Greek Americans: From Assimilation to Acceptance
By Deirdre Heavey, Fall 2019
Greeks who immigrated to the United States during World War II had to assimilate in order to be accepted as Americans. When Petros Leriadas moved to the United States in 2017 to receive a better education, his peers welcomed him authentically.
Leriadas, a junior at Manhattan College, was born in the northern suburbs of Athens. While his parents reside in Greece, Leriadas and his twin sister, a junior at Stony Brook University, came to college in New York to escape the corruption occurring in Greek schools. When Leriadas moved to New York in 2017, he remained involved with Greek politics, continued to eat Greek food and speak Greek with his relatives in Long Island.
“Everything about where I grew up influences me today. I still follow Greek politics and Greek sports. I live here, so I follow American affairs as well, but my mind is still in Greece with my family.”
Rather than performing the Greek stereotype or conforming to an American identity, Leriadas has remained unapologetically himself during his time in the United States.
“Just be who you are,” Leriadas said. “I never pretended. I came here and everyone thought I was a big Greek who could drink a lot. I was not like that. I was like, ‘This is who I am. If we get along, we get along, you know?’”
For Leriadas, building relationships with Americans was natural. Leriadas was fortunate to have friends who allowed him to be himself. He said they never judged him for dressing different or speaking Greek and they genuinely appreciated getting to know one another.
“In the beginning, I was kind of scared,” said Leriadas. “I was thinking, ‘Where am I?’ But, I felt my roommates were good people, so that’s why I stayed with them.”
Leridas continues to live with his roommates from freshman year. While he may have grown up across the world from them, he said they that has never prevented them from developing real friendships.
Two juniors at Manhattan College, George Nicholis and Anargiros Pasalaros, have Greek grandparents. When Nicholis and Pasalaros describe their grandparents’ immigration to the United States, they emphasized the necessity to assimilate rather than be themselves.
“In order to make it in American society, we had to assimilate,” said Nicholis. “Back when my grandfather was serving in the U.S. Army, he said if you couldn’t speak English, they would just call you ‘that goddamn Greek.’ Nothing else to it. You have to talk like them, walk them, and dress like them if you’re going to make it.”
For Nicholis’s paternal grandfather, assimilation was the only way to make it in America. As for Nicholis’s maternal grandparents, Yani and Lefki Spalas, they made their way in America through the restaurant business.
“They bought this place in Philadelphia worth $300 for a storefront,” Nicholis said. “My grandmother knew how to make the dough, and my grandfather would pick up the tomatoes and they started selling pizza. They opened up about three or four other locations and kept expanding until they had five or six locations. They made it with pizza.”
While cooking Greek food began as a means to establishing net worth in America, the practice has actually sustained Greek culture in America for Nicholis’s family.
“Greeks immigrated to America with no money,” Nicholis said. “What were they going to do? If you worked in a diner or a restaurant, it was pretty much a guarantee that you weren’t going to have to worry about your next meal.”
According to Pasaloros, his paternal grandfather worked on the railroad line from Philadelphia to San Francisco in order to establish himself in America. Beyond making money, Pasaloros explained that a huge part of becoming American for his family was assimilation.
“I would definitely say we have assimilated ourselves quite well,” said Pasaloros. “That was the biggest issue with coming to this country, being able to assimilate and find your way here.”
However, Pasaloros said that Greeks maintain their culture within small communities.
“Culturally, we have our own thing,” Pasaloros said. “Every culture has their own thing. We have our music, our dance and our community. We are like a little bubble in the big sea.”
Both Pasaloros and Nicholis said they grew up speaking Greek, cooking Greek food and attending Greek schools. For these Greek-Americans, participating in Greek tradition has maintained their connection with the culture.
“My grandmother lived with us from when I was 13 to when I was 19,” said Pasaloros. “The only way we could communicate with her was in Greek, so that way we could actually have something that we like to eat.”
Without Nicholis and Posaloros’s understanding of the language, they would have been unable to speak with their families at the dinner table, listen to Greek music and learn Greek recipes. For Leriadas, language is the first step to understanding Greek culture.
“I personally think the language is the first thing,” said Leriadas. “If you speak the language, you’re more connected to everything because you can understand the songs, the radio and everything. Even the stories that are told on Christmas and Easter, you cannot understand what they’re saying without the language and you lose connection.”
Since moving to the United States, Leriadas has noticed how Greek-Americans gravitate toward storytelling to keep the culture alive.
“I think the Greek-American story of being Greek differs from the Greek one,” said Leriadas. “Story-telling is what keeps them Greek. It’s what maintains their identity. A lot of stories can be told by our parents and grandparents from those two eras, so I think it connects people.”
Because Greek-Americans assimilated when they immigrated to the United States during World War II, much of their traditional Greek culture was lost. However, Leriadas said the culture that developed from assimilation took on a different form.
“It’s a unique experience,” said Leriadas. “The food, dance, everything is slightly different but it connects Greek-Americans back to the country.”
Leriadas attributed the cultural differences between Greek-Americans and Americans to technology, education and politics.
“It’s overwhelming here,” Leriadas said about the United States. “Everything is big: cars, houses and buildings. It’s too much to process. New York is the center of the world.”
In comparison to Greece, Leriadas described New York as well-developed and technologically advanced.
“Greece is slower with technology,” Leriadas said. “Greece is more old-school and traditional with a smaller society. It doesn’t help because we have the islands which detach us from the mainland.”
Leriadas noted that the socialist society of Greece has lost its value. While free health-care and public schools are rooted in Greek policy, socialism has lost its value in Greece.
“There are chaotic differences between the two systems,” Leriadas said. “Here, you respect your professors, you respect your classmates. In Greece, it was getting out of control. Anyone could seek asylum in schools. You can sell illegal drugs and illegal cigarettes in schools, and no one could do anything.”
While Leriadas was drawn to the education system in the United States as refuge from the corruption in Greek schools, he said Americans need to learn how to enjoy life outside of work and school.
“America should learn that working is not everything,” Leriadas said. “Life isn’t about just going to college, doing internships, wearing suits and going for interviews. We are not robots who were made for this. We are more than that.”
On the other end of the spectrum, Leriadas said he believes Greece can learn to incorporate America’s competitive work drive into their culture.
“Greece can learn how to work and how to compete with each other, but not in a bad way,” Leriadas said. “We’re losing that in Greece. No one wants to compete for something greater. I think both of them can find a middle ground.”
While assimilation was a necessity for Greek immigrants during World War II, Petros Leriadas has received acceptance of his individuality since moving to the United States in 2017. As Greek-Americans learn about their culture through storytelling, cooking and language, Leridas said there’s no limit to the lessons Greeks and Americans can learn from one another.
