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Sample Student
final answers 2013 (2013 final exam assignment) #1: Research Reports |
LITR 4333
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Kia Vrettos
Greek-American Immigrants
My father is a proud
Greek- American. I’ve never heard him speak about any struggles he had coming to
America or assimilating. He told me his story when I was in grade school. As you
know, the memory of most children is very short lived, unless it’s their
favorite song. My father spoke to me about how he came to America as if he was
simply talking about what he did that afternoon. After he was released from the
Greek Navy, he applied for a job, not knowing much about it. When he was
accepted for the job, they paid for his bus ticket and ticket for the ship to go
to America and for him to work in New York. He said that he got a work visa and
was able to come and leave for work with no problem. At some point, through his
job, working on ships, he met people that eventually led him to Texas, where he
and his partner started a ship parts repair company together. While in Texas,
that’s when he met my American Anglo-Saxon mother, Marilyn, at Athens Bar &
Grill, a common place for seafarers to visit when their ship was docked in The
Port of Houston. Intermarriage is how immigrants assimilate and so started my
father’s assimilation. His story is that of a standard immigrant coming from the
old world and coming to the new world without any prior experience or knowledge
of America which gives him a more positive outlook than minorities or new world
immigrants. He was not discriminated against, in fact, he felt he was treated
fairly and with respect from day one. My father said to me, “I didn’t jump the
ship to come to America.” Even though he assimilated, he made sure he passed
down his Greek pride.
It’s natural for me to
look for Greeks in almost anything. I hear a person’s name, a familiar village
and even a word that sounds Greek and my eyes and ears are opened. Initially, I
wanted to research Greek-American immigrant literature because I was interested
in how Greeks have experienced their assimilation to the dominant culture in
America. What sparked my longing to search for this literature was that I could
not find any Greek-American immigrant literature in our class assigned book.
Later, I realized, how silly of me to think that every culture of origin could
be examined in one semester anyway. The Greek pride in me still wanted to know
more. What I really wanted to do was find Greek immigrant experiences in hopes
that there were similarities between my father’s story, my story and others and
that I would find enjoyable. I decided
to take on the challenge and find out why Greek immigrant literature is not very
widely known in the American Immigrant Literature class. In my research report I
will explain my findings on Greek-American immigrant literature and other
sources, how it relates to this course and my further desired research on the
subject.
I
learned that it was quit challenging to find Greek immigrant literature. What
literature I find was very recent and therefore must be the one of the reasons
why it isn’t in the American Immigrant Literature course. I found several books
that explained Greek-American culture, but hardly any personal immigrant
literature of a Greek-American that took time out of their busy life to write
about their experiences. I was excited when I thought I thought I finally found
something, but as it turns out, the books that showed available at the Anderson
library weren’t there. They weren’t there because someone had checked them out,
they were simply missing. That was just one of many struggles in my research
report. Feeling frustrated and almost ready to give up, I started searching for
why we do not have very good records of Greek-American immigrant narratives. Not
surprisingly, I found that there were other people who have searched for the
same subject and have had the same amount of frustration as I have experienced.
Determined or just plain hard headed Greek, I kept searching. I found websites
from universities with interviews with Greek-American students explaining their
life and what it’s like to be a Greek-American. I began to get even more
curious. Why was it that Greeks weren’t writing about themselves?
Part of the reason there isn’t very
much Greek immigrant literature as Papanikolas wrote, “The
Greek immigrant was the last of the Europeans to come to America. Fewer than two
thousand Greeks were in the entire country before the 1880's.” (Papanikolas)
Finally, I also found something else to reassure why I had such a struggle
finding Greek-American immigrant literature, “…most
of the English language writers write about Greece and make little or no
references to the United States or immigration.” (Greek-American Literature Pg.
259)
After extensive
research, it was clear to me that Greeks didn’t write about themselves because
they were too busy being successful Americans, they arrived later than other
immigrants and language barrier were all factors that contributed to the lack of
their immigrant stories. The commonality that I found within all my research was
that most Greek-Americans were successful, hardworking, down to earth business
people. Like most business people, they are busy working, not writing about
their hard work.
I’ve learned a little
about the few Greek-American immigrants from those that did write their story.
My research tells me that the reason for the lack of Greek-American literature
is because bad news travels faster than good news. There isn’t much of a
struggle in any of the stories. Even the person themselves have such a positive
demeanor. These people realize the benefits of assimilating and achieving the
American dream and they do it like the Spartans they are. It has a lot to do
with the Greek culture. When I have visited Greece, the one thing that was so
refreshing there, besides the beauty of the land, was the people’s love for
life. Greeks are passionate people; they are great thinkers and hard workers.
It’s also easier for them to assimilate because they value education, as does
the dominant culture in America. My father’s favorite quote from my Greek yia
yia (grandma), from where my first name derived from, was, “If you don’t have
brains, you have feet to walk.” These people don’t sit down and cry, when things
get tough. We are all taught by our parents to be tough but loving at the same
time.
In
an online article in The New York Times, a Greek-American business owner states,
“I work all my life like animal to have this building. They destroy my building
left and right and they give me peanuts. I have no choice. I take what is left,”
His attitude towards how hard he has worked is similar to when my father was
working he would say, “I’m trying to make a dollar.” Mostly, Greeks are
hardworking people who are successful in anything they do even when dealing with
their 2nd
generation American children doing what normal Americans do.
When
it comes to the survival of their business they will hurdle over their
children’s American ways. One day, I searched online for my favorite
Greek-American restaurant located on Montrose in Houston, TX. On their site I
found that Grossman with the Houston Press wrote the full story on how Niko
Niko’s, my favorite Greek-American restaurant, was started and also about the
owner, Eleni Fetokakis, and her immigrant story. The restaurant started small as
just a little stand with tables outside around it. It was a hit from day one. As
years went by the business grew. Eventually, she left the business to her sons
and left for Greece, which was only short-lived to find out her sons were too
busy being Americans, giving their dollars to women and gambling. Grossman
describes that event, Dimitri
says it's a more complicated story, the boys weren't running the place like they
should, they were partying instead of paying bills. "My parents freaked out --
we're not very serious people -- but Niko Niko's we take very seriously,"
Dimitri says. "There's too much depending on it." They are in the midst of
business not getting taken care of and things are about to get worse, but they
step up and get their sons straight because business is business and it’s not a
struggle to them but simply what is necessary to live, to survive. I find it
ironic that the title describing the history of Niko Nikos and Eleni’s story is,
“Elbow
Greece -
Working nonstop for 24 years, Eleni Fetokakis built her restaurant.”
“We are strong Spartans,”
as my father has said numerous times to us children and to anyone he visits in
the hospital or rather, “Be a Spartan.” In my research I also found that Greeks
started arriving here at the end of the 19th century and that the
majority of Greeks were male. As far as how well Greeks assimilate into the
dominant culture in America, they do it very well, especially the males that
came over and married Americans, like my father.
Now that we have learned a lot in this class on immigrants I have had
time to reflect on my father’s immigrant experiences and my own. On an immigrant
level, my dad has assimilated very well. His assimilation is also due to being a
business man. In order to make his business work he just naturally assimilated,
no problem. I remember that my mother taught him how to write; she started with
capital letters, my dad has mentioned a time or two.
In 2002 a movie came
out about a Greek-American woman working in her father’s restaurant who was 30
years old and had not yet married a Greek and not had Greek babies. The movie is
a comedy that shows the struggles that she goes through when she falls in love
with an Anglo-Saxon, American. Like the New World immigrants that frown upon
their children intermarrying, so did her father. Although as any good story has
it’s exaggerations I believe that this movie is mostly true on its presentation
of the Greek-American family. Exactly as my research finds that Greek-Americans
are hard workers, the main character is so busy working, she hasn’t stopped to
make adjustments to herself or take time off work to find a potential husband.
On a personal note, I will list a few things within the movie that are true and
not true for me and my family. One, my family is not big here in America,
although my step-mother’s family, whom I am close to, is practically everyone in
our home town village, Olena. The father several
times in the movie references that the root word of some English words are
Greek. All throughout my childhood, my father has always mentioned if a word was
derived from the Greek language. As far as the hilarious father’s obsession that
Windex fixes everything, my father was a soap and water kind of person. It was
never said to me that he would disapprove of me intermarrying but he certainly
has expressed he doesn’t like for men to have long hair like Toula’s boyfriend
in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” In the movie Toula’s father made fun of her
boyfriend’s hair and described it disgustingly as a mop on his head. I remember
when this movie was released there were a lot of Greeks in Greece that were
offended by this movie. I believe the reason for that is because they are the
old world and the movie was about a Greek-American in the new world. A Greek in
the old world may have similarities but a Greek-American is an immigrant that
chooses what part of the dominant American culture they will assimilate to.
The research I found exemplifies the truth that
Greek-Americans fit the story of leaving the old world in search of a better
life, the American dream. In this course, we’ve learned that religion is the
last part of a culture that an immigrant will let go of and assimilate to the
dominant culture. I have found this true. In my struggle to find Greek Immigrant
stories, I found a video where a Greek immigrant states that although she is
busy with school she still attends Greek Orthodox church, “…on the important
holidays,” as she stated in the video. (Alexiou) Greeks also have a sort of
minority identity in that they hold on to their Greek identity as long as
possible, but at the same time they show various signs that they have
assimilated to the dominant culture. In essence, they pick and choose what part
of the dominant culture they assimilate to and what they will not.
I would like to research
how many generations Greek-American families hold on to their Greek identity. I
know personally in my experience that I don’t speak Greek grammatically correct
and my fear of having my child laughed at for incorrect Greek has led me to not
teach my child the Greek language, as of yet. I know that there are people with
Greek names that know nothing about their Greek heritage. For example, my
daughter’s teacher, who is maybe a quarter Greek, doesn’t claim any Greek
identity except that her grandfather was Greek. In the Greek Eastern Orthodox
church in Houston, TX, there is a lot of people that have Greek names but they
do not know how to speak Greek and without knowing their name it would be very
difficult to tell that they were Greek.
Sadly, I was not able to find very many Greek-American literature pieces that I would have liked. For example, I came across a novel titled, Middlesex, about a Greek-American family in Detroit, but as I started reading it I realized that it was more about the author Jeffrey Eugenides's and being born both a girl and a boy. Although I am done with my research for now, I will keep an eye out and one day I will most likely research how long Greek-Americans hold on to their culture.
Works Cited
Laliotou, Ioanna.
Translantic Subjects. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Print.
Knippling, Alpana. “Greek-American
Literature.” New Immigrant Literatures in the United States. Westport:
Greenwood Press, 1996. 254-259. eBook.
<http://books.google.com/books?id=hK2LjsquxmYC&pg=PA254&lpg=PA254&dq=Grekimmigrantstoriespublished&source=bl&ots=B418OUe34o&sig=2FijhWQqmi2m038eQzPQkkvxbNA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Ro5TUuTxDoHO9QSAq4HoBQ&ved=0CFEQ6AEw
Bw
Papanikolas,
Helen. "Early Greek Immigrants." Utah
History to Go. State of Utah. Web. 10 Nov 2013.
<http://historytogo.utah.gov/people/ethnic_cultures/earlygreekimmigrants.html>.
Alexiou, Nicholas. Hellenic-American
Oral History Project: Greek Americans.
2013. Video. Queens College, Queens. Web. 2 Nov 2013.
<http://www.qc.cuny.edu/Academics/Degrees/DSS/Sociology/GreekOralHistory/PagesInterviews.asp&xgt;.
Grossman, Wendy. "History." Niko Nikos Greek and American
Cafe. Houston Press. Web. 12-6- 13.
<http://www.nikonikos.com/history>.
Robbins, Liz. American Dreamer in
42nd Street who Fled from the Deal. The New York Times. Web. 12-6-13.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/26/nyregion/american-dreamer-on-
42nd-street-who-fled-from-a-deal.html?emc=eta1&_r=0>.
