIs. Columlna U1I1versIty. 1971), pp. 259-:\36; Nicholas Tavuchis. Family anri MobilIty Among Grel?il-AlIlImC(11IS (Athens: National Center of Social Research. 1972); Constantina Safilios-Rothschild. Chrysie Mamalakis Costantakos. and Basil B. Kardaras. "The GreekAmerican Wo~nan" (papel: presented at the Bicentennial Symposium on the Greek Experience 1Il Amenca. U1I1versuy of Chicago. 1976); and George A. Kourvetans. "The Greek American Family." in Ethnic Families in Amaiea" cds. Charles H. Mindel and Robert W, Habenstein (New York: Elsevier. 1976), pp. 168-91.

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Although parental discipline was firm by American standards and great store was placed on proper behavior, this was rarely to the point of smothering initiative. Hitting and spanking were common. but never really severe. Both parents were physically affectionate toward their offspring with much kissing of young children. In the earlier immigrant families, however, fathers were often much older than mothers, which gave a distinctive cast to the family constellation. Children were included in adult activit.ies and age segregation was alien to the Greek immigrant mind. The f~lmily system of the new Greek arrivals shares much in common with that of the old immigrants, for example, formal patriarchy and parental sacrifice. But important differences are to be noted. the central one being that the wives are in the same age bracket as their husbands and are much more likely to be employed outside the home. Moreover. partly reflecting value changes in contemporary urban Greece. divorce does not carry quite the stigma that it did for the earlier immigrants. Yet, for early and recent Greek immigrants the primary joys of life are bringing children into the world and raising them, the satisfaction of seeing them married, and the gratification that they are well educated and financially secure. Until about ten years of age, restrictions placed on girls and boys did not greatly differ in the early immigrant Greek family. But in their teens, sons would be granted more independence, while daughters were much more restricted. A second-generation woman. writing anonymously in 1950. bitterly comments: To be born a woman and intelligent is definitely risky. But to be born a sensitive. intelligent woman and to be born to Greek Americans-that is little short of a calamity. Because to Greek Americans the concept of equality of the sexes is so completely demoralizing that the superior woman is beaten before she begins! I spent my childhood and adolescence in constant inner and often outward rebellion at the deference accorded to the male members of my family even when they were patently in the wrong. Again and again I was told; "You must give in. You are a girl." But no one ever took the time to explain why the woman must always give in. To this day, no one ever has. 2

Despite or, better, because of its very "old-fashioned ness," the immigrant Greek family was tenacious. The unstated premise of the immigrant parents was: "We will sacrifice for you. our children, and be repaid by your success and sense of obligation." Though somewhat eroded over the generations. this premise still has some power among Americanborn Greek parents. That there may be something to this formula is attested to by the unusual closeness between the generations, a closeness 2"The Forgotten Generation." Athene. 10, no. 4 (winter. 1950),22.

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all the more noteworthy when one considers the remarkable class mobility between the immigrants and their grown children. Indeed, an important study of the Greek-American hlInily found that class mobility strengthens intergenerational cohesiveness; that is, ties are closest in those extended families where American-born children have advanced highest on the social ladder.:l A generalized respect for elders is ingrained in both Greek and Greek-American cultural norms. This is complemented by the notion that grandp;lrents are expected to "spoil" their grandchildren. The Imllou and yaya are regarded as extremely benign figures in GreekAmerican family life. Aunts and uncles are also looked upon with warmth by nieces and nephews. In America as in Greece filial loyalty is especially stressed. Although there is no statistical proof. it is commonly held among Greek Americans that second-generation children are much more likely to look after aged parents-including letting their parents move in with them-than is the usual practice in American society. On this point, a second-generation woman once ruefully remarked: "We are the last generation to take care of parents, and the first whose children will not." To grow up a second-generation Greek American was to be raised in a hybrid environment; on the one hal1(l, there were Greek parents, relatives, family friends and immigrant priests, on the other, American schools, non-Greek friends, and popular American culture. It also meant being part of a family system which contrasted its higher morality and sense of obligation with that of the amerilwnoi. One might also grow weary of the constant reminders of the glorious Greek heritage, but it helped allay feelings of self-doubt in the Anglo-conformity of American life. Rather than conveying a negative concept of the ancestral culture, Greek immigrant parents were much more likely to assert that anything Greek was best. Though there were always exceptions, a sense of social inferiority was not a characteristic of American-born Greeks. To be sure assimilative processes were always at work. Even though most second-generation Greek Americans were familiar with the Greek language, and many could speak it quite well, English became the language of American-born Greeks in their own homes as well as on the outside. While vestiges of patriarchy persisted, egalitarian relations between the spouses became more the mode along with more equal treatment of sons and daughters. Ties with IW11.mbaroi-either best men at weddings or godparents-were not as strong as within the immigrant generation. Divorce shifted from a terrible calamity to an undesirable but sometimes necessary resolution of marital problems. Female liberation, incomprehensible to the immigrants, largely bypassing the second "Tavuchis, Family and Mobility Among Crull Americans.

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generation, has come to intluence many women in the third generation:' Yet, one informed observer of sex roles in both Greece and this country has made the point that young middle-class Greek Americans are more likely to adhere to a conventional sexual code than do their counterparts in contemporary urban Greece. 5 In certain discernible ways, however, old country values have permeated the American-born generations. 1i The traditional jlhilotimo has been transfigured but is still recognizable in the appreciation of the grand gesture, displays of personal generosity, and a demeanor that mixes respect for those higher in the prestige ladder with an inner sense of low social distance. It also seems that most Greeks and Greek Americans intuitively identify and understand authority while also seeking to manipulate iL 7 Much like in the old country, Greek Americans stress observable conduct and results rather than intentions and effort. Even the immigrant parental admonition to both sons and daughters to "marry a rich Greek" was internalized more than many would like to admit. The immigrants could be embarrassed by their failures with the English language, their awkwardness with their children's American friends; but most of all they feared the prevailing ethos of romantic love, especially because it could lead their children to marry outside the community. Although arranged marriages, the traditional manner of betrothal in Greece, were to become virtually an extinct. species in this country, the immigrants fervently hoped-and often schemed accordingly-that their offspring would marry other Greeks. But because parental discipline was less strictly enforced for boys than for the "Safilios-Rothschild, Costantakos, and Kardaras, "Greek-American Woman," p. 22. "Statement made to the aUlhor by Constantina Safilios-Rothschild. 1978. nAlthough lillie has been wrillen on the Greek-American personality, the literaturc on the Greek personality is quitc cxtensive. Good summaries on Greek character. <.levelopment and value orientalions ,Ire: Vasso Vassiliou. Harry C. Triandis, Ccorge Vassiltou, and Howard McGuire, "Interpersonal Contact and Stereotyping," in The A1Ialysis o{ Sub]l?cllVe Culture, ed. Harry C. Triandis (New York: Wiley-Inlerscience, 1972), pp. 89-115; and Harry C. Triandis and Vasso Vassiliou. "A Comparative Analysis of Sul~jective Culture," Ibid., pp. 299-335. . . Psychialric observations of newly arriving Greck immigrant wives havc pinpOinted a "Persephonc Syndrome"-neurotic symptoms of anxiety and dqJressioll brought abo~lt by the geographical separation of grown daughtcrs in America (rom their mOlhers III Greece.· Extreme mother-daughter attachment regarded as normal in (;reece becomes palhological when the daughter is, in a manner of speaking, "abducted" to the Uniled Stales by her husband. Nicholas Dunkas and Arthur G. Nikelly, "The Persephone Syndrome," Social Psychiatry, 7 (1972), 211-16. Sec also DUIlkas and Nikelly, "Group Psycholherapy witi1 Greek Immigrants." 11l1t:matiOllaljounlal o!Groll!J PSYc!lOllwm!JY, 25, no. 4 (October, 1975), 402-9. 7 A comparative study of Grcek and American school children found the (;I:eek personality to be much less empathetic and much more competillve than the Amencan counterpart. K.V, Roe, "A Study of Empathy in Young Greek and U.S. Children,"joumal !if Cross Cultuml Psychology, 8, no. 4 (Deccmber 197 7), 493-502.

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more cloistered girls, this meant brothers more than their sisters would have opportunities to find their spouses from among the xenoi-the outsiders. The 1950 recollections of the second-generation woman cited above are again instructive. One of the sorest spots in Greek-American social relations was the problems of "going-out." I belonged to the generation which was not allowed to out as our non-Greek friends were. That the girls were not allowed. I ~le boys went. P~)or par~nts. They knew, that propinquity was nine-tenths of IO,ve a~ld theY,feared for,the h~)l1ors of their girls, And well they might. considenng th~ Ignoranc~ ~n wl1l.ch they allowed their daughters to grow up! But boys will be boys. I hey (lid not want. to nll1 the dsk of being faced with a shot~gun,and dragged to the altar just for taking a girl to the movies once or t,\~ICe, So they went o.ut w~th non-Greek girls and the propinquity \~orked. I hey marrIed! In spite of parental protest and maternal maledicHcms and general tearing of hairB

w)

. The ,Gre~k-American community has had to change its position on mtermarnage 111 the face of its frequency, The initial edict of the immigrant parents was to tell their children that all Greek spouses were better than all non-Greek. 'Though less common today than in the past, a too typical re,~ction for immigrant parents confronting intermarriage was to break SOCIal relations with the errant child, and then to relent once grandchildren arrived. The next line of defense, typical of the second generation, is to acknowledge that there are equal measures of good and bad in all nationalities, but the sharing of a common Greek background makes for a better marriage. Whatever the personal merits of a nonGreek son/daughter-in-Iaw, even second-generation parents would find themselves resorting to defensive praise when relating their children's outmarriage to old timers. The final argument, a common recourse for the third generation, is that if one does marry a non-Greek, then one must ~e .sure that the spouse is able to adapt to the f~1I11ily kinship system and wlllmg to become Greek Orthodox. 'r!:e intersect between ethnicity and family structure is a complex o~e. It IS generally agreed, however, that those immigrant parents who displayed a more open attitude toward American influences were more successful in passing on Greek ethnicity than those parents who tried to resist totally all American encroachmentsY Efforts to rear children as . ,8"The Forgotten Generation," p. 22. It has been suggested that the dating rest riclions Imposed on second-generation Greek-American women may have allowed them to eSGI\)e the adolescent popularity game. As a result they could develop their talents and ambllIOns more freely. allowlllg for subsequent high achievement. Safilios-Rothschild. Costantakos. and Kardaras. "The Greek-American Woman." p. 35. , "Clinical studies of mentally disturbed second-generation Greek-American children fO~llld the children came from f;lmilies where an extremely traditjonalist Greek form of c,hlld rearing was attempted. John Pap,uohn and John Spiegel. Tra11sactions in Families (San hanClsco: JosetBas> 1975). p. 200; John Pap'Uohn. "The Relations of Intergenerational ~alue OnentatIon C1?ange anc~ Mental Health in an American Ethnic Group" (unpublIshed paper. BrandeiS Ul1lverslty. 1977).

GREEK AMERICAN THEMES

95

though they were living in Greece. more common among blue-collar than middle-class immigrants, could often lead to grief when the children were old enough to escape the confines of their home life. To pose the alternatives as all or nothing Greek, as many traditional parents were inclined, could lead some of their adult children to forsake their Greek background entirely. But the much more characteristic outcome has been one of continuing-though changing in form-Greek identity across the generations. The ethnic anchor of Greek-American family life has been characterized as primarily that of language maintenance among the immigrants and Greek Orthodoxy among the American born.lo There is a clear tendency among the adult children of the immigrants in dealing with their own children to ease up on teaching Greek and concentrate more on instilling interest and pride in the Greek heritage and the Greek Orthodox faith. Indeed, for reasons not well understood, there is some evidence that some second- and third-generation Greek Americans are more committed to a Greek ethnic identification in this country than are some of the new arrivals from Greece. I I The contrasting forms of Hellenic ethnicity between the Greek immigrants and their American offspring can also be shown in an analogy drawn from two popular kinds of Greek cooking: the souvlaki, a skewered combination of grilled meats alternating with vegetables; and the gyros. a cone of blended meats rotating on an upright spit. The immigrant life style is akin to the s()u1ilald; an alternation. an often conscious separation, between old country habits in the ambiance of home or when with fellow Greeks and American behavior in the public workplace. American-born Greeks can be likened to the gyros; an inseparable blend of Greek and American cultures. a more constant presentation of self whether the setting is within the Greek community or in the larger society. Where the immigrant is sometimes Greek, sometimes American, the native born is truly Greek American. One cardinal feature of Greek-American ethnicity is the trip back to the old country. The advent of relatively inexpensive air service has brought travel to Greece within reach of the Greek-American community. Greek-American newspapers often carry full-page listings of air excursions to Greece. Among American-born Greeks, a large number. perhaps a m<~ority. have visited the ancestral homeland at least once. Although a few might be irritated at some of the petty annoyances of a real Greece no longer filtered through the nostalgia of their parents or grandparents, the more common reaction has been a surge in Greek IOKoUl'vetaris. Firsl aud SI!cOJld G/!/I/!1'alion G1'I!dls (Athens: NatIOnal Center of Social Research, 1971). "Costantakos. "The American-Greek Subculture." pp. ISO-S'). Other studies that explicitly look at ethnic maintenance across the generations are: Alice ScoUl'by, "Third Generation Greek Americans: A Study of Religious Attitudes" (unpublished doctoral thesis. New School for Social Research. 19(7); and Evan Co Vlachos, The A.U/milalion of Greeks in IllI! United Siaies (Athens: National Center of Social Research. 1965),

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GREEK-AMERICAN THEMES

97

identification. For many of the new immigrants, regular trips to Greece provide not only a time for family reunions and respite from the work pace of America, but also the opportunity to bolster the Greek language competence of their school-age children. Yet for most immigrants the return trip to Greece leads to a recognition, often for the first time, that they are not as Greek as they thought and more American than they realized. Greek-American folkways are an amalgam of old country customs and new world fashions. Greek music has a strong hold among many of the second and third generations, more so, some would say, than among some of the immigrants. The band at a Greek-American social function will alternate between Greek and American music, but the dance floor is most crowded when the Greek music is played. Although many old peasant superstitions such as fear of the evil eye have disappeared in America, Greek Americans, in comparison with other Americans of similar education and class background, seem to have a greater interest in fortune tellers, horoscopes, and the like. At organizational meetings when a schedule is set, the chair is likely to state this means "American not Greek time" to stress that punctuality is really expected. If the generalization of an eating culture has any validity, it certainly applies to Greeks and Greek Americans. Food is one of the centerpieces of everyday life. Home menus-Iamb dishes, olive oil and vinegar salads. pastisio (a mixture of ground meat, cream sauce, and macaroni), tiro/Jites (a kind of cheese pie), and a multitude of Greek pastriesare a source of conversation and comparison as well as nourishment. The image of the immigrant mother with a spoonful of food following her child around is a recurring one. Even among the third generation, a survey found that over four out of five still regard Greek food as very much part of their diet. 12 One of the most practical ways for a non-Greek wife to ingratiate herself into a Greek-American hlmily is to become adept at preparing Greek cuisine. Adaptations to American eating habits are made but with compromise. The turkey at a Thanksgiving dinner table is set along side feta cheese and kalamata olives. The current fashion of slimness and requisite dieting confronts the Greek-American craving for calorie-laden Greek food. Greek immigrants are more likely to drink the "American highball"-bourbon and ginger ale-than ouzo or Greek whiskies, when visiting each other. Although the American style of drinking without food is increasingly common among the second and third generations, alcoholism is not regarded as a mcUor problem within the Greek-

American community. One might be expected to get a little light headed at a dance or party, but losing control under the influence of alcohol is severely looked down upon. But there is the gnawing realization that as Greeks become more like the ameri/wnoi. alcoholism will rise. No better illustration of the coexistence of Greek and American customs is found than in the Greek-American funeral. One is most often notified of a death by telephone, but usually someone in the extended family scans the daily obituaries of the metropolitan press to be sure no death is inadvertently overlooked. Before World War II, wakes were commonly held in the home of the deceased and, following the funeral, a memorial meal of fish was prepared at home by some of the female relatives for the mourners. Today, the wake is held at a funeral home, typically Greek-owned. Not to go to a Greek undertaker, in areas where one is available. is an unmistakable sign of assimilation. A GreekAmerican wake is well attended, more so than the funeral itself. Every relative and friend of the deceased is expected to make an appearance. In times past, all the women wore black, but now black is worn only by the women of the immediate f~llnily. Likewise, black ties for men are now worn only by close relatives. The black armband symbolizing mourning, still seen in Greece, has not been used in this country for well over a generation. If the deceased was an old person, there will not be excessive gravity at the wake. Wailing is much more subdued than it used to be, and, if carried on at any length, is likely to embarrass most of the American born. Oldtimers visit among themselves in the back rows of the funeral parlor and. as Greeks will, discuss the symptoms of aging, boast a little about their children, and try to identify the less familiar faces among the younger people. The wake comes to an end when the priest arrives and offers prayers. The next day. there is a service at church. the interment at the cemetery, and a postfuneral meal at a restaurant. The entire funerary event remains-though now refracted through commercial establishments-a mcUor manifestation of the collective consciousness of the Greek-American community. The crucial question is always whether, as the old generation passes on, the new one will reform its associational ties along Greek-American lines. So far, in the main, it seems to be doing so.

2 1 Costantakos, "The American-Creek Subculture," p. 183. As early as the turn of the century, an American observer could say of the Greek immigrants: "They are not exceeded even by the Chinese in that loyalty to native food which I call the patriotism of the stomach." Edward A. Steiner, On Illl! Trail of the Immigrant (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 19(6). p. 290.

Out of the immigrant experience, there came a rivulet of poetry, satire, and light fiction. Written in Greek. possessing varying literary qualities, these works mainly mirrored the yearning for the old country and the encounter with the new. On rare occasions some of the writings

THE GREEK IMAGINATION IN AMERICAN FICTION

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transcended the narrow immigrant milieu and, as in the poetry of Andonis Decavalles. could be accepted by Athenian critics as representative of the finest work in modern Greek literature. Some of the ferment of contemporary Greek letters was brought to this country in the late 1960s by writers escaping the Greek dictatorship. But our interest here is with the writings that offered a peek into the minds of most immigrants with their nostalgia-the Greek word is an exact cognate of the English-and xenitia. the sense of s~journing in foreign parts. In time. with the advent of second-generation authors writing in English. Greek-American literature came to reflect the new consciousness of the move toward assimilation while still being half persuaded that Greeks were unassimilable. By the 1970s. Greek-American literature had developed sufficiently to become the subject of informed scholarship. Our understanding of the Hellenic word in the United States. whether written in English or Greek, is especially indebted to two Greek-American literary critics. M. Byron Raizis has for some time performed the essential task of relelling Greek-American writers to each other and to the literary scene in Greece. Alexander Karanikas has given us Hellenes and Hellions, a complete survey of Greek characters in American fiction from the early nineteenth century to the present.!a A work of monumental authority. Hellenes and Hellions promises to be a model for other scholars who can expand our knowledge of the ethnic experience by uncovering the literary images of America's diverse nationality groups. Of all the Greek-language fiction writers in this country. none warrants our attention as much as Theano Papazoglou Margaris. Fleeing the Turkish eradication of Greeks in Asia Minor. she arrived in America as a young woman in 1922. She settled in Chicago where she married and became a mother. Since the 1930s she has written essays. prose sketches, a play, and columns for Greek newspapers. But Margaris is best known for her short stories now collected in six books. One of these. The Chronzcle of HaL5ted Street [To Chronilw tou Halsted Street], received a Greek state prize for literature in 1963. the first time the award went to a Greek writer living outside of Greece. 14 Although Margaris "writes like a nextdoor neighbor or friend who dropped by for a cup of coffee and small talk,"!5 her work demonstrates analytical intellect. photographic realism, and a Chekhovian concern for the human condition. Most of her stories deal with the dissipation of the strong Greek atmosphere that used to characterize individuals and neighborhoods in this country, or the emoI"Alexander Karanikas. Hdlerws and Hellionl: Modern Grech Characters in American Fiction 1825-1975 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 1980). "Theano Papazoglou Margaris. TIll! Clmmicle o/,Ha/sted Sired [To Chroniko tall Hal,lt!d Sln!I!I] (Athens: Fexis. 19(2).

15M. Byron Raizis. "Suspended Souls: The Immigrant Experience in GreekAmerican Literature" (paper presented at the Bicentennial Symposium on the Greek Experience in America. University of Chicago. 1976). p. 27.

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tional anguish of the immigrant caught between two worlds. Margaris's work forms a portion of American literature, albeit in a language that prevents it from having other than a restricted readership. "The Suspended Ones." a story from The Chronicle o/Halsted Street. grasps the immigrant's quandary as to what is his patrida-homeland.!!; The protagonist, Leo. formLdy Leonidas. has toiled for years in the Midwest. Now at age forty-nine. having resolutely avoided the temptation to set roots in America, Leo decides he is still young enough to return to his ancestral village and start life anew. He takes leave of his Greek-American friends after an emotional farewell party. The friends receive a few postcards from Leo, followed by a four-month silence. They assume he has forgotten them and they begin to forget him. Then one day, with no advance warning, Leo suddenly appears in their usual meeting place, a neighborhood cafe. To their astonished questions, Leo answers: "Over there, boys, I felt more like a stranger than here! ... Over here I have you guys! . We speak the same language. you know what I mean. I had nobody in my village." Even Leo's mother could not recognize the graying "foreigner" who had replaced the young darkhaired man she had missed all those years. Leo's problems. though, did not end with his return to America. >

•

Six months later. Leo left again for Greece. Now everything appeared ugly to him here. He would stay over there for good this time. But the other day we got a letter saying that he's coming back again. To stay here definitely. that's what he says!

Mat'garis evokes the Greek immigrant's dilemma by amending, in effect. Thomas Wolfe: you can't go home again and. as well. you can't really find a home where you are. Poised between the claustral immigrant milieu and the horizons of American literature, the novels of the children of the immigrants present an expansion of the picture of Greek-American life. At least fifteen novels by second-generation Greek Americans with Greek-American settings have been published over the past three decades. The best of them gain their strength from authentic knowledge of the immigrant world while managing to keep a measure of distance. Portraying a slice of the Greek experience in America. these works of fiction are dominated by a theme and countertheme. The theme claims that Greeks seek to preserve their national identity in a new land. The countertheme responds that the individual struggling against his or her environment must give way. at least partly. to the inexorable processes of assimilation. This view of the cultural and generational dialectics of ethnicity appears in nearly all serious Greek-American fiction. !I'The synopsis of Margaris's "Suspended Ones" is adopted from Raizis. pp. :32-:3~l.

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The first novel depicting the immigrant Greek is Gold in the Streets (1945) by Mary Vardoulakis. 17 It starts in the early 1900s in Crete. George Vardas has weighty problems on his mind-the dowry of his two sisters, a bitter land dispute with a cousin. He hears that in America a man can go to work in the factories and come home rich. Va I'd as leaves his native land to go to the mill town of Chicoppee, Massachusetts. There ':'ardas and otl:er Greeks labor at the looms. Despite language difficulties, long workmg hours, and hostility from Polish immigrant workers, the desire to return to Greece begins to recede. In time Greek women also arrive. Vardas marries another Cretan and they both know that America is to be their permanent home, the place where they will raise their children. Vardas and his bride will set up housekeeping in HartJord where the pay is better. The novel ends on an open note: '!'he knowledg~ that he was free to move from one place to another now, free to se,~'ch for whateverJ\m~rica might hold for him, was the ringing, overpowering thought III hiS millet .. , We haven't seen half the stl'cets.IH

Following Vardoulakis's pathbreaking novel, Greek-American fiction has ranged over the gamut of the ethnic experience. The Octagonal Heart (1956) by Ariadne Thompson deals with the life of a wealthy Greek family in SL Louis around the time of World War 1.1!1 Tom T. Chamales's Go N (l/wd in the Wodd (1959) is about the con /lict between domineering Peter Stratton, a theater chain owner, who lives, according to the book's jacket, in the "plush decadelH glitter of Chicago's North Shore," and his son, Nick, a returned World War II veteran and aspiring novelisL 2o Chamales's assault on Greek-American philistinism is unrelenting. Thalia Cheronis Selz's novella, The Education oj' ([ Q/Ui{;r/ (1961), is a sensitive portrayal of the maturation of a young Greek-American woman. 21 All I Could See FT(Jln Where I Stood (196~) by George Christy tells of growing up Greek in a small town in Western Pellnsylvallia. 22 Daphne Athas's Entering EjJhe.l'us (1971) is a somewhat surrealistic account of a Greek-American family that goes from wealth to poverty. 2;) The Wing and the Thorn (1972) by Roxanne Cotsakis is set in Georgia and offers an almost ethnographic account of Greek-American folklore, church ceremonies, and household practices.~4 }-I.L. Mountzoures's The Bridge (1962) records the collapse of a Greek-American family in a New En"Mary Vardouiakis, Gold

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101

gland coastal town with the mother losing her mind and the children placed in foster homes. 25 Yet at the end of the novel, the longjourney to manhood of Phillip Neros ends with an oblique affirmation of his Greekness. Making up a separate type unto themselves are the books of Charles E. Jarvis: Zeus Has Two Urns (1976), and The Tyrants (1977). 2H Jarvis's works are what can best be called Greek-American historical novels. Set in "Cabot City" during the Depression years, Jarvis describes the personalities, thinly disguised by name changes, and events that shaped the Greek community of Lowell. Massachusetts-with its ethnic infighting, church squabbles, and eventual political movement into the Democratic Party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The Tyrants concludes when an unprecedented Irish-Greek electoral alliance upsets the long mayoral rule based on French-Canadian and Yankee voters. On the eve of the election, the Greek community leader exclaims: "Our greatest moment has comel We will no longer be the damn Greeks, the stupid Greeks. We will be a force to be reckoned with ... "27 Greek-American fiction has its fullest expression in the works of Harry Mark Petrakis. Petrakis's parents came to the United States from Crete in 1916. His father, a Greek Orthodox priest was assigned in 1923 to a large parish in Chicago where he served until his death almost three decades later. When his family moved to Chicago, Petrakis was less than a year old. As a young man, he worked in many jobs-steel worker. baggage handler, real estate salesman, owner of a lunchroom, speech writer-and overcame a penchant for gambling. But it was Chicago's Greektown that left upon him an indelible imprint. Petrakis describes his formative years: My earliest memories. tangled and ambulatory, had to do with what was almost totally Greek. Greek parents, Greek language. Greek food, Greek school, and Greek Church. There were artifacts that belonged to the new land--GlIldy and baseball, ice cream and movies. For the most part these existed as a kind of exotic bazaar outside the gates of the real city in which I lived. 2H

In a succession of novels-Lion at My Heart (1959), The Odyss(!y of Kostas Vola/ds (1963), A Dream of Kings (1966), and In the Land o/Morning (1973)-Petrakis would make Greektowl1 his own special province. 2 !1 He

tlu: Strt!t:ls (New York: Dodd. Mead, 1945).

IHIhid., p, 255.

tiJAriadne Thompson. The Octagollal /-lcart (Indianapolis: Bobbs-MelTill. 1956). ""Tom T. Chall1ales, Go Na/wd ill the World (New York: Scribner. 1959). 21Thalia Cheronis Selz, "The Educalion ora Queen,"l'artisau RI!IIWW, 28. nos. 5 and I) (1961). 552-7:3. 669-87. 2"George Christy, All I Could .'lei! From Whl'l'l! I Stood (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. 196'l). 23Daphne Athas, Entl!l'illg EjJlwsus (New York: Viking Press. 1971). 2"Roxanne COlsakis. TIll! WiUgfllld the Thorn (Allanla: Tupper and Love, Inc .. 1952),

2"I'LL. MOUlllzoures, TIll! Bridge (New York: Charles Scrilmer's Sons, 1972). ""Charles E. Jarvis, ZI:US /-las Two Urns (Lowell, Mass.: Ithaca Press, 1976); The Tvrrmts (Lowell, Mass.: Ithaca Press, 1977). . 27Ibid .• p. 158. 2"Harry Mark Petrakis, Stelmark: A Family RI!collec/ion (New York: David McKay. 1970), p. 26. 2"Harry Mark Petrakis, Lion at My lft:art (Boston: Liule, Brown. 1959); TIll! Odyssey of Kostas Volflkis (New York: David McKay, 1963); A Dream of Kings (New York: David McKay, 1966); In the Land of Momillg (New York: David McKay, 1973).

102

GREEK-AMERICAN THEMES

describes it as a grimy place crammed with windbags, adulterers, errant offspring; yet here too are found people's priests, sacrificing parents, and dutiful children. Although Petrakis has received literary awards and recognition, his writings have also raised the ire of some touchy Greek Americans who felt they were maligned as a group. In this sense, portions of Petrakis's ethnic audience have reacted similarly as have Irish Americans to James T. Farrell, Jewish Americans to Phillip Roth, or Italian Americans to Mario PUZO. Yet for all their exaggeration, Petrakis's central figures are accurately observed creations. It would be hard to come up with a more succinct characterization of Greeks-in American and in the old country-than that given in In the La:nd of Morning: " ... a vibrant and passionate people, warm, generous. sensitive to honor and to pride, easily slighted, mordantly vengeful.":!o Like many Greek-American novels, Petrakis's first book. Lion at Mv Heart. involves a clash between the first and second generations, which is muted until one of the grown children decides to marry a non-Greek. The anger of Angelos Varinakis, a widower, knows no bounds when he hears that his son, Mike, will marry Sheila Cleary. Mike confides to Tony, his brother who is caught in the middle: "That old country crap is for the birds. If you love a girl. it don't make any difference whether she is a damn Greek or not.":l1 The more Angelos draws into his Greekness, the more Mike rejects everything Greek. As Mike later tells Tony: "Ever since we were kids we eat and sleep and grow on the glory of Greece. All around us we got nuts, . , haughty as hell because two thousand years ago they knocked hell out of some Persians and knocked hell out of each other and a guy named Socrates got poisoned and a guy named Odysseus got lost.":JZ

Angelos remains bitterly un reconciled to his son's marriage; he even takes perverted satisfaction when he believes his curse caused the stillborn child of Mike and Sheila. The novel ends when Tony, who escapes the steel mills of his father and brother by becoming a teacher, sets out on his own marriage to a Greek American. Always supportive of his brother and sister-in-law. Tony still feels strongly for his father. but sees the crumbling of the old Greek ways. Some of Petrakis's best works are his short stories in which he deftly sketches characters who while unmistakably Greek are in some ways agents of the human condition as well. In "Pa and the Sad Turkeys," three partners, who are not above stealing from one another. run a lunchroom sinking into insolvency.3:! To cut corners one of the partners, :I!IIbid., p. 122. "'Petrakis, Lion al My Hwrl, p. 9. :l2Ibid., p. 41. ""HaITY Mark Petrakis, "Pa and the Sad Turkeys," in his Paidl!s (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 19(5), pp. 71-84.

011

3 lSi Sireel

GREEK-AMERICAN THEMES

103

half-knowingly. buys some spoiled turkey from his supplier. Anastis. After one of the other partners eats the turkey and collapses-"It would have been worse if it was a customer"-from food poisoning, Anastis, the original purveyor, is forced into eating some of the tainted turkey himself. In "Dark Eye," Petrakis writes of the break between the generations.:H A practitioner of the shadow puppetry of the Imragluozi, he tries, as tradition demands, to pass the art on to his young boy in America. But, to the father's disgust, the lad can never overcome a fear of the "huge dark eye" of the silhouetted cardboard puppet. Years later, the now grown son is cleaning out the remaining possessions of his deceased father. He comes across the cardboard figure and throws it into a fire. In a mixture of remorse and relief. he watches it burn, the flames finally consuming the staring eye. Petrakis not only portrays Greek-American figures with their immigrant sentiments regarding humaneness and suffering, but also draws upon classical Greek themes involving doomed protagonists. It is significant that Petrakis has lately turned to Greece itself for artistic inspiration. His novel, The Hour of the Bell (1976), set in the early 1820s. is a historical recreation of the beginnings of the Greek war for independenceY" Mercifully free of national chauvinism, it is intended as the first of a trilogy, Petrakis has recollected that as a child he was nostalgic for a Greece he had never been to. But by focusing the creative energies of his middle years upon his ancestral homeland, he has come full circle in his own life.:w As must be true for every group, Greek Americans are much more likely to see a movie than read a novel about themselves. Movies most always have a greater audience than do books. Five feature films have dealt explicitly with Greek-American material. Three of them need only be mentioned in passing: Beneath the Twelve-Mile Reef (195:)), a pot boiler about Greek spongers in Tarpon Springs, Florida; Go Nahed III the World (1961), an unhappy film translation of the Chamales novel; and A Pe~fect COll/)le (1979). a comedy-romance directed by Robert Altman, set in contemporary Los Angeles involving a Greek-American male of a fatherdominated wealthy family and a female member of a rock group. It has been the tale of a Greek immigrant, however. that has most successfully brought to the screen the emotional force of the lure that "4Harry Mark Petrakis. "Dark Eye," in his TIll? WmJ/!S of Nights (New York: David McKay, 19(9), pp. 171-84. .. , ""Harry Mark Petrakis, 71w Hour of the Bdt (Garden City. N.Y .. Doubleday & Company, 1976). Athena G. Dallas-Damis, Is/and of the Winds (New Rochelle. N.Y.: Caratzas Brothers, 1976) is another example of a second-generation Greek American uSll1g the Greek Revolution of 1821 as the inspiration for a historical novel. :lU"Nostalgia is something I have always known. Although I have nev~r been. to Crete. the island where my filther and mother were born, the constellal1Ol1s of my childhood shimmered with stories of that tragic and lovely land", I knew the myths that were steeped in blood." Petrakis, Slei1llarll, p. 11.

104

GREEK-AMERICAN THEMES

was America. Elia Kazan wrote the screenplay and directed America, America (1964), the fictionalized account of his uncle's obsession and eventual success in getting to the United StatesY It starts just before the turn of the century and carries young Stavros from his home village in Anatolia, to Constantinople and finally to New York. Along the way Stavros is deceived and in turn deceives, in a journey marked by treachery and guile. Finally arriving at Ellis Island, his name suitably Americanized by an immigration official. "Joe Arness" starts life in the new world as a shoeshine boy. To relate the bare bones of the plot cannot convey the cinematic imagery and character portrayals in what is the most powerful film statement ever made on the drama of those who longed for these shores. The other important Greek-American movie is A Dream of Kings (1969), a flawed film version of the Petrakis novel. Set in Chicago'S Greektown, it depicts Leonidas Matsoukas who, despite his faults, has never cheated in gambling, from which he earns an uncertain living. Matsoukas, however, has become fixated with the idea that he must take his ailing son back to Greece where the Aegean sun can work its curative powers. Desperately he resorts to using loaded dice in a big game. Found out, beaten up, Matsoukas loses the last shreds of his personal honor. Where America, America portrays a Greek who will stop at nothing to come to the United States, the Greek-American protagonist in A Dream f!f Kings will do anything to return to Greece. If Greek-American characters in fiction often behave like rogues, they nevertheless possess the qualities of bravery and quickness of wit, qualities that Greeks seem to admire more than principled behavior. Such were Homer's Odysseus and the heroes of the Greek Revolution. Such are Matsoukas in A Dream f!fKings and Stavros in America, America. IDEOlOGY IN GREEK AMERICA

One may safely conclude that the Greeks of this country furnish the best material for good American citizenship, for their record stands high not only in commercial and social lines, but also in matters of morality. The Greek believes in family and home life and reputation, and as such he is mindful of the honor and reputation of his neighbor, He has no criminal or anarchistic t.endencies whalever. His loyalty and allegiance to his adopled country are beyond question.:1H

So ended a full page advertisement taken out in a Chicago daily in 1925. Addressed to the American public, the advertisement was paid for :l7Elia Kazan, America, America (New York: Stein and Day. 19(2) is the screenplay for the film of the same title. :!"Chicago Daily journal. December 31. 1925. no page indicated. The lengthy statement entitled "Hellenic Element in United States Makes Rapid Progress" was written by William J. Russis.

105

GREEK-AMERICAN THEMES

by Greek business executives and professionals. It seems that much of the early immigrant bourgeoisie's desire for acceptance into American society and pride in conventional moral standards has been passed clown the generations. We do have one important source of data that allows for an attitudinal comparison of one m<~or segment of Greek-American youth with their non-Greek peers. The American Council on Education (ACE) conducts a nationwide survey of entering college freshmen each year. In 1972 the ACE included, on a one-lime-only basis, an item allowing for ethnic self-identification. Thus we have a singular opportunity to contrast the social attitudes of Greek-American college students-virtually all of whom can be presumed to be of the second or third generationwith that of other American students. Compared to the national norm, as reported in Table 4-1, Greek Americans are markedly more conservative in their political views, less sympathetic with criminal rights, less concerned to meet people of different backgrounds, and much more likely to regard higher education in instrumental terms. It appears that the college offspring of the Greek immigrants are in many ways more typical of what we think of as "middle Americans" than are even the main body of college students. TABLE 4-1 SOCIAL ATTITUDES OF COlLEGE FRESHMEN: GREEK AMERICANS. NATIONAL NORM, AND JEWISH AMERICANS (in percents) Agree With Statement:

Political preference is middle of the road or conservative Too much court concern for rights of criminals Very important to have friends from different backgrounds Chief benefit of college is to increase earnings

Greek Americans

National Norm

Jewish Americans

(1972)

(1972)

(1969)

n.5

64.S

45.2

62.2

5(1.:)

;);).6

56.S

6;).:\

76.8

71.4

59.7

;)8.7

National data, based on a sample ofapproximatdy 188,900, is reported in American Council on Education. TIl/? A1I1aican Frt!slmw1t. 1972. Jewish-American data, based on sample of approximately 10.600, is reported in David E. Drew and the American Council on Education. A Profitt! of tIl/? jrwi.l'h FrI!shman, 1970. Greek-American data, based on a sample of approximately 5:\0, obtained from a special ACE run requested by writer.

Another study of the ACE data singled out Jewish American students: it is instructive, as also shown in Table 4-1, to compare their attitudes with those of Greek Americans. The contrast is striking. On all items, the Jewish students are less conservative, are more concerned with criminal rights, place a higher value on meeting people from different backgrounds, and are most committed to the intrinsic value of a college education. The comparison is worth lingering over. Greek Americans

106

GREEK-AMERICAN THEMES

occupy a position about as much to the right of the student political spectrum as do Jews to the left. The differences between GreekAmerican and Jewish students occur despite the fact that the immigrant experiences of Greeks and Eastern European Jews shared some important parallels-entry into America around the turn of the century, strong communal identity in an urban milieu, and subsequent advancement into the middle class. Yet in much the way that the well recognized phenomenon of Jewish liberalism has been carried over into this country, the less known, but equally strong, hold of Greek immigrant conservatism has been transmitted. Both Greek and Jewish American-born generations have, each in their own way, been true to the values of their forebears. The ACE surveys of college freshmen, which have been conducted since 1966, have consistently shown that the higher the class background of the students, the greater the tendency toward liberal values. Among Greek Americans however, the pattern does not hold. Unlike American students in general, and Jews in particular, Greek Americans become more conservative as they become wealthier. Students of Greek parentage have little social consciousness or class guilt. In this one important respect, Greek-American youth remain loyal to the immigrant heritage and class aspirations of their f~Hnilies. The Conservative Ethos

The general picture of social conservatism, even a trace of anti-intellectualism, drawn from the college survey data is supported by the observations of most who have looked at Greek-American life:1H As imprecise as the term conservative is, it does characterize the ideological bent of most Greek Americans. To call Greek Americans conservative, however, refers not to party identity, not to a coherent body of ideas, but rather to an attitude of mind-a powerful sense of conventional mores, a distaste for confrontation politics, a wish to enjoy the fruits of one's labor, a betterment through individualistic actions, and a suspicion of collt::ctive steps for social improvement. Greek Americans search not for a better world, but for a better life. A historically specific combination of cultural values and Greek :I!lOn Greek-American conservatism. see Alice Scourby. "Third Generation Greek An~ericans"; Nicholas p, PetI:opoulos. "Social Mobility, Statlls Inconsistency. Ethnic MargInality. and the Attitudes of Greek-Americans Toward Jews and Blacks" (unpublished doctoral thesis. University of Kentucky. 197,}); and Marios Stephanides. TIll! CHtcks in Dlttroit (San Francisco: Rand E Research Associates. 1975). New York city mayoral candidate Mario H. Cuomo. speaking at a Greek Independence Day celelmltion. hailed "the middle-class morality of Greek Americans-the sense of family and work-which is the glue that keeps the city and state together." New York Timlt.>. May 19. 1975. p. 'll.

GREEK-AMERICAN THEMES

107

regionalism also contributed to the core conservatism of Greek America~s. The immigrants who came to the United States before World War I-and to some degree those of later times-were products of a cultural milieu and educational system which understood society in excessively nationalistic terms. As a result, they were not concerned with social differences within their immigrant community and, by the same token, did not identify with non-Greeks of the same class positlt)l1 in the broader society. It is also important to remember that the m,~jority of those Greeks who came to the United States were from the Peloponnesus, the region which in modern Greek history is the most conservat.ive on social and political matters. Indeed, it would not be too far afield t.o propose that Greek-American culture is an overlay on a Peloponnesian-American base. The most apparent explanation of Greek-American conservatism is that many Greeks have done well in the United States. By the end of World War II, a sizeable number of the immigrant.s had become small business entrepreneurs. Their deepest persuasion was that their children in commerce, the corporate world, and the professions, or through marriage, would do even better in this country. Since the fifties most of the second generation, in hIct, has become well situated in the middle and upper-middle classes. And it is into the hands of the middle-class American born that the Greek Orthodox Church and Greek-American organizations are passing. It also appears that second- and thirdgeneration Greek Americans who remain in the working class are less likely to participate in communal activities than middle-class Greek Americans of the same generations:10 The ideological tone of Greek America comes with the mutual reinforcement of the bourgeois orientation of the older immigrant generations and the self-~e1ection into Greek-American institutional life of the conservatively inclined among the American born. No better example of the ideological main currents of Greek America was there than the community's reaction to the 1967 military seizure of power in Greece. It is arguable that many Greeks heaved a sigh of relief when the colonels first took over, but there is no question that the military regime was supported by a large m,~jority of Greek "OData from the national survey of college freshmen collected by the American Council on Education (ACE) in 1972 are informative on the question of Greek-American participation in communal institutions by class background. Although the correspondence is by no means perfect, the ACE data consistently show that university students come from higher socio-economic levels than do junior college students. as one would expect. Thus the kind of institution of higher education can be used as a loose surrogate measure of class background. Among Greek-American freshmen. 78 percent of those enrolled in universities claimed to attend church regularly. compared to 47 percent of those 111 JUlllor colleges. For the total national sample. however. the opposite pattern prevailed. University students were less likely to attend church regularly than junior college students.

108

GREEK-AMERICAN THEMES

Americans. Elias P. Demetracopoulos. a Greek national who became something of a legend in his one-man lobby against the Greek dictatorship in Washington. has remarked: "Greek Americans are not my cup of tea. Eighty percent of them backed thejunta."41 Indeed. for many older people the Greek regime-with its clamping down on disturbances. its anti-hippy stance-was doing what ought to be done in this country. Speaking on their behalf, a sixty-eight-year-old immigrant was quoted as saying: "America is a great country with many good things. except for one thing, it gives too much freedom."42 It ought also be remembered that the well-born Greek elite has customarily looked down on Greek Americans and their peasant background. The junta. partly composed of Greeks of more modest origins than Greece's traditional ruling class. struck a responsive chord among self-made Greek Americans. Yet acquiesence. when not outright support. of the Greek military regime was almost as evident among the American born. A part of this was because the second generation prefered not to get involved with Greek domestic politics. But as the American liberal establishment made opposition to the Greek dictatorship a cause, many Greek Americans defensively rallied around the junta. In an effort to refurbish their image. mainline Greek-American organizat.ions have since argued that their accommodation to the junta was only a way of keeping lines open to the ancestral homeland. During the six-year rule of the military regime. however, their sentiments seemed as much genuine as expedient. Following the massacre of students at the Athens Polytechnic in November, 197;~, support for thejunta noticeably weakened in this country. But one must admit that widespread opposition to the Greek dictatorship never appeared within the Greek-American comm11l1ity. The Greek-American Left

To describe only the dominant conservatism of Greek Americans is to give an incomplete picture of the ideological currents running through Greek America. Coexisting with the main body of Greek Americans there has long been a Marxist element. Starting in the 1920s. a number of Greek workers' clubs and labor union locals appeared, the most im4'Cited in Russell W, Howe and Sarah H. Trott, The Power PI:ddlers (Garden City. N.Y.: Doubleday. 1977), p. 461. Other antijunta commentators have consislentiy noted the general supporl given the Greek dictatorship by the Greek-American community. Sec. for example. George D. Anagnostoupoulos, "A Protest Letter to Greek Newspapers," journal of the Helltmic Dia,ljJOr(l, 2. no. I Uanuary, 1975), pp. 77-78: Stephanides, The GI'I!e/r., in Detroit. p. 89: Stephanos ZOIOS, Hellenic PI'I:sencl: 111 Amaiea (Wheaton. Ill.: Pilgrimage, 1976), p. In "2Quoted in TIll: Orthodox Obscmcr, July 7, 1976. p. 6. It should be noted that the quotation was pt'efaced by an edilorial plea for "law-anel-order" Greek Americans to be lI10re supportive of civil liberties and minority rights.

GREEK-AMERICAN THEMES

109

portant being the Greek furriers of New York City. These organizations, whose hard core were members of the communist party and others sympathetic of the Soviet Union, gained modest ground in the Depression years and continued to show vitality through World War II. But the "old" Greek-American left was to suffer mightily in the years following the war, a victim of sectarian infighting and repressive legislation of the Smith Act. Since the 1960s, however, and particularly since the 1967 military takeover in Greece, the Greek-American left has again come to represent a distinctive component in Greek America. To somewhat oversimplify, the "new" Greek-American left draws from three identifiable groups: a segment of the new immigrants of working-class background, some Greek-born university students and intellectuals, and a scattering of second-generation academics. No one quite knows the relative weight each carries. Collectively they bring together a constituency that strives to politicize Greek-American activities and to move the community toward identification with anti-American or anti-capitalist movements within Greece. It should not be surprising that some of the new immigrants bring to this country a leftist ideology. The passions and injustices of t he Greek civil war (1944-49) still lie close to the surhlce. Moreover, even though the communist party itself was illegal and ballots were often rigged in favor of the government, Marxist-tinged parties polled an average of close to twenty percent in Greek elections held during the 1950s and 1960s. The United States' backing of the Greek junta (1967-74) and its favoring of Turkey during the Cyprus crisis caused many Greeks to move toward anti-Americanism. In the 1977 elect.ion, the most free ever held up to that time in Greece. more than one in three Greek voters chose anti-American leftist parties representing Kremlin-aligned communists, the Greek variant of Eurocommunists.and the socialists led by Andreas Papandreou (himself a former Greek American). Indeed, the recent immigrants seem not to have carried political identities over to America reflective of the leftist composition of the contemporary Greek electorate. Yet surely the new arrivals are coming out of a less conservative country than did their predecessors. Perhaps too they are entering an America less confident of its own national superiority, Writers, intellectuals, and artists, always the first victims of authoritarian rule, were immediately affected by the Greek military coup of 1967. Many went into exile in the United States and elsewhere during the Greek dictatorship. and, when parliamentary democracy was restored in 1974, not all returned home. Moreover, many Greek-born intellectuals who had come to America before the coup later identified with anti-junta groups. It was through such opposition to the military regime that some Greek intellectuals in this country began to revive

110

GREEK-AMERICAN THEMES

Greek-American leftist activities and thought. Greek-American social scientists of the left have also become part of a serious scholarly unclertaking to reinterpret the Axis occupation, the Greek civil war, and the dominant role of the United States in contemporary Greece. This has had the positive effect of shifting Greek historiography away from a chauvinistic to a more international point of view. But it could also lead to a rendering of Greece in strained Marxist terms as typical of third world developments. Greek-American leftists also seem unable to bring themselves to the stage where they will concede that the parliamentary government of the post-junta period during the late 1970s was the most democratic in all of Greece's history, and, in hlCt, one of the most democratic in the world. The long term direction of the Greek-American left is not easy to predict. Almost certainly it will continue to exert inf1uence but its limitations appear as evident as its potenial. It will be difficult for leftist intellectuals to pass on to their children a commitment to radical ideas and an affiliation with Greek-American life where the communal structures of Greek Orthodoxy predominate. Equally problematic will be the linkage of the Greek intelligentsia with the main body of Greek immigrants. To be sure, when a Mikis Theodorakis is on concert tour in the United States, sell-out audiences of mainly new Greek arrivals will cheer his leftist lyrics. But among the mass of Greek immigrants, both new and old, there has been an obstinate refusal to resign their children to the working class. Their indifference to Marxist ideologies is mainly a recognition of the irrelevance of leftist thought to the life the immigrants must now lead in their new home. Socialist ideology plays little part in the things Greek immigrants are really interested in-raising dutiful children, making money, buying property, and going on holidays to Greece. There are two competing Hellenic traditions in contemporary Greek life: a sixty-year-old tradition in the belief of socialism and rejection of capitalism; and a 600-year-old tradition, developed out of the necessities of the Ottoman era and later emigration, of self-reliance, of getting around government controls, of using every device of Greek ingenuity to take advantage of opportunities as they appear. In Greek America the older tradition has proved to be stronger.

c

H

p

T

E

f

R

The will to achieve has been the subject of some controversy in the social science literature. But if psychological factors emphasizing achievement do help explain upward mobility, such an explanation certainly fits the Greek experience in America. A well known study by Bernard C. Rosen in 1959 found that Greek Americans had the highest achievement motivation compared to white Protestant Americans and a sample of other ethnic groups in America. 1 The utility of such a cultural predisposition toward success, a cardinal tenet of Greek immigrant folk wisdom, is supported by U.S. census data. A careful analysis of the 1960 census revealed that second-generation Greek Americans possessed the highest educational levels of all, and were exceeded only by Jews in average income. 2 The same pattern was confirmed in the 1970 census, which showed that among twenty-four second-generation nationality groups, JII;( 1. Greeks trailed only Jews in income 1 levels and continued to rank first in V educational attainment. a In appraising the social status of second-generation Greek Americans one can consider native white Americans as the "norm." According to the 1970 census, Greek American men and women were 70 percent more likely to have completed college than the native white population. 4 With reference to income levels, Greek Americans enjoy earnings 31.6 percent higher than the native white average. s It is true that Greek Americans are concentrated in metropolitan areas where average income exceeds that of the nation as a whole. If we compare their salaries with those of other urban whites in New York, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, and Los Angeles, their proportional income

rla

ki n(]

It

1n

America

I Bernard C. Rosen, "Race. Ethnicity and the Achievement SYlldrome." American Sociological Review. 24. no. 1 (February. 1959), 47-60. 2Leonard Broom. Cora A. Martin. and Betty Maynard. "Status Profiles of Racial and Ethnic Populations." Social Science Quarterly, 12. no. 4 (September. 1971), :179-88. In actuality. the U.S. census does not enumerate Jews as a separate ethnic category. nor does the study cited above. When I refer to Jewish income levels. the reference IS to those classified as "Russians" by the census. My switching of labels. while presumptuous. is defensible. inasmuch as the large m~ority of Eastern European Jews entered the United States as immigrants from Russia. and the bulk of "Russians" counted by the census were in fact Jewish. Of course. non-Jewish Russians are also included in the Russian ethnic category of the census. "U.S. Bureau of the Census. Census oj the Polm/atlon: 1970. Subject Reports. National Origin and Language. Final Report PC(2)-IA. 'IIbid .• pp. 21. 114. "lind .• pp. 51. 161.

111

112

MAKING IT IN AMERICA

declines but still comes out to be around 15 percent higher. Ii The educational and income data remain incontrovertible: second-generation Greek Americans have done uncommonly well. The profile of a generally successful second generation of Greek Americans can only be appreciated in the context of where their forebears entered the social ladder. We turn once more to the 1970 census. Table 5-1 gives the school attainment of Greek male immigrants, forty-five years and over, and male Greek Americans of the second generation, ages twenty-five to forty-four; figuratively speaking, an educational contrast between "hnhers" and "sons." (To put the educational standing of Greek Americans in perspective, Table 5-1 also presents data for comparable age groupings of native white Americans. Where almost two-thirds of the immigrants stopped their education at primary school, over half of the seond generation went on to college. There has been tremendous intergenerational mobility between those who came to this country as immigrants and those born in America. TABLE 5-1 "FATHERS AND SONS"-EDUCATlONAllEVElS OF NATIVE AMERICAN WHITES. GREEK IMMIGRANTS, AND SECOND-GENERATION GREEK AMERICANS BY AGE GROUPS, 1970 (in percents) Educational level

8 Years or Less Some High School High School Graduate Some College College Graduate Total

Native White Males (45 years and older)

Native White Males (25-44 years old)

Male Greek Immigrants (45 years and older)

:33.6

13.4

65.8

5.1

Male SecondGeneration Greek Americans (25-44 years old)

21.9

17.4

Il.l

13.1

26.9 8.:3

:36.5 1:3.9

14.6

,n.1 19.0

:3.7

9.3

18.8

4.8

:n.7

100.0%

100.0%

10O.O'K

100.0%

" ~ource: U.S. Burea!~ of the Census, Cmsus of thl! Po/mfa/ion: I970. Subject Reports: EducatIOnal Attamment. FlIlal Report PC(2)-5B. pp. 3-6; National Origin and Language. Final Report PC(2)-1 A, p. 115.

Whether their immigrant fathers remained in the working class or became proprietors, the second generation-and even more so the third-are likely to be employed in the corporate world, public agencies, teaching, and the professions. Even though a significant number of the "Ibid., pp. :314. 326, 338. 350. 374.

MAKING IT IN AMERICA

113

American born still manage their own businesses, they make up a declining proportion within the Greek-American community. Evidence from two quite different Greek communities in the mid-1970s illustrates this pervasive occupational shift. In Warren, Ohio, over 80 percent of the immigrant Greek men worked as laborers, mainly in the steel mills, yet only about a quarter of the second generation were still in blue-collar jobs. 7 In Albuquerque, New Mexico, over 90 percent of the immigrant Greeks ran their own businesses, mainly bars and restaurants. but only a quarter of the American born were similarly seif-employed. H In both communities, despite the contrasting social bases of the immigrant cohort, over a third of the second-generation men were professionals. Although we do not have such precise information for the large GreekAmerican communities, and though the upward movement is probably not as pronounced as observed in Warren and Albuquerque, the clear trend across the generations is away from the working class, away from the small entrepreneur, and toward white-collar and upper-middle class vocations. Along with the social ascent of the main body of Greek Americans, quite a few have made a m<~or name for themselves on the American scene. To try to list Greek Americans who have left a significant mark on their society is to risk inadvertently leaving out equally deserving names. But the following can serve as a partial roster. Among the immigrant generation, there have been Dr. George N. Papanicolaou, developer of the "Pap smear" used to detect cervical cancer; Dr. George Kotzias, the neurologist who pioneered in the treatment of Parkinson's disease; Dimitri Mitropoulos, world-renowned symphony conductor; Dimitri Tselos, a leading art historian; George Mylonas, the archeologist who has been active in the excavations at Mycenae; the Skouras brothersSpyros, Charles, and George--of the movie industry; Thomas A. Pappas, director of the Exxon industrial complex in Greece; Charles Maliotis, industrialist and benefactor of the Greek-American community; the sculptor, Polygnotos Vagis; the artist, Lucas Samaras; and Jim Londos, the world-champion wrestler. To list second-generation Greek Americans of prominence would be too lengthy for our purposes here. A representative sampling would include the following: Elia Kazan (regarded as second generation in that he came to America at age four), who, in addition to his illustrious career as a director of Broadway stage plays, has been one of the world's leading film directors. After forty years as a director, Kazan turned his genius to writing novels. In theater, film, and television, one may include John Cassavetes, actor and film director; Alexander ScoUl'by, drama 7James W. Kiriazis. "A Study of Change in Two Rhodian Immigrant Communities" (unpublished doctoral thesis. University of Pittsburgh. 19(7), pp. 3:18-39. "Survey conducted by the author in 1977.

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actor of the New York stage; Andrew Sarris, film critic; Theodore Kalem, drama critic; Ike Pappas of CBS news; and Anthony D. Thomopoulos, president of ABC entertainment. Greek Americans who have served in the government include: Peter G. Peterson, secretary of c:)mmerce; john N. Nassikas, chairman of the national power commissIon; C1 'homas Karamachines, chief of operations, CIA; Achilles N. Sakellarides, inspector of economic and military assistailce programs for the state department; Eugene T. Rossides, assistant secretary of the treasury; and Andrew E. Manatos, assistant secretary of commerce. In industry there have been William Tavoulareas, president of Mobil Oil; Thomas Phillips, chairman of Raytheon corporation; and Louis Anderson, general manager of the Onassis shipping organization. American-born Maria Callas, the embodiment of the prima donna, was acclaimed during the peak of her operatic career as the world's leading soprano. Second-generation Greek Americans who are highly regarded in the art world include Theodoros Stamos, William Baziotes, Peter Voulkos, and Harry Bouras. n Several thousand Greek Americans hold academic positions in American universities and colleges and to mention even a few would be invidious. In education administration, however, special note must be made of Matina Souretis Horner, president of Radcliffe College. With two or three exceptions, Greek Americans have not been superstars in sports. By most accounts the first baseball m~or leaguer of Greek descent was Alex Kampouris, who played for the Cincinnati Reds in the 193.0s. Since t.hat time a number of Greek Americans have played regul~r.ly 111 the m,~or leagues including Gus Niarchos, Harry Agganis, Gus 1 nandos, Alex Grammas, and Milt Pappas. Lou Tsioropoulos was a regular starter on the Boston Celtics basketball team. The most prominent C:reek-American sports figure has been Alex Karras. An all-pro defenSIve tackle during his football career, Karras has turned sports broad~aster and remains something of a celebrity. Reflecting the assumptIOn that persons are Greek whose last names end in an "s" preceded by a vowel, Karras tells a delightful story. "When I was with the Detroit Lions I never pushed hard against johnny Unitas because I thought he was a Greek. Then I found out he was a Lithuanian and I knocked him on his ass."!O !IAn excellent overview and interpretation of Greek-American artists is Thalia Cheronis S.elz, "Greek-Americans in the Visual Arts" (unpublished paper. 1976). During ~he Immecitate post-World War II penod there was a group of Greek-American artisls~mm!grant a!ld American born-who lived in Ihe Chelsea district of New York City and IIlteracted With each other on an almost daily basis. This group consisted of Constantine Abanavas. Nassos Daphnis. Theo Hios. Michael Lekakis. Charles Nagas. and Theodoros Stamos. I!lNI!W York Times. December 26.1975. p. 61.

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Greek Americans have only in the past decade or two made m,uor entry into the entertainment world. George Maharis and George Chakiris have played leading roles in several movies. The considerable acting talents of Helen Kallianiotes and Elaine Giftos are beginning to receive critical attention. But without dispute one name towers above all Greek-American celebrities-Telly Savalas. Starting his film career portraying "heavy" villains, Savalas has achieved genuine international recognition both as actor and entertainer. Long active in the GreekAmerican community, Savalas, true to form, played a Greek-American character in the title role of Kojak, the long-running television series. The viewing audience might wonder why the main character's name was Hungarian or Slavic rather than Greek. (Greek Americans also noticed the picture of Savalas's immigrant father on the wall of K(~jak's office, a photograph that looked like some in their own family albums.) George Savalas, Telly's brother, also played a Greek-American role in the series, that of detective Stavros. Another television series, though short lived, with a GreekAmerican character in the title role was the Andros Targets. "Mike Andros," an investigat.ive reporter, was loosely modeled after Nicholas Gage, who covered crime syndicate mostly for the New York Times. Gage, who came to this country from Greece as a child, has also headed the Athens bureau of the New York Times and written The Bmnlotas Fortune, an epic novel of Greek shipowners. l ! A list of well known Greek Americans cannot omit jimmy "the Greek" Snyder (Syn'adinos), the Las Vegas odds maker and regular on the lecture circuit. Carrying on a long Greek tradition of interest in gambling, jimmy Snyder might remind one, at first glance, of Nick "the Greek" Dandolos, who dominated the American gambling scene of a half-century ago. But where Nick wagered his own money-and lost as many fortunes as he won-jimmy makes a regular and comfortable living by telling other people how to bet their money, This surely must represent ethnic progress of a sort. But ultimately to point with pride to ~he contributions persons of Greek descent have made to American society-as scientists, creators of art, businessmen, sports figures, media celebrities-is faintly self-denigrating. It assumes that native American opinion has t.he right. to pass judgment as to whether or not Greeks really merit acceptance and respect. It is the acknowledgment that such ethnic boasting is a form of indulgence, that some now react against inflated claims of "the Greeks as IlNicholas Gage. The Baudo/as Fortune (New York: Holt. Rinehart and Winston. 1975). The Greek-American Gage clan. many of whose men own pizza parlors in Worcester. Massachusetts. is intimately portrayed in Joan Howard. Families (New York: Simon and Schuster. 1978). pp. 98-112.

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worldbeaters." Such acknowledgment may be the true sense of GreekAmerican security and accomplishmenL I2 GREEKS IN AMERICAN POLITICS

By the end of the 1940s, most Greek Americans were voting for the Democratic Party. During the Depression, the New Deal recovery measures of Franklin Delano Roosevelt appealed to the large m,~ority of both working class and small businessmen alike. In sharing well in the general prosperity following World War II, Greek Americans strengthened their Democratic Party loyalties. Harry Truman's anticommunist intervention in the Greek Civil War further solidified these ties. During the Eisenhower years and especially during the 1960s, however, Greek Americans began to support the Republican Party. There were several reasons for this movement: it reflected antagonism toward social disturbances and the weakening hold of Democratic city machines as Greek Americans moved to the suburbs; and Spiro T. Agnew appeared on the national Republican ticket in 1968 and 1972. But most important it was an outcome of the social ascent of second- and thirdgeneration Greek Americans, groups that were more likely to vote along class lines rather than according to tradition. Democratic voting still exceeded what might be predicted on an economic basis alone, but this seemed to be mostly a matter of party identification lag. I:! The Greek ethnic presence in American politics is not in its electoral strength, but in the visibility of second-generation Greek Americans in positions of high office. Even though the mainstream of the Greek-American population tends to be socially conservative, the anomaly exists that most Greek Americans holding m!/'I'! Val/ey Historical RevwlIJ. 43: no. 4 (March. 1957), pp. 559-78. George Lincoln Rockwell. founder of the American NaZI Party. was slain by a disgruntled aide. Greek-American John C. Patler (originally I'atsalos). Michael Thevis ran a $100 million pornography business out of Atlanta. Georgia. until his conviction for transporting obscene materials across ~tate lin~s in 1974: NellJSlIJel!!I~ May 22. 1978. p. 34. John Grammatikos was indicted in 1979 for headmg what federal offICials said was "the largest drug-smuggling ring operating between the United States and the Mideast." NI!lIJ York Times. April 4. 1979. p. B4. And so on. 1"Survey data collected during the 1970s report the party identification of Greek Americans as follows: 48 percent Democratic. 24 percent Republican. and 29 percent Independents (total adds to 101 percent due to rounding computations). This corresponds almost exactly with the national distribution. Mark A. Siegel. "Ethnics: A Democratic Stronghold?" Public O/Jimol1. Sept.lOct.. 1978. p. 48.

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Maryland Democrat. was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1976. The son of an immigrant cafe owner, Sarbanes graduated from Princeton, received a law degree from Harvard, and was a Rhodes scholar. Pau~ E. Tsor:~as, the Massachusetts Democrat, was elected to the U.S. Senate III 1978. I he son of an immigrant tailor, Tsongas graduated from Dartmouth and received a law degree from Yale. In the ninety-sixth Congress five Greek Americans held seats in the House of Representatives: John Brademas (D.-Ind.), the majority whip and also a former Rhodes sch.olar; ~us Yatron (D.-Penn.), the only Congressman who used to be III the Ice cream business; Nicholas Mavroules (D.-Mass.), former mayor of Peabody and the son of immigrant parents who worked in the m!lIs o~' that city; L.A. "Skip" Bafalis (R.-Fla.), the only truly conservative Greek American in Congress; and Olympia Bouchles Snowe (R.-Me.), who came up through privation (her childhood years we~'e spent ill the Greek Orthodox orphanage in Garrison, N.Y.) to become III 1978 the young~t woman ever elected to the House. Other Greek Americans who held Congressional seats in the 1970s, along with Sarbanes and Tsollgas, wel~e Peter N. Kyros (D.-Me.), and Nick Galifianakis (D.-N.C.). Galifianakls made a strong bid for the Senate in 1972, but his campaign prob.lems began with his unadulterated Greek name. He tried to finesse the Issue by telling voters it began with a "gal" and ended with a "kiss." At the state level, Democrat Michael S. Dukakis served as governor of Massachusetts from 1974 to 1978. Other Greek Americans who ran for governor in general elections were Republican Nicholas L. ~trik(e ~f Utah in 1972, Democrat Harry V. Spanos of New Hampshire III lJ76, and Democrat Michael J. Bakalis of Illinois in 1978. The number of Greek Americans who serve in state legislatures or on the judicial bench are too many to be counted reliably. Several dozen Greek Americans have been elected mayors and one, George Christopher of San Francisco, was even born in Greece. Greek-American mayors of some of the larger cities in the 1970s included Lee AlexaJ:der of Syracuse, !'lew York, George Athanson of Hartford, Connecticut, Helen ~oosahs of Lincoln, Nebraska, and John Roussakis of Savannah, Georgia. Over a score of second-generation Greek Americans have been chosen mayors in the mill towns of New England, a delayed culmination of the aspirations of the early Greek immigrants who toiled there. . . ' The mushrooming number of Greek-American elected offiCIals IS all the more remarkable when we remember that with only a few minor exceptions-the new Greektowns of N~w York a.nd Chicag~, som~ of the New England mill towns, Tarpon Spnngs,. Flonda-the~'e IS no slze~ble Greek ethnic bloc that can propel them mto office. (~reek-Amencan candidates must pitch their campaigns to the general electorate. Where the candidate's Greekness does matter, however, is in the capacity to raise substantial money from fellow Greek Americans. Any serious can-

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didate of Greek descent running for office can expect to tap the GreekAmerican community-well-to-do immigrant businessmen are the best touch-directly for campaign funds, at least for starters. It has been estimated that Sarbanes raised $200,000 from Greek-American contributors across the country during his Senate race, or roughly 25 percent of his campaign budget. 11 The absence of a "Greek vote" which can be "delivered" by one or another communal leader has been a fortunate circumstance. For this allows the Greek-American candidate to reap financial contributions with few strings attached-except to remain on good personal terms with the donors-while allowing him or her free rein in drawing up the campaign strategy. It has also meant that Greek Americans who have been elected to high office are not regarded as politicians constrained to a parochial ethnic base. In effect, Greek-American candidates can run for office in a manner not all that different from native white ProtestarHs. This leads us to discuss the person of Greek ancestry who was elected Vice-President of the United States. When Spiro T. Agnew was first nominated for Vice-President, it was widely remarked that his name was not exactly a household word. Actually, it depended about whose household one was talking. For the fact of the matter was that, well before the 1968 Republican national convention, the political rise of Agnew on the Maryland scene had been carefully noted among most Greek Americans across the land. After all, Agnew was the first person of Greek descent to be elected governor in the United States. Even his first name-which sounded either alien or comical to the American ear-had a familiar ring to an ethnic group in which there was probably a Spiro in every family tree. Agnew's subsequent election and reelection to the Vice-Presidency and his emergence as a leading contender for the 1976 Republican presidential nomination seemed the epitome of the ethnic dream of success in American society. Dare we fantasize, a Greek in the White House! What more fitting capstone for an ethnic group that had played by the rules and, by and large, had made it in American society. Yet from the beginning, Greek-American identification with Agnew presented problems. He was Greek only on his father's side, his last name had been Anglicized from Anagnostopoulos, he spoke no ~reek, and he was Episcopalian rather than Greek Orthodox. Although IllS was the extreme case of the assimilated ethnic, Agnew's Greekness was probably more accepted by the immigrant Greeks than by the American born. For most of the immigrants, paternal blood descent was a sufficient condition of Greekness. There was also the immigrant's em"'Michael Kiernan. "The Anatomy of Marlyand's U.S. Senate Race-1976," Washington Star, October 26. 1976. pp. B 1. B4.

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pathy with Agnew's father, Theophrastos, a small lunchroom owner, who during his life has been an active Ahepan and a pillar of the Greek-American community of Baltimore. And if one's son wasn't very Greek but nevertheless Vice-President of the United States, what Greek immigrant would say this was such a bad trade-off? Much more for the American~born generations, where to be Greek was less an issue of blood and more a matter of choice, Agnew's Greekness was a matter of argument. Yet there remained the core truth that Agnew's urban conservatism was in accord with the ideological predispositions of the GreekAmerican mainstream, whether immigrant or American born. In Agnew, that is, we seemed to have found someone who not only could be called a Greek, but also someone who articulated how most Greek Americans felt about law and order, family integrity, and the up-byyour-own bootstraps mentality. It seemed especially heartening that Agnew was becoming more Greek after he became Vice-President. His 1971 visilto his father's birthplace, the village of Gargaliani in the Peloponnesus, was exhaustively covered in the Greek-American press. (That the Agnew trip implied American governmental support for the Greekjunta was somehow overlooked in all the commotion.) He was courted by leading GreekAmerican organizations and reciprocated these attentions. Agnew's lately found ethnic identity seemed that much more genuine inasmuch as it had no obvious self-serving purpose. This was very heady stuff for the Greek-American community. What was better validation of the Vice-President's own ethnic heritage than his demonstrating more pride in his Greek background than ever before in his career? It was a shock to the Greek-American community when Agnew resigned from the Vice-Presidency in 1973 after pleading no contest to charges of evasion of income taxes. Yet the findings of a survey of Greek Americans conducted shortly after Angew's resignation and public humiliation revealed an ambiguous diversity of opinion. 15 Some retreated to the ready rationale that, after all, Agnew was never really a Greek anyway. Others took refuge in the traditional plaint of America's tribal groups when one of their own has been caught with his hand in the till: "He may be an s.o.b., but at least he's our s.o.b." The reaction most often reported, however, was dismay with what was seen as Agnew's betrayal of his middle-class constituency. There was no uniform closing 1'Theodore A. Couloumbis. John A. Nicolopoulos. and Vassilis Pantazoglou, "Impact of the Agnew Resignation on the Greek American Community," Allums News, November 7,1973, p. 5. See also Nikos Petropoulos. "Greek-American Attitudes Toward Agnew."Joumal rif the Hellenic Diaspora. 2. no. 3 Ouly. 1975),5-25. A gener'al discussion of the Greek-Amel'ican electorate during the Agnew era is Craig R. Humphrey and Helen Brock Louis. "Assimilation and VOling Behavior: A Study of Greek Americans." International Migration Review. 7. no. 1 (spring. 1973),34-45.

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of Greek-American ranks in support of the former Vice-President. Rather, Agnew quickly became a nonperson in the Greek-American community. The trend in Greek America during the sixties toward the Republican Party, symbolized by the Agnew Vice-Presidency, was abruptly reversed by tragic events in Cyprus. On July 15, 1974, a coup led by Greek mainland officers and abetted by the Athens junta overthrew the government of President Makarios. On its part, the United States government reacted indifferently to the ouster of Makarios, and may have even given signals that it approved of the turn of events. This further poisoned relations between the American government and democratic forces in Greece and Cyprus. Charging that the Greek-engendered coup threatened the security of the Turkish Cypriot minority on the island, Turkey launched an invasion. By August, 1974, after violating numerous cease-fire agreements, Turkey had gained control of 40 percent of the land area of Cyprus. In more starkly human terms, about 180,000 Greek Cypriots, close to a third of the total Greek population on the island, had become refugees. The reaction of the Greek-American community was immediate. Large sums for refugee relief were raised. Whatever their previous stand on the Athens junta, all elements in Greek America were equally angered by the "tilt" toward Turkey brought about by President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger. The Turkish invasion of Cyprus generated a political mobilization of the Greek-American community never before seen. Greek-American pressure was exerted on Congress to prohibit the transfer of American arms to Turkey. The principle of the "rule of law" was invoked, as the Turkish use of American military weapons on Cyprus clearly violated U.S. laws banning their employment for other than defensive purposes as well as a specific agreement between Washington and Ankara against shipment of such weapons without U.S. consent. The efforts of the Greek-American community became so well orchestrated that Time magazine in 1975 wrote that "one of the most effective lobbies in Washington today is that of Greek Americans."IH Congressmen of Greek descent served as the nucleus of the opposition to Turkish arms, but they were greatly assisted by others, notably Senator ..... New Lobby in Town: The Greeks," Time. July 17. 1975. pp. ~~1-32. Mass media identification of a so-called Greek Lobby placed the Cyprus issue in the minefields of ethnic politics and thus obscured the broader moral and legal implications. An excellent and dispassionate analysis of the political mobilization of the Greek-American community is Sallie M. Hicks. "Ethnic Impact on United States Foreign Policy: Greek Americans and the Cyprus Crisis" (unpublished doctoral thesis. American University. 1979). An extremely hostile view of Greek-American influence on Congress is found in· Russell W. Howe and Sarah H. Trott. The Pow/!/" Pedd/as (Garden City. N.Y.: Doubleday. 1977), pp. 406-68. A critique of the establishment orientation of Greek-American political efforts is A.A. Fatouros. "The Turkish Aid Ban: Review and Assessment,"joul'Ilal Of the Hellenic Dias/JOI"(l, 3. no. 2 (April. 1976),5-25.

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Thomas Eagleton of Missouri and Congressman Benjamin Rosenthal of New York. Congress did impose an embargo on arms to Turkey in February, 1975. Yet, even though under the terms of the 1975 legislation the embargo could only be lifted after substantial progress had been made toward a Cyprus settlement, the restrictions were subsequently modified to allow Turkey to receive large sums in military credits. The mobilization of the Greek-American community was impressive in its own right, but its successes were also in large part due to factors independent of ethnic politics. Opposition among Greek Americans to military aid for Turkey coincided with the new Congressional mood to reassert its foreign policy prerogatives. That the partial embargo was implemented over the strenuous opposition of Ford and Kissinger and much of the national press was a stunning achievement for a community heretofore not organized for political action. The so-called Greek Lobby consisted at the start of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and the Ahepa. In the wake of the Turkish invasion other important groups appeared. Based in Washington was the American Hellenic Institute-Public Affairs Committee (AHIPAC). In actuality, AHI was more of an association promoting trade between Greece and the United States, while PAC acted more in a lobbying capacity on the Cyprus question and sought as well to encourage Greek Americans to become politically involved. The United Hellenic American Congress (UHAC), headquartered in Chicago, had strong Archdiocesan links and served as the major umbrella organization by coordinating Greek-American political efforts. The Hellenic Council of America, based in New York, primarily enlisted professional and academic Greek Americans for the cause. Local "Justice for Cyprus" committees were particularly effective in letter writing campaigns. All of these organizations also sought-beyond their immediate concern for the tragedy of Cyprus-to foster and articulate a collective sense of the Hellenic presence in America. 17 A contentious people, the Greek Americans in their effort on the Cyprus issue were not innocent of infighting and backbiting. Yet, the overall picture was one of a degree of communal unity unprecedented since the days of the Greek War Relief in World War II. The difference, however, is that during World War II the activities of the community corresponded to American national goals, while the Cyprus cause put Greek Americans in opposition to Administration policies. It was a sign of Greek-American maturity, however, that the efforts of the 1970s were based on the wisdom of working within the American political system. The political mobilization of the Greek-American community brought l7The American Hellenic Institute and the United Hellenic American Congress were headed by second-generation Greek Americans: Eugene T, Rossidcs. and Andrew A. Athens. respectively.

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about by the Turkish invasion of Cyprus never was meant to test dual Joyalty. Rather, the issue was posed as the parallel of Hellenic interests and American legal morality. The oppositjon to Ford-Kissinger-the names became joined by a hyphen-was so deep in the Greek-American community that there would have been enthusiastic endorsement f()I' whomever the Democrats nominated. The unknown Jimmy Carter may not have been the first choice, but Greek-American organizations rallied strongly behind him. Even Republican Greek-American newspapers endorsed Carter's candidacy. A Carter strategist estimated that 87 percent of the GreekAmerican vote went for the nationai Democratic ticket. 18 'Though this estimate may be inflated, the Greek-American vote was particularly significant in Ohio, which Carter carried by only 6,500 votes. The true measure of the Greek-American impact on the 1976 election was a more subtle one. Because the Kissinger policy in the eastern Mediterranean had alienated Greeks, Turks, and Cypriots all at the same time, the Cyprus issue became a test case in the fight for open government in American foreign policy. Greek Americans, that is, were the first to puncture the myth of Kissinger's infallibility, perhaps setting in motion enough erosion of the Republican position to make the difference in a close electioll. In Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, Greek Cypriots danced in the streets when Carter's victory became known. They praised Greeks in America for making the victory possible. But false hopes were raised. With growing disappointment the Cyprus situation remained unresolved. By 1978, moreover, the White House had reneged on its campaign promises and succeeded in having Congress lift the arms embargo against Turkey. The Carter administration had adopted a position no different from that of the one it had replaced. It remained to be seen how Greek Americans would continue to press for justice on the Cyprus issue and whether American foreign policy would stand by its own laws. In Greek-American discussion it is common to contrast the perceived weak Greek political influence on foreign policy with that of strong Jewish influence in support of Israel. Indeed, the Jewish precedent was frequently cited as the appropriate model for Greek-American efforts in behalf of Cyprus in Washington. It was thus something of a reversal to read a 1977 letter in the New York Tim.es defending Jewish pressure against Carter's Middle East policies: "We [American Jews] were only acting in the American tradition, just as the American Greeks attacked American foreign policy on the Cyprus issue."U) Such testament is a fitting footnote on the Greek-American entrance into the political system. 18"Greek-Americans Score Big in Carter/Mondale Campaign," Greek World, Nov.Dec .. 1976, p. I L "'New York Times, November 13, 1977, p. EI6.

GREEKS AND RESTAURANTS: AN AMERICAN PHENOMENON

The first recorded Greek-owned restaurant was the "Peloponnesos," which began operation in 1857 and was located at 7 Roosevelt Street on the lower East Side of Manhattan. 2o The proprietor was one Spyros Bazanos, a native of Sparta. Another Greek restaurant on the same street, founded in the 1880s, was described by an American commentator as "a poor, foriorn affair; yet to the lonely immigrant it meant comradeship and a breath of home. This the [Greek] peddlers made their rendezvous. Here they found cooking and manners of home."21 It was from such inauspicious beginnings that Greeks were to make their m<~or mark on the public mind of America. By 1913 there were an estimated six hundred Greek-owned eating establishments in Chicago and two hundred in New York, mainly of the "chop-house or third-rate" variety.22 By the end of World War I, the expression became popular that "when Greek meets Greek they start a restaurant."2:l In point of fact, because of the necessity to pool resources, a Greek would often go into partnership with a fellow Greek. Squabbles between business partners became part of the Greek-American scene, but somehow most of the restaurant owners made a go of it. During the 1920s there ·were several hundred or more Greek-owned restaurants in most of the large industrial cities of the North-over eight hundred in Chicago alone. The relative number of Greek-owned restaurants in the smaller cities and towns was, if anything, even greater. Some Greeks went into the restaurant business because of the new health laws in the early decades of this century that restricted or forbade food carts. A more important reason was the collapse of the confectionery or sweet shop business in the 1920s. The changeover to manuf~lc­ tured candies and, later, the appearance of candy stands inside movie theaters was the death knell for most small Greek confectioners. 2.' Many of them converted their businesses to lunchrooms and eventually restaurants. One reliable estimate places the total number of Greek-owned restaurants and lunchrooms-serving their customers American menus, of course-at around seven thousand on the eve of the Depression. 25 2"Bobby (Charlambos) Malafouris, Greeks in America 1528-1948 [l-II?ililles lis Amerilds 1528-1948] (New York: privately printed, 1948). p, 276. My own sense of Greek-American history makes me skeptical that a Greek restaurant in this country could appear as early as 1857. It is possible that the restaurant identified by Malafouris may have been an eating establishment catering to Greek sailors coming to the port or New York. More plausible is that the Greek restaurant Malafouris locates on Roosevelt Street is the one described beginning operation in the 1880s on the same street. Thomas Burgess, Greeks in A111enca (Boston: Sherman, French & Co., 191:3). p. 26. 2IIbid., p. 26. 22Ibid., p. 37. 23J .P. Xenides, The Greeks in America (New York: George H. Doran, Co., 1922), p. 81. 24Theodore N. Constant, "Employment and Business of the Greeks in the U.S,," Athene, 7, no. 2 (summer, 1946). p, 40. 25Ibid., p. 41.

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A few of the Greek immigrant restaurateurs even managed to develop chains. In New York the big restaurant names were Foltis. Stavrakos, and Litzotakis: in the Carolinas and Virginia it was Lambropoulos. 2H John Raklios. who owned twenty-five restaurants in the Chicago area, became a legend in the Greek immigrant community, Losing all in the Depression. Raklios was not only financially ruined but also sent to debtor's prison. Entering the county jail, Raklios dreaded the ultimate humiliation-dish washing. Grasping the last shreds of his dignity, he requested of the warden: "Please don't make me a pearl diver."27 The thirties were a time of severe trial. Even by extending their already excruciatingly long hours, many restaurant owners could not make ends meet and went under. The Depression not only reduced the number of patrons who could afford to eat out. but also a rival in food service arose from an unexpected quarter. The restaurants had to compete with the introduction of lunch counters in drugstores, department stores, and five-and-ten-cent chain stores. But the economic prosperity engendered by World War II revived the fortunes of the restaurant owners. Through the 1950s and 1960s the Greek restaurants continued to expand. By the late 1970s. Greeks had become a prominent mainstay of the American restaurant scene. One can onlv estimate the number of Greek-owned restaurants in the United Stat~s. The U.S. census enumerated a total of about 113.000 restaurants and lunchrooms in 1975. 28 On inspecting the roster of the National Restaurant Association one finds that 20 percent of its membership have identifiable Greek names. Whether Greeks would be more or less likely than others to join a restaurant association can be debated either way. But if one pn~jects the restaurant association figures to the total number of independently owned eating establishments in this country. one would come up with about 23,000 Greek-owned restaurants and lunchrooms. In other words, there is one Greek-owned restaurant for about each ten thousand people in America. Since not many of the children of the restaurant owners are likely to want to take over the family business. most restaurant ownership continually passes over into the hands of newcomers from Greece. The older restaurateurs were succeeded by later immigrants after World War II and since 1965. Finding it easier to deal with a Greek employer, often a relative, many of the new immigrants naturally gravitated toward the restaurant business. Indeed. one can detect a note of envy among some Greek-American academics-immigrant and American-born alike2Wfheodore Saloutos. The Greeks in the Unitl!d States (Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1974), p. 271. . 27[bul .• p. 272. 28National Restaurant Association. Washington Re/}()rt. March 8. 1977. p. :1.

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when they compare their earnings with those of the modestly educated immigrants who prosper in their resturants. Granting that there will be new immigrants willing to undertake the long hours, risks. and worries of running a rest.aurant. there are storm clouds on the horizon of Greek restaurant ownership in t.his country,2!) Fast-food franchises, the scourge of t.he small restaurallt owner, are cutting into the market at an alarming rat.e. But if some of t.he restaurant owners have t.heir backs to the wall in the battle against bstfood service, we have good reason to expect t.hat most will survive as did their predecessors who left t.heir push carts in the 1910s, converted their confectioneries in the 1920s. and struggled with the lunch count.ers of the chain stores in the 1930s and 1940s. The Greek restaurateurs' response to the fast-food franchises of t.he 1970s has proceeded on several fronts: more full-menu American restaurants serving alcoholic beverages, Greek cuisine restaurants, night clubs with entertainment, and. taking the fight to the enemy on its own grounds, the development. of fast-food operations serving Greek specialties. Greek restaurant owners will also benefit from a fundamental shift in American eating patterns. Whereas in 1960 only 20 percent of the American food budget went to eating out, this increased to :30 percent in 1975, and to a projected 36 percent by 1985.:l 0 These cheerful st.atistics for restaurant owners reflect broad demographic t.rends-more working women. more single person households, smaller families-as well as a cultural change in American society toward more eating out.. The "greasy spoon" restaurant-the maliciousness of the pun was always evident to Greek Americans-will be consigned to the ashc
J26 IMAGES OF GREEK AMERICANS Any full description of an ethnic group should report how they are regarded by the larger American society. A generation ago radio listeners regularly heard joseph Epstein play "Mr. Parkyakarkas." a buffoonish Greek restaurant owner. on the Eddie Cantor and jack Benny shows. George Givot told Greek dialect jokes during the 1930s and 1940s in a comedy act that played in vaudeville. night clubs. and occasionally on radio.:l 2 More recently, Anthony Quinn. of Irish-Mexican descent. became almost a Greek film stereotype playing the title role in Zorba the Greek. a Greek guerrilla in The Guns of Navarone. Matsoukas in A Dream (d' Kings, and "Onassis" in The Cree/{ Tycoon. Only in the past few years has Telly Savalas eclipsed Quinn as the Greek prototype in the mass media. But what do Americans really think about Greek Americans? No conclusive data of this sort exist. In an effort to begin to answer the question. six hundred Northwestern undergraduates (the inevitable captive audience of the introductory sociology class) were surveyed in 1976 and 1977 as to what came to mind when they thought of Greek Americans. Almost all answered according to three basic groupings, although respondents could mention as many images as they wished. The largest number. 61 percent. mentioned either Greek-owned restaurants or Greek cuisine. Fifty-four percent described family-centered lives, close ties with relatives. big weddings. and membership in the Greek Orthodox Church. And 41 percent imagined Zorba-like dancers and warm but emotional personalities. Thus to the outsider Greek Americans present a montage of restaurant owners. strong and extended families, and a Mediterranean joie de vivre. Actually, much of this view is not all that far fetched. although the real social mosaic of Greek Americans is, of course, vastly more complicated. What was perhaps most interesting is what did not come out in the survey-significant negative stereotypes of Greek Americans. (Though how is one to classify the 6 percent who mentioned long unpronounceable names, the 4 percent who thought big noses synonymous with Greek Americans, and the 2 percent who mentioned pederasty!) Also revealing is that a quarter of the surveyed students could report no image whatsoever of Greek Americans. On the whole, then, it appears that Greek Americans suffer no serious social stigma. Yet, what is one to make of an alleged story reported in Time magazine? It seems that when a friend of President john F. Kennedy remarked that his brother Teddy "looked like a damn Greek god"-an intended compliment-the President replied with a wicked grin: "Are you sure you don't mean he looks like a goddamn Greek?" :!"Breaking the pattern of Jewish comics playing Greeks roles. a comedian of Greek descent. Peter Marsekas, whose professional name was Peter Randall. used Greek dialect jokes in his act. which played in vaudeville. theaters. and night clubs during the 1940s and 1950s. Hellenic Times, January 5. 1978. p. 5.

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Those of us born between the two world wars occupy a special place in Greek America. Perched between our immigrant parents who came over in the early decades of the century and our own mostly middle-class and suburbanized progeny, we are the middle generation-the only group that can touch upon both the historical beginnings and the conteI?porary range of the Greek ethnic experience in this country. No slllgie family memoir could capture the many different ways Greeks have encountered America, but a personal vantage can help trace the connections between societal forces, communal factors, and individual biographies. . ., " The vagaries of Balkan history intertwine WIth my famIly ongllls. My parents were born Ottoman subjects of Greek ethnic stock in what is today Albania . . During the Ottoman period Argyrocastro, in northern Epirus (my father's birthplace in 1898), was a regional center of moderate importance in the western reaches of the empire. In the decades following the collapse of the Ouoman Empire, Argyrocastro declined into a backwater town. But during my f~lther's youth Argyrocastro, with a population of about twelve thousand, was considered an important center for that part of the world. Along with commercial establishments of all kinds. the town had schools, newspapers, and even a telegraph line. Automobiles were not unknown. The villages surrounding Argyrocastro were predominantly Greek Orthodox. In the town itself. however, Albanian Muslims outnumbered Greek Christians by about three to one. Christians dominated the commerce of the city, but Muslims owned most of the reai estate. Many of the Christians spoke Albanian, but they identified with other Christians in "liberated Greece" across the border to the south. This was the type of environment in which my father grew up. . . For a period during 1914 Argyrocastro was the nomlllal capItal ?f the "autonomous government of northern Epirus," which sought to dIStance itself from the newly created Albanian state in anticipation of eventual union with Greece. History was not to be kind to the Hellenes;

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the entire region of northern Epirus was destined to remain outside the Greek nation. False hopes were raised in the winter of 1940-41 when the Greek army thrust back an invading Italian force and occupied most of southern Albania. (As a six-year-old my memory of the Greek liberation of Argyrocastro is more vivid than that of Pearl Harbor Day a year later, because of my f~lther'sjoy.) Northern Epirus was to be controlled by the kingdom of Italy, the monarchial regime of the Albanian chieftain Zog, fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and the rigidly communist state of Enver Hoxha. Although my parents always identified as Greek, it was ironic that my family could never harken to a Greek homeland. All sides of the Moskos family were Greek Orthodox and identified as Greek. Yet my father's mother, Helen, spoke only Albanian, and it was Albanian that was the language of the home. My father's father, John, was bilingual, speaking both Greek and Albanian fluently. Owing to the beneficence of Epirotic philanthropists, who made their fortunes and residences abroad, a free Greek school system had been established in the towns of Epinls even though the region was Ottoman. My f~lther had eight years of formal schooling, which gave him a sound background in arithmetic, reading and writing Greek, and a smattering of French. Greek history and patriotic songs were also taught in school, but with the understanding that such seditious learning be kept under wraps outside the classroom to avoid antagonizing the Turks. Remarkably for that time period and locale, girls also attended the free Greek schools, a privilege not accorded girls in the Muslim schools of Argyrocastro or, for that matter, Greek girls in most of "liberated Greece" either. Thus my father's three sisters, unlike their mother, were literate. My father's father was a shoemaker, as was his father before him. This was the same trade his sons-my father and my two uncles-would follow in the United States. (Yet when the generations-long Moskos tradition of cobbling was to disappear with his American-born sons, there was neither regret nor nostalgia on my father's parL) My father's first and only job in Argyrocastro, however, was not in shoemaking. At age fifteen he obtained employment in the Greek-managed telegraph office. But in 1916, when Italy occupied northern Epirus, the Greek-speaking telegraph employees were abruptly replaced by an Italian staff. My father was now eighteen years old and without ajob or a future. His own father's marginal shoemaking business could not afford another hand. His two older brothers and a maternal uncle were already in Chicago. The decision to emigrate to America was inevitable. An agent in Argyrocastro arranged for passage and an Italian passport. The ticket was purchased with the severance pay my father received from the Greek management at the telegraph office. First he traveled by stagecoach to a port on the Adriatic, then by local ships to Naples via Corfu and Patras. At Naples he boarded the Italian ocean

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liner Caserta. The crossing was stormy. But he was not concerned with the waves, but with the German submarines lurking underneath. In December 1916 my father-who was born under OUoman rule, who spoke Albanian as his first tongue, who was ethnically Greek, who was presumably recorded as an Italian immigrant, and who was to become an American citizen-arrived at Ellis Island. But to arrive at Ellis Island was not the same as to be admitted to the United States. All arrivals first had to pass a physical examination, a requirement many did not anticipate. Denial of entry was indicated by the examiner placing a chalked "X" on one's back. The fear of U-boats during the crossing was nothing compared to the stark terror of that cursed "X." A compatriot of my father, a man who had been his companion all the way from Argyrocastro, was one of the unfortunates. Rather than admit complete defeat, he changed his destination to South America. Mv father was never to know whether his fellow fl1h'YTOcastritis ever found ;1 new home. Happily my father passed the examination in routine fashion. After being processed through Ellis Island my father took a train to Chicago. The next day he was shining shoes in his brothers' stand. Soon he decided that he needed a more suitable first name. His baptismal name-Photios-sounded too foreign to American ears. Slips with appropriately American-sounding first names were placed in a hat. "Charles" was drawn, and this was the name under which he became a U.S. citizen in 1925. My f~lther's uncle Constantine and two older brothers, Evangelos and Spiros, had arrived in America several years before my father. Although they were good men, he felt they would always be stuck in old country provincialism. Learning only the rudiments of English, they found their companionship among fellow Epirots in Chicago. The larger Greek-American community, not to mention American society, were beyond their understanding. Evangelos, the oldest brother, had assumed the mantle of family head in the traditional style. (My grandparents in Argyrocastro had died in the 1918 influenza epidemic.) At. times my father would chafe under Evangelos's heavy patriarchal hand. There was the time when Evangelos forbade the purchase of a suit, cut to the latest fashions of 1919 America, which had caught. my f~lther's eye. In disgust, my f~lther ran off to Wichita, Kansas. He stayed there several months, shining shoes, until a chastened Evangelos brought him back to Chicago. But. my father had made his point-he would not. be a bumpkin in Chicago. Yet whether out of fear or respect., my hlther would never smoke in front of Evangelos. In 1919 the t.hree Moskos brothers opened up their first shop with shoe repair services as well as a shoeshine stand. In t.he mid-1920s Evangelos and Spiros, feeling that they had accumulated enough money,

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returned to the old country. They left the shop in my father's hands. All my father's business activities in Chicago were located in the near North Side, the area immortalized in Zorbaugh's The Gold Coast and the Slum. Whatever the sociological cachet of the area, the work hours were excrutiatingly long. My father worked twelve hours daily. Sundays offered a respite when the shop was open for only four hours. Upon returning to Argyrocastro my uncle Spiros invested his earnings wisely in a tannery. He rebuilt the f~lInily home-with running water, no less-and enjoyed the role of comfortable burgher until World War II. Evangelos, on the other hand, found his American savings insufficient to sustain an appropriate life style. In 1927 he returned to America illegally-having neglected to acquire American citizenship during his first sojourn-for a second try. My f~lther turned the shop over to Evangelos and set up his own place of business. Evangelos was finally turned in to the immigration authorities by a fellow Greek with whom he had argued and was deported in 1930. My father's efforts to bribe the immigration officers on his brother's behalf were unsuccessful. In 1929 my father opened up a shoe repair shop in the art deco Michigan Square Building, one of the last large buildings to go up in Chicago before the Depression. The building faced prestigious Michigan Avenue and the landlord allowed a shoe repair store on the back of the building facing Rush Street. It was my father's intention-in which he succeeded-that the Michigan Square store would not be an ordinary immigrant's hole-in-the-wall shop. Its well-appointed fixtures included an elevated shoeshine stand made of marble and semienclosed booths for "while-you-wait" service. Others in addition to my father included another shoe repairman, a hatter, a clothes presser, and two shoeshiners. Except for some of the shoeshiners, all the employees were Greeks. During the Depression and the war my father made a good though not munificent living. He was now solidly ensconced in the lower middle class. His working hours also became more reasonable. My father's week at the shop was down to a mere sixty hours, or ten hours a day with Sundays completely off. My father's maternal uncle, Constantine Zisos, had been the first of the family to arrive in America. Coming to Chicago about 1905, he worked continuously at only one place, the Armour packinghouse. After twenty-five years of labor at Armour, he was summarily laid off in 1930. Speaking only a few words of English and without the wherewithal to earn a living, Constantine became his nephew'S charge. My father paid his uncle's modest living expenses and used him as a handyman in the shoe repair shop. My great-uncle suffered a stroke in 1935, which led to his moving into our home. He lived with us as an invalid until his death ten years later. Like most Greek immigrants, my father had originally intended to

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make his fortune and then return home to lead a leisured and respected life. Again as in the case of most of his fellow immigrants, circumstances did n;t work out as they had been originally planned. Although life in America could be hard, it did have its compensations. My f~lther enjoyed himself at amusement parks and on Lake Michigan cruises. Introduced to baseball, he became a Cubs fan. He liked American dancing and ofien went to the great ballrooms of that era, the Aragon and Trianon. He enjoyed big city life. My father became active in the Ahepa, the lodge whose membership consisted largely of Greek small business entrepreneurs. A nationwide fraternity, the Ahepa sought to transcend the homeland regionalisms within the Greek immigrant community as well as to work for the acceptance of Greeks by the larger American society, In addition to the Ahepa, the Greek immigrant scene was enlivened by a multitude of organizations, the toPi/w s01nateia, whose constituency came from one particular region in the old country. It was at an affair sponsored by on.e such organization that my father met Rita Shukas. She was t.o become I11S wife and my mother. My mother's f~lIher, Harry Shukas, was born in 1887 in the village of Chatista in northern Epirus, a day's walk from Argyrocastro. Chatista was an entirely Greek-speaking village; and, unlike the Moskos side of the family, the Skusases were never exposed to the Albanian language. The dance at which my parents met was sponsored by the Chicago diaspora of Chatista. By the 1930s there were more chatistanoz in Chicago than in the old country. Thus, although my parents met and married in America, theirs was an Epirotic union. Around the turn of the century Chatista was a village of some four hundred people. Many of the men earned a living by making barrels and working as itinerant carpenters. Most of the villagers supplemented their incomes by grazing animals as well. Harry Shukas's father was a shepherd but also served a term as muhtar, or village headman. My great-grandfather died a violent death, murdered by an Albanian Muslim in a revenge killing. Despite the backwardness of the village, it did have a primary school ~upported by local assessments and Greek Epirotic philanthropy, My grandfather completed that school with six years of education. At age fourteen, like many of the young men of the village, Harry Shukas went to Constantinople to seek his fortune. He stayed there eight years, working in stores owned by relatives. My grandfather would later wax elegiac over the Constantinople of his youth. He readily adapted to urban ways and took pleasure in the cosmopolitan character of the city. Quick-witted and now in command of Turkish, he saw himself becoming an established merchant in his own right. But my grandfather'S op-

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timism for a future in Constantinople was cut short by the Young Turk revolt of 1908. With the old Ottoman order teetering, my grandhlther was prescient enough to see that the new Turkish nationalism would soon turn against the non-Turkish minorities, especially the Greek merchant community. When the new government changed the draft law to include-for the first time-non-Muslim men, this w~s cause enough for my grandfather to make a hurried departure from Constantinople. He had decided to go to America. First, however, Harry Shukas returned to Chatista to marry a comely vi~lage gir.!' Alexandra .Soulios. My grandmother's physiognomy was defimtely Onental, revealmg some Mongol ancestry somewhere in the family lineage. Her father was a small merchant who rotated between Chatista and Constantinople. He was pleased to give his daught~r's hand to the ambitious young man who seemed to have a bright fU~U1'e wherever he went. To avoid the Turkish draft, my grandhlther left for the United States in 1910. His new bride, already pregnant with my mother, remained behind. My grandf~1ther's destination in America was Chicago, where some fellow chatistanoi had already settled. He first worked as a busboy. Soon he moved on to waiting tables at downtown Loop hotels. By 1913 he had saved enough money to open, with a partner, a short order restaurant and ice cream parlor in Maywood, a nearby Chicago suburb. In 1915, only five years after his arrival in America, Harry Shukas set up his own Parkview Sweet Shop f~lCing Garfield Park on Chicago'S West Side. With its walnut booths and marbletop soda fountain, the ~tore was an original edition of the classic sweet shop. My grandfather was to stay with that store until his retirement forty years later. For the first couple of years the sweet shop barely broke even. In 1917 my grandfather received his draft notice. He was desperate that he would lose the store. Fortunately, and to his everlasting gratitude, a fellow chati5tanos volunteered to manage the store during his army stint. While in the service he was stationed at Camp Grant near Chicago and never left the state of Illinois. The army perfectly matched my grandfather's talents to an appropriate job--operating the post canteen. He claimed never to have held a rifle in his hands. In 1917 my grandfather sent for his wife and the daughter he had never seen. With the money in hand, Alexandra Shukas and her sevenyear-old daughter walked the several days it took to cross the Albanian border. They then made their way to the Greek port of Patras to embark for America. They arrived in Chicago in 1918 with no idea that my grandfather-now in the army-would not be able to meet them. Although my grandmother was to spend close to a half-century in this country, she never really learned English. But because her husband tutored her, she did become literate in Greek. She was to become a charming mixture of Balkan provincialism and Chicago savvy.

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In the 1920s my grandhlther'S business prospered. The Shukas family filled out with the arrival of two sons, Tom and Peter. My grandfather bought the building the store was in and moved his family into the flat above. This flat was within reaching distance of the Lake Street elevated train, and the family grew up with the rumbling vibrations of the "L." In 1927 Harry Shukas went into partnership with a GermanAmerican friend, Schwanke, and they built a magnificent block-long apartment building. The building was lost in the Depression, thus ending my grandfather's hopes to make it really big. Schwanke tried to persuade my disconsolate grandfather to pick up the pieces and go to Oklahoma with him to try their luck in the oil fields. But my grandfather thought it better to stay with the Lake Street sweet shop, which at least offered a familiar living. What would a Greek know about oil? (Schwanke did go to Oklahoma and did strike it rich!) Because she came to America at a young age, my mother's English was unaccented and her ways were not foreign. Yet she was raised in the conventional style of the Greek-American middle class of her time. My grandfather's intentions did not include continued schooling for my mother and she dropped out before finishing high school. Her parents assumed that the proper roles for a young lady were limited to being a dutiful daughter, a competent housewife, and a devoted mother. Rita Shukas was to live up to all these expectations, but she was always a woman of her own mind. She did not work outside the home anytime in her life. My parents were married in 1933. Their courtship was romantic dating in the American manner. Their wedding, however, was old country. My father's best man, a leading confectioner in the Chicago Greek communit.y and a prominent member of the Ahepa, arranged for the Greek Orthodox bishop of Chicago to perform the nuptials. After renting a series of apartments, my parents bought. their own two-building flat. We always lived on the West Side within walking distance of my grandparents. I was born in 1934 and my brother, Harry, in 1936. Neither of my parents could be described as intellectual. I doubt if either had ever read a book in their lifetimes. My mother enjoyed crime magazines. My father was an avid reader of newspapers in both Greek and English. Yet it was expected that their sons would do well in school and surely go on to college. Even if they had had daughters, they would have had the same academic expectations. Although I have never been able to pin it down precisely, my parents passed on something which fostered learning. Perhaps it was their belief that there was more to life than making money, or the respect they had for the opinions of their children. Perhaps it was a sense of her own educational deficiencies that led my mother to project high academic achievement for her sons. It was my mother's presumption that one would get a better educa-

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tion in a Catholic parochial school than in the public system; I therefore started school at Our Lady of Angels. Even though I was the only nonCatholic in my classes, the sisters never tried to convert me. Probably they felt that Greek Orthodox was close enough. I was treated with affection and learned my three R's and a lot of religion as well. My Chicago neighborhood was lower middle class and overwhelmingly Italian and Irish Catholic. Ours was one of the few Greek families around. I was certainly aware of ethnic categories, as were most people I knew. Of course it was before the word "ethnic" was in vogue. In those days one would be asked more directly, "What is your nationality?" After all, everybody-except the Indians-had to come from somewhere else. Perhaps because I was always short for my age, occasionally I would be called a "Dirty Greek" and would have to prove myself. Yet such taunts seemed to be generated more by a spirit of schoolboy macho than any real maliciousness. Besides, it was a cardinal tenet in my family upbringing that Greeks were better than "Americans"-which referred, depending on the context, to all non-Greeks or to Protestant Anglo-Saxons. Not only did we Greeks have a tradition going back to classical times, but even in the United States was it not self-evident that we were more likely to advance, less likely to get into trouble, and had a family life superior to most? But there was a defensive side to our ethnic smugness-a hyperawareness of every Greek who could be singled out for achievement. (To this day I still have the habit of scanning movie and television credits for Greek surnames.) To grow up Greek in the 1930s and 1940s meant that household names included Dimitri Mitropoulos, Jim ("the Golden Greek") Londos, and Dean Alfange, the New York political figure. We were attuned to the careers of obscure film personalities like George Coulouris and Katina Paxinou. We identified with Babe Didrikson Zaharias, one of the greatest women athletes of modern times, who by marrying a Greek wrestler, George Zaharias, acquired a Greek sounding name. There was also the vague sense that Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh, came from a Greek family. A much admired figure in Greek-American circles during World War II was Cedric W. Foster, the radio commentator and well known philhellene. All this was in the era before the advent of Greek-American celebrities and political figures on the national scene. It was a time before movies such as Never on Sunday and Zorba the Greeh gave being Greek a certain trendiness. To be Greek American in Chicago meant identifying with one of the Greek Orthodox churches in the city. Our own church was the Assumption on the West Side supported mainly by members of the Greek business community. Saint Andrew on the North Side was regarded as the church of "rich Greeks." Holy Trinity was the more traditional immigrant church in the old Greektown near the Loop. (My present

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church, Saint Demetrios, is located in Chicago's new Greek\own on the Northwest Side.) Saints Constantine and Helen on the South Side was noted for its magnificent edifice capped by a dome resembling that of the glory of Greek Orthodoxy-Saint Sophia in Constantinople. Years later, when the neighborhood changed, Saints Constantine and Helen became Islamic following its purchase by the Black Muslims, who made it their showpiece mosque. I always thought that there was something historically correct for a vacated Greek church to become Muslim rather than be turned over to another Christiall body. The transformation of the old "Saint Connie's" from Orthodox to Islamic, like that of the original Saint Sophia, seemed to recapitulate in the American context the Ottoman heritage in Greek life. Politics-either Greek or American-were a conversational staple in my family circle. The monarchist versus republican schism which had characterized Greek political life since the turn of the century divided the Greek-American community until World War II. My own l~lInily was staunchly on the republican side. A small communist group existed in the Chicago Greek community, some of whom were family acquaintances. I remember these communists as engaging individuals, but also noticed that my parents and grandfather treated them with amused condescension. Although as a boy I was certainly aware of Greek politics, I was not that interested except in the irredentist Epirotic cause. It was my family'S political view of America which naturally had the most meaning to me. The politics of my f~llnily were consonant with the small shopkeepers we were. All my family-down to the present generation-has consistently held conservative social views. In his later years my father became a great supporter of Spiro Agnew, as much for the vice-president's political philosophy as for his Greek background. My family saw advancement in individual terms, not through organized collective action. Social altruism in a liberal sense was an alien concept. Responsibilities extended to self and family. If people took care of their own, there would be no social problems. With diligence, some innate talent, and a little luck, the American Dream could be realized. An added ingredient would be the esteem accorded by the Greek-American community. In 1945 our family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to find a better climate for my hay fever. My father tried his hand in the restaurant and bar business, but soon decided to keep to his old trade. He opened up Albuquerque's finest shoe repair shop which he operated until his retirement. We chose Albuquerque for our new home because of the presence of a Greek community with its own church. The Greek population, large for a Rocky Mountain city, was the legacy of an Ahepa tubercular sanitorium which had attracted Greeks from around the

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country to Albuquerque. The sanitorium had closed by the time we arrived, its failure being locally attributed to the excessive demands and idiosyncracies of its patients. The focal point of the Albuquerque Greek community was Saint George's church. The older men, who mainly ran restaurants and bars, found election to the church board and Ahepa offices a means of acquiring some recognition and status in a familiar environment. The older women, almost all housewives, took part in various auxiliaries. The younger American-born generation belonge~ to church youth groups; most served in the choir or as altar boys. Efforts to maintain a Greek language school were more sporadic. Social life centered on namedays, baptisms, and major religious holidays. Extravagant formal weddings to which the whole Greek community was invited were major events. The community would be periodically rent by disputes arising out of bruised egos and personality clashes. Such disputes became especially bitter when the qualifications of the priest were questioned. The Greek community was extremely alert to any straying from proper bounds. The rare divorce was always cause for gossip. One of the more memorable scandals involved a young woman who gave birth to a child out of wedlock. Suitably penitent, she sought readmission to the church youth group. Despite the pleas of the priest and the choir director we self-righteously refused to accept her back. If there was a generation gap in those days, the young seemed more prudish. In the late 1940s and early 1950s I knew each of the severalhundred members of the Greek community in Albuquerque. The community ranged from the old bachelors who went to the pool halls near the railroad station to the main body of small business people, to a few who had become prosperous through real estate investment. Few of them had anything in common with the pristine Hellenes in classical Greece whom one read about. Rather, they were more Byzantine, more complicated, more like the forceful characters in a Harry Mark Petrakis novel. There was George Ades, warm hearted but hot tempered, who had arrived when New Mexico was still a territory and was probably the first Greek there. He married into an old-line New Mexico familydescended from the conquistadores-and learned to speak Spanish himself. There was Theo Karvelas, compact and bald, who was the only adult immigrant in Albuquerque with an American high school diploma, acquired in night school back in Pittsburgh. Karvelas, the intellectual of the Greek community, was a major influence in my life. There was Father Silas Koskinas, gentle and ascetic, who was later raised to the bishopric. There was Father Peter Remoundos, a bear of a man, who tempered religious solemnity with perceptive wit. In what was the most appropriate eulogy I ever heard, Father Remoundos captured the es-

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sence of Greek Americana by pronouncing a local chef "an artisan with the ladle and the knife." Even though the Greek community was a vital part of my growing up, it was not everything in my life. I was active in student politics in junior and senior high school. Albuquerque was divided into two basic ethnic groups, the Anglos and the Spanish (the term "Mexican" was pejorative and "chicano" had not yet come into fashion). A Greek was obviously neither. What successes I had in high school politics could be largely attributed to the f~lct that I could make appeals to both groups. My closest friends were non-Greeks, boys who like myself fell between the pachucos (Spanish toughs) and stompers (Anglo toughs) on the one hand and the country club set on the other. My youth in Albuquerque was a combination of family-centered Greekness and an American Graffiti existence of drive-ins and popular culture. Ethnicity has always been the basic reality in my hlmily's social world. The group consciousness which resulted from their ethnic background has been felt in all contexts of their lives. While one can argue that ethnic differences reflect root economic realities, it is equally true that class differences are outcomes of basic affiliations. Even to become Americanized-as American-born Greeks have become-seems to speak both to a partial absorption into class-based groups and an evolving ethnic adaptation which is still discernible from the broader American culture. In my adult years when traveling abroad, I found that my Greek heritage often led to some of my most interesting encounters. For example, I attended the 1970 meetings of the International Sociological Association in Bulgaria, where I was presenting a paper on the collapse of Greek democracy. Several Greek communists, former guerrillas who had fled to Bulgaria in 1949 and definitely nonacademics, made special efforts to hear the paper. While taking polite exception to some antiStalinist passages, they allowed that it was a creditable study. They approached me at the end of the session and suggested we have dinner together. We met at a restaurant and, after exchanging pleasantries, they told me the purpose of the meeting. They were disturbed that their children raised in Bulgaria might lose their Greek identity. What could I as a "Greek sociologist" suggest to prevent such an outcome? What lessons for them might be drawn from the Greek experience, particularly in America? I was forced to tell them that the primary vehicle for Greek ethnic maintenance in the United States was the Greek Orthodox Church. They sighed and sadly shook their heads. This was a price too dear to pay. There must be another way. We left shaking hands and promising to stay in touch. But inwardly we knew that there was nothing more to be said.

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In 1971 I was able to make a short trip to Jerusalem from Cyprus where I was doing some research. While in Jerusalem I visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the holiest spot in Christendom. Inside the church is a small room, the site where traditjon holds Jesus was buried and rose. It is a place that for centuries has been under Greek Orthodox custody-ever on guard against the encroachments of other Christ jan bodies. I entered the room and was alone except for a frail, octogenarian monk seated on a stool keeping vigil. We began to talk in Greek. He asked from where did I come. Evanston, Illinois, I replied. On similar queries I had always responded Chicago, but for some reason Evanston came to my lips this time. He leaped up, embraced and kissed me! His brother, whom he had not seen for sixty years, had settled as a young man in Evanston where he operated an ice cream parlor for many years. It was as if God, he said, had sent me in his brother's place. From somewhere deep in his cassock he pulled a tattered envelope with his brother's return address on it. Would I look up his brother when I returned home and tell him that all was well and that they would meet in the next world? When I did get back to Evanston I learned that the old monk's brother had died a few months earlier. I returned permanently to the Chicago area-whose Greek community had been replenished by large numbers of new immigrantswhen I took a position at Northwestern University. Much of my family life has a pleasant dej,i vu. I was married by the priest who baptized me. In the preferred Greek fashion my Iwumbaros, or best man, was the son of my parents' Iwumbaroi. I was exceedingly fortunate to marry a modern woman who knows how to handle a traditional man. My wife Ilea, German born, has to my embarrassment and pride even learned to speak Greek better than I. My father lives with us and wears his years well. My brother is managing editor of the Albuquerque TTibune; his wife is a third-generation Greek American. My grandparents Shukas lived into ripe old age, staying close to and, finally, moving in with my uncle, a pharmacist, and his family. Although the fates have smiled on me, there have been losses, too. My mother died too early, at age forty-three, and was never to see her sons grow to maturity. My uncles in Albania died in penury, a condition in which my father's sisters continue to live. Much of my father's time is spent attending the funerals-a reminder that we must all make that crossing over the Styx-of his rapidly diminishing group of friends. Wars took their toll. My uncle, Peter Shukas, was killed in World War II, and my cousin and godson, James Shukas, died in Vietnam. It seems f~lir to say that if the family did well in America, America did well by it.

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All told, more than seven hundred thousand Greeks have crossed to these shores at one time. About two out of three of these Greek arrivals made America their permanent home. The initial mass influx of Greeks during the first two decades of this century coincided with the full force of American industrialization. Besides the Im~jority working in manual jobs, a significant portion of the early immigrants catered to the needs of a swelling urban population by becoming proprietors of their own businesses. Since the reopening of the immigration doors in 1966, new concentrations of Greeks have arrived, mainly settling in our large northern cities. Most of the newcomers make up a service labor force, but many have also become entrepreneurs. Despite the renewal of immigration from Greece, about three in four Greek Americans are native born. The progeny of the early immigrants have moved, in the main, into middle-class vocations and into the suburbs. Although processes of assimilation have been undeniable, there has been a persistent attachment to "Greek identity," however hard to define that sentiment might be, well into many of the second and third generations. This, in broad strokes, is the socialdemographic portrait of Greek America. If we can locate one dominant characteristic of the Greek-American experience it would be in the course of "embourgeoisement." A very few years after the stal'l of the mass migration, there also began within the Greek immigrant colony that process of internal social stratification thalis characteristic of American society as a whole. The beginnings of a Greek-American middle class can be detected by, say, 1910. Certainly by the 1920s there was a considerable number of Greeks who had become owners of small businesses. Many Greeks did not succeed in their run for the golden end of the rainbow, to be sure, but the overriding trend beginning with the early immigrants and continuing across the generations has been that of a social ascent with few parallels in American history. This advancement was largely due to the entrepreneurial ability of many of the early Greek immigrants, a phenomenon consistently noted by every American observer of the Greek colony during the early years of this century. How could a large component of an unlettered and rural migrant group display such an affinity for business after arrival in this

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country? To answer this question we must turn to the village life of Greece at the end of the nineteenth century. Unlike peasants in most other Eastern European societies of that time, the Greek peasant participated directly in a market rather than a subsistence economy.l There was little of the peasant's traditional linkages with the soil through communal usages; land and agricultural products were commodities to be bought and sold. In the villages. selling and buying were f~lIniliar endeavors, and negotiation in the marketplace meant that cleverness and luck took priority in determining success over the "humdrum routines of everyday work and directness of simple honesty."2 Even though late nineteeenth-century Greek society was overwhelmingly rural. the cultural hegemony of its urban merchant c1assboth in the Greek state and in the Greek diaspora-fostered an indi.vidualistic outlook on economic activities which even permeated the countryside. The Greek villager was already eager to emulate consumer and city life styles. Ostensibly peasants, Greek migrants were mentally primed before their departure to take advantage of capitalistic opportunities as they might appear in the new country. There can be little doubt that a satisfactory explanation of the genesis of Greek-American entrepreneurialism requires serious consideration of the cultural variables unique to Greek society and economy at the turn of the century.a American industrial expansion and urbanization at the time of the Greek mass migration was a necessary condition for the appearance of a Greek-American bourgeoisie. Once enough of the first arrivals demonstrated that it was possible to move from manual labor to operation of a business. others followed in their steps. often by first working in the stores of relatives or fellow villagers. While this could sometimes lead to exploitative relationships. it also meant that a "greenhorn" would acquire the requisite know-how before setting out on a business of his own. It also helps explain why the early Greek shopkeepers concentrated on a narrow, but familiar, range of enterprises: confectioneries. bootblack 'This interpretation of values and economy in rural Greece during the nineteenth century comes from Nicos P. Mouzclis. Modern Grt!t'CI!: Faals or UlIdadl!Vi!lojllluml (New York: Holmes and Meier. 1978). especially pp. 93-101: and William H. NcNeil. TIll? Melrl11lorjJllOSis of GH!eCe Sillce World War [[ (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1978). especially pp. 8-30. "Ibid .• p. Ie\. It has also been argued that the fonnalistic qualities of Gl'eek Orthodoxy-attentiveness to religious rules rather than moral issues-facilitated the emergence of a Greek commercial ethic as early as Ottoman times. Mouzelis. Modl!rll Gn!I!CI!. p. 159. "Greek immigrants to Australia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also entered the economy as manual laborers, but many soon moved into then' own small businesses and formed a shopkeeper class. Mick P. Tsounis. "Greek Communities in Australia" (unpublished doctoral thesis. University of Adelaide, 1971). pp. 54-61. The Greek immigrant entrepreneurial tendency has also been doculllented in Canada. Peter D. Chimbos. "Ethnicity and Occupational Mobility," irlll!rllalionaljou17/{1i o{C01l!jHlralivl! Sociology. 15. nos. 1-2 (March-June. 1971). pp. 57-67.

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and shoe repair parlors. dry cleaners, florists, produce stores. coffeeshops. and restaurants. Another explanation for the emergence of Greek businesses was the willingness of the immigrant shopkeeper to work achingly long hours and spend little on personal needs. After all. the typical immigrant of the early years was single and had neither the diversions nor expenses of hllllily life. In a fundamental sense. if t.here was excessive exploitation. it was often of self. The petty bourgeois component of the early immigrant Greeks deeply affected the future direction of the Greek-American community. The ethnic identity of Greek Americans. unlike that often described for other European ethnic groups. has not been strongly linked with working-class affiliation. On the contrary. the middle class always served as the reference point for Greek immigrants. Individual st.riving was considered more important than group betterment.. Even in their communal organizations. Greek Americans have preferred to present. a face of decorum in their relations with the general public and in their dealings with political leaders. They have been leery of collective efforts for public funds or of ethnic associations that depend on t.he state system. They do not feel the need to do as other minorit.ies. whose social experience is different from theirs. Greek Americans tend to interpret the opportunities and risks of American society from a petty-bourgeois point of view. That their judgment has been sound. at. least. up to this point, reinforces the initial predisposition toward individualism. If their inclinations lead Greek Americans to be wary of collective public actions. they also reflect an ingrained skepticism toward t.he "helping professions" that have become part and parcel of social service bureaucracies. Sociologists, psychologists. marriage counselors. and social workers are appropriating many of the family functions. Whether they are filling a vacuum or contributing to t.he problem has been argued both ways.4 But to the degree that some professional approaches ignore the love and discipline that are the family's real glue. they deflect away from an understanding of the traditional strengths of the GreekAmerican family. which rest upon the obligation for the older generation and responsibility for the younger. Certainly the plight of some Greek Americans. especially among the new immigrants and the aged among the earlier arrivals. can be relieved by outside professional help and welhlre assistance. It has long been true that a combination of complacence and shame has kept deprived Greeks from receiving the proper attention of the Greek-American community.5 The appearance of "Critiques of the "helping professions" now wnstitute a body of literature. Representative writings include: Christopher Lasch. HfWl!rI ill (J Heartll!ss World (New York: Basic Books. 1977); Ivan IIIich. ed .• Disabling Proji!ssio1lS (London: Marion Boyers. 1977); and Willard Gaylin. Doing Good: TIll! LhllllS or Bl!nevolence (New York: Pantheon Books. 1978). 5Hanac Staff. The Nel!ds ollhe Growing Greek-American Comm1l1l11y III Ihe City of NI!W York (New York: Hellenic American Neighborhood Action Committee, 1973).

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Greek-American we!fitre agencies in the 1970s thus breaks the old pattern of neglect. But welfare organizations by definition depend upon people who are understood as lacking or deficient. There is no easy answer as to when the boundary is crossed between a "labeled" dependent population and a group object.ively defined in r~al need. Perhaps the Greeks' pride in self-reliance that causes them to see recognition of need as a sign of personal failure will serve to keep the distinction in proper perspective. GREEK-AMERICAN STUDIES: CONTRASTING PERSPECTIVES

Few subjects are as likely to stir up passions among Greek Americans than talking or writing about themselves. The understanding one has about Greek America almost always has prescriptive implications. In attempting to deal with this complex subject, this book has divided the Greek-American experience into five more or less distinct stages: (1) a time of {;llse starts in the period before 1890; (2) the era of mass migration from 1890 to 1920; (3) the formation of Greek-American institutions from 1920 to 1940; (4) an era of consolidation from 1940 to 1965 within Greek America; and (5) the contemporary period since 1965 of increasing Greek-American diversity. No historical divisions, of course, can be so tidy as indicated here. Basic social patterns overlap across several of the periods, and in each there were counteracting tendencies against prevailing trends. Still each of these historical stages had certain dominant qualities that serve to mark one from the other. In the contemporary period it becomes especially difficult to make generalizations about Greek America because of the diversity hidden by that term and because perhaps there is no such thing as one Greek America. Nevertheless, specifying certain paradigms. even if competing, will facilitate the development of Greek-American studies. Such an effort, at the least, does help us master our conceptual bearing, making it easier to grasp the Greek-American experience. The contending views about Greek Americans can be reduced to two main questions. Is there more or less variability within Greek Americans than between Greek Americans and other Americans? Is there more or less variability between Greek Americans and Greeks than between Greek Americans and other Americans? To pose such questions is a necessary first step toward an elaboration of Greek-American studies. Similarities versus Differences

The prevailing interpretation of Greek Americans is to understand them in terms of cohesiveness and similarities. From this standpoint one views the ascent of many of the immigrants into the middle class and the

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relatively high economic and educational standing of Greek Americans of the second and third generations. Such a perspective also emphasizes the importance of Greek Orthodoxy in shaping the patterns of Greek ethnic identification in this country. While one might recognize ethnic differences between, say, a Greek American raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, and one in Orange County, California, the more salient observation might be how interchangeable the two would probably be in their social background and outlook. The old country localisms of the immigrants, moreover, tend to change into a common Greek-American identity among the offspring. Paradoxically enough, American-born Greeks have become more like each other in their common middle-class standing, social values, and communal participation than are the Greeks of Greece where class, regional, and political lines are more sharply drawn. The "melting pot" metaphor has been a better describer of the homogenization of American-born Greeks with regard to each other than it is of their absorption into the general American population. Any appraisal of Greek-American similarities must take into account certain specific demographic and economic factors. Those immigrants who prospered in America were the most likely to remain in this country and establish families here. Not all who returned permanently to Greece did poorly in America, of course, but the proportion of returnees who were economic failures was certainly greater than those who put down roots in the United States. Even among those who did not do well but settled in the United States, a large number remained bachelors, thereby reducing the potential number of blue-collar parents. Overall, then, the Greek immigrants advancing into the middle class were the most likely to have families and pass on values to their children supporting both the American Dream and mainline Greek-American institutions. The fundamental question today is to what degree the experiences of the children of the new immigrants will replicate those of the children of the earlier immigrants. To describe the Greek-American experience only in terms of similarities, however, would be seriously misleading. One must also be cognizant of the differences and conflicts within Greek America. A sizeable number of the immigrants, probably a majority, never escaped from the working class. Too much attention on middle-class Greek-American organizations obscures the fact that large numbers of Greek Americans are not part of them. There is some indication! moreover, that those at the very top of the success ladder and those/locked in blue-collar employment are least likely to participate actively in Greek-American social activities. An anticlerical element, at odds with the mainstream where the denominationalism of Greek Orthodoxy holds sway, represents another differentiating feature in the Greek experience in America. Throughout Greek-American history one could always find petty personalities in positions of leadership, now and ag-ain a descent into

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vitriolic clashes o~~r.organizational resources, language use, and political mailers. Such chvlslOns today, however, are more likely to be comp(~und:d by class differences than in times past. In the initial era of mass rl11gl~atlOn around World War I, all Greeks were in the same position of startll1g at the bottom. Today there is a juxtaposition between, on the one ~and, a middle-class grouping of older immigrants and their ;\lI1e.ncan-born offspring, and, on the other, a large number of new Immigrants who are still on the underside of the American social structUre. One other difference between the situation of the old and the new C:~'ee~s must .be mentioned. The early immigrants confronted an antiforeign sentiment from among the people and institutions of American ~ocie.ty. The contemporary public mood has much greater acceptance of Immigrants and some might even say that there is a certain cachet to being a Greek American. The early arrivals had to stand together simply because all Greeks were looked upon with much the same hostility. In the n~ore tolerant present, it may be that the imperatives for Greek Amencans to feel bonded with each other are neither as operative nor as necessary as before. Two general truths emerge from a dispassionate look at the Greek-American experience. One is that differentiation and dissension within the Greek-American ~ommunity have been and are increasingly more pronounced than outsiders see or leaders of the Greek-American "establishment" will acknowledge. The other is that Greeks have successfully entered American society while maintaining strong communal ties more than faultfinders and leftist critics will admit. Both truths tend to operate in such a way that Greek Americans will always find what happens somewhat surprising. Hellenic Diaspora or American Ethnics

The intellectual quandary of Greek-American studies is its relation to mode~'n Greek studies. () Two versions of the Greek experience in Amen~a compete. One is that Greek Americans are part of a homeland exten~lOn, an homogenia, an Hellenic diaspora. The other is that Greek Am:ncans are entrants and then participants in American history. ."'luch.of these-to be sure overstated-versions are we to accept? There IS no simple answer, for each contains part of the truth. Some of the issues in sorting out the differences between the Hellenic. diaspora anc~ Am:rican ethnic perspectives could be illuminated by 100kll1g at Greek Immigrants in other countries. The modern branches "In an important sense. one of the accomplishments of scholars of modern Greece has been to assert ~he legiti~nacy of their subj~ct ~atter by differentiating it from classical Gre~k an.d Byza~tIne studies. In a parallel fashion, it can be argued, Greek-American stuches will remam undeveloped unless they are separated from modern Greek studies.

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of migration from Greece are particularly tangled, but even a cursory glance can help place the Greek experience in America within a broader framework.\Q!6se to a hundred thousand Cypriot Greeks reside in En:gland along with a smaller number of immigrants from mainland Greece. s \Se~eral hundred thousand Greeks have labored in the Federal -~Republic of Germany as Gastarbeiter or "guest workers" since the early 1960s.!I A Greek community of indeterminate size has existed in what is --today the Soviet Union since Tsarist times. lo Smaller numbers of Greeks are found in the Near East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. iiu\.'ihe most salient comparisons of the Greek-American experience are to be made with the Greeks of Canada and Australia, the two other predominantly Anglo-Saxon continental countries that have received large numbers of Greek immigrants. T~ere, are over 300.000 Greek AustraJians and around 140,000 Greek Canadians, which represents 2.1 and .6 percent oJ the total populations of their respective countries--': compared to about .5 percent of Greek descent in the United States. Some research has been done on Greek Canadians and Greek Australians. although it has not yet been placed within a comparative framework. II The paradigm of the diaspora is that one's cultural roots and politi7 A compendium of overseas Greek communities and migration statistics is Greek5 Abroad [ApodimOl Hellinesl (Athens: National Center of Social Research. 1972). The ten

thousand or so Greeks residing in Istanbul, Turkey. today are. properly speaking, not an immigrant group at all, but the remnant of a three-millenia-old Hellenic presence in Asia Minor and on the Bosporus. It is probable that by the end of this century Greek life in Turkey will be virtually extinct. "See A.D. Christodoulidis, Report on the Problems of the Greeh Colony in Great Bntain [EIlihesis I:pi tou Provlimatos tis en M. Bretanni Hellinihis Parihiasll (Nicosia. Cyrpus: mimeographed. 1967). In 1978. Robin Oakely was completing a major research study on Cypriot migration and settlement in England. "The results of attitudinal surveys of Greek workers in Germany and other Northern European countries are given in Elie Dimitras, Enquetes sur les Emigrants Greece, I and II: and Elie Dimitras and Evan C. Vlachos. Sociological Surveys on Greeh Immigrants. III (Athens: National Center of Social Research. 1971). !"Large numbers of Greeks settled along the northern coast of the Black Sea and in the nearby Caucasus during the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1944. Stalin. in one of his most ruthless actions, deported in mass the Greeks to central Asia. along with other minorities. Alexsandr M. Nekrich. The Punished Peoples (New York: W,W, Norton. 1978), p. 104. A quite different group of Greeks in the Soviet Union are the hundred thousand guerrillas and their families who sought haven there following the communist defeat in the Greek civil war in 1949. As late as 1960. there were some 300,000 reported Greeks in the USSR. of whom about 40 percent regarded Greek as their mother tongue. S.V, Vtechin. A Concise Encyclopaedia of Russia (New York: E.P, Dutton. 1964), p. 210. "On the Greeks in Canada. see George D. Vlassis. The Greeks in Canada (Ottawa: privately printed. 1953); Judith A. Nagata. "Adaptation and Integration of Greek Working Class Immigrants in the City of Toronto. Canada." International Migration Review. 4 (fall, 1969), pp. 44-69; Peter Stathopoulos. The Greeh Community of Montreal (Athens: National Center of Social Research, 1971); G. James Patterson. The Greeks of Vancouver: A Study in the Pre,H:rvation of Etlmicty (Ottawa: National Museum of Canada, 1976); and Efrosini Gavaki, The Integration of Greek5 in Canada (San Francisco: Rand E Research Associates. 1977). On the Greeks in Australia. see the appendix to this volume.

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cal senstivities must be nourished by a responsiveness to contemporary Greek realities-even if at a distance. The underlying presumption is that, whether residing or even born in the United States, Greeks in America share a destiny somehow connected with other people who call themselves Hellenes. The fact that most of the early immigrants continued to maintain strong emotional and personal ties to Greece-and that a sizeable fraction actually returned permanently to the old country-speaks clearly to the diaspora persuasion. Among the new immigrants, as well, there was a strong undercurrent to come to America on a trial basis. If things turned out well, they were prepared to remain; if not, they would pack up and return to Greece. Even among the American-born generations there are some who put their "Greekness" at the very center of their social identity. The diaspora perspective also raises the problems of crisscrossing, perhaps conflicting, loyalties toward Greece and the United States, problems normally hushed in the GreekAmerican community. Among its more analytical proponents, the diaspora view implies that the Greek immigrant phenomenon is better grasped as a profound outcome of the political economy of modern Greece than as a minor theme in the American historical experience. 12 A quite different view is that Greek Americans must be placed in the broad context of the ethnic experience in the United States. I believe that this interpretation of the Greek experience in America is more valid than the other. Whatever the fullness of their traditional heritage and allegiances to the old country, the Greek immigrants who came here inevitably reordered their lives; initially, to the imperatives of the economic and social structure of the United States and, later, to some degree of conformance with American cultural norms. Among those born in this country, it seems clear that one's identity is not that of a transplanted Greek, but rather the sensibility of an American ethnic. The ethnic perspective, however, is not without its own controversy. It had long been assumed that immigrant nationalities would pass through successive generations in progressively diluted form until a point was reached where they would disappear as recognizable entities. This position has been strongly challenged in a renewed appreciation in American social studies of the endurance, even if modified or reconstituted, of distinctive ethnic subcultures. I:! A useful distinction has been made between acculturation and as12The Hellenic diaspora viewpoint. is not a homogeneous one. however. Compare. for example. the nco-Marxian interpretation of Mouzelis. Modern GruCi! with the demographic cum ecological perspective in McNeil. The Ml!lanllnJJllOsis of Grel!ce. I"Notable in this regard arc Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Beyond till! Mldllng Pol (Cambridge: The M.I.T and Harvard University Press, 19(3); Milton M. Gordon, Assimilation in A1III!rican Lifi! (New York: Oxford University Press. 19(4); Michael Novak. TIll! RiSI! of till! U1I11leitabie Etlmics (New York: Macmillan Co .. 1971); and Andrew M. Greeley, Etlimcily ill the Unilul States (New York: John Wiley and Sons. 1974).

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similation. Acculturation refers to the acquisition by the immigrants and their descendants of the cultural behavior-language. norms, customs--of the new society, Assimilation implies the entrance of the ethnics into the very fabric-the social cliques. business life, civic associations. and, eventually, the families--of the society.14 Usually acculturation proceeds faster than assimilation. The pattern for Greek Americans, however, is different. Acculturation has probably lagged behind assimilation. This is the only way to understand continuing Greek Orthodox affiliation and the baroque structure of organized Greek America in the f~lCe of such assimilative measures as economic ascendancy, political representation. and even intermarriage. It has also been assumed that twentieth-century ethnic persistencies were mainly to be found in working-class neighborhoods. 15 Such a viewpoint does inform our understanding of the early and new Greektowns. but it has little applicability to upwardly mobile and geographically dispersed ethnics. such as American-born Greeks. where ethnic identification is more a matter of cultural choice than a constraint of the social structure. lli J.lThe most influential statement of this distinction has been made by Milton M. Gordon who differentiates between "cultural assimilation" and "structural assimilation." Sec his A.mmilallOlI in American Life. pp. 60-8:1. Gordon has restated his concepts in his Human Natllre. Class and Ethnicity (New York: Oxford University Press. 1978). pp. 166-208. I"See. for example. Stanley Lieberson. Ethnic Pattem,1 in AlIIeriwn Gitil!s (New York: Free Press. 19(3); Herbert J. Gans. The Urban Villagen (New York: Free Press. 19(2); and William L. Yancey. Eugene r, Ericksen. and Richard N. Juliana. "Emergent Ethnicity." Amaican Sociological RI!Vil!w. 41. no.:1 (june. 1976),391-40:1. 1tiO ne of the problems in sorting out the different conclusions of the social researchers can be attributed to their near universal assumption that ethnic tics largely coincide with primary group relations. To put it simply. primary relations arc informal. intimate. and bring into play the whole personality. while secondary relations are formal or casual. and deal. often bureaucratically. with a segment of the personality. The postulate that ethnicity corresponds with primary relations and that nonethnic activities fall more illlo the realm of secondary groups needs to be clarified. A study of American Catholics addressed one side of the issue and concluded that there was little empirical evidence that primary relations followed ethnic lines. Richanl D. Alba. "Social Assimilation Among American Catholic National-Origin Groups." Anl/mul1I Sociological ReView. 41. no. () (December. 1976). pp. 10:10-46. Among immigrant Greek Americans. it is virtually a certainty that closest personalties are with fellow Greeks. non relatives as well as relations. For many of the American-born GI'eeks. howevel', primary rciations are not usually confined to other t;reek Americans. but can also occur with co-workers. neighbors. and relatives through out-marriage. What has not often been appreciated. however. is that ethnic processes can also have powed'ul expression in secondary groups. On the Greek-American scene. one finds ethnic activities that many times arc segmental in content: church attendance. voluntary associatIOn membership. eating in Greek-cuisine restaurants. and epIsodic participation in social. cultural. and political gatherings. Indeed. American-born Greeks can have strong primary tics with non-Greeks while Simultaneously being actively involved in the organized Greek-American community. Secondary groups. that is. can be as much a definer of ethnic affirmation as primary groups. The differential weight given to ethnically bounded groups-heavily toward the primary side among the immigrants. more toward the secondary in the case of the American generations-is not. of course. cleal'cllt. It docs. nevertheless. introduce one important distinction between the Greek ethnic identity of the immigrants and that of their American-horn progeny,

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It is more productive to consider variables of descent, culture, and

self-identification. By looking at the changing interaction of these factors from the initial arrival of the immigrants to the present, one can ascertain not so much the degree of continuity of the immigrant heritage, but, also account for the appearance of new forms of ethnic consciousness that may altern,i.idy wane and wax in relation to the c()nllnoll-Xil1cl'ic,i.ii culttlre--:-anongoing process of "ethnogenesis."17 ( An ethnogenetid approach must take into consideration how the various generations are differentially socialized into an ethnic icleniiiy. Whereas, the "Greekness" of the immigrant generation is a givell"lnd whereas It is mainly an outcome of childhood experiences for the second generation, such variables do not operate into the third and later genera'tions. Starting with the grandchildren of the immigrants the concept of . ethnogenesis becomes applicable. For those two or more generations removed from the immigrants, rnaintaining a sense of Greek ethnicity is not an issue of ingrained sentiment, but one of conscious selection in an endless number of gradations in the choice of identity. Precisely because third-generation Greek Americans have the weakest commitments to the ancestral culture, their Greek ethnicity-if it is to exist at all-depends (~irectly on their involvement with formal Greek-American organizatIOns. One becomes an identifying Greek American, that is, to the extent that one's experience actively links with the collective experience of other Greek Americans. 18 For the grandchildren of the immigrants, and, even more so, the great-grandchildren, Greek ethnicity is not so much a matter of cultural transmission, but one of voluntary participation in Greek-American institutional life. The brand of emergent Hellenism in America, therefore, should not be confused with that of the homeland. Such confusion is what underlies the periodic debates in the Greek parliament on the "dehellenization" of Greek Americans of the second and third generations. Rather than viewing Greek-American ethnicity as an increasingly pale reflection of an old country culture, we would be better advised to consider and respect it in its own right. Some of the educated Greek visitors to America disparage the Greekness of the American born. What such critics miss is that their rejection of the Greek-American subculture speaks more to the values of sophisticated circles in contemporary 17Grecley. Ellmicily in Ill/! UnitlHi Slales. pp. 290-:317. All ethnogenetic understanding of Greek-American identity was anticipated in Evan C. Vlachos, The Assimilalion of Greeks il1 Ill/! United Slall!s (Athens: National Center of Social Research, 19(8), pp. 165-84. See also J~lm P. Anton. "The Greek Heritage and the American Republic" (paper presented at the BlCentenl1lal SymposIUm on the Greek Experience in America. University of Chicago. 1976). I"All exception to this rule would be found among Greek-American families that alternate between residences in Greece and the United States, a life style that is evident among some of the newer immigrants.

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Greece than it does to the ways an immigrant rural nationality has evolved toward a middle-class ethnic identity in a new country. Of Philistinism there is, of course, plenty in Greek-American suburbia, though one would be hard put to show there is any less in Athens or Thessalonica. Those who loftily dismiss the Greek retentions of the American born-a Greek Orthodoxy within the framework of American religious pluralism, attachments to old country foods and dances, ungrammatical Greek, the whole system of kinship life-should see that these tokens of the immigrant past are clung to because they remind the American born of parental and grandparental homes where Greek customs were kept. Still we are left with the question to what extent the culture of the Greek immigrants has left a significant imprint on the lives of their children and grandchildren. This cannot be answered with finality, as the story of the Greek Americans in the suburbs is still unfinished. Yet a serious answer would recognize the presence of deep continuities. American-born Greeks have clearly carried forth the communal institutions founded by their forebears. There are times when one could swear that every Greek in town knows every other one, or at least everyone else's Aunt Helen or Cousin George. True, not many Greek Americans of the second generation speak Greek among themselves, and many of the third generation do not understand it very well. But in their deepest inclinations of conduct, religious approach, social bias, feeling for family, and affection for the old country, there are heavy signs of immigrant shaping. Between the Scylla of assimilation and the Charybdis of ethnic chauvinism, the straits are narrow. So far Greek Americans have navigated well. May they stay on course.

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The most significant change regarding Greek America in the 1980s was the growing awareness in mainstream United States of Greek-Americans as an identifiable ethnic group. Consider the following. Efelli, Nicholas Gage's powerful account of his mother's execution by Greek Communists for her effons to reunite her f~lmily in America, became one of the most critically acclaimed and widely read books of the decade. I I n his televised address to the nation after his summit meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987, President Reagan stated that Eleni's final simple wonls - "M Y children" - impelled him to seek an arms agreement "f~)]' all the children of the world." In a 1987 article in 1711? New RejJublic, Morton Kondracke described the (;reek-American community as "an esteemed ethnic group."~ Archbishop Iakovos, prelate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of the Americas, gave the invocation at the 1988 Democratic national convention and a month later offered the benediction at the Republican convention. Most notably, interest in all things GreekAmerican increased exponentially with the nomination of Michael S. Dukakis as the 1988 Demo,Tatic candidate for President of the United States. Even at less obvious levels one also could detect the impact of Greek-American subculture and personalities on the American scene. Compare the 1946 and 1981 movie versions of .lames M. Cain's hardbitten Depression-era novel Th£' Postmall Always Rhlg" Twiu,.:1 The plot centers around the erotic attraction between a drifter and the bored blonde wife of a much older Greek immigrant restaurant owner, Nick Papadakis. 'The two lovers (John Garfield and Lana Turner in the earlier movie, Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange in the later version) scheme together, eventually kill the husband, profit briefly, and inevitably succumb to misfortune. 'rhe measure of the change in the times is that in the original movie the restaurant owner has no ethnic identity; the role was even played by an English actor! In the 1980s version, not. only does John Colicos play Papadakis, but his role portrays a full character who speaks and acts Greek and comes complete with a GreekAmerican social circle.

Greek America in the

19805

150

151

The image of Greek Americans has become more evident in our country's popular culture as well. The festivals and food fairs that many Greek Orthodox communities use for fund-raisers bring the Greek flavor to an appreciative Middle America, and the clientele of Greek restaurants extends far beyond the original ethnic enclave, A 198~ national survey revealed that about one-half or the population had tried Greek food, and one out of four of those who tried it "really enjoyed" Greek cuisine," Greek short-order establishments feat uring gyros, a hlend of roast meats and spices, have appeared in most lIlet ropolitan areas, though the Greek proclivity toward individualism seems to have precluded the emergence of a gyros franchise chain, Even in restaurants serving standard fare, Athenian salad on the menu is a true sign of a Greek owner. Viewers of the early episodes of Safl/rday Nip/III_nIl' were treated to a series of skits in which John BellIshi (actually of Albanian ancestry) portrayed a Creek restauralll owner whose accented reply became one of the show's catch phrases: "Cheezborgcr, chcezborger, cheezborger," Certainly a threshold must have been crossed when a Bud Light television commercial featured a .mgauiki skit to advertise Budweiser beer. Apparelllly the flaming Greek cheese appetizer was well enough known to a general audience not to require explanation. MORE MAKING IT IN AMERICA

Any listjng of Greek American success stories runs the risk of ethnic boasting a kind of defensive triumphalism indical ing an underlying psychic in~~curity. Yet individual stories of achievemen; also indicate real social trends and deserve mention in their own right. While the temptation to use every note card one has gathered must be resisted, the writer has some obligation to put important achievements on record lest they be lost to history. Rather than presenting a nUlllbing list of names, I focus selectively on some of the most outstanding Greek-American achievers, particularly those who have had some impact on the American economy or culture. Moreover, I have tried to avoid repeating the names of those whose accomplishments were covered earlier in this book. The Forbes magazine list of the nation's wealthiest people ill the 1980s includes many Creek Americans. Perhaps the richest Creek American is George Phydias Mitchell, reportedly worth over $400 million. Mitchell, whose father was a goat herder ill the old country anel shined shoes as a young immigrant in HOllston, made his fortune in Texas oil and Texas real estat.e. Alex Gus Spanos, famous for the dance routine he performs with Bob Hope for charity benefits, obtained his wealth in construction and California land development. The Dikeoll brothers of Denver,John, George, alld Deno, sons ofa Creek immigrallt

152

GREEK AMERICA IN 'THE 1980s

who sold popcorn, have extensive real estate imerests in Colorado, Texas, and Florida, John Andreas eatsimatidis came to America from Greece as an infant and now owns the Red Apple chain of grocery stores, George Leon Agyros, son of Greek immigrants, is a real estate magnate and owner of baseball's Seattle Mariners. Kenneth Nicholas Pontikes, who worked his way through college in his immigrant father's Chicago grocery store, started as an IBM salesman and launched Comdisco, now the world's largest independent lessor of computing equipment. Another up-by-the-bootstraps son of immigrants, Michael Jaharis, JI". as president of Key Pharmaceuticals oversaw the development of Theo-Dur, the most prescribed anti-asthma drug, and NitroDur, a sustained-release patch for relief of angina pectoris, Other Greek Americans also made substantial marks on American business and industry. George Hatsopoulos, chairman of Thermo Electron Corporation and of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, has hecome a leading advocate of tax reform to foster savings and increase investment. William Tavoulareas, who retired as president of Mobil Oil in 1983, made legal history by taking on and beating the Washinf{to/l Post in a lihel case," Three siblings-Nicholas S. Gouletas, Evangeline Gouletas-Carey (wife of {i))"Iller New York governor Hugh Carey), and Victor Goulet, headed American I nvsco, a firm that achieved dominance in condominium conversions. Anthony A. Antoniou, owner of exclusive hotels in the Chicago area, became a fi)remost developer of commercial real estate in the Midwest. Chief executive officers of m,~jor corporations who are of Greek extraction included: William J Catacosinos of Long Island Lighting,John A. Georges of International Paper,John Kapioltas of the Sheraton chain, and p, Roy Vagelos of Merck, The year 1988 saw the death of William G. Helis,Jr., a Louisiana oil producer and once the nation's leading breeder of thoroughbred horses. I-Ielis inherited and expanded the Louisiana oil properties of his father, William, Sr., who died in 1950, The elder Helis, who immigrated to this country in 1904 and later worked closely with I-I uey Long, was almost surely the wealthiest Greek in America befi)re World War II. A prominent leader in the Greek-American community, he served several times as president of the Ahepa, In 1938 the elder Helis was the principal ligure in the purchase and donation of the Massachusetts Avenue property in Washington that became the Greek Embassy, The younger I-Ielis, who served for a period in the 1950s as honorary Greek consul in New Orleans (a position that his father held before him), eventually drew away from the Greek-American community, The 1980s saw continuing Greek-American advances in education, journalism, and the arts, In 1981, John Brademas, who had been the principal author of legislation concerning education when he served in the U.S. I-louse of Representatives, became president of New York University. Peter J Liacouras was inaugurated as president of Temple

GREEK AMERICA IN THE 1980s

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University in 1982. In 1989 Matina Horner retired from the presidency, of Radcliffe College to resume her research on the consequences of social change. Dr.John N. Nicholson, who came to the United States as a teenage immigrant, gave over $2 million to institutions of hIgher learning in the United States during the 1980s. Kostas Tsipis of t,h.e Massachusetts Institute of Technology became a nationally known cntlc of the nuclear arms race, Theoni Vachiotis Aldredge, creator of the costumes li)r over 165 Broadway productions, was awarded New York City's Liberty Medal. In the art world, painters 'fheodoros Stan~os ,and William Baziotes were acclaimed as masters in abstract expresslOll\sm. James Galanos, whose clientele included Nancy Reagan, set new trends in American haute couture, Peter Voulkos founded a new art genre, the California school of ceramic sculpture, Greek Americans made a strong impact on both Greek and English-language literature in the 19~Os. AndOl:is Decavalles, who, has lived and taught in the United States sll1ce 1954, IS consJ(lcrcd O\~e of the fi)l'emost poets in the Greek language. Also highly regarded lor ~hen~ works in Greek are liction writer Theano Papazoglou Margans of Chicago and poet Regina Pagoulatou of New York. I n what must be a l110st unusual occurrence in literary history, three writers who were born and raised as Greeks, and who are now Americans writing in English as their second language, received literary recognition or t he highest order. Olga Broumas won the Yale Younger, Poets 'priz~, Stratls Haviaras .,~as nominated for the American Book Award lor hIS novel Whell Ihe In'l' Sings, and Irini Spanidou entered public view ,:hen her novel God's Sua/u' was made a Book-of-the-Month Club selectlon. b Among native English-language writers, I-larry Mark Petn~kis confirmed his preeminence as the leading novelist of (~reek Amenca. I-lis Days or VeligeallCf' begins in turn-of-the-century ~ :rete, and carries over into the Greek colony in the American West. ( COrInne Demas Bliss's Thl' Saml' Rirw}" Twice plots the intricate facets or a Creek-American woman. H In BUrINI U1Isung, Zeese Papanikolas blends fact and surmise to recreate the life of Louis Tikas, a Greek labor leader killed during the labor strife in Ludlow, ColoradoY Elia Kazan's Thl' Allalolial/, the story of a young Greek in New York around the time or WOI.·ld War I, was a hestseller, although, if truth be told, few Greek Amencans could resOl,1ate with Kazan's depiction of early immigrant lire, 10 (~reek-i\merIcan lIterature had ~rown to the point where it could be the subject of its own interpretiv~ school. We owe an enormous de!)t to Alexander I~aranik:ls whose 111'1ll'lu's and l1elliolls is an authontatlve coverage of (,reeks 111 American literature,11 The Greek-American imprint on movies was especially strong. Two Greek Americans-John Cassavetes and Elia Kazan-were each the sul~iect of full-length biographies that declared them to he :lI11ong the world's most proii)Und film directors. 12 Cassavetes was descnbed as

1!i4

CREEK AMERICA IN THE 19HOs

one of the shapers of modern American culture. (John Cassavetes's immigrant f~lther, Nicholas, was one of the most prominent leaders in the Greek-American community between the two world wars.) Kazan's own autobiography, A. Lifr', was a publication event because of the account he gives of his decision to be a cooperative witness before the I-louse Un-American Activities Committee investigating Hollywood communists in 1951. 1:1 But for Greek Americans the Hollywood high point of the decade surely came when Olympia Dukakis, first cousin of l'vlichael Dukakis, won the 1988 Academy Award for best supporting actress in lV/oollstnu:k. In fact, Dukakis was the third Greek to receive an Oscar for best supporting role. In 1~);l3 Katina Paxin()u won the Academy Award for her work in For Wholll thl' ])(,11 Tolls, and George Chakaris was rewarded in 1961 for his performance in Wl'st Sid!' Stor\,. Greek Americans also entered the public consciousness in nth;'r ways. In the space of a year, two 70-year-old Greek Americans inadvertently achieved notoriety (and were fired summarily from their lucrative jobs) for making statements viewed as racist. In the spring of 1987 AI Campanis, vice president of the Los Angeles Dodgers, was questioned by ABC Nip;htlhu' anchor Ted Koppel on the dearth of black managers in baseball. Campanis asserted that black baseball players did not have "some of the necessities" for being managers. Touching olT even a stronger reaction were the remarks of CBS Sports commentator Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder (horn Dimitrios Synodinos). The trouble began in a televised interview in January 1988 while Snyder was having lunch at a Washington restaurant. Snyder stated that blacks were better athletes than whites, among other reasons, because of their longer and more powerful bodies, a result of being "bred to be that way." Snyder's comments were made in the context of overall praise of black athletes' hard work, but that point was lost in the resulting storm of controversy. 'The irony was that CBS had hired Snyder initially to play the role of an ethnic gambler and bookie, a Greek stereotype ever since the heyday of "Nick the Greek" in the 1920s. Sportscaster Brent Musberger always addressed him as "the Greek" or sometimes just "Greek." Another public figure was Peter G. Peterson, former Secretary of Commerce under President Nixon, fonner chairman of Lehman Brothers, the New York investment banking firm, chairman of the Council on Foreign Relat.ions in New York and of the Institute for International Economics in Washington, and one of the country's leading authorities on the economy. What was curious about Peterson's public persona, one he did not try to disabuse, was his portrayal as a patrician. H Few people realized that this pillar of the eastern establishment was the son of Greek immigrants-his father owned a small restaurant in Kearney, Nebraska. Like other upwardly mobile ethnics, Greek Americans in this country had to face the question of how much to adopt of the dominant Anglo folkways and how much to retain of the old-country ways. The

GREEK i\l'vIERICA IN THE 19HOs

l!i!i

special quality of the Greek-American "dilemma," however, was not so much ethnic stereotyping as the remarkable ease with which one could move back and forth from the insularity of the Greek-American community to the general society. The discrimination recalled by some older Greeks, not only immigrant but also American-born, upon entering the professions and the corporate world around the time of World War II. has almost a quaint air today. At one time Anglo-Saxon America set the boundaries that Greeks could not cross, but today that responsibility has shifted: Greek Americans can draw their own boundaries. COMMUNAL INSTITUTIONS IN FLUX

To understand change within Greek-American institutions is ultimately to grasp trends in Greek-American demography. To a large degree, Greek communal life reflects changes in the numbers of new arrivals, the proportion born in the old country versus the proportion born in the United States, the geographical distribution of Greek Americans, their age distribution, and so on. First readings on the Greek-American population come from immigration statistics. We can divide Greek immigration conveniently into seven distinct periods. as shown in Table 8-1 y, A trickle of Greek migrants began to arrive in the 1870s, by the end of the nineteenth century only some ]5,000 Greeks had entered the United States. The great wave of migration, when 450,000 Greeks came to these shores, started at the turn of the century and ended in 1917 when the U.S. entered World War 1. The final phase of the earlier migration of 70,000 Greeks lasted from the years following World War I IIntil the doors of immigration dosed in 1924. The two-decade "closed door" period lasted through the end of World War II; during that time only :W,OOO Greeks came to this country. After World War II the doors opened somewhat, especially under provisions for displaced persons, and some 75,000 Greeks arrived here. Starting in 1966, when the immigration laws were changed to allow easier entrance for the relatives of persons already here, a new wave of 16(),OOO Greeks came to the U.S. However, immigration from Greece has tapered ofT considerably: only 25,000 Greeks have come to these shores during the 1980s. The sharp decline in Greek immigration \.0 the United States during the 1980s is a result of several factors. First and most important, the push from Greece is less strong than in the past because of the great improvement of living conditions in Greece. Second, it has become much more difficult to obtain a U.S. immigration visa than a visa for Canada or Australia. Third, many Greeks seeking work abroad lind it much more convenient to go to the Federal Republic of Germany, where some 300,000 Greek Gastarbeiter ("guestworkers") live, than to cross the ocean and travel all the way to North America. Even so, the lure of the

I!lG

GREEK AMERICA IN 'THE 19HOs

U,S, has !lot dimmed entirely. If conditio!ls were to take a downward turn in Greece, Greeks again would find a way to come 10 the United States. TABLE 8-1.

Greek Immigration to the United States Era Early Migration Great Wave Last Exodus Closed Door Postwar Migration New Wave Declining Migration

IH73-1899 1890-1917 191 H-1924 1925-1946 1947-19G5 1966-1979 1980-1989

A pproxilllate Total

Approximate Annual Average

15,000 450,000 70,000 30,000 75,000 I ()O,OOO 25,000

500 25,O()() IO,O()()

1,300 4,()OO 11.000 2,500

The U.S. Census remains the best source of data on the GreekAmerican population. For many decades the census had enumerated each individual's country of birth and that of his or her parents. In 1980, however, a new way of determining ethnicity was adopted. Persons were asked to identify their ancestry in terms of national origin or descent. On this basis the 1980 census reported that fi15,000 Americans identified themselves as being of purely Greek ancestry and that another 345,000 identified themselves as having some Greek ancestry.!!i Thus, about one million persons can be considered Greek Americans on the basis of national origin. Of course, all of those who acknowledge Greek origins do not necessarily identify themselves with the Greek community or even have personal feelings of Greek ethnicity. In any event, the often cited figures for Greek Americans-two or three million-are clearly inllated. New York state has the largest number of Greek Americans, almost one-sixth of the total, followed by California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Michigan, and Maryland. Greek America continues to remain overwhelmingly urban. Over half of all Greek Americans live in or near one of the following cities or regions: New York (200,000), Chicago (100,000), Boston and nearby mill towns (70,000), Los Angeles (50,000), northern New Jersey (45,000), Detroit (40,000), San Francisco Bay area (35,000), Philadelphia (3(),OOO), St. Petersburg-Tampa-Tarpon Springs (:)(),OOO), Baltimore (25,000), and Cleveland (20,000). Other m,~jor Greek-American communities are found in metropolitan Pittsburgh, Washington DC, Milwaukee, and Worcester and Lowell in Massachusetts. Thus, although there has been some movement toward the Sun Belt in recent years, the main body of Greek America is still found in the Northeast, the Middle Atlantic states, and the Great Lakes region. Looking at the total number of Greeks by state, however, does not

1!l7

GREEK AMERICA IN THE 19HOs

show the proportion of Greek Americans in the population. When we compute the ratio of Greek Americans to the total population of a state we find that Massachusetts, followed closely by New Hampshire, has the highest ratio of Greek Americans of any state in the uni.OIl. Other states with high ratios of Greek Americans are, in descendlllg orde~" N~w York, Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut, Utah, and Marylan(1. MISsissippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee have the lowcst proportions of Greek Americans. The largest Greek neighborhood by far, with perhaps 35,000 residents, is located in the Astoria area of Queens, New York, a short subway ride from Times Square. Astoria's high-dOllied Byzantine-style Saint Demetrios church claims the largest Greek Orthodox congregation outside Greece. Other identiliable Greek neighborhoods are found on Chicago'S northwest side and in the Highlandtown area on the east side of Baltimore. One of the largest Greektowns in North America is found on a one-mile stretch of Danforth Avenue centered on Chester Avenue on Toronto's east side, though the area is becoming gent rified as Greeks sell out and move to the· suburbs. Remnants of old Greek neighborhoods, which transformed themselves into thriving commercial areas featuring Greek restaurants, night clubs, and grocery stores are found on Chicago's Halsted Street, a(~jacent both to downtown of/ices and to the University of Illinois at Chicago, and on Monroe Street ill Detroit, the only downtown area in the city that whites patronize at night. One other important remark must be made about the GreekAmerican population. For at least two decades, the Amcrican-born generations probably have not been relacing themselves. In terms of economic and educational status, Greek Americans have done well, but certainly they are fewer in number than if they were not so well educated and so well off. With no renewed immigration in sight and with little likelihood of rise in the birthrate, the Greek-American population will probably shrink somewhat in the next several decades. By using available census and immigration figures and by making some assumptions about the ratio of births to deaths, we can calculate the generational distribution of Greek Americans in Ihe late 19HOs. An educated guess would be as follows: First generation Second generation Third generation Fourth generation Total

250,()OO 400,OO()

250,O()O 100,000

1,()OO,OOO

Although each of these generations shares something of a common Hellenic heritage, it relates to and participates in the Greek-American community in its own f~lshion. The general trend is clear, however.

1Ml

GREEK AMERICA IN 'ITIE 19HOs

Illstitutions based on old-country Greek culture continue to show vitality, but the future lies with institutions building Oil an indigenous Greek-American identity, The Greek Orthodox Church

The best estimate is that there are some 700,000 Greek Orthodox in this country, This number includes 50,000 or so non-Greek converts, the large m,~jority of whom entered the Church through marriage to an Orthodox spouse, but it also includes some refugees from other churches who seek a link to an apostolic religious tradition. Whatever the exact figures, about three out of four persons in the United States who indentify themselves as ethnically (~reek in the United States regard themselves as Greek Orthodox, whether actively or only nominally. For most purposes, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America is coterminous with Greek Orthodoxy in the New World.17 In 1989 Archbishop Iakovos celebrated his thirtieth year as primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. During the 1980s Archbishop Iakovos not only continued to be a dominant religious figure in American society, but also became a commanding presellce on the American secular scene. I-lis honors included the Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian honor, granteel in 1980, and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, awarded in 1986. Although not without his critics, the Archbishop has demonstrated a remarkable ability to reconcile the demands of being both a religious leader and an ethnic spokesman. IH In the 1980s forty new churches came into being, bringing the Archdiocesan total to arollnd 450 churches in t.he United St.at.es and another seventy in Canada and Lat.in America. In 1988 the Archdiocese had some I~~O,OOO dues-paying family units in the United States, up a fairly impressive 15,()OO over the past decade. Much of this increase reflected the increase in new Greek arrivals during the 1970s. In addition to a panoply of Archdiocesan institutions, such as an orphanage, a home for the aged, a summer camp in Greece for GreekAmerican youth, and a national shrine in Florida, the Archdiocese also operates a parochial school system that in 1988 consisted oftwenty-three day schools with 7,000 students and 400 afternoon language schools with approximately 27,000 students. The Urt/lOr/ox Ob.I'I'l1l{T, the Archdiocesan newspaper distributed to all members, was by far the most widely read of any periodical in the Greek-American community. The keystone of the Archdiocesan institutional structure is the Holy Cross seminary, a graduate school of theology, located in Brookline, Massachusetts. Since the 19GOs the great m,~jority of new priests have been American-born graduates of Holy Cross. The Church faces a perennial shortage of priests; this shortage is expected to grow worse in the next decade when an exceptionally large cohort of priests reaches retirement age. The seminary, however, despite its difficulties in

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recruiting aspiring priests, has come to enjoy an excellent reputation for the quality of its instruction and its staff. Its journal, the GrI'ek Orthodox Review or Theology, has become a recognized publication in gener.al Christian thought as well as in Eastern Orthodoxy. Under the leadership of Metropolit,'lI1 Silas, a respected scholar and prelate, Holy Cross seminary promises to remain the wellspring of Greek Orthodoxy in the United States into the indefinite future. Efforts to establish a viable coeducational undergraduate Greek Orthodox liberal arts college to complement the graduate school of theology have proved unsuccessful. The Hellenic College, founded .in 1968 on the Brookline campus, was unable to develop any substantial endowment and was plagued constantly by financial difficulties. Even more serious, the college was never able to attract sufficient numbers of Greek-American und~~'graduates because it seemed to be both too cloistered and too undemanding academically for ambitious students and their parents. Hellenic College was restructured in 1985, with substantial cuts in offerings and staff. Although it did not quite close, Hellenic College became, in effect, a pretheology school by preparing its small number of students for church work, if female, or for the priesthood, if male. For better or worse, the Greek community had shown itself unwilling to support a Greek-American college. The most important developments within the Church in the 1980s were probably the least visible. Religious impulses began to be differentiated more noticeably from ethnic impulses. The religious movement of the 1980s tended toward a more unadulterated, spiritual, even mystical, Orthodoxy. (A "charismatic" movement, with its undertones of Protestant evangelicalism, that seemed ascendant in the 1970s, had all but disappeared in the 1980s.) Eastern Orthodoxy in America has turned perceptibly, though by no means uniformly, toward all emphasis on fasting, frequent church attendance, devotional observances,. and prayer. Church architecture and interior iconography are ulldergoll1g a revival of the Byzantine style, demonstrating a move away from the Westernized forms evident in earlier church building and design in this country. Although monasticism has Ilot yet struck root in the Greek Orthodox Church in the United States, other Eastern Orthodox bodies have established small monastic communities ill this country. Some American-born Greeks, moreover, have entered monasteries in Greece and Mount Athos ill the past decade. The noteworthy quality in the quest for a purer Christian Orthodoxy is that it is quite dist.inct from a revival of Greek ethnic feeling. Indeed, non-Greek converts (including some former clergymen from non-Orthodox denominations) make up one of the elements in this nascent spiritual trend within Christian Orthodoxy in America. This movement corresponds to a trend, despite ethnic differences and jurisdictional disputes, toward a more pan-Orthodox identity in this

160

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country. Durin~ the 1~)80s the, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, the largest and best organ,lzed o.f the vanous Orthodox branches, adopted a much I~ore co(~peratJve attItude toward its coreligionists coming {i'om Russia, Eastern European, and Arabic traditions. As the immigrant past fades, the n~ove toward pan-Orthodoxy in America will undoubtedly continue to gam ground. (~n the organizational front, the basic episcopate structure of the Archchocese came under question. The establishment of a synodical structure in 1978-in which regional dioceses named after American c.ities po~sessing.their own bishops replaced the older "auxiliary" bishops tItled ~lfter anCIent sees who came under the direct purview of the Archblshol~-was regarded as a decentralizing movement that would make the choceses more responsive to local needs and would elevate the bishops into co-administrators with the Archbishop. Instead, what seems to have el:lerg~d was. a system characterized by unseemly log-rolling among a few of the bIshops to protect regional fiefdoms. The flaws of tl~e new state of afhlirs were revealed by a sexual scandal involving a bIshop that came to public attention in 1987 when the story appeared in Peo/Jle magazine.I~1 To compound matters, the synod's ineffectual handling of the incident led to another wave of innuendo and rumor. By the late 1980s there was a growing consensus among lay leaders, much of the clergy, and even within the Archdiocesan administration that the ~ynodical system needed m<~ior restructuring. At the least, greater Importance was attached to the recurrent discussion of how canon law could be modif1ed to elect bis~lOps from married or widowed clergymen. , A.nothe.r development 111 the Church during the 1980s was the begmnmg of a reassessment of women's role in the Church, although it was no~ nec.lrly as I~ronounced as the feminism appearing in mainstream ~lenOl:1lI1atlons .. ~f th~ ~role of women is reappraised, Eva Catafygiotu foppmg: a seif-Idenuhed "Orthodox feminist," can rightly claim that she was m the vcu:guard of change.!W The writings of Topping and ot~lers shed a new lIght on women in the early and Byzantine Church as samts, prophets, preachers, founders of churches, ascetics, healers, and martyrs. -:'-lthou~h the issue of ordination of women has not seriously em~rged 111 th~ Greek Orthodox Church, there is a growing sentiment to revIve. the anCIent ecclesiastical order of female deacons (who perform w~)rslllp, pastoral, and administrative duties) as has been done already wI~h mal.e deacons. T.he overall trend is clearly toward greater representatIOn of lay women II1 leadership positions. Women have been elected increasingly to local parish boards, including presidencies: women also serve on the Archdiocesan Council, the highest lay body in the Church. " .. The t~'aditional, f~ma!e auxiliary of the Church, the Philo/Hoc/ws ( fnel:ds of th.e poor' ) IS stIll the largest women's organization in Greek Amenca, but It appears to be suffering something of an identity crisis. We must remember that for Greek immigrant women of earlier days,

GREEK AMERICA IN THE ID80s

161

the Church was one of the few activities available outside of' t he home. Through the PhilojJ[ochos they organized much of the social life of the church community and, with their children, filled the pews overwhelmingly on Sunday morning. Today the appeal of the 1'/ti/ojJ[or:/ws seems limited among women with outside employment, especially those in the professions. It. is also noteworthy, although it still may raise some eyebrows, that independent employment for the jJrl'sliylna, the wife of a priest, is becoming more frequent. The tide of Americanization that began to lap at the feet of the Church in the post-World War II era has continued to rise in each succeeding decade. During the 1970s the proponents or the Greek language in the American Church were in somewhat of an upsurge, largely because of the new arrivals from (~reece. By the 1980s, however, the long-term movement. toward English was clearly reascendant. In fact, even some of the newly ordained priests had only a shaky mastery of the Greek vernaculaLThe Church's policy of "lIexible bilingualism," ~nlixture of Greek and English dependent on the parish's linguistic makeup, seemed to be working as well as one could reasonably expect. Once upon a time, a generation ago, to be Greek-American almost always meant to know the Greek language. Even today, there is little doubt that if we could have instant Greek, if we could by some Brave New World method learn Greek in our sleep with little effort, nearly all Greek Americans would be glad to do so. But learning and using Greek requires consciolls efror(, and the effort by and large \Vas not being made by second-generation parents for their children, much less for the children of mixed marriages. Increasingly, Greek Orthodox affiliation rather than Greek language became the defining trait of Greek ethnic identity in Americ'I.~1 The strongest measure of the trend toward the Americanization of the Church can he found in the increasing incorporation of nonGreeks.~~ According to Archdiocesan statistic~f;iilixcd couples ac~ counted for three ou~ of ten church marriages in tl~e 19()Os; by the 1980s, the Ilgure was over six out of t.en. We must keep in mind, however, that these numbers refer only to weddings conducted within the Greek Orthodox Church. We can assume that virtually all Greek Americans who marry outside the Church marry non-Greeks. Now that intermarriage has become the rule rather than the exception, its meaning has been transformed. I ntermarriage no longer carries a stigma of deviance in the community; thus it is much easier for exogamous Greek Americans and t.heir spouses who marry into t.he Church to cont.inue an active membership in t.he Greek community. In appraising the long-term future of the Church, it is useful to distinguish between secular ethnicit.y and sacred ethnicity. Without fresh immigrants, secular ethnicity will erode slowly, despite rearguard actions by the et.hnic traditionalist.s. Sacred ethnicit.y, on the other hand, can

IG2

GREEK AMERICA IN THE 1980s

strike roots in the New World-adapting to changing social conditions and changing generations. If Greek Orthodoxy were to emphasize secular ethnicity over sacred ethnicity, it might well end in a situation in which the descendants of the immigrants are neither Greek nor Orthodox. As the Church in America approaches the end of the twentieth century, one way to convey recent developments is to contrast the older generation of Greek immigrant church bllildl'n with the later generations of church iI/IienloJ:\'. The 1980s probably mark the end of three decades of widespread church construct jon in the United States. Most of the builders of the post-World War II generation were l110tjvated by the desire to establish a Greek Orthodox presence in what was then mostly an alien environment. By the time the churches were standing, however, American society had clungeel. Greek Orthodoxy was no longer so alien, a reassuring sign of the success of the builders' intentions. Yet the inheritors did not accept the bricks-and-mortar mentality that equates the success of Greek Orthodoxy with the construction of more churches and community halls. They had less of an emotional stake in the outward presentation of their religion and were inclined more toward cll~ inward Orthodoxy. In the 1950s the Greek Orthodox were struggling WIth the question of what it meant to be American; in the 1980s, comfortably American, they struggled with a more fundamental question: what it meant to be Greek Orthodox. lodges, Societies, and Clubs

Since its founding in 1922" the Ahepa (from American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association) hasb~en preeminent among GreekAmerican voluntary associati()I1s. III the lat.e 1980s the Ahepa proper, an adult male organization, had some 25,000 members. About the same number belonged to the lodge's auxiliaries: the Daug'hters of Penelope, the Sons of Pericles, and the Maids of Athena. Many, many more have passed through the organization at some time. With close to 400 active chapters, the Ahepa is the only true grass-roots organization in secular Greek AI'nerica. Its annual convention remains the premier G1:eek~ American social event. 'rhe Ahepa is peerless in the scale of its f)rograms which ~nclucle: the annual Congressional Banquet in WashingtOl;, support. of research on Cooley's anemia, award ceremonies to outstanding Greek Americans, athletic events, seminars on public issues afTectil1~ Greek Americans, Greece and Cyprus, a Political Action Committee, ~l Penelope I-louse for battered women in Mobile, Alabama, and an Education Foundation that supports Hellenic and Greek-American ~tudies .. In addition, the~hepa gives close to $1 million dollars annually II1 charItable contributions to cultural, religious, medical, ancLcivic causes. In his acceptance speech for the 1988 Republican Presidential

GREEK AMERICA IN T'HE l!)80s

nomination, George Bush mentioned the "Order of Ahepa" as representative of the best of America's voluntary associations. As Bush did not mention the lodge in any Greek context, it is unlikely that more t.han a handful of people in the Louisiana Superdome knew to what he was referring. Yet., t.he lodge's symbolic importance in Greek America received public recognition \. ;len the Vice President felt that he must touch base with the Greek-American community on nationwide television in what may have been the most important speech of his life. By the 1980s, however, Ahepa's operating style began to incur criticism from both inside and outside the organization. Under the longstanding present system, which goes back to the immigrant origins of the lodge, policy and ceremonial functions are merged in one body of annually elected officers. What this arrangement gains in sharing out the honors, however, can be lost in failing to come up with a coherent longterm direction. A proposal to separate a body of policy directors from the ceremonial olIices has been made and seems to be a step in the right direction, but remains a topic of debate. Whatever precisely needs to be done, it would be sad if the most venerable and established GreekAmerican lay institution showed signs of fraying just when Greek Americans were making a strong and positive impression in American society. Whether true or not, the impression of an aging organization structured for self-promotion of individuals is one image of the Ahepa. The Ahepa will probably have to find some way of correcting this impression if it is to continue to be as effective in the future as it has been in the past. The other mainstays of the Greek-American communal scene are the tOjJilw sOInateia, associations of Greek Americans who came from the same region in the old country. The IOjJilw sOlllall'w were t he first GreekAmeriG~n associations to be founded in this country, and they remained strong through the 1950s. The tOjJilw sOll/alml. gained a second wind in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the arrival of large numbers of new immigrants. Much of this momentum carried through 11110 the 1980s, along with the rise of second-generation leadership on a limited basis. Predictions of the demise of such parochial organizations have been premature, to say the least. The IOjJl'/w sOlllall'ia remain the most "Greek" of all Greek-American organizatjons in this country. This quality accounts both for their limitations and for their continuing vitality. Another organizational development reflected the rise of a new .generation of business and professional men (women were stjll in the background). Usually covering a metropolitan area, these organizations held fund-raisers, sponsored cultural programs, honored dignitaries, and conducted special events. One of the most notable is the United Hellenic American Congress (UHAC). Founded in 1975 in the wake of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and becoming a key element in GreekAmerican lobbying on Capitol I-jill silKe then, UHAC now also initiates

GREEK AMERICA IN THE 19HOs

cl~1(,1 coordinates many of the activities of the large Greek community of Cl1Jc~,go. Each year UHAC issues a Greek Heritage calendar of events that mcludes '\ Greek Heritage parade, lectures, fill1d-raisers, banquets, concerts, and hlms. In 191)1) alone twenty such eve Ills were scheduled. In 1971) A:ios was founded by a group of Greek-American business and profeSSIOnal men in Los Angeles to promote Greek-American causes and to serve as a forum for Greek-American issues. Axios means "worthy" in Greek, and symbolizes the organization 's efi~;I~iXt~) honor Greek Americans who have achieved eminence in their Ilelds. tJI-IAC and~xios both give generously to charitable activities in the C;l'eckAmencan community. Krikos, meaning "link," was founded in 1974 in New .York, initially as an appeal to Greek-American professionals to contribute to the advancement of Greece. By the 1980s Krikos had exp,~nd.ed its ,~ctivities to include cultural events and conferences among profeSSIOnals III Greek America. ' On a different scale was the Hellenic American Neighborhood Actjo~l Committee (I-IANAC). Founded in New York City in 1972 to benefit Greek-American senior citizens, by the 1980s l'IANA(; had evolved into (~ne of the m,.~jor social service agencies in the greater New York area. With a budget 1Il 1987 of $23 million,it employed more tharl toO~) employees, 80 percent of whom were Greek Americans. HANAC\ s~rvlces exte~ld to non-Greeks, but the agency's basic clientele remains (,re~k ~mel'Kan. The dur,~bility of HANAC, mainlydependell.LllPsm public .funds, IS largely a trIbute to George Douris, HANACs indefatigable 1.()\I~1(ler an,d head. I n Chicago a similar but smaller agency, the Hellelllc hHllldatlOn, delivers family and community services and operates an old-age home for Greek Americans. The Press

Irthe golden age of the Greek-American press was the 1920s, the 191)0s seem:o have ushered in a silver age, Thef'{rl,lioll(ll flfTa/d(Et/milws Kili:>..) rel.rlalll,s the flagship Greek-language paper of New York City, PublishceJ dally ,sll1ce .1:)]5, the NatioJ/al fll'mld has shifted from a liberal to a cenlI:lst P~)~ltlOn on the political spectrum, a move made easier by the demise of I~S old conservative rival, the AI/alltis, in 1972. Since 1979, under publIsh,er AllIhony H. Diamataris, the Natiollal flfTald has reflected the ll:amstream values of its immigrailTi'eaders and has adopted a sympat,helic stance toward the Archdiocese. The other Greek-Ian!-iua~e dad,y" t,h~tnli.1Jj .(,tnlllsl:lted loosely as ~'Mon,li~~lgI2"ilY"),~~lII:ded In lJ77, ,!Iso IS published 111 New York. Under publisher Fariilie ~e~;iIlides, ~)roini refle::t:~,a socialist viewpoint, ofIQI1,,()pposes American 10l elgn polI.cy, and CrItICizes the Archdiocese. Proilli is sold mainly on ~lews~tands m Ne~v ~ork, while the National fll'mlrl has the advantage of ", nalIo~lal subscnptlOl1 base. The only magazine published largely in ~,reek .IS Nm Yorlli ("New York"), a monthly produced by veteran Journalist Peter S. Makrias.

GREEK AMERICA IN TI-IE 19HOs

l()S

All the m(~jor newspapers in the English-language press are weeklies or biweeklies. The Hellenic Chronicle, published in Boston by PeterAg!'~sJ is"dedicateCi to American" Hellenic, and Orthodoxjd~,,!ls.", '~TrFie'j'lellenic Chronicle represents mainstream Greek-American thinking ~lnd with its large . national readership is the Hagship of the EnglishClnguage papers/Chicago has two newspapers, the Greck ,)'/ar and tll~. 121'~I!hP1:I!ss,both of which started as Greek-language papers and shiftec\ to English format as the readership changed. Even though both of these papers are politically conservative, they differ in other respects. The vGl'eek Star, owned and edited by UHAC, supports the Archdiocese and locuses l:ei;~)~'iage (;I~ (~hurcl1 issue.s4?~he Greek Press, under editor Aris Angelopoulos, leans away from the Archdiocese and gives extensive coverage to Ahepa activitiesV}'heleading paper on the West Coastis.. t!le Tiellenil: Journal, published by Frank P. Agnost in San Francisco:'The /-lellenic Times of New York covers that city's social scene. A handful of other newspapers across the country come and go, most with rather undistinguished content. Two new publications, published entirely in English, set new standards for Greek-American periodicals. ~;reek Accent, a bimonthly publication of the National Herald, appeared in 1980; it dIsplays a level (){'professionalism far above that of any previous magazine directed toward aGreek-American audience. Greek Accent presents well-written articles on topics both Greek and Greek-American, along with color photographs and drawings.:?:1 The covers alone are worth the price of the magazine. The Greek ilmencan, a weekly newspaper founded in 1986 and produced by the Prtnni shop, quickly became the most stimulating periodical in Greek America.:?'! Although sometimes relentless in its antiestablishment tone, the Greek American, under the brilliant editorship of Peter Pappas, has raised the intellectual level of Greek-American journalism to unprecedented heights. Yet neither the middlebrow Greek Accent nor the thought-provoking Greek ilmerican has succeeded yet in acquiring the circulation it deserves. ~1~o_~11_~Elll1p0t:tant devel0pI!lent in Gr¢-Americ
166

GREEK AMERICA IN 'THE 1980s GREEK AMERICANS AND GREECE

The 'Turkish invasion of Cyprus III 1974 affected the GreekAmerican community profoundly. One important consequence was the formation of what came to be known as the "Greek lobbyy " a loose coalition of groups seeking to influence U.S. foreign policy. From the start, this lobby sought simply to make the United States adhere to its own laws, which ball the use of military weapons given by the U.S. to Turkey for other than defensive purposes. This "rule of law" principle enjoyed a stunning success in }<ebruaryI975, when Congress passed an embargo on aid to 'Turkey ove';:-tl1e strollg objecti()i1s of President 'If()]'(:\ and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. 'rhis victory was 110 less significant because it coincided with a general Congressional reaffirmation against the executive branch in matters of foreign policy. A previously quiescent ethnic community had mobilized both itself and its friends to an unprecedented degree. The Greek-American establishment. strongly supported, Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election on the basis of his pledge not to lift the arms embargo until Turkish troops were withdrawn from Cyprus. Once in , office, however, Carter reneged on his promise; under pressure byhis administration, tlie embargo against Turkey was completely lifted in '197R. Uncle!' the Reagan administration, aid to Turkey was not only continued, the administration tilted even further toward the Turkish side. Thus, on key issues of Cyprus and Greek-Turkish relations, the Greek-American community has found itself opposed by bot.h Democratic and Republican president.s, although probably there is a general feeling that Greece fares somewhat better under Democrats. In any event, some fifteen years aher t.he initial invasion, close to half of Cyprus is still under Turkish occupation. The Greek lobby remains a force on Capitol Hill. Its concern has widened to include not only the illegal Turkish occupation of Cyprus but also Turkey's expansionist m()ves in the Aegean Sea toward t.heislamls of Greece propel'. 'The lobby divides on whether it should emphasize making U.S. aid to Turkey conditional on Turkish concessions in Cyprus (a difficult feat in the face of administrative opposition) or linking the level of aid given to Greece with that given to Turkey (a n1()]'e feasible goal in light of Greek-American influence in Congress): The latter posit.ion has been expressed in the 10:7 ratio: for every ten dollars in military aid given to Turkey, seven dollars is given to Greece. The Greek lobby consists of diverseelem~nts that can, with s'ome , oversimplification, fall into two gro~ll;s:()neg.r(jlij~emphasizes personal lobbying in Washington, including raisirlgGll11paign funds forll1c!l1bel:s of Congress who are sympathetic to the Greek-American posit.ion on Cyprus and the Aegean islands. The ot.heressent.ially seeks \0 mobilize grass-roots activities among Greek-Americans and their friends around

]()7

GREEK AMERICA IN THE 1980s

the country. These two groups sometimes clash on political strategy, and personality conflicts are often present. but remarkably, they generally complement rather t.han compete with one another. ' ~,'" One of the two groups in the (.~reek lobby revolves aroundUHAC, -headeC! by Andrew A. Athens, a~:Il~(:
J(j8

GREEK AMERICA IN THE 1980s

electoral victory of Andreas Papandreou and his socialist party changed ~tlie contours of Greek political life. Papandreoll appealed for cKlIlgein . both domestic and foreign
r.

i: I

tions within Greek society, with Greece's place in the outside world, and with Greece's relations with the United States. Papandreou offered;1 much more independent foreign policy, indudiilg a promise to remove the American military bases from Greece.:10 Although cynics claimed that Papandreou's bark was worse than his bite, the prime minister's penchant for occasional anti-American rhetori(~\\;')ls disturbing to American officials and to many Greek Americans.:II'rhus during the 1980s, when the Greek lobby confronted a more antr"C;reek administration uncler President Reagan, it ,tiso hacl to contend ,vith a more antiAmerican Greek government under Prime Minister Papandreou. Even though important members of the Greek-American community have acted more or less effectively as a pro-Greek lobby in Washington, they have been less effective as a pro-American pressure group in Athens. One incident demonstrated the growing rift between mainstream Greek Americans and the new mood in Greece. In March 1986, a bomb explosion toppled a statue of I-larry S. Truman from its pedestal in a small park near downtown Athens. The 12-foot bronze statue had been erected in 1963 by the Ahepa to symbolize the 1947 Truman Doctrine. Most Greek Americans believe the Truman doctrine brought on the decisive defeat of the communist guerillas during the 1946-1949 civil war and ushered in a long-term economic boom that elevated Greece from a poor to a prosperous country. According to the leftist interpretation of modern Greek history, however, by no means limited to hardcore communists, the 'Truman Doctrine was the beginning of an American domination over Greek political affairs that placed the Greek economy in a colonial relationship with the superpower and culminated in the American support of the colonels' junta from 1967 to 1974. The controversy over the Truman statue widened when the Athens city council, then controlled by leftist parties, voted against restoring the statue. In a compromise proposal the Papandreou government suggested that the statue be restored, but in a less prominent but more secure place than before. Ahepans and other Greek-American leaders were furious; either the statue would be replaced on its original site or else it would be returned to the United States. The Papandreou government finally announced that "after a long dialogue with the Greek-American community" it would restore the statue to its original position. :12 Matters were eased when the Athens city government passed into the hands of the conservative party in 1986. Still, the heavy roundthe-clock guard required to protect the statue showed that Truman had changed from being a bridge to being a wedge between the Greeks in Greece and the Greeks in the United States. As Greek America approaches the end of the twentieth century,

GREEK AMERICA IN THE! 980s

169

the end of the immigrants' story is in sight. Their American-horn sons and daughters feel lasting gratitude for having been a part of that story.:I:1 The continuing support that Americans of Greek ancestry give to the causes of the old country, despite political difTcrences between Athens and Washington, shows they ultimately take their bearings not from developments in Greece or even from Greece's foreign relations with the United States, but rather from a deep and abiding belief that what is good for America is good for Greece and vice versa. In this central way, the old-country immigrants and their American progeny are cut from the same cloth. But what should not be forgotten is that much of America's image of Greece is closely tjed with America's view of Greek Americans. That this view has been positive helped smooth over some of the friction that arose between the Greek and American governments in the 1980s. The generally favorable standing of Greeks in American society clearly shows when we look at the Greek-American ascent in politics. NOTES I. Nicholas Gage, Elelll. The movie version of t.he book was not a box office success, but. the video version became one of the most. rented movies of t.he decade. 2. Morton Konclracke, "Cool Hand Duke," New Re/lll/JIic, Aug. :\1,1987, P. 17. g. James Cain, Thl' PosllI/all Always Rings TWIt!' (N.Y.: (;rosset and Dunlap, 1994). 4. PlIblic (JllinIOlI, Aug.lSepL, 1984, p. 27. 5. William Tavoulareas, Figltling Bach (N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, 198G)' G. Olga Broumas, BI!gill1llng willt () (New Haven: Yale Universily Press, 1977); Strat.is Haviaras, Whenlltc Trl'e Sin,I!,~\' (N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, 1!J7!)); sec also Havlaras, Tltl' Heroic jlge (N.Y: Simon ,11](( Schuster, 1!)H4); Irene Spanidou, God's Sllake (N.Y.: W.W. Norton, 198G). 7. I-larry Mark Petrakis, Days o( l'engl'mll:e (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1983). A complete compendium of Petrakis's short stories has fll1ally been published, see his Co/lectl'd Siones (Chicago: Lake View Press, 19H7). 8. Corrine Demas Bliss, The Saml! RIVer TWice (N.Y.: Alhenellm, 1982). 9. Zeese Papanikolas, BUrled Unsung (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. 19H2). 10. Elia Kazan, The IInalo/iml (N.Y.: Knopf. 1982). Olher Kazan novels with Greek-American content are: Tlte Arrallgl'lllelli (N.Y.: St.ein and Day, 1974), and lIels o(Lolll! (N.Y.: Knopf. 1979). II. Alexander Karanikas, Hl'lIl'/Il's and I-/1!lliIJlls: Modl'rn Greek Cltarll(:lers III AllIeriCall Ulna/ure (Urbana: Universit.y of IllinOIS Press, I!J81). Also informative are Yiorgos D. Kalogeras, "Greek-American Lilerature," Elltnlc Foru.m, Vol. 5, no. 1-2, 1985, pp. 106-28, and Alhena G. Dallis-Damis, "The Greek Heritage and Its Impaci on t.he Greek American Writer, ill I-larry J. Psomiades and Alice Scourby, eds., The Grl'ek !I/IIcm:an COlllllllllllly In Tranl/lion (N.Y.: Pella, I!J82), pp. 217-:-10. Noteworthy is Ihe work in Greek on Greek-American literature being done by George Giannans, UllIversity of Patras. 12. Raymond Carnet., 11llll:m:all Drea/llillg: Tlte Filllls o/)ohn Cassl/1ll'li:s and lite

170

I:L 14.

l!i. 16.

17.

18. I ~l.

20.

21. 22.

GREEK AMERICA IN THE 1980s IImerican EX/J(!I"if!lIcl! (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), and Thomas H. Pauly, 1111 IIlIIericall Od),ssl'v: E1ia Kazall alld IIII/I'/"icrtll eulturl! (Philadelphia: Temple University P;'ess', ID8:\). Elia Kazan, II Liji' (N.Y.: Knopf. 1988). See the Peter (~. Peterson portrayal in I~en Auletta, Grl'l'd and Glm)' on 'rI'all Stred (N.Y.: Random I-louse, ID8!i)., . I am grateful to Peter Dickson upon whom I relied for the immigration information presented in Table 8-1. Bureau of the Census, Anastl), or thl' POjJulation by Statl's: 1980. I'C80-SI-1O (Washington: Government Printing Orfice. 198:~). A convenient compilation of the 1980 census by ethnic group is James Paul Allen and Eugene James Turner, WI' thl' Pl'opll': All IItlas OrAIIII'IHa's I~tlllllt D/lIl'/"silv (N.Y.: Macmillan, 1988). A comprehensive 1977 'national survey, conclt{ned specifically to measure ethnic identification in America, found that only .:1 percelll of Americans self-idelllified as being of Greek origin. This means there are about 7!i0,OOO self-identified Greek Americans, a number even lower than reported in the 1980 census. See Stephan Thernstrom, ed., Haruard Emydojl{'(/ia or AII/I'/"imn Ethnic Groujls (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980), p. 96!i. A handful of churches who follow the .I ulian Calendar, now thirteen days behind the lllodern calendar, remain outside the Archdiocese. Such !JIIltllolllll'rlOP/tlll-"old calendarists"-have demonstrated appeal for some recent immigrants, especially in the Astoria area of New York City, and seem destined to playa long-term if minor role in Eastern Orthodoxy in North America. Though we must be wary of analogies, the jJIIlaioillwrfogltai occupy a sociological position toward the Archdiocese akin to that of Hassidic Jews toward mainstream American Judaism. For an exposition of the Archbishop'S religious beliefs, see Archbishop lakovos with William Proctor, Fillth fiJI' a Lijdlllll' (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. 1988). Garry Clifford, "A Black Prince of the Church," Peojlll', Sept. 28, Hl87, pp. :Hl-3!i. Partly in reaction to the scandal, but more reflecting a general concern over the direction of the Church, an Orthodox Christian Laity group was formed in 1988. The new group, most of whose members were American born and many of whom have a long record of Church activity, viewed itself as a kind of loyal opposition within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. Eva Catafygiotu Topping, Holy Mothen orOrihodoxy (Minneapolis: Light and Life, 1987). Though by no means representing one viewpoint. leading advocates for a new role for women in the Greek Orthodox Church include Constance Callinacos, Sonya Jason, Valerie A. Karras, Alice Scourby, I-Ielen Theodoroupoulos. and Themi Vasils. This insight was lirst developed III George A. Kourvetaris, First and Secolld Generatioll Greeks 111 Chicago (Athens: National Center for SOCIal Research, 19'11). It is revealing to examine the marriage patterns of our five most prominent Greek-American political figures: Spiro Agnew, John Brademas, Michael Dukakis, Paul Sarllanes, and Paul Tsongas. None marrIed a Greek-American woman. Agnew and Brademas. themselves children of mixed marriages (Greek fathers and American mothers), were not raised in the Greek Orthodox faith. Dukakis married outside the Church. Tsongas and Sarbanes married non-Greek women in the Church. (;rel'k ;\CI"I'lIt editors have included Evant hia Allen, Orania Papazoglou, Steven Phillips, and Theodore G. Stavrou.

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171

24. The predecessor of Thl' Greek 11/111'1"11"1/11 was Proilli Wti'My RI'lJil'lu, a weekly that began publication in 1983 under the editorsillp of Athena DallasDamis. 2!i. Michael Manatos (l914-198:~), Andrew's father, is believed to he the first Greek American to work on Capitol Hill. The senior Manatos came to Washington in 19:~8 and served on the stafT of five Del1locratic senators from Wyoming, the home state where his Cretan forebears had settled. In 1\)61 Michael Manatos became the first Greek American to be appointed to the White House stall. He served as AdministratIve Assistallt for Congressional Relations under Presidents Kennedy and Jollllson. DurlIlg his career, Manatos played a major role in the policy of the United States toward Greece and Greek Americans. One of the first Greek Americans to know all AmcI"ican President was Paul Demos (1889-1983) of Chicago. Demos came from Corinth to America in l!lO9. He aU ended the University of Chicago Law School alld in E1l6 was the first Greek-born American to be admitted to the Illillois Bar. As an organizer of the Justice for Greece Commillee, Del1los all ended the Versailles peace conference in IDE) following World War 1. Demos became a friend of President Warren C. I-larding and advised him on mailers relating to Greece. 26. Leon Stavrou, working for AI-II and AHIPAC between 1!)7·1 alld 1982, was the first full-time registered lobbyist for a Greek-American organization. 27. Ahepa formed its own PAC in 198:~, but with a broader agenda (e.g., bilingual education, senior citizens, immigration law) than ,iust foreign policy. 28. The behind-the-scenes role of Peter N. Marudas, for manv vears on the Sarbanes stall, must also be credited for linking a wide net~I'(;rk of Greek Americans to Capitol Hill. In addition to Greek Americans, other key members of the Congress who have strongly supported the Creek-American cause were Senators 'rhomas F, Eagleton (D.-Mo.), Vallce I-Iartke (R.Ind.), Edward M. Kennedy (D.-Mass.), Claiborne Pell (D.-R. I.), and Charles I-I. Percy (R.-Ill.), and Representatives Donald Fraser (D.-Minn.), Wayne L. I-lays (D.-Ohio), and Benjamin S. Rosenthal (D.-N.Y.). 29. Paul y, Watanbe, Etllllll: Groll/IS, COllgress, (llId AlIIl'I"lcrlll Forl'lgll Polil.)' (Westport, Conn.: Westview, 1984), pp. 167-68. :~(). For a criticism or Papandreou by a Greek-American leftist, see .lames Petras, "The Rise and Fall of Greek Socialism," itl Th!?sl' Tillll's, Jan. 2!l-Feb. 4, 198(), pp. ll-14. 31. For an examination of Greece's image In the United States during the Papendreou era, see Manny Paraschos, C;rl'tCl' IIlId thi' illlIl'I"II"{//1 Press (N.Y.: Krikos, 1986). NI'1I! Yorli Ti III I'S , August 7, 1987, p. 2. In 1988 the General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad, Ministry of Culture, started an innovative and well-designed language and cult.lIre program in Greece for American college students of Greek origin (descendants of Greek immigrants in other areas were also eligible). The pilot program of sixty students was quickly oversubscribed. Theoni Velli, who received her doctorate in the United States, directed the program.

POLITICS AND THE CREEK ROOTS OF MICHAEL DUKAKIS

c

H

A

p

T

E

R

N

N

E

"Bucks, brains, and baklava." So the Wall Stred Jourl/al in 1988 described (~reek-American successes in politics. I In fact', Greek-American politiCIan.s had dOW~lS as well as ups in the 1980s. In 1980 John Brademas of IndIana I~)st hIS seat after serving twenty-two years in Congress, where he !1;~d n~en. to I-louse Democratic Whip. Republican Lewis A. "Skip" Bafahs left hIS I-louse seat in 1982 to nm for governor of Florida and lost. I-Iel~n Ge,'lllakoplis B.o0salis, the daughter of Spartan immigrants, was the fIrst (,reek-AmerIcan woman to run for governor. Boosalis, a two-term mayor of Lincoln, Nebraska, lost a close election as her state's 198G Democratic gubernatorial candidate. On an unsavory note, in 1988 Greek-American Lee Alexander, four-time mayor of Syracuse, New York, pleaded guilty to extortion and accepting kickback payments while running the city. None of this, of course, was as damaging to the Greek-American political self-image as Spiro Agnew's resignation from the vice presidency in 197:) am id charges of illegal financial dealings while in office in Maryland. Although Agnew's ties to the Greek community were tenuous at best, he did represent the cultural conservatism of most Greek Americans. Agnew's fall from grace was a particular shame to the Greek-American community. Greek Americans in politics have also enjoyed notable successes since Agnew's time. 2 In the 100th Congress, elected in 198G, five Greeks . served in the I-louse of RepresentatIves: Democrats Gus Yatron of Pennsylvania and Nicholas Mavroules Of. Massachusetts, and Republicans Olympia Bouchles Snowe of Maine, MIChael Bilirakis of Florida, and George W. Gekas of Pennsylvania. A total of twelve Greek Americans have been elected to the I-louse of Representatives.~\ In San Francisco Art Agnos's populist mayoral campaIgn brought hml a landslide victory in 1987. This was the second time S~n .Francisco had el~cted a Greek-American mayor; Republican George ChrIstopher served 111 that office from 1956 to 1964. It is also of some ethnic not.e that both John B. Anderson and

Politics and the Greek Roots if Michael Dukakis

17g

I~atrick J. Ll\(:ey, presidential and vice-presidential candidates respectIvely on the mdependent t.hird-party ticket. of 1980, were married to daughters of Greek immigrants. Moreover, both Keke Machakos Anderson and Jean Vlasis Lucey displayed a striking independence of mind that did not. fit the usual mold of women whose husbands were running for the highest offices of in the land. Paul E. Tsongas, one of Greek America's most prominent SOilS, made a life-changing decision in 198:3 that inspired all America. Tsongas, the son of an immigrant from Thessaly who spent most of his worki~lg life operating a dry-cleaning plant in Lowell, was planning to run for a second term as Democratic United States Senator from Massachusetts. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale Law School and a former Peace Corps volunteer, Tsongas's successful political career was in full swing; there was even talk of higher office. But at a?;e forty-two, Tson?;as discovered that he had an incurable. t!Jou?;h treatable, cancer. He chose to discontinue his political career to devote more time to his bmily. Bein?; forced to view his world from a new perspective, Tsongas demonstrated that beill?; a father and husband was what he wanted above all else. As Tsongas remarked: "No one on his deathbed ever said, 'I wish I had spent more time on my business.' ",I The dean of Greek-American political figures is Paul S. Sarbanes, the Democratic Senator from Maryland. Sarbanes was born and raised in Salisbury on Maryland's Eastern Shore, where he waited Oil tables and washed dishes in his father's restaurant. His academic alld athletic skills propelled him to Princeton University, then to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar (like John Brademas), and finally to Harvard Law School (where one of his classmates was Michael Dukakis). In 1970 Sarbancs was elected to the I-louse of Representatives, where he served three terms. In 1976 he was elected to the Senate and he has been reelected twice. Sarbanes serves as ranking member of the Senate Forei?;n Relations Committee, the Committee on Bankin?;, I-lousing and Urban Afhirs, and the Joint Economic Committee, which he has chaired. . In many ways Paul Sarbanes's family background is a paradigm of the Greek immigrant experience. His father, Spyros (1S9g-1957), was born in a Laconian village in the southernmost Peloponneslls, where he acquil:ed some elementary school education. Youn?; Spyros arrived in AmerIca around 1908 to join a cousin in Massachusetts. After serving in the U.S. Navy service in World War 1. Spyros moved to Salisbury, wl~ere there was a "candy kitchen" for sale. In a few years he opened the Mayflower Grill, which he operated for many years as the county seat's best restaurant. (Spyros's choice of an unmistakably American name for his establishment, one not quite appropriate for Maryland at that. may have been a not-so-unconscious sign of his identification with his new homeland.) Spyros usually opened the restaurant before lunch and

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closed after midnight. Not until the late 1940s was he persuaded to close on Sundays, Spyros married late, at age forty. His wife, Matina, another Laconian immigrant, worked alongside her husband in the family business. After Spyros's death she operated the restaurant alone for several years, bllt found it too wearing, and the Mayflower closed in 1960. Paul recollects that his father "worked like a dog" and was "chained to the restaurant." Yet despite the killing hours he put ill at the restaurant, Spyros was an avid follower of current events. He regularly read the New York Times and the Greek-language Atlantis and NatIOnal Herald. Spyros died when his son was at Oxford, and Paul still regrets that he had so little time with his father. The l~lIl1ily rupture that usually marks the adolescent years of so many American youths was absent in the Sarbanes household despite (or perhaps because of) the contrast between parents of humble origins and children of exceptional achievement. (Paul's sister, Zoe, graduated from Wellesley College; his brother, Anthony, became an assistant superintendent of schools and a general in the U.S. Army Reserve.) Although Paul's parents were relatively assimilated and even though few Greeks lived on the eastern shore, the children of Spyros and Matina Sarbanes have always affirmed their Greekness, as have their own children. In any accounting of Greek Americans in politics it is important to note that whatever election victories they enjoy are not due to a Greek voting constituency. Nowhere in this country are there enough Greek voters to make an appreciable difference in any m;~jor election. The highest percentage of Greeks in any congressional district is found in New York's Ninth District in western Queens (Geraldine Ferraro's old district), which includes Astoria's Greeks; even here the Greek proportion is only 5 percent. Greeks make up between 2 and 3 percent of the voters in three districts: the Massachusetts Sixth (Lynn and Peabody); the Illinois Eleventh (northwest Chicago), and New York's Eighth (northeast Queens). Another ten districts are about 1 percent Greek. In other words, Greeks constitute less than I percent of the electorate in 97 percent of all congressional districts." As a result of these small numbers, any Greek American seeking higher office must frame an appeal that attracts broad support. (As we shall see, the numerical insignificance of Greek-American voters is more than counterbalanced by their generosity to Greek-American candidates and to friends of Greece.) Thus the small size of the Greek-American electorate has turned out to be an asset rather than a handicap to GreekAmerican political fortunes. One can affirm one's Greek ethnic identity without being viewed as an advocate or product of a particular ethnic constituency. This reality characterizes the elections of Greek Americans to city halls, state houses anc! Capitol Hill. Most important, it underlies the rise of Michael S. Dukakis's rise to national prominence.

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GREEK ORIGINS: DUKAKISES AND BOUKISES

On his father's side, Michael Dukakis's roots extend to the island of Lesbos, known more commonly to Greeks as Mytilene, after its capital.
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of the empire that lay in nearby Asia Minor. (Mytilene did not become part of independent Greece until 1914.) When Stylianos was twelve, he moved across the straits to Edremit in mainland Turkey to work in a general store owned by relatives. In due course, Stylianos opened his own store. . On one of his frequent return visits to Pelopi, probably around 188?: Stylianos married a fellow villager, Olympia Georgiou (186b-1941), who had never left her home village. Stylianos took his bride back to Edremit where their five children were bom: Athanasios (1888), George (1893), Panos (1896), Marina (1897), and Constantine (1904). Stylianos, however, returned periodically to Mytilene to record his children's births in the official registry ill Pelopi. Stylianos, like may Greeks in Asia Minor, at first welcomed the Young Turks' revolt or 1908. Soon, however, it became apparent that the Young Turks' xenophobia was a much greater threat to the survival of the Greeks than the old Ottoman order. With his business in Edremit failing, Stylianos could see the handwriting on the wall. (In 1922 the three-millenium-old Greek population in Asia Minor suffered a major catastrophe with the creation of over 1 million refugees, many of wh~m1 were literally pushed into the sea.) On a visit to Mytilene, Stylianos's eldest son, Athanasios, was encouraged by his mother's brother, Theoclis, to migrate to America. Athanasios did not wait for his blther's approval in Edremit, but left directly from Mytilene and arrived in America in 1910. Arthur (the American name that Athanasios soon adopted) initially settled in Manchester, New Hampshire, where a first cousin, George Stratios, had preceded him. Arthur first worked in the mills and then opened his own tailor shop. Once settled, he sent for the bmily's second eldest, his brother George. George, who had already spent some time in Russia looking for opportunity, came to the United States in 1911. Once in this country, George made a decent living as a chef, occasionally in his own restaurants, but more often working for others. In 1912 Arthur and George sent for Panos, the third eldest brother. Panos was to become the father of Michael Dukakis. With three sons already in America and with the uncertain future orthe old country, the decision to move the rest of the family to the U.S. was inevitable. In 1916 Olympia arrived with her youngest child, Constantine. According to the plan Stylianos and Marina, the remaining sister, were to follow but the world war intervened and the last of the Dukakises did not come over until 1918. Constantine Dukakis received a law degree from Boston University, but never practiced law. He was a headstrong man and his life was marked by strong friendships and enmities, including interminable fights with the Archdiocese. Constantine's daughter, Olympia Dukakis, the actress, was named after Constantine's mother.

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Tragedy struck the Dukakis family with the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919. Stylianos died in 1918 only a few weeks after his arrival in the U.S. His eldest son, Arthur, died soon after, leaving behind a pregnant wife and a baby. Marina also was affected severely by the flu and never recovered fully. George became the head of the family. When Panos arrived in the U.S. at the age of sixteen, he had already received the equivalent of a high school education in the old country. He lived with his brother George, first in Manchester and later in Lawrence and Lowell in Massachusetts. Panos's earlY.lobs consisted of stints in the mills, working with George in restaurants, and helping out in Arthur's tailor shop. When Panos burned a customer's trousers while pressing them, Arthur declared that Panos was not cut out for menial labor. Panos agreed. He had higher aspirations almost frol11 the beginning. Panos attended Lowell High School and the YMCA where he took English lessons. He perfected his English at the American International Academy (now American International College) in Springfield. With strong encouragement and financial help from George, Panos went 1.0 college. He took premedical courses first at Boston College and then at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where he Iinished his studies in 1920. Panos applied for admission to the medical schools at both Harvard and Dartmouth. His initial application to Harvard was rejected by an admissions officer who disliked Panos's immigTant backgT
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Ioannina, the capital of Epirus. (The ancestors of Michael Boukis included Vlachs, a nomadic Balkan people of Roumanian-speaking origins.) As a teenager, Michael. whose father was a shepherd, moved to Larissa, the capital of 'fhessaly and one of the larger cities on Greece's east coast. There he worked as a bookkeeper in a marketing firm. On one of his trips back to Vrisohori, probably around IHHH, he married Chrysoula Kambourios (1HGO-1940) of the same village. In Larissa, Michael and Chrysoula Boukis produced six children: Nicholas (1H90), Adam
POLITICS AND 'rIlE CREEK ROOTS OF MICHAEL DUKAKIS

17!)

boardinghouses. Although Michael was well educated by Creek standarc\s and an autodidact, his English was always heavily accented and broken. Chrysoula, with only a few years of schooling in Greece, never really learned to speak English. Neither of Euterpe's parents ever returned to visit t he old countrv, but neither did they ever become U.S. citizens. At the age of nine Euterpe enrolled in the first grade in the Winter School in Haverhill. She recalls that she spoke no English for her first six months at school, but one day suddenly, "my tongue opened up." She graduated from the eighth grade at thirteen. The principal of the school, Stanley Gray, was a significant influence. I-Ie became the sponsor and friend of the bright young Greek immigrant unt.il his death in 193H. When her son Michael was born, Euterpe gave him the middle name of Stanley in memory of the man who had served as her mentor. With the encouragement of Stanley Gray and the willingness of her father, Euterpe enrolled in Bates College. She was t he first Greek woman from Haverhill to attend college; she may also have been the first Greek immigrant girl anywhere in the U.S. to leave home to go to college. Euterpe believes her father's views were so advanced that even if they had remained in Greece he would have encouraged her to receive an advanced education. In any event, her actions caused a great deal of clucking among the Greek women in Haverhill, both for going to college and even more for leaving home. Euterpe felt comfortable at Bates, where she majored in English and history, "Tippie," as she was known by her classmates, had some scholarship aid, but also worked at school during the academic year and in the mills during the summer. Euterpe received financial support from her family, particularly her bachelor brother, Nicholas. (Nicholas was to become the godfather of Michael Dukakis.) Euterpe took special pleasure in being a member of the Bates choir and in living up to her namesake, the muse of music. Euterpe never dated in college ("not that there weren't plenty of opportunities"), but f'elt that such hehavior would betray her parents' "trust." In 1925, a scant twelve years after she arrived at Ellis Island, Euterpe Boukis graduated Phi Beta Kappa. Euterpe was turned clown for several teaching positions near Haverhill because, she believes, she was an immigrant with a foreign name. Decades later the resentment remains. Her first job was in the high school in Ashland, New Hampshire. Euterpe mainly taught English and history, but also a little French and Latin. While at Ashland, Euterpe obtained her U.S. citizenship on her own initjative (not, like so many Greek immigrant women, through marriage to a naturalized American). In 1927, she took a teaching position at the junior high school in Amesbury, Massachusetts, not far from her family home in Haverhill, where she taught until she married in 1929. Euterpe Boukis and Panos Dukakis first met in 1920, when she was "

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had fallen into disrepair; it was not until the 1970s that Manolis built a new and quite pleasant three-room house on the old foundation. When Michael Dukakis visited Pelopi in 1976, the Dukakises had long gone. St.ill many of the old villagers spoke to Nlir:lUlli about his relations and, perhaps more movingly, about the visit by Panos and Euterpe forty years earlier. THE GREEKNESS OF MICHAEL DUKAKIS

The most notable feature of Michael Dukakis's ethnic sensibility is while he is comfortable with his Greek roots he is singularly at ease in American society. One biography aptly titled the chapter on Dukakis's youth "The All-American Boy."? The simple fact is that Dukakis's Greekness as such has not been a determining factor ill his rise through school. his profession, and Massachusetts politics; though, as we shall see later, the Greek theme became a key part of his national campaign for the presidency. Dukakis was an honor student at competitive Brookline High School, where he was student council president, a basket hall player, and a cross-country runner. Michael attended college at Swarthmore, a prestigious liberal-arts college, where he was student body president. During the slimmer of 1954, he earned a scholarship that allowed him to travel widely in Latin America where he acquired Iluent Spanish. Upon graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore in \955, Dukakis did not take the graduate school deferment taken by many or his friends and served instead as a draftee with the U.S. Army in Korea. After military service he enrolled in Harvard Law School. graduating with honors in 1960. He then practiced law, with a specialty in housing, while becoming immersed in Brookline politics. Dukakis attained his first elective office in 1962 as a member of the Massachusetts legislature, where he served four terms. After running unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1970, he returned to his law practice and also moderated "The Advocates," a public afrairs television program. Dukakis won the Massachusetts gubernatorial race in 1974. but suffered a demoralizing defeat in his bid for reelection in 1978. Then he joined the faculty of the Kennedy School of (;overnment at Harvard, where he served as director of intergovernmental studies. In 1982 Dukakis made a stunning political comeback by being reelected governor, and in 1986 he won a landslide reelection victorv. (In a GreekAmerican "first," both 1986 gubernatorial candidates. Democrat Dukakis and Republican George Kariotis, were sons of Greek immigrants.j In 1988 Dukakis was nominated the Democrat.ic candidate for President or the United States-the first son of immigrants ever to be so honored by a m<~jor political party.

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POLITICS AND THE GREEK Rours OF MICHAEL DllKAKIS

Like most (;reek-Americans, Michael Dukakis grew up in an environment in which there were tugs between Greek and American ways. Complicated loyalties to one's ancestral Greek culture and to one's American life were as inevitable in the Dukakis family as in almost all Greek immigrant families. Surely Panos and Euterpe did not want a restrictive Greek upbringing to handicap their children's success in the wider, more important. American world. At the same time, they wanted to instill into their children a respect and knowledge of things Greek. Like many others, they sought the best of both worlds. The m,~jor departure of the Dukakis household from the typical Greek-American family was not its social psychology but in its social mobility. Panos and Euterpe were exceptional because they made the upward leap into the established classes in a single generation rather than in the usual two. The classic Greek immigrant struggle for social respectability and financial security was over in the Dukakis family by the time Michael was born. In addition, as the son of a doctor and a teacher among the Jews and Irish of upper-middle-class Brookline, Michael did not experience the typical Greek-American childhood. Still these are differences of degree rather than of kind. Michael Dukakis's essential Greek upbringing is unquestionable. Panos's mother, Olympia, had moved in with the family before Michael was born. With a )'ia)'/(/ who spoke only Creek in the house, the boys learned Greek literally at their grandmother'S knee. (Olympia died when Michael was seven.) The bilingual Panos and Euterpe made special efforts to see that their sons would also be bilingual. The boys went to Greek school and tutors came to t.heir home. The family was not. especially devout, but identified strongly with Greek Orthodox traditions. Greek holy days were celebrated along with U.S. holidays. Michael attended Sunday school (where a curmudgeon priest of the old school made life miserable for him and his brother). Panos was a respected and well-known pillar of the Boston Greek-American community. For many years he tre(~ted the seminarians without charge at the Holy Cross theological school in Brookline. Although t.he family did not restrict its cird~ of friends to Greeks, they interacted often with their relatives, and with the size of the Dukakis and Boukis dans their Greek ties were frequent. If asked to judge where Michael's upbringing would fall on a scale of "more Greek" or "more American," I would place it very dose to the average for (~reek-American upbringing. In 1963 Michael Dukakis married Katharine "Kitty" Dickson, the daughter of I-larry Ellis Dickson, a former violinist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the retired associate director of the Boston Pops. At the time of their marriage Kitty, a divorcee, had a five-year-old son, John. Michael's parents, especially Panos, were not happy about the imp,ending marriage-not so much, says Euterpe, because of Kitty'S Jewlshness but because she was a divorcee with a child. Michael and Kitty

POLITICS AND THE

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were married in 1963 in a Unitarian service, anel Michacllcgallv adopted John shortly after the marriage. Michael and Kitty also have two daughters, Andrea, hol'll in 1965, and Kant, bom in 19GH. The children were not baptized. Initial family doubts were dispelled hv what is a remarkably happy marriage, according to all accounts. Michael's reserve and Kitty's vivaciousness have turned olll. to he uniquely complementary. The status of Michael Dukakis in the Greek Orthodox Church became somewhat of a minor /lap once he achieved national prominence as the Democratic presidential candidate. Some of the attacks on Dukakis's standing in the Church were dearly political, bllt others came from sincere and informed questioners. H Archdiocesan regulations state that any Orthodox Christian whose wedding has not been hlessed by the Orthodox Church is no longer "in good standing," hence no lo'nger eligible to receive the sacramellls including Holy Comll1l1nio'nY Dukakis's marriage would seem to place him outside the categorv of good standing in the Church. In a 19HH press interview, h;)\ve'ver, Archbishop lakovos stated that the attacks on Dukakis's standing in the Church came from "small people." The Archbishop, who has maintained relationships with Dukakis and his parents since Michael's boyhood, termed Dukakis "a son of the Church." Dukakis, the Archbishop observed, "was born into the Church, was baptized in the Church, and had never left the Church."lo The Archbishop'S defense in turn pl'Ovoked crit.icism that he was overlooking Dukakis's st raying, In realit.y there is ambiguity on the canonical nat lire of mixed rnarriages. 11 Unlike Roman Catholicism, Greek Orthodoxy is not a legalistic religion and has more levels of tolerance. Emin'ent Greek Orthodox theologians poilll out. that mixed marriages between Christians and non-Christians have been common in both the historical and the contemporary Church, and Orthodox Christians ill such marriages are not excommunicated automatically. Contrary to a strict reading of current Archdiocesan regulations, the Church has never beell inflexible on this important question. What the stir over Dukakis's marriage can do is highlight the issue of mixed marriages and encourage thinking that is practical and canonically consistent with Greek Orthodox tradition. The fact of the matter is that sound arguments can be made for either side of Dukakis's standing in the Greek Orthodox Church. It seems churlish, then, not to give him the benefit of the doubt. My own appraisal, based on conversations with Dukakis, is that he knew he would have to make a certain sacrifice when he married outside !he Church. His love for his wife and his commitment to his family make him aware of the sacrifice, but this awareness has not lessened his identitv with the Church in which he was raised and considers himself a congl'·egant. Certainly most Greek Americans would /'eel more comfortable if Michael Dukakis had been married in the Greek Orthodox Church and

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had baptized his children. But only the most thickheaded could doubt his strong Greek ethnic identity. DlIkakis speaks Greek fluently; he has always been a dues-paying member of the Annunciation Cathedral in Boston; he has visited his parents' birthplaces; he is proud of his Greek background. Also revealing, Dukakis counts several Boston-area Greek Americans among his closest friends, 12 Dukakis's Greekness was a determining factor in his successful quest for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination, His immigrant story opened the hearts and the wallets of Greek America. Euterpe Dukakis, addressing a rally of Greek Americans, stated aptly, "I-Ie's not just III)' son, he is the son of all Greeks everywhere."J:I Greek-American donors enabled Dukakis to set a fund-raising record early in his nomination campaign. "The Dukakis money machine left other Democrats in the dust," reported the Wall Street .IoUI"IWf.I'1 Not only did the Greek-American community give Dukakis the financial boost to survive the early months of the campaign, it also served as the initial base for a nationwide Dukakis organization. Without this support Dukakis never would have had the staying power to make it through the early months of the campaign race. Two paradoxes characterize the intersection between Dukakis's Greekness and his race for the presidency. First his ethnic identification became stronger as his national prominence grew. Rather than seeing his Greek origin as limiting his appeal, Dukakis saw it as a way to express his thorough understanding of the opportunity that America could offer. The other paradox was that Dukakis's "liberal" (though he avoided that term) values were in opposition to those of his earliest and strongest supporters-conservative Greek-Americans. Blood proved to be thicker than ideology. I:) 'rhe final question about Michael Dukakis's Greekness is not what Greek Americans think but what Americans think. Even to c!i"cuss the effect. of DlIkakis's ethnic backgTOlll1d on his presidential race shows the distance that. Greek Americans have covered in this country, Two astute observers (neither one Greek) of the American scene offer diametrically opposing interpretations. Novelist Philip Roth stat.es that the 1988 Republican campaign strategy was "to insinuate t.hat there is something t.hat remains un naturalized in a man called Dukakis, an ineradicable alienness." Hi Political columnist Hendrik Hertzberg, however, describes Michael Dukakis as a "generic ethnic ... an assimilated Greek American who succeeds ill being a mirror for other et.hnics without displeasing non-et.hnics."I? I think that both of these charact.erizations are wide of the mark. When Americans ponder the Greek roots of Michael Dukakis (to the degree that t.hey ponder them at. all), their reference point is not. Dukakis himself but rather the Greek Americans they have met and known personally. More than anything else, Michael Dukakis is the beneficiary

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of the good name made by Greek Americans in t heir home communities. II' The true measure of Greek-American standing ill American society is IlOt. the upward mobility of the immigrants' sons and daughters. but in the immigrants t.hemselves. 'They came to America without knowing the language and without educatjon. They had their share of rascals and more than their share of infighting, but Zorbas they were not. On the whole they worked incredibly hanl. They raised solid families in the new country alld shouldered responsibilities for t.hose in the old. They brought Greek Orthodoxy to a new wodd, They laid the basis for an enduring Creek-American community, We shall never see their likes again. NOTES I. Wa!1 Slrl'l'l./o/lr/III/, March 2fl, IDRR. p. 4G. 2. For an extended discussion or Creek Alllericans in politics. see Peter N. Marudas. "Creek Involvement in Contelllporary Polilics." in Harry ./. Psomiades and Alice ScouriJy, eds., 1'hl' (;rt:l'li A/Ill'I'il'llll CO/Il/ll/llilf l ' 1111'1'1111.11f/(m (N.Y.: Pella. 19H2), pp. !l3-11O. :l. The cOlllplele rosIer or Creek Alllericans who have served in the U.S. House of Representatives follows: Lucas Miltiades l\!iller (R.-Wis.), IR!lO-92; John Brademas (D.-Ind.), 19f1R-HO; Nick Galafianakis (D.-N.C.). 19G6-72; Peter Kyros (D.-Me.), 1!)()(i-7'1, (;us Yalron (D,-Pa.), E)(iR-presenl; Lewis A, BaLdis (R.-Fla.), 1!l72-R2; Paul E. Tsongas (D.Mass.), 1974-7R; Nicholas Mavl"Oules (D.-Mass.), 197H-prcscnt; Olympia Bouchles Snowe (R.-Me.), l!lH2-prescnt; Michael Bilirakis (R.-Fla.), 19R2-present; Ceorge W, Gekas (R.-Pa.), 1!)H2-prescnl. 'I. Paul Tsongas, I-I/'{/ding /-/01111' (N.Y.: Knope ElR'l), p. Hi!. fl. Jcnnifer D. Williams. "Greek Population by State and Congressional Dislrict," unpublished report of' (;overnmenl Division, Congressional Research Service. Library or Congress. dated ./une 2G. 19Rfl. ii. Useful biographies of Michael Dukakis are: Charles Kenney and Rohert L. Turner. DU!lIIhis: J\II A/III'I'II'wl Odyssl'Y (Boston: Houghton Milliin. IDRR); and Richard Gaines and Michael Segal. DII!III!OS I/nd Ihl' [{I'(rmll JIII/JII/se (Boston: Quinlan Press. 19RH). Insightful pieces on Michael Dukakis are Gary Wills, "Are You Ready America for President Dukakis?" G(2. Feb., 19HH, pp. 204-9. 251-fl2; Gary Wills, "Born to Bustle," Tillie, July 25, I!)RR, pp, 12-17; and Gail Sheehy, "The Metamorphosis or Mike Dukakls," in her ChI/racier: A/IlI'I'II'I/"s Sel/rch Ir)/' j,l'IIdcrshijJ (N.Y.: Morrow, 19RR). pp. 222-fll. The accoullt given here traces the Greek origins of Ihe Dukakis and Boukis family !l'ee in a much more detailed iilshion than pre\'iously given in any published source. The information is based malllly on in-depth interviews with Euterpe Dukakis, and shorter conversations wIIh Michael Dukakis and Arthur Dukakis. Ship registers obtained through the efforts of Peter Dickson were used whenever possible. Also. I made a personal visit to Pelopi inJ uly or 19HH. Discrepancies exist for SOllle ofthe birth years for the ninelenth-century Dukakis and Boukis family members, Birth years given here are often educated guesses and may be off a year or Iwo. 7, Gaines and Segal. o/J.I'il .. pp. II -17. H. The controversy began when James G. Jatras, an analyst ror the Republican Party Policy Committee, circulated a leuer 111 which he called Dukakis "an

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Modern Greek studies continued to grow in the I 91-10s, Three highquality scholarly journals came into being: the ./1II1I'lW/ or Modem Gr!'!'h Stur/ies in 198:3, the ./0 11m a/ i'v/or/el'll HellenislII in Em-I, and the A/or/lml Grah Studies Y{'{frbooh in 1985. 1 All these journals included occasional pieces on Greek America, as did the continuing ./011 I'll a/ th!' J-Iellellir: DiasjJOrrt. According to the survey of the Modern Greek 5t udies Association, some thirty American colleges and universities offered programs in modern Greek, namely language instruction and courses in literature, culture, and history, In terms of number of students and range of offerings, far the largest of these programs was the Center for Byzant.ine and Modern Greek Studies at Queens College, City Uni\'ersit.y of New York, under t.he directorship of I-larry J. Psomiades. Major programs existed at t.he following universit.ies: Ohio Stat.e, Princeton, Harvard, Florida, and San Francisco State. Many other programs. oft.en reflecting the energies and commitment of a single f~lculty member, had a tenuous existence within t.heir instit.ution's budgel. A st.artling exception to the usual penury of Greek stlldies programs was created in 1987 when the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation, based in Athens, made a gift of $15 million to New York University to establish a center for Hellenic studies. Never before had anything approaching such a sum been given to any institution for this purpose. As university president John Brademas said: "With one incredible stroke. this gift will catapult New York University to the forefront of Hellenic studies in the world." With the appointment of Speros Vryonis, Jr., Tennessee-born son of Greek immigrants and internationally renowned Byzantinist, as its first director, NYU's Center for Hellenic Studies seemed to be well launched, Yet the very size of the Onassis gift provoked second thoughts. In light of the impoverishment in which Greek studies operate, a legitimate question can be raised whether selecting a single institutioll. one with no track record in Greek studies. is the best way to advance the cause of Hellenic studies in America. As a field of teaching and research, modern

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Greek studies in particular seem destined never t.o become a mainstream academic interest. In spite of its outsize cultural achievements, modern Greece is simply too small, geographically and linguistically, to attract the research attention accorded to larger nations or regions, The great accomplishments in modern Greek studies in higher education are a tribute to those who risked marginalizing themselves within their own academic disciplines. How much better would it have been for Hellenic studies in general if the Onassis Foundation had decided to distribute a fraction of its gift to some of the existing modern Greek programs? If modern Greek studies are straining to gain a foothold in the university world, the situation of Greek-American studies is even more vulnerable. Almost all academics who write about Greek-Americans do so as secondary interest. This situation GlIl be blamed partially on the small market for Greek-American studies, but the problem is more than a matter of demand. Greek-American studies, with their focus on immigrants, are declasst~ among most scholars who deal with contemporary Greece. One of the accomplishments of scholars of modern Greece has been to assert the legitimacy of their sul~ject matter by separating it from classical Greek and Byzant.ine studies. In parallel fashion, GreekAmerican studies will remain undeveloped unless they are separated from modern Greek studies. The epic figure in Greek-American studies was Theodore Saloutos (1910-1980). Born in Milwaukee of immigrant working-class parents, Saloutos became a professor of history at the University of California at Los Angeles. Before he began to work in Greek-American history, he established a national reputation as a historian of American agriculture. In 1964 Saloutos published the monumental work in the field, The Grcclis in Ihe United States (out of print since 1980). Subsequently he authored many studies on Greek Americans, including the posthumously published entry on Greek Americans in the Harvard Elltycloj)edia 0rAlllertca/i Elhnic Grollj)s. Saloutos was not enthralled either with oral history or with the numbers of the cliometricians. He was an old-fashioned narrative historian who relied mainly on the printed word for sources. His papers have been preserved and catalogued at the Immigratjon History Research Center at the University of Minnesota; no other collection of Greek Americana approaches the range of the Saloutos archives. The preservation of the Saloutos papers is a threshold event in GreekAmerican historiography. Yet since the death of Theodore Saloutos not a single university-based historian has studied Greek Americans as a main research topic. Despite the virtual absence of Creek-American studies in the academy, the contemporary period has seen an outpouring of publicatjons. More has been written on Greek Americans in the 1980s than in all previous years. Full references for the publications cited here are given in the bibliography, To be sure, only a few of these works had prestige

MODERN CREEK AND GREEK-AMERICAN STUDIES

IHD

publishers and the quality was uneven. Still, the list was impressive. Five general books on Greek Americans came out: George Papaioallnou's The Odyssey or Hellenism in Alllenw, Alice Scourby's The Creth j\II~{':'/{:a/ls" tW? books in Greek by Constantine Tsirplanis, and the IIrst edItIon of thiS book. Two collections of conference papers were published: The Creeh American CO/ll.1/I.Ulllh' 111 Trallsitiou edited by Harry J. Psomiades and Alice Scourby, and Edl/.c~ltl{))1 awl Greeli AlIIlTic{//Is edited by Spyros D. Orfanos, I-larry J. Psomiades, and John Spiridakis. A major event in GreekAmerican historiography was the publication of Andrew T. Kopan's long-awaited The Gn'chs ill Chicago. In addition, and perhaps 1110.st significant, conferences on various aspects of the Greek experIence III America are being held with increasing frequency,:! Of particular not.e is the research being conducted Iw I he follo~ving persons: Chrysie M. Cost.antakos on variations between generatIons, St.eve A. Demakopoulos on (~reek-American lexicography, Peter DICkson on nineteenth-century Greek immigrants, St.eve Frangos on t.he anthropology of Greek America, Dan Georgakas on the Creek-American left, George Tselos on Greek-American archives and, hlSIOrIography, Andrew T. Kopan on Greek-American education, Maria C. I\.oremenu on Creek-American identity, Yorges A. Kourvetaris 011 t.he sociology of Greek Americans, Spyros D, Orfanos on Greek-American educat.ion, Nicholas J. Rozakos on the Greek-American t.heater, Alice Scourby on the sociai psychology of Greek Americans, Evan Vlachos on GreekAmerican demography, and Elias Vlanton on Greek AmerIcans dunng World War II. Deserving special mention in the field of regional Greek-American studies are Anna Caraveli and Nicholas M. Prevas on Balumore, Helen G. Chapin on Hawaii, George P. Daskarolis on San Francisco, Demet:'ios Monos on Boston and Philadelphia, Dean P. Talagan on WYOlllll1g, Nicholas V. Karas and Charles G, Sam pas on Lowell, Milton Kouroubetis on Indiana and Michigan, and Christine Warnke on Washington, DC. The standard for regional studies cOlllinues t(~ be I-Ielen Zeese Papanikolas whose work on the ereeks in t he AmerIcan West is unsurpassed. Cinematic renditions of Greek-American life oughl also to be listed. Most noteworthy are documentaries. Goorbughl Socrales (1962), produced by Maria Moraites, is about the last days of Chicago's Halsted Street Greek Town. Doreen Moses produced A Village III Balllll/ore (1981) focusing on Greek-American women, and Oue Oil FII{'I,)' Corner (l~!83) about Manhattan's Greek-owned coffee shops. In 1982 "AmerIcan Playhouse," the public television series, produced two exceptional dramas on Greek Americans: King orAlllerica, a slice-of-life of an immigrant Greek worker around the time of World War I; and The Pali/ulrl, a look at a prosperous Greek immigrant's visit to his home village accompanied by his American-born son (Telly Savalas played the father).

IDO

i'vIODERN (;REEK AND CREEK-AMERICAN STUDIES

Greek America has also been the subject. of books of photographs. Especially good is Jenny Marketou's Tht, (;re(/t LOllp;illf{: The Greekl' of Astoria. Also noteworthy are Thomas Doulis's photographic history of the Greeks in Oregon. A SlIIge to the Sm. Maria Karras. The (;reek in Us: My Grrnu!lIlOlhtT (md I. and Leo Panas and Charles N ikitopoulos. The First Greek hllllli,I!,T([nts ill Low!'lI. lHas.mchllseils. Special mention must be made of two slide show and lecture programs: "Continuities: Origins in Greece. Realities in America," by Leon Marinakos; and "The Tzintzinians in America" by Peter Dickson. Severalmuseull1 exhibits on Greek Americans require recognition: "The Greek Experience in America." a traveling exhibit developed by the Ahepa in 1976; "Our Plymouth Rock," at the SI. Photios Greek Orthodox Shrine in SI. Augustine, Florida. opened in 1982; "The Greeks of Utah." at the Utah Historical Society from 1982 to 1986; "The Greek-American Family: Continuity Through Change." under the auspices of Hellenic Horizons opened in 1982 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and is available for tours. Perhaps the most amazing repository of Greek Americana is that of Gust J. "Dino" Pappas, SI. Clair Shores, Michigan. who has collected over 4.000 78 rpm records covering the Greek recording industry in this country from the early twentieth century to the late 1950s. . The Greek-American scene has also been the sul~iect. of humor and stage. I-lope Christopoulos Mihalap, Norfolk, Virginia, has convulsed luncheon and dinner audiences with her recounting of growing up Greek American. Chicago-born Stephanie Cotsirilos produced and starred in "About Face," (1985). a revue that featured skits on the humorous ambiguities of being Greek American. Cotsirilos, a Yale Law School graduate, has also written a play, 1'(11/)011 Sjmnp,;I'. about two sisters being both Greek and American. The Greek Theater of New York was founded in 1978 under the directorship of Yannis Simonides. Despite financial ups and downs. the Greek Theater continues to perform classical and modern Greek plays for an appreciative audience. One of its best-received productions was Ej)ith!'orisi ("Revue") in English and Greek, a serious and funny compilation of music. dance. poetry, and skits of contemporary Greek-American life. Although Greek-American studies seem to be approaching a point of crystalization, significant gaps in research are apparent. especially regarding institutions that have had a lasting and significant effect on Greek America. The emergence of a reflective scholarship within Greek Orthodoxy in America is evident, especially in the writings of a remarkable group of scholar-priests: Anthony M. Coniaris, Leonidas Contos. Demetrios J. Constantelos. Miltiades B. Efthimiou, Stanley S. Harakas, George Nicozisin, George Papaioannou. Nicon D, Patrinakos, Eusebius Stephanou, and Nomikos M. Vaporis. Another source of commentary on the Church is found among lay scholars whose writings strongly

MODERN GREEK AND GREEK-AIVIERICAN S'T'UDIES

l!) I

reflect the American experience: James Steve Counelis, Harris B. Jameson, Andrew T. Kopan. Fotios K. Litsas, Lewis Patsavos, John Rexine. Katherine G. Valone, and Themi Vasils. Even so. littie of this scholarship, clerical or lay, has yet to address the intellect ual contributions of the sociology of religion or to show much of a theoretical or comparative perspectivc. A full examination of the church 1I1 the New World remains to be performed. Other, smaller tasks also need to be done. We deserve a study on the Malbis Plantation outside Mobile, Alabama, where a Greek Orthodox commune has existed since 1906. Furthermore. we do not have a full account of the PhifojJtochos, an organization whose effect on bringing immigTant women out of the home can scarcely be overstated. On the secular side, serious gaps also exisl.'l The Ahepa has yet to find its historian. At least, we need a biography of Vasilios 1. Chibithes, the single most important individual in the development of the lodge and one of the most significant persons in Greek-American history. It is also hard to explain why the Greek community of New York City, the largest in the country, has never been the subject of a comprehensive study, The political left is an important dimension of the Greek experience in the United States and scholarly balance requires that it be included in an understanding of Greek America. though the temptation to exaggerate its significance must be resisted. 5 The phenomenon of "second settlements" of Greek Americans-the move to suburbia-has never been conceptualized. much less studied. The Greek-American press lends itself to examination by the very nature of the printed media. but Greek language by television and radio programs also ought to fall within our purview, The "Greek Battalion." an American Army unit in World War II manned by Greek natjonal with Greek-American officers, is one of the most blscinating stories in Creek-American history, but has never been written upY We know very little about Greek-American voting patterns. Our knowledge of Greek Americans and their position in the American economy is still fragmentary, In this regard a study of Greeks and restaurant.s should not be considered frivolous. One final remark is in order. Several of the most notable figures in early Greek-American history were still living as of 1988. Dean Alfange (born in Constantinople in 1900), elected Ahepa president in 1929, ran for governor of New York state in 1942 on the American Labor party ticket and a year later was a founder of the Liberal party. Michael Choukas (born in Samos in 19(1), perhaps the first Greek immigrant to receive an American Ph.D. (Columbia, 1935), was the first Greek American ever to write an English account of Greek Americans. Basil Vlavianos (born in Athens in 1903), editor of the Natlll/Ut/ /Il'rald from 1940 to 1947. played a key role in advocating Greece's interests to American policy-makers during World War II. George Vournas (born 1897 in Messenia), one of Ahepa's most prominent presidcnts. initiated

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the most successful bond drive in the country during World War 11and then entered the U.S. Army. That figures of eminence in the making of Greek America have passed on without being interviewed for posterity has been-and continues to be-a series of lost opportunities for Greek-American studies. 7

NOTES 1. The Joun/al or lVlor/em Crl'eli Slur/iI's is the journal of the Modern Greek Studies Association: the Journal 0{ lVlodl'l'lI Hl'lll'lllSIII is published jointly by the Greek Studies Program of Hellenic College and the Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies of Queens College: the Modem (;rl:!'l! Slur/iI'S Ytwrbool! is edited by Theofanis C. Stavrou, Modern Greek Studies, University of Minnesota: the JourJ/al or Ihe Ht'llt'lIlt DlIIsjiora is issued by Pella Publishing Company, 2. Before 1980 four conferences were held that dealt exclusively or mainly with the Creek-American experience: Creek-American Bilingual Bicultural Education Conference," sponsored by the Hellenic American Neighborhood Action Committee, New York City, April 2fi, 197fi: "The Greek Experience in America," sponsored by Symposiulll '76 and the Illinois BiceIHennial Commission, Chicago, Ill., Oct. 29-;{1, 1976: "Psycho-Social Perspectives of the Greek American Community," sponsored by the Hellenic American Neighborhood Action Committee, Greek-American Behavioral Sciences Institute, and the Order of Ahepa, New York City, March 5, 1977: and "Hellenic-American Identity," sponsored by the Hellenic Professional Society of Illinois, Lake Blufr, Ill.. Sept. 28-:HJ, 1979. In the 1980s twelve conferences on Greek-American themes were held: "The Greek-American Community in Transition," sponsored by the Queens College Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies and the Ikaros Greek Club, New York City, May 9-10, 1980: "The Future of Greek Cult.ure in America," sponsored by the CeIHer for European Studies of the Graduate Center {()r the Cit.y University of New York and the Queens College Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. New York City, March 20, 1982: "Diaspora," sponsored by Krikos, New York City, Oct. \:\, 1984: "The Greeks in America: A Celebration of Films," sponsored by Greek-American Community Services, Fall 1!)8(): The Greek-American Family: Continuit.y Through Change," sponsored by t.he Immigration Hist.ory Research Center, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, 1"'[inn., .June 9-10, 1984: "Issues and Prospects {()r the Survival of t.he Greek-American Communit.y into the 21st Century," sponsored by Krikos Midwest chapter, Chicago, 111., March 15,1986; "Education and Greek Americans," sponsored by the Queens College Center for Byzantme and Modern Greek Sllldies, New York City, May lfi-17, 1986: "Greek-American Arts and Letters," sponsored by Krikos, New York Cit.y, Oct. 18, 1!l86: "In Celebration of Greek Women," sponsored by Krikos, New York Cit.y, Oct. 17, 1987: "Conflict Bet.ween the Old and New Immigrams in t.he Assyrian and Greek Communit.ies," sponsored by the Assyrian Universal Alliance Foundatjon ancl Greek-American Communit.y Services, Chicago, Ill., Oct. ;\l-Nov, 1. 1987; "Yiorti: A Celebration of Greek Womanhood," sponsored by Greek Heritage Societ.y of Sout.hern California, Los Angeles, Calif., May 14, 1988: "First Theodore Saloutos Conference in Greek American Studies," spon-

MODERN GREEK AND GREEK-AMERICAN STUDIES

1!l3

sored by the Theodore Saloutos Memorial Fund, Imllligration History Research Center, University of Minnesota, St. Pau!, Minn., Mav 11-\4, 1!)8!J. g. Some of t.he most rascinatjng Greek Americana consists of privately primed reminiscences. observations, stories, and so forth. See. for example, Steven G. Econolllou, Bravo, Ni/w (Chicago, 1974) and Grl'l'h PUJ1Il'rlis (Chicago: 197G: S.D. Apostol, Tht' Tall' or a (;rrth /l11l1l1p:ralll (ChICago, 1!)8;{): Nick.J. Lambros, T/w illllfriwlIIZIIl101I 0/ ()((~ssws (Chicago. 19H7). ., 4. Because of the valuable informat.ioll they contain on young Greek arrivals III 19th-century America who went Oll to a,tt,aillhi,gh~!' edl~catIon, itis well to mention here, Stephen A. Larrabee, "I nnIly s hrst I'oreign 1 ltlor and Stuclems," Tmu{y Collt'l!;t~ Library Gazelle, No.4 (April, 1957), pp. 14-2?: and Evro Layton, "The Modern Greek CollectIon III the Harvard College Library," J-/(J11f(lrd Library Bullefll/, Vol. 19, No. ;\ (July, 1971), pp. 1-,2:1. . In 1989 Pella publishers were in the process of translatIllg Into I'~nghsh and reprint.ing Bobby (Charalambos) Mala{ourIs, He/lilli'S liS Alllen/us 1528-1948 ["Greeks in America lfi28-1948"] (N.Y.: author, l!l48), one o{ the landmark works in Greek-American historiography, 5. The history of leftist currents in Greek America is 11lghlighted in Dan Georgakas, "The Greeks in America," .Joumal or Ihl' Hel/l'llIt /)l(Isl!o/'{/, Vo~. 14, nos. I and 2 (1987), pp. 5-fi:\. See the subsequent colloquy: Charles C. Moskos, "Georgakas on Greek Americans: A Response," pp. fi:j-~).I: Dan Georgakas, "Response to Charles C. Moskos," pp. 63-71: and Alex l"Itroell, "The Moskos-Georgakas Debate," pp. 7:~-7: all in Joul'IlIIl oflht' Nel/nllt: DiasjJo/'{/, Vol. 14, n(;s. I and 2 (1987). TI1lS series first appeared in The Creel! A III el'u;an. 6. The "Greek Battalion" was formed in February 194:\ as a kmel of Greek foreIgn legion in t.he U.S. Army where it w,:s part of the 122.nd Infantry Division. The commander was M'lJor Peter ClalllOS, the hrst (.reek American to graduate from West. Point (class of I !l3:~). Clainos wen~ on to bec.ome a distinguished combat commander m the Korean War. WhIle the enhsted ranks were made up mainly of Greek-national merchant marIIle men, the company commanders were Greek Americans: Thomas KaramIssllles, Steve Milton, and Nicholas Natsios. On the eve o{ World War I I. New Yorker Karamissines, a lawyer, was part of Thomas Dewey's "gang-bust.ers." Following t.he breaku p of the batJalion in e~lrly 1944, K,~rallllssllles el.Hered the Office of Special SerVICes. Later he JOIned t.he Central IntellIgence Agency where he rose to Deputy Director of Plans, the head o{ clandestme ol~eratiolls. Personal communications with Costas CaraganIs, Peter Clall1os, and Nicholas Natsios, 1988. 7, Readers interest.ed in establishing and supportmg an associallon for the study of Greek Americans can contact the author al Department of Sociology, Northwestern University. Evanston, II. ()0208.

SELl~(:'TED

Selected Bibliography Abbott, Grace, "A Study of the Gl'eeks in Chicago," IllIIaical/Jollrnal orSol'lo/rwv, Vol. 15, no. ;~ (1909), pp. ;17!l-ml. ' . h. Adamic, Louis, "Americans from Greece." in Niltioll of Nlltiol/s. ed. Louis . Adamic, N.Y.: Harper and Row, 1945), pp. 2(i(1-H(i: Banhs: Panos D., The 1"11 til 1'1' or the Greek LlIlIg:lIl1g:e III thl' UlIltl'd Stlltl'S (San l'ranClsco: Rand E Associates, I!l7(i). Botsas, Elftherios N., "T'he American Hellenes," in Joseph S. Roucek and Bernard Eisenberg eds. illIIl'rim's Ethlllc Polilifs (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 19H2), pp. 29-45. Bottomley, Gillian, Afia Ihl' Odyssey: iI Stlllh' or Grel'k IllIstmlillll.l (SI. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1979).' . Burgess, Thomas, Greeks ill Ilmaifa (Boston: Sherman, French, 1!lI;)). Canoutas, Serpahim G. 0 EIII'II.lsmos ('II Amnila [Hellenism in America] (N.Y.: Cosmos, 19IH). Caraveli, Anna, SClllterl'd 11/ Forelg;1I Lallds: II Crt'l'k Villilg/' III naltll/llm: (Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art, 19H5). Chapin, Helen G., "From Sparta to Spencer Street: Creek Women in Hawaii," Hllwaiiall.lollnlal or Histlll)" Vol 1:\ (EI79), pp. I:W-5(i, - -__ "The Queen's 'Artillery Fire': Greek Rovalists in the Hawaiian Revohltjon and Counterrevolution," Hawlliiall JO;,nlal or Hi.lto}'\', Vol. 15 (l9Hl), pp. 1-23. . . . Chardoul. Paul N., Cmlld Ra/}/(i.l'· Grech Herilllge (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Hellenic Horizons, 19H2). Chimbo~, Peter D., Thc Cllllildilill Odyssl'Y: Thl' Grl'l'!! I;;Xlil'I"II'IICI' ill (;mlfldll (1oronto: McClelland and Stewart, 19HO). Chock, Phylis Pease, "'Time, Nature, and Spirit: A Symbolic Analysis of GreekAmerican Spiritual Kinship," Aml'ncall lWlllolo!!,'/.lt, Vol. I, no. I (l!l74), pp. 3:~-47, ' Choukas, Michael, "Greek Americans," in 0111' Rilcillllllld Nllt/(JJ/1I1 lv/illoritll'S eds. FrancesJ. Brown and Joseph S. Roucek (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: PrenticeHall, 19:)7), pp. 339-57 . Costantakos, Chrysie M., "Variatjons in Adaptations to America by Greek Home Region," lntl'rllallonlll Migmt/(JII, Vol. 20, nos. :\-4 (19H2), 125-14G. ---0_"The Greek American Subcommunity," in L'dlltlltUJ/I IIl1d Greel! 111111'1'_ IC(UIS eels. Spyros D. Orfanos, I-larry J. Psomiades, and John Spiradakis (N.Y.: Pella, 19H7), pp. : ) 5 - 7 1 . ' , Constantelos, Demetrios J., eel. EII()'diclils IIl1d J)ocllml!llts or Ihl' (;rl'l'k Orthodox Ardl.d/OCI'sl? of North IIl1d SOlllh illIIl'riCII: nil! First FIJi\> Yl'IIl:I', 1922-1972 (Thessalonica: Patriarchal Institute for Patristic Stu(lies, 197(i). - ___ Unrlel:'t(lIIdilig the Grl'l'k Ort/lOdo:>; Chllrclt (N.Y.: Seabury Press, I!lH2). - -__"Orthodox Theology in America," in Lil Th(io{ogll: dlillS L'Eglisl' 1'1 dalls II' Mo//(le (Geneva: Orthodox Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, 19H4), pp. IH()-9!l.

BIBI,lO(;RAI'HY

195

Constantinoll, Stavros T. and Nicholas D. Diamantieles, "Modeling International Migration: Determinants or Emigration frolll Greece to the UnIted States, IH20-19HO," AlIlIlIls o(tlte IIssoWltioll ofAlIIl'I'lmll Gl'ogmphel"S. Vol. 75 (l9H5), pp. :\52-G9. Contos, Leonidas C., 2()()1: The Chllreh ill CriSIS (Brookline, Mass.: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 19H2). Coumantaros, Stella, "The C;reek Orthodox Ladies Philoptochos SOCIety and the Creek American Community," in Thl' (;rl'l'l! !l1II1'IH([1I COIIIIIIIIII/h' ill Tral/sltioll cds. Harry J. Psollliaeles and Alice Scourby (N.Y.: Pella, 19H2), pp. ElI-9(). Cutsumbis, Michael N .. i\ liibliogralilllc Gllidl' 10 Matnillls Oil (;l"l'l'k.l III the Ullitl'd Stlltl'S, 1890-1968 (N.Y.: Center for Migration Studies, 1970). Dallis-Damis, Athena (;., "The Greek Heritage and Its Impact on the Greek American Writer," in Thl' Gn'l'!! AlIIl'I'imli CO/l/lllllllity III Tml/.lliioll eds. Harry J. Psomiades and Alice Scollrby (N.Y.: Pella, 19H2), pp. ~17-:)(). Dask,{rolis, George P., "San Francisco's (;reek Colony: EvolutIOn of an Ethnic Community, I H!)()-1945," ClllijiJl'lIill 1-1 ist (1)" Vo\. GO, no. 2 (l9HI), pp. 114-33. Demos, Vasilikie, "Greek Ethnicity in Two ereek Orthodox Communities," jl,1oderll Grel'k Stlldil's Yl'al"booh ed. Theoranis C. Stavrou (Minneapolis: Modern Greek Studies, UniversllY or Minnesota, I!lH7), pp. 1·19-()1. Dickson, Peter, "Pilgrims' Progress: The Tzintzinians in America," Grl'I'1! J\rallt Jul.-Aug., 19H(i, pp. 12-14, :)H-:m ____"l'rince C:eorge and the 500 Spartans," TIll' Grl'l'h JllIIl'I'imll, Nov, 14, 19H7, pp. IO-II. ____ and Christine Warnke, "Ship or Brides," Grl'l'li !lrl'l'lIl, Nov,-Dec., 19H7, pp.20-34. Dimitras, Elie and Evan C. Vlachos, Soc/(Jlogirll{ SIII1iI')'S Oil (;rl'l'li EIlIIgmllts (Athens: National Center of Social Research, 1971). Doulis, Thomas, JI SlIrge to thl' Sea: The Grl'l'kl III Omgoll (Portland: privately printed, 1977). Doumouras, Alexander, "Greek Orthodox Communities in America BeI()re World War 1," St. \Iladimir's SI'II//IIIl1)' (21111I"tl'l'ly, Vol. II. no. :1 (l9!i7), pp. 177-92. Dunkas, Nicholas and Arthur (~. Nikelly, "The Persephone Syndrome," Soc/al Vlvchiatll', Vol. 7 (1972), pp. 211-2IG. Econonlidou, Ivlaris S. 0, Ellilll'S lis J\II/ITi/us olJOS tOilS Eida [The Creeks or America as I Saw Them] (N.Y.: D.C. Divry, I9J(i). Efthimiou, Milt jades B. and George A. Christopoulos, Histon' of" the Creel! Orthodox Chllrrh ill Alllerica (N.Y.: Creek Orthodox Archdiocese, 19H4). Fairchild, Henry Pratt, Grcth 1Illllllgm till II 10 Ihe Ullill'd Stall'S (New I-Iaven: Yale University Press, 191 I). Frangos, Steve, "'rhe Grecophone Record Company of Garv, Indiana," Resoll1l(i, Vol. 4, no. 3 (l9H5), pp. 2-4. Georgas, Demitra, Grl'eli Settlelllcllt or the Sail Frtlllcisto Ba), Ar{'{/ (San Francisco: R and E Research Associates, 1974). [origlllal 1951] Ceorgakas, Dan, "The Greeks in Amenca," .Jollrl/al of" the Hdll'llic f)/{/sjJom, Vol. 14, nos. 1-2 (l9H7), pp, 5-5:\. Gizelis, Gregory, NarratIVe Rhelorital DevlI'es or Pel:lllllSioll: Fol/dor!? COIlllllllnir:atlllll /II a Grl?l'/!-ilIII1'1"IClIII CO/l/lI/lll1ilv (Athens: National Cellter or Social Research, 1974). . I-Iarakas, Stanley S., The Orthodox Church: 45() QlIl'stwllS alld 111I51l Iel:1 (Brookline, Mass.: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 19H7). I-Iatziemmanuel, Emmanuel, "Hellenic Orthodox Education 111 America," in The

1%

SELECTED BIBLIOCRAI'HY

(,;rl'{?11 Alllerimll CO/II 11111 II/I)' 11/ T/"{/llsilioll cds. Harrv J. Psomiades and Alice Scourhy (N.Y.: Pella, J!)82), pp. 181-!)().· . Hecker~ lY!e1vi:'l~and Heike Fenton. compilers and eds., Thl' Grccl!s ill f\lIIl'rim h2h-19/ / (Dobbs Ferry. N.Y.: Oceana. 1!)78). Hllll1pl~r~y ... Cra~g- R. ,1lld.l-ielen Brock L~~uls. "A~similation and Voting- Beh,,\lol. A Study of (.reek Al1lencans. ll1lcrt/(I1101l1l/ l\:Ii(rmlioll RI'llil'll' Vol 7. no. 1 (197:1). pp. :\4-,15. ,..,. . K,tiog-eras, Yiorg-os D .. "C:reek-American Literature," Elhllic FOrtll1l Vol S nos 1-2 (1985), pp. 1Of1-28. ' . . . .. Karanikas. Alexander. HI'f/CIII'S lind He/liolls: Modl'rt/ Gr!'cl! Clw/"{/cll'l"S III /\III1'ril"llll LIIt:mtll/"{! (Urbana: University of" Illinois Press. 1981). Karas. Nl~llOlas V". TIll' (;u'cll Triallg/e ol"lhc AIT!' (Lowell. Mass.: Meteora. 198'0. - ___ (,/"{!c!! 11111111/!,nl1lts (II \>Vorl! (Lowell, Mass.; Meteora. I!l8G). Karras: Maria. Thl' ercl'li III LIs: iHy (;ralldlllolhl'r (Il1d I (Los Ang-eles: Women's COl1lmUlllly Press. 1977). Kitroell. Alexandros. "The Moskos-Ceorgakas Debate." jOllrl/(I/ of" Ihl' HI'I/I'IIIC J)/{/s/JOra. Vol. 14, nos. 1-2 (I!l87), pp. 7:\-7. . . Kopal~. Andrew "The Greek Press." in TIll' Ethlilc I'rl'ss ill Ihl' LlIIIII,d Strl/I's ed. Sal~Z M., MIller (':'eslp0rl. COlllL: Greenwood, 1984), pp. 161-7G. - - - - . flt.e (,rel'lIs 11/ C/llc(lp;o: A SllIdy 1/1 l~thll/l.· Ac/III'vI'IIII'1I1 (Urbana: University of !IIll101S Press. 1989), . Kourides, Peter '1'., Thc Evo/utllJlI 01" tht: Crt'eli Orthodox CIIIII"I:h /11 AIIII'I"/{"(1 IIlId lis Preselll Problellls (N. Y.: Cosmos, 1959), Kourou~)etis: Mi~tOI.l, Th!' Grel'l!s 01" Michiall(l (South Bend: Northern Indiana l-iIstoncal SOCIety, 1987). Kourvetaris. (;e~)rge A:, F~n-t alld Secolld GI'III'I"(Itioll C/"eelis ill Chimgo (Athens: National Center lor SOCIal Research, 197 I). ----"Greek-American Professionals: 1820s-1970s." Ba//!l/Il Stlldil', Vol 18 no. 2 (I ~l77). pp. 285-;\23. .. . , - ___ "T.he Greek American Family," in Ethll/c Frlll/ilil?s 11/ IIlIlI'rica cds. Charles 1-1. ,~I.111de~ and Robert W. I-Iabenstein (N.Y.: Elsevier, 1!l88), pp. 1();)-88. - - - - I he blrly and L~t(' (;reek Immigrant: A Comparative and SocioI'sycholog-](:al Prof de,' /-/I'!/I'IlIC SllIIlil's//\'llIdl's J-f1'!/1'11/f/III'S Vol I no I (1983), pp. 2:\-:\2. . " . Lauqlller, Helel~e G ... "( :11 It IIral Chang-e Among- Three Generations of Greeks." II lI~e/"/l:all C(/I~I?!Jc Soo%p/tid RWICl/!, Vol. :\ (I!)() I), pp. 22:\-:\2. Leber, (.eorge J., 1ftI' Hlston' o( Ihl' Ordl'/" 01" AlwlNI (Washing-ton, DC: OreIer of Ahepa. 1972). . , Litsas. FOlios' 1(" . A COII//mllioll 10 Ihl? GI"I'1'1i Orlhodo,. ('IIII/"!'II (N \' ()I,ti. 10( Iox , . ... ('I'e,'I' • . <.'. ArchdIocese of North and South America. 1!)8"J). - _ _,_ed., El/milw. Grflll/II/a.'a: Gml'li 1.1'111'1:\ (Chicago: Modern Greek Studies Senes. UlllVerSIty of IllInOIS al Chicag-o, 1985). Malafouns. Bobby (Charalambosl. Ellilles tis illI/l'/"illls 1528-1948 [Greeks or America 1528-1948] (N.Y.: author, 19,18). M:ll:ket.oll}~I~I~y. T:~(!,(~:·I:(I.t LOlIgIII,!';: Thr GI"I'I:lis oFAstoria (Athe~ls: Kedros, I!l87). lYLll udds, .etel ~ .. (.1 cek Involvement ll1 Contemporary PolItics." in Thl' (;/"rel! J~II/{?rlCflIl COII/lll1l1uty 1/1 TrrlllsJl/IJ1l cds. Harrv J. I'somiades and Alice Scourby (N.Y: Pella. 1982), pp. 9;\-110. . . . Monos: Dimitn, Tit!' AchwVI'II/{'1I1 of Ihe Grl'l'lis ill the Unilt'd St(lles (Philadel )hia' Centrum, 1986). I . Moskos, .~:harles C., ';Greek American Sludies," in Thl' (;/"Ci!1! illI/l'/"icall CO//Il1/lIl1il\' 11/ 1 ImlsltlO/I eels. 1·larry J Psomiades and Alice Scourb" (N Y , 1),.,11'1 l
F·.

----"Georgakis on Greek Americans; A Response." ./olll'llal of Ihe He/lf'll/C Diasj)(JI"{I. Vol. 14. nos. 1-2, (1987), pp. 55-61. .

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

1!)7

Or/ill1os, Spyros D.. HaITY J. Psomiades. and John Spiridakis, eds., Education aud Gre!'h Amerir:rllls: Prowss (Inri Pros/J!'ets (N.Y.: Pella. 1987). , Panagopoulos. E. P.. New SIIIY1"lla: /111 Eighleenlh Cmtlll)' Grel'h Ori,'.,.ssev (Gainesville: University Press of Florida. 19(6). Panas. Leo and Charles NikilOpoulos with text by Charles G. Sam pas. Till' First Creel! 1//Il/lIgrrlllts ill Lowell, Mass(lc/wsl'l/s (Lowell, Mass.: "Greeks." 1982). Papacosma. S. Victor, "The Greek Press in America," .Iollma/ of Ihe Hel/I'lIlc J)J(ls/Jora. Vol. 5. no. 4 (1979), pp. 227-48. Papaioannou, George, 1"1"0111 Mars Hil/ to M(lnhal/ulI: Thl' Grei?l{ Orlhodox ill Ameru;a /llIder /lihelwgoras I (Minneapolis: Light and Life, 197()). ____ The Odyssey or J-ldlellis//l ill /I//Iem:a (Thessalonica: Patnarchal Institute for Patristic Studies, 1985). Papanikolas. Helen Zeese. Toil Itlld Rllge m a New Land: Thl' (;1'1'1'11 Iml/ugrallis in Ulah (Salt Lake City: Utah Historical Society, 1974). ____ A 1111 ilin-Giorges = Emi(v-Georgt! (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. I!l87). Papanikolas. Zeese. BUrlI'd UIIslIlIg: Lows Til{{/s (lilt! the Ludlow IH(lsSrll:re (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1982). Palrinacos. Nicon D., "The Role of the Church in the Evolving- (~reek American Comlllunity." in The Greek Co/l11l1l/llily ill TrallslllOII eds. 1-larry.J. Psomiades and Alice Scourby (N.Y.: Pella, 1982), pp. 123-:Hj. ____ A DictlOllary or Creeh Orthodoxy (N.Y.: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, 1984). Prevas, Nicholas M .. History of tIll! Creel! Orthodox Cathedral o( the Amlllnlwtion (Baltimore, Md.: JolIn D. Lucas, 1982). ____ "Psomiades, I-larry .1 .. "Greece and Greek America,': in Education lind Greeh /I/I/I'/"iwn eds. Spyros D. Orfanos, I-larry .J. Psol1liades, and John Spiradakis (N.Y.: Pella. 1987), pp. 91-102. ____ and Alice Scourby. eds., The Greeh CO/l11l1l1nity 11/ Trallsilloll (N.Y.: Pella, 1982). Raizis, M. Byron. "Suspended Souls: The Immigrant Experience in GreekAmerican Literature," Grei!li LeI/I!!;\". Vol. I (1982), pp. 292-:)23. Rozakos, Nicholas .1 .. Neoellinila Allllgl'lIisl sli Bosloni [Modern Greek Renaissance in Boston] (San Fnmcisco: Wire Press, 1975). ____ To Neoe/inilm L(lilw Tlwatro st/n AIIII'/"ihi 1903-1950 [The Modern Greek Popular Theater in America 1903-1950] (San Francisco: Falcon. 1985). Saloutos, Theodore, The." Re//lelllber America: The Story 01" Ihe RI'/)(ltrinted Grt!eliAllier/calis (Berkeley: University of California Press. 1!l56). ____ The Gret?!is ill the [JllIled Sinies (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 19(4). ____ "The Greek Orthodox Church in the United States and Assimilation," /lItl'l"IIlltllJ1/al Migratll}// Revil'w, Vol. 7, no. 3 (197:\), pp. 395-408. ____ "Causes and Patterns of Greek Emigration to t.he United States," Pen/JI'ctlVes 11/ Amencall Histlll), 7 (1973), 381-437. ____ "Cultural Persistence and Change: Greeks I!1 t.he Great. Plains and Rocky Mountain West, 1890-1970." Pacific /-/istonwl RI'1 I I1'llI. Vol. 49. no. 1 (1980), pp. 77-103. ____ "Greeks." in /-/arvrmi EI/(:w:/o/JI'{li(l or A III erica II Ethnic GrolllJS eel. Stephan 'Thernstrom (Cambridge. Mass.: Harvard UniverSIty Press, 1980), pp. 430-40. ____ "The Greeks in Southern California Before 1930." unpublished paper. 1980. ____"The Greeks." in They Chose LvI illllesot(1 ed . .1 une Drenning- Homquist (SL Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1982), pp. 472-88. Sandis, Eva E., "The Greek Population of New York City," in The Greek

198

SELECTED BIBLIOCRAPHY

eds. I-larry J. I'sollliades and Alice Scourby (N. Y.: Pella. 1982), pp. G5-92. Stephanides. Marios. Thl' (;r(?('l!s ill DI'lroil: ilulhorilllrillllislIl-A Crilil'lll A 1111('1.11.1 or (;rcel! CII/I II 1'1'. PI'rSOllllfilv, Allillldl's IIlId Behllvior (San Francisco: Rand E Research Associates. 197!J). Scourby. Alice, "'Three Generations of Greek Americans," /1I1i'1'I/(lIIOII(I/ MigrallOlI RI'1II1'w. Vol. 14 (l!J80), pp. LU-52. _ _ _ _The (;reeli AlI/eril'lIlIs (Boston: Twayne. HJ84). Spiradakis.John. "Greek Bilingual Educati;lIl." in I~du(,lIliolllllld Grl'eli IIII/C/'icIlIIS: Proress (lild Prosl}(~cls eds. Spyros D. Orfanos. I-larry.!. l'somiades. and John Spiradakis (N.Y.: Pella. I!J87), pp. 7:~-90. Stycos. Joseph M .. "The Spartan (;reeks of Bridgetown." COII/IIIOII (;rolilid 8 (Spring. Summer, Winter E)'18). 24-:H. 72-8(1, 61-70. Talagan. Dean P .. "Faith. I-lard Work, and Family: The Story of the Wyoming Hellenes." in PI'(JjJ/illl!: Ihl' High PIIIIIIS ed. (;o}'(lon O. Hendrickson (Cheyenne: Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department, 1!177). pp. 14!)-68. ·ravuchis. Nicholas, F(llI/i~y IIlId JVlo/Jifily IIII/ollg' Grecli AlI/el'lCIlilS (Athens: National Center for Social Research, 1972). Topping, Eva Catafygiotll. "John Zachos: American Educator." Greek Orlhodox Thl'%g?((I/ RI'lIII'W. Vol. 21, no. 4 (I!l7(i), pp, :~51-(i6. Treudley, Mary. "Formal Organization and the Americanization Process with Special Rel'erence to the Greeks of Boston," JIIIII?I"II'IIII SoclOlogH(i/ R 1'1111'10 , Vol. 14. no. 2 (1949). pp. 44-52. Tsirplanis. Constantine and Michael Savicies, IIgllosll's Sefidl'.I· liS Is/omls lou Io·/iIlISIllOI/. tiS !llIIeriliis [Unknown Pages of the History or Hellenism of America], Vol. I (Kingston, N.Y.: author, WWl). Tsirplanis. Constantine and Dimitrios Nikas, Jlgl/osll''> Sdides liS islorills 1011 ElililSIIIOII liS JlllilTil!is [Unknown Pages of the History of Hellenism of America], Vol. 2 (Kingston. N.Y.: author, 1985). Tsounis. M.P., "(;reek Communities in Australia." in Grl'l'li.\' ill Allslrafia, ed. Charles Price (Canberra: Australia Nat lonal U niversit y Press. 1!)7!J). Vecoli, Rudoph .I .. wT'heodore Salouws. 1910-1980: A Scholar of the Greeks in the United States," 111 Modern Greel! SllIrlil'.I' l:'1'lir/Jool!. cd. Theofanis G. Stavrou (Minneapolis: Modern Greek Studies. University of Minnesota, 1985), pp. 109-14. Velli. Theoni, "Mental Health Services to the (;reck American Community of New York City." in Thl' Grcel! COllllllllllily ill Tl'llilsitioll cds. I-larry .J. I'somiades and Alice Scolll'by (N.Y.: Pella, 1982), pp, 1!l7-208, Vlachos. Evan C .. The JlssimillllllJlI of Gn'elis ill Ihe Ulliled Sillies (Athens: National Center of Social Research. 19(8). Vlanton. Elias. "Documents: The O.S.S. and Greek-Americans." JOllrn1l1 or Ihe Hellenic Dillsj){}ra, Vol. 9. no. 2 (summer 1982), pp. ~(i-104; no. :~ (fall 1982), pp. ()!J-132; no. 4 (winter 1982), pp. (j'3-11O. Vlavianos. B.J.. "Greek Americans," in (Jlle ;\1111'1'11'11, eds. Francis.J. Brown and Joseph S. Rotlcek (N,Y.: Prentice-Hall. 1952), pp. 2:39-44. Vourn
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

199

Ziogas. Elias K .. 01 Ellines lis JlIlIITihis: Ella Mega/o all' /l/ragolldi.l!o L'j){).~ [The Greeks of America: A Great but Unsung EpIC\ (Athens: (olkos, l!l/7). Zotos. Stephanos. Hid/I'IIIC I'rI'SI:III'I' 1/1 /11111'1'1('(1 (Wheaton. Ill.: Pilgrimage, 197(i).

INDEX

Index

201

Claillos, P<:t('l', I!l:lll (:o('oris. John, 2() Thl' Co/li'l'holl,II', H5 Colicos, JOhll, 150 {:olllmhlls, (:hrislopher, (:ol\'ocorcsscs, (~e()rgc. ()

Education.

Col\'ocoresscs. (;corge P.. (1

Coniaris, Allthonv

~L,

i2n, I!IO

COllslanl, Thl'od(~r{' f'.: .• ,1:\Il. 12:\n

ConS:lIllelos, Demelrios Constantinc I. King.

Allanavas, Consl:lIltill(', II,ln Ahlmtl. (~I'ac('. 2:~1l. 2Hn Addams, .lane, :? I Ades, (;eorJ,(e, I :l(i AJ,(J,(anis, Harrv, 11·1 AJ,(new, Spiro 'I'" ,I:?, Ilti, IIH-20, 1:1", 170n, li2 AJ,(new, Theophraslos, 11'1 Agnos.

:\1'1,

172

AJ,(IHlSl, Frank 1'" Hi" Agyros. (~corg(' L., I Tl2 AI I EPA (American I I"''''nic Edllcalional Pn}gressi\'(' !\SS(lCl;tliOll). ·IO-·I:l. [)(}-52.

75-7Ii, 7H, 121, 1:11, 1:\5-I:lli, lIi2-IIH, liln, 1!1I AI II PAC, SI'I' American I Il'lIenir Inslillile Allla, Richard D" Hin AldredJ,(e, Theoni Vachiolis, 1,,:\ Alexander, Archl>lShop, :\Ii I\lexander, Lee, II7, 172 AlranJ,(e, I)ean, 1:\.1, 191 Allen, Evanlllla, I70n Am('rican Hellenic Alliann', Hi7 American Hellenic Inslilllle, 121. lIii, 171n ,iIlIlT/(fIII-llt//t'III( \\'orld, 7!) AnaJ,(nos, ~!ichael, Ii-i. :\9 Anagnost. Dino, 72n Allagnostolipoulos. (~('()rge D .. lOHn Anastap)o, (;('org<'. ·Irlll

Anderson, Keke ~Iachakos, 17:1 Anderson, LOllis. I H Andrcws Sisters, SO Allgeiopolilos, Aris, IGS

Anton,,lohll 1'" HHn Antolllou, Anthony A" 152 Aposlol, S,I)" I!l:\n Arnakis. (;l'orge C .. H7 AlilaI1S011, (;corgc. 117

Alhas, Daphne, 100 Alhenagoras, Archhishop, :1li-:\7, ;;0-!i2, il A//II'II/'

Athens, Andrew A" 121n, llii Alillll/is, :Hl, 7H, IIH, 17,1 Axios, IIi· I Iladd"'e~', J" I!iOn Baralis, L.A, "Skip," 117, 172 Bablis, "" khael J" 117

Bardis. Panos D.. H2n Bazanos. Spyros, I~:~ Baziotes, William, 11,1, 1',:\ Ikillshi, John, l!il

Bcnakis. Nicholas. 7

200

Bilarakis, 1\!ichad, 172 Bliss, Corillnc Dcmas, l!',:\ Booras, IIarris .I" ,II Boosalis, lIden, IIi. Ii~ I\ootblacks, ~'1-25, ,H IlOlikis, Adam (Adam:lIldios) !lollkis, Eflvchia, 171l, IHO IlOlikis, Ila;'iklia, 17K, IHO BOllkis, Helcn, 17H, IHO BOllkis (Kamhollrios), Chrvsollia, 17H-7!1 BOllkis, 1\!ichael, lii-7!1 . !lollkis, Nicholas, 17H-i!1 BOllras, IlaITv. I H !lrademas, JOilll' IIi, I,;:!, Hii, 170n, 172, IH7 !lroom, Leonard, IIIn Brollnas, OIJ,(a, 1,,:\ Brollnlas, Palll 1'" IHlin Brown. DCIllctra Vaka. H5 Burgcss, Thomas. 5n. Oil, 15u, IHIl. 2011. 2:~1l. :\Dn,I:!:lll HlIxhaulll. Edwin C., 2!ln Cain, James ~L, 1',0 (:alliniacos. (;ollstancc. liOn Callas, 1\lada, I H Callimachos, DellICt rios, :\H Campanis, AI, 15,1 Canolltas, Seraphim (;" I, lOn, l!'m Cara~allis. Costas, I~}:\n Caraveli, Allna, I H!l Cartcl', JimTllY. KIl, 122. H,() (:asc-Kcisoglou. Jacqucs, HE) Cassaveles, John, 11:\, 15:1-15,1 Cassavclcs. Nicliolas, }:,,},t

Catamsinos, William .I" 15~ Caleras, Spyros, In Catsimalidis, John :\" 1,,2 Cavadas, AI hellaJ,(oras, 17H Cavai\'. Constantinc P., Hi Cavar'nos. Constantinc P., H7 Cenl{'\' 1'01' l'\eo-I lellenic Stlldies, Hi Chakaris, (;eorJ,(e, 115, 1,;,1 Chamalcs, Tom T" 100, 10:\ Chapin, Ilelen (;" IH!! C'IWrlotl'lT. H5 ChebiIIH's, V,L, ,II, I!II Chiganos, William S" lIi5 Chimbos, Peler I)" I,IOIl Chock, Phvllis Pease, DOn ChOllbs, ~!ichael, 191 (:hristodolliides, :\,D" 145n Chrislopher, (;eorge, 117, 17:! Christy, (;eorJ.(", 100

n.

J"

(~r('('k-AI1l('ricall.

compared to

national a\'cragc. Ill-I~ Ecollomoll. Slc\,cn (; .. 1~}:~11

i2n, IHlin, I!IO

Efthimiolls, Miltiadl's 1\" 1!1Il Eisenhower, DWight I)" I H; Entreprcllcurship. (;rcck-:\Illcricall: earlv ' d{'vclopllI{'nt of, Ii, ~0-2·1, ,1·1-·11;: {'xplanation or, 1:\9-,11 Epstein, Joseph, 121i E\,allgdidcs. Christo
15. :\5

Contos, Leonidas, I~1(1 Coslanlakos, Chrysie 1\1., li7n, !lOn, 'I:\-!I(in, IH!1 Cotsakis, Roxanne, 100 Coillmbis, Theodore :\" ',In, IIDn Colsirilos, Slephanie, I!1O COliioliris, (;eorJ,(', I:H COllnciis, James Sieve, iOn, i~n, I!II ClIlsllmbis, ~!ichacl l'\" Hlln Dallas-Dam is, Alhena (;" 1O:\Il, HiDn, Iiln Dandalos, Nick "I he (;re('k," +1, II;; Daphllis, l'\assos, I Hn llaskarolis, (;corge 1'" IH!) Dallghlers or Pendope, !(i~ deFllca, J"an, ~Il Iklaror. Euslr:II<', 5 Ikravalles, Amlonis, 1;,:1 Deml'lraCOpouios, Elias p" IOH Demos, I'au!. Iiln Denis, Paul, Hi,; Iksbv, Frank, 7~n Dian;alaris, Amhonv H" Hi!t Dickson, Pell'r. 170,'1, IW)-!HI Dikeoll, Deno Dikeon, (;CIlIW' Dikcou, John Dilho)', George, ,II Dimilrias, Eli(', l'l:;n Dim!!!"}'. Alexallder. !l DimitrY. Andrea. ;) ])ollka~, KillIon. 7211

DOli lis, Thomas, i:\II, I'lll DOllIl10Uras. Alexander. In. 7~1l Dracos, ~Iarialllll' Celesle, !i Dracos, ~lichal'l, " Dubkis, Andrea, IH:\ Dubkis, Arthur (Athanasios), 17!i-i7 Dllbkis, Constantine, 171i DlIkakis (I\ollkis), EUlerp(', 177-IH~, IH,I Dllbkis, (;eorg{', I7li- 77, IHO Dukakis, John, IH~-H:l Dukakis, Kara, IIl:\ Dubkis (Dickson), Kalharinl' ("Kill\'''), IH2-H:\ DubklS, 1\!arina, 171i-7i . DlIbkis, 1\!ichacl S" IIi. I!iO, liOn, 17:\-177, lHO-IH'1 Dukakts (GeoJ,(ioll), Olvmpia, iiI;, IHO, IH~ Du bkts, Olympia, 15,1, 171i Dukakis, Panos, 171i-H2 Dubkis, Siclian, IHO, IH~ Dubkis, Styli:ulos, 17!i-7i Dunkas, Nicholas, 9:\n EaJ,(lelon, Thomas, 121 Ecollomidoll, Maria S" Hi

Fairchild, Hemv I'ralt, IOn, 12n, IHn, 22. 7HIl

~O-~'III,

.

Family, (;r{'{'k-American, !IO-')j Fatollros, A,A" "Hn, 1:!01l Ferraro. (~craldill(,. 17·'

Filiko socict \'. 77 Fiske, Photi;lS, Ii Ford, eer:dd R" I~O-~I, H;I; Foster, Cederic W., I:H Frangos, Slc\,c. IHD Frantzis. (;corge T., ~:}jl Friar. Kimon. H(l (;aJ,(e, l'\icholas, 5Hn, II", 1',0, Hi!11I Calanos, James, 15:\ {;alilianakis, Nick, 117 (;allos. Anlla (;crotilcous, 7211 (;allS, Herhert J" 1,lill (;t\PA (;rc('k AIlH'rirall l)nlgn'ssl\,(' Associallon), '12-·1:\, 71i Cavaki. Efrosilli, 1·I:Hl (;ekas, (;corge \V .. 17:2 (~corJ.{akas. Dan. IHU, 1~):~11 (;('orgcs. John A., IS2 (;iallIlaris.

(~eorg('. I(l~hl

Ciallllal'o"los, John, ,I (;iftos, Elaine, II,; (~i\'ot, Ceorge. 12(1 Glaz('r, Nalhan, 1·I1in Coo('1, Victo)" 1:}2 Coulctas. Nicholas S., 15~ COlilctas-Carcy, E\'angelinc, l:}~ COY,\ (;reek Orlhodox YOlllh or AllIerica), iO Gordoll, 1\!ilion ~L, 1,1I;-,17n (;rammas, Alex, 11,1 (;ra\'. Stanlcy. 17~) (;rc(:/i Arn'nt.' Itj5 Thl' (;n'f'/i AlIlfTi(,([ll. IG!l (;reck Archdiocesc of Nonh and South AllIcrica. 5;('(' (;rcck Orthodox Church "ereek Ballalioll," ill l'S Arm\" Ell, ID:lll (;1'1'1'/' lIl'rI/a!!;I' Hli . "(;rl'ek Lob'";,,, I~0-2~, lIili-liH erel'k Onho;lox Chllrch, 7, IH, :\:l-:lH, lil;-7'" 1·1:\, I'ID, I;;H-li~, I!IO-!lI Cn'f'/i Orthodox Rn'lf'll' of Th('%p,,)'. I:,H (;r('ek pr('ss, :\H-:l!), 7H-HI, IIH-(iC, (;1'1'1'1< 1'1'1'-,-" HO, IIi', (;1'1'1'1, Star, HO, IIi" Gn't'll ,"j/m/it's }'('(lrhoo/i. IH7

World, HI; Greeley, Andrew

(;1'1'1'1<

~L,

7:\, I·!lill, l'IHn

HAl'\AC (IlclleIHc AllIerican l\eighborhood ActIon COIllIllI1tec) !'J5-5{)n, :>7, (}:~Il, H In. IIH

202 llarakas, Sianley S" i:!n, HiS, IfHin, 1'10 llalsopOIilos. (;corgc, is;! Ilaviaras, Siratis, IS:\ Ilciicon, ii Iidis, William, I'i:! llellis, William .Jr., IS~ Ilcll,'nic (:ollq.;(', SI'I' Holy (:ross (;ratinall' School of Th('olo;;y 1I1'{/1'I1/1' C//I'/l/liC/l', HO, lfiS IIl'lIenic COllncil of Aml'rica, I:!I IIclienic Foundation of Chicago, :}7, !(j.! Flt'{/"I/I/'.lOI/rJ/I//, HO, ltiS Hcll{,lIic Professional Society of IlIiJ1ois, 77 1I1'{/1'I1/1' Til/I/'s, HO, I!i:"i, I:!(il; 1I('II('nic liniver"il" CllIh or f'\l'1\' York, 77 11('l'Izl)('r;;, II(,II(II:ik, IH'I Ilicks, Salli(' ~I" I:!OIl Ilins, Thl'n, IHn lIolv Cross (;radllal,' School of Thl'olo;;y, 'Ii. (iX, HH, ISH-S!l, liH HOI'lllichad, .Jr" IS:! .Jam('son, Harris 1'" nn, Ell .Jan liS, Chrislopher (i" H(i .Jarvis, Charil's E" 100 Jarvis. (;corgc, f) .Jason, Sonya, 170n .Jatras, .James (;., IHSn J{'wisil Allicricalls, compared with (;rcck Americans, IIlr)-(i, Ill-I:! .lol/rJ/((! or Ihl' lll'i/I'I///' {)i,I\IJ/I)'{/. HTi, fm, IIl7 .f1Jl1/'1/((! of Modl')'I/ (;),I'I'i, Sll/dil'.l, IHi .lOlIl'll((/ or Modl')'I/ lll'iit'l/iS)II, IH7 Ka!cm, Theodore, 11·\ Kallianioies, Hell'n, llii Kalo;;l'ras, Yior;;os, I)" Hi!)n Kamllolll'is, AIl'x, 11·1 Kapioltas, ,Joltn, IS:! Kariotis, (;corgc. IHI Karamissinl's, Thomas, II·!, I!):ln Karallikas, Alexandl'r, !IH, lii:l, Hi'ln Karas, Nicholas, IH'I KarcalCs, Ceor;;l' D., IIl(in Kardaras, Basil B" !lOn, !):I-!).J1I Karras, 1\I('x, 11,1 Karras, 1'>laria, 190 Karras, Valeril' A., I iOn Karvcias, Theo, I:lli Kazan, Elias, It).!, 11:1, 15:1-S·I, 170n Kazanlzakis, Nikos, Hti-H7 Kennedy, .I0hll F .. I:!fi Kin;;, ~larlill l.lIlh('r .Ir., 7:1 Kiriazis, .lames W .. 19n, '1011, 11:\n Kissill;;"r, l!emy, I:!O-2:!, Hi(i

INDEX

INDEX

Kilrol'i'!', All'xantil'r, Iti5, I!I:\II

~Ioraill's,

K(1Il1og-corg-c, Christopher. :\7 -:H~

l\Ios('s, Doreen,

KopOln. Andrcw T .. 1011. :22-2:\11. 7211,

ILl." 100 f'\ims 1' .. 1,1011, I·Hin ~Iovllihall, Daniel Pal rick, I'llin 1'>lylonas, (;l'or;;", 11:\ 1'>llTsiades, l.I<,,1a S" :lln ~lol
KOIl
!):~1l-5·ltl,

{iin,

lH~}

~lo"nIWlll'l's,

7~11l.

H:!n, IH(in, IH!I, I'JI

I\oizias. (~('{)rgc. II:~ KOllridcs. Peter T .. :Hl!l KOllr\'claris. (;corgt' A .. Gn, !)SII, liOn, Ill') Krikos, 5'ln, Hi,1 K VI'oS, l'el''I' 1\" II i

1'>laria, IH!)

~}()Il,

Na;;as, Charll's, 11,111 Na;;ala, .I"dilh A" J.I:)J) Nassikas, .Ioh" 1\" 11,1 Naliol/o/II/'w/d ID/wilwI 1\\')'i"l, :IH, ·I:!, ill, l(i,I-li:"i, 17,1, I!JI Nalsios, ~!irholas, I!l:\"

N('(J rorh;. II):)

I.amhros, f'\ickJ" 1'1:\11 Layton, Evro, lD:~1l I.arrahel', SIl'phe" :\" l!l:lll l.l'hl'r, Ccor;;c.l" 5n, ·111-·1:111, :,On I.l'e, Dorthv, H" Ll'ft. (;I'('l'I(.:\tI1l'ric
Omaha, f'\eilraska, anli·(;rel'k riols, IIi-Ii Onassis Foundalion, IH7-IHH Orfallos, SpVI'oS D., IH') Orthodox Chrisliall Laill', I iOIl O)'lhodox ()[,""'1'I'1', liH, WHIl, ISH

~faharis. (;corgc, 115 1'>laids of Alhena, lIi~ ~Ialarouris, Bobhy (CharalamIHls), 7}ln, HHIl, 1:!:\Il, I:!c), 19:\n 1'>lalbis Planlalion, I'll ~lal('J'akis, Edll'ard, HI) 1'>laliolis, Charles, 11:1 1'>lallalos, Andrl'1\' E" 11,1. l(i7 1'>lanalos, Michal'1. 1711l 1'>lallolis, lakm'os, IHO 1'>lar;;aris, Thl'allo ('apalO;;lou, !IH-9!), l'i:l ~larillakos, Ll'oll, IHIiIl, I!Hl 1'>!al'udas, Pelel' f\;" liln, I,%n ~larkl'IOU, .Il'nny, 1'10 Marshall, (;l'or;;l', Ii ~larlin, ~Iartv, 7:11l ~las(}lII'id('s, john, IIi-Ii ~Iavroull's, Nicholas, 117, 17~ 1'>kNl'il, William II .. HOn, I'liill 1'>ll'din, Elias, :\ ~lelaxakis, 1'>!dcIIOS, :lii-:1Ii 1'>lezilson, .Iaml's 1\1 .. Hi c) 1'>1(;SA (~Iodl'rn (;rel'k SllIdil's Associalioll), Hi, H9, 19:!n ~lichal'l, Archhishop, 'i:!, 71 1'>lichalaros, Iklnl'lrios A., i!j, H:"i 1'>lihalap, I'lope Chrisiopolilos, I!)O 1'>lilll'r, .Ionalhan p" Ii 1'>!iller, Lucas M .. (i, I!l:ln "1\Ir. l'arkl'akarkas," 12(i ~Iilchell, (;l'or;;<' 1'., I:" Milropoulos, Dimilri, 11:1, 1:1,1 1'>lilropoulos, Nicholas T" IKGn 1'>!onos, Demelrios, IW)

Pagoulatoll. Regina. I:'J:~ 1'1I/lIioillll'r/ogillli lold calendarislsJ, :IH, (i}lll, 170 Panagopoulos. E. P.. :!, :~Il Panas, Leo, I!)O Pancypnall Association of' Amcrica. IIi/ Pall·Hl'lIellic Pnion, :19-,10 Panlages, Alexallder, ,IS Palltaw;;loll, \'assilis, 119n Papacosllla, Viclor S., :Hhl, 'IKn. /H-/~)Il Papadakis, f'\ick, ISO PapaiO1 ill , OlO, II·! Pappas, 1'['Il'r, itiii Pappas, Tholllas A" 11:1 Paradisl', .Ioltn, ii Paranassos Socjclv. 77, H:l Paraschos, 1'>lallll{', 1711l Paspal is, Alexan'!l'r, (; Pal nnacos, f'\ ikon D., nn, I!)O PaIS;tV()S, I.CWIS, 191 Paltl'rson, .Iaml's (;" 1.J:'1Il I'axmou, Kalrina, 1:\-1, 15·1 Pcristl
I'\('\\'

Plwutriti('s, Aristldcs E.. 77, H:l !);/gr;1JIugr, H:)tl POlltikcs. Kl'llIH'li1 \V., I:)~J Populallon, (;re['k·Anll'ricall, (i:\-(i(i, 155-:)7 Pn','as, N icltolas ~I .. I H!) 1'1'11/1//, iH, lIi·I-Ii:"i Psoltnadl's, Ilal'l'I'.I" c)ln, i:!n, IH7, IH!)

Orleans. Louisiana. 7

l'\c\\' Smyrna, Florida, 2-,1 i'\c\\' York Cil\', 2:~-2·L :\.1.

Nt'lI \\'or/r/ {X,:()S l

P(,Il'rSOIl, Pl'tl'r (;., I J.\, I'i·1 Pl'lrakis, Harrv 1\1.. 101-,1. I:\(i, IS:\, Iti!)n Pl'lraS, .Iam,'s.' 171n Pl'lropoulos, I'\icholas P .. liill, IO(ill, II'In Pl'lropulos, .Iohll A., Sill Phillips, SIl'I'l'Il, 171ln Phillips, Thomas, 11,1 l'hi/oIJlor!l/Is, ltiO-(il, I!)I

(,'fJ.\1/lfJ.\!.

:Hl, :');;-SH, I,;)

7H

I'\iarrhos, (;IIS, I J.l f'\irholsoll, .Iohll f'\ .. IC):1 I'\iropolllos, John i\" II!)II J'\icozjsin, {;corgc, EIO

l'\ikl'lIl', Arthm C" !):\" f'\ikilo'polllos, Charil's, I!)O f'\O\'ak, ~lirh
Quinn, Alllhony. I:!fi Raizis, ~1. Ilrmn, !JH, ')'In Raklios, .Ioh;), 12·! Rallis, Conslanlinl', (i Rallis, Panlias, (i ({mgan, ROllald, F)O RCIIIOllllclos. P('ler. I:~() Rl'xi(l(',.Iohn, nn, I!JI Ritsos. Yannis. H7 Rol', K. V .. 9:1n Roosl'velt, Franklin D .. 'I~, ,Ii, Illi Rosl'n, Bernard c., IIln Rosenlhal. Benlamin, I~I Rossidl's, EtI;;l'ltl, T" IH, 1:!ln, l(i7 ROIl., Phillips, IH·I ROlhstl'lIl, Amold, ,1,\ Rotlssakis, .Iohn, Iii Rmakos, Nicholas.l" 77n, IH!1 Ruhmi, f\.lana (;racia, :~ Rllssis, William j., IlI,ltI Safilios·Rolhschild, Conslanlina, !)On, !):\-!).J n Sakellarides, Achilles 1\ .. 11,/ Salolllos, Thl'odorl', Ill-lin, lIin, I!ln, ~·I-!!'in, :\0, :lln, :\:\-:Hn, :19, ,I:)n. ,I!)n, 5C" ii9n, 67n, 7:1n, OlH, I:!·ln, IHH Samaras, I,tlcas, 11:1 Sampas, Charil's (;" IH'I Sarbanl's, Alllhonv, 17,1 Sarhanl's, 1'>latma: 17,1 Sarbanl's, Palll S" IlIi-17. lIi7, liOn, li:\-7'1 Sarbanl's, Spvros, I i:l- i,1 Sarbancs, Zoe, 17,1 Sarris, Andrell', IlIi-17 Sal'alas, (;eor;;,,- llii Savalas, Tl'lIv, HO, II:), 1:!li, IH') SWlIl'bv, AI,:xandlT, 11:\ Swurb~', 1\licl', liin, IlHn, '!:"in, IIHin, 170n, IH9 Seamat;. Palll D., H~1l Sefcns, (;corge, Hi Sdz, Thalia Chl'ronis, 100, 11'ln Silas, Ml'tropolilan, !:lti, IC,') Simonidl's, Yanllls, I'HI Sklins, I,('onidas (;" 1·1 Skouras, Charll's, ·15-,lIi, 11:\ Skotlras, Spyros, ·Iii-·lli. ')0, 11:\ Skotlris, (;eor;;(', ·15-,1ti, 11:\ Snoll'e, Olympia Bonchll's, Iii. In Snydl'r, Jilllmy "Iltl' (;rl'l'k," II'), 15,1 SOIOIllOS, 1)ion ysios, HO

INDEX

204 Sons of Pericles, I{}2

Sophocl(,s. Evan""los. (i Spanidoll. Ind. 15:1 Spanos. Alex (; .. 1:,1 Spanos. Ilarr)" \T .• II i Spiridakis • .John. IH!} Spirem. (:hrislOs. HII Siamos. Th('odoros. 11·1. 15:1 Slavroli. Theodore C .. liOn Stavroll. Thcofallls (; .. 19211 Slathopoulos. Peter. ('Iflu

Slephanides. ~Iarios. IOlin. IOHn Slephanoli. ElIseiJilis A.. 7·ln. 1~10 Sirike. I'\icholas 1... Iii Slylianoli. Ma"na. Iii!; Taft. l.oredo, 22 Tala"an. Dean 1' .. IH~l Tavolllar('as. William. 11·1. 15~. Hj'ln Tavacilis, Nicholas. 'IOn. ~l~n Teodoro. nOll. 2 TI1<'odorakis, I\likls. 110 Theodorailis. Robert .J .. 75n Theodorolipolilos. HeI('n. liOn Thomopolilos. Anlhon\' D .. 11·1 Thompson, Ariadne. 100 Tikas, LOllis. J.J-15, 15:\ "/"o/,i/w SOIll([/I"I([. 71i-77. 1:\1. 11i:\ Toppin", Eva Calai"l'giolll, (in. HiO. liOn Trahanalzis. Stalhis, HI Trelldell'. Maria V .. i5n Triandi;. I faITI' C .. !!:In Triandos, (;1I< I J.J Troll. Sarah I I.. I~On Truman, Ilarr)" S .. 51. 5:\, I Hi, I(}H Tsakonas. Chrislos. 10-11 Tselos. Dimilri, 11:1 Tscios, (;('or,,<', IH~) Tsioropolilos, LOll. I J.J Tsil'lis. Koslas. 15:\ Tsirplanis. Conslallline. IH9 Tson"as. Palll E.. Iii. 1i01l. li:l. IH(in Tsollnis, I\liek P.. J.JOn TlIrnhllll. Andrew. :1

tll·IAC (United lfell"nie American COII"rcss) I~I, l(i:\-(i5 [lry. (Yollns). I\liehael. ·\-5

Vag-dos. p, Roy. 152 \'a"is, PoilWlOIOS. 11:\ Valone. Katherine, 72n. I~)J Vaporls, NOl11ikos i\I., i21l,

1~IO

Vardolilakis. I\larl'. 100 Vasilakos. Sieve. ,~O \'asils, Themi. liOn. I'll Vassilios. Archbishop. :lti Vassilioll. C('orge, 9:~1l Vassiliotl. Vasso, 9:~11 Velli. Theoni. Ii In VCIlt'zelis, Elcuthcrios. 9, 1:>,

:~:)

Vlachos. Evan C .. ~in, :1:\11, :,,111. KKn. !}"JIl, 1·15n. 1·IHn, IH~) VJanton. Elias. IH~) Vlassis. (;eorw, D .• Gin. 1·15n Vlaslos, Solon, :IH, iH Vlaviallos, Basil. 191 VOlllkos. Peter. I J.J. 15:\ Votlrllas. (;corg:e. Inl Vryonis. Speros • .Jr .. IH7 Warnke. Christine. IH9 WataniJe, Palll Y., !iln \\lomell. Greek-American. 27-2~J. ·17. :H-;l;), (iO, 91, !).J. J(iO-lil. liOn Wills. (;arl', IHC,n

n.

Xl'nides, .f.P., .J.ln,

I~:ln

Yatron, (;llS. Iii, li~ Yanee)" William I.., 1·lin Yerararis. COllstantine. /;lll Zarhos. John. (; Zaharias, IIabe lli