February 2, 2002
Response of Peter James Liacouras in Accepting the Achievement Award of the Hellenic University Club of Philadelphia
May I begin by
expressing my appreciation to Peter Chrisanthopoulos, Joanna Savvides, Peter
Doulis, Ginny Botsis, Zoe Ann Tripolitis, and my colleague and friend Foulie
Psalidas-Perlmutter. It has been
a pleasure to work with you in preparing for this event.
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Thank you for this
recognition. I return the
compliment.
I am here this evening,
like you, to support a good cause – scholarships for young Hellenes.
But I’m also here because this is an opportunity to thank you
directly for playing an important role in shaping my values, and for a
lifetime of support. In doing so,
I underline my continuing debt to this community of Hellenes and
Phil-Hellenes.
With the indulgence of
those born after 1950 and those who arrived in Philadelphia sometime later,
I’d like to stroll down memory lane for a moment to share my own sense of
the history of the early years in Philadelphia for Greek-Americans. I’ll describe what it was like to be born and
raised in the Greek-American Community of Philadelphia in the 1930’s and
1940’s.
But first,
a word about my grandparents and parents.
My maternal grandfather was George Lagakos, from Kastania, a cwrio in Lakonias. He immigrated to America in 1904, nearly one hundred years ago. Six years later my grandmother, Stavroula Alikakos Lagakos, and their two daughters joined papou in Camden, New Jersey. Aunt Pauline (later Manos) and my Mother had been waiting with giagia in Tseria, the cwrio across the ravine from Kastania, for his letters and their fare to Amerikh.
Three of
my aunts from that generation are with me tonight: Minerva Lagakos Theodos,
Catherine Lagakos Kaneles, and Lola Carapanis Lagakos.
Meanwhile, between 1902 and 1910, my father, his four brothers and two of his three sisters arrived in America from the town of Harakopio, Messinias. They settled in Philadelphia.
I’m happy that, from
my father’s side, my cousins Helen Liacouras Doukakis, Effie Roebus
Liacouras, and Mary Bertas Rennis are also with us tonight.
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1902 was a much more
difficult environment than 2002 for immigrants coming to America in search of
a better life.
Today, many Greeks
arrive from Athens or Thessaloniki or Patras with university degrees, as
scientists, engineers, physicians. They
are compensated commensurate with their skilled contributions to the world’s
greatest military and economic power. Their
children immediately enjoy the luxuries of the middle class.
One hundred years ago,
most Greeks came here from villages where they were farmers or blacksmiths or
carpenters, and with no formal education. They arrived in the bustling cities
of this new land where self-reliance, hard work, family life, and
resourcefulness were supreme.
Their route to the
American Dream began with very hard, thankless work as laborers with no
protections. They worked in building the infrastructure and heavy industries
of a rapidly expanding but proudly isolationist America.
Some became street vendors and saved enough to open small businesses,
usually related to food or other of life’s necessities.
They sacrificed mightily so their children might someday succeed.
It wasn’t until the
1930’s that more than a handful of Greek-Americans in Philadelphia had
attained a college education.
Our elders then remain
my heroes to this day. They were
almost exclusively our parents, grandparents, family and extended family of koumparoi and sumpeqeroi, our priests and
religious leaders. They included the self-made, highly successful
Greek-Americans who earned the reputation as honest, customer-friendly
skillful businessmen. Our models,
in short, were mainly practical people (“to
ti”) rather than
professionals or academics (“to
giati”).
It was my good fortune
to be born into and nurtured by Philadelphia’s
Greek-American community during the formative years of the 1930’s and
1940’s.
We grew up with very
little radio, decades before television, let alone “Antenna..” Telephones
were a luxury here and non-existent in the cwrio. --
an obstacle to remaining in touch with family and friends left behind. While
books were available, it would be 60 years before the first e-mail message,
even longer before the development of the “web.”
There were no airplanes linking America and Europe, and certainly not
with Greece…only very slow boats.
We were essentially an
enclave within this land of “Amerikanoi,”
but we were not without links to our Hellenic culture.
We were happy, and proud.
In immigrating to
America with high expectations, our grandparents and parents carried priceless
cultural riches, even if no material wealth or formal education.
Our
mothers, grandmothers and aunts – primarily the women -- unlocked for us
the traditions, foods, songs, art, myths, mysteries and history of
Greece. In church, at social
gatherings, name days, eorteV and coroesperideV, our parents’ teachings were reinforced by priests
and other repositories of Greek history and culture.
For those who could read, there was o EqnikoV Khrux or the AtlantiV
from New York.
Our extended family included virtually everyone of Greek origin in the
region and all Greek-American institutions.
To a cultural
anthropologist, we were conditioned by the oral histories and
perspectives of persons sharing a common language, religion and
traditions which reflected the agrarian communities into which they were born.
To me, an incredible
generation of proud pioneers, my heroes, nurtured us.
We
discovered links to Pericles of Athens and Leonidas of Sparta, to
In Sunday School, at
Greek School (which we attended with our teacher,
Kuria TerizakhV, once a week after
public school had ended), in the Sons of Pericles and Daughters of Penelope,
we were imbued with the same pride in our Greek heritage that we were
absorbing at home.
In church, we prayed,
studied and performed patriotic, religious and traditional themes from Greece,
including Greece-Turkey history.
Even though the wounds
from 400 years of forcible occupation by the Ottomon Empire had not yet healed
(and were freshly burnished by events in Asia Minor in 1922), we learned to
distinguish between a people (o laoV) and a government ((h
kubernhsh), between .peaceful persons and aggressors, between good and
evil.
We began to understand
that Hellenism was sustained for 2,500 years because of the universality and
timelessness of its values -- the
same values that we ourselves were beginning to develop.
The most powerful
message in our home was about values: agaph, family, accepting individual responsibility for
our acts, self-reliance, independence, and the standard of pan, metron, ariston. Everyone is of God, has intrinsic worth, and can advance in
America through hard work. Treat everyone with respect and based on their own
acts and their own merits, not who they know or station in life.
We were expected to be the best at whatever we did. We were reminded
almost daily of “our glorious history,” and the obligation to serve the
community and to leave the world a better place than we found it.
It was nothing short of amazing that such profound messages had emanated from that community of immigrants.
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Our
parents began a long process of assimilation thirty years before us. It was
painful.
One part of them was
attached to the cwrio and
Greek traditions. The other part -- including their fervent hopes for their
American-born children and the demands of their own business – was weaving a
tapestry for success in America. They were becoming Amerikanoi.
By attending public
school with all of America’s children, our own Americanization was greatly
accelerated. We learned together
in those classrooms. Outside, we played, worked, fought and dreamed with
children of other faiths and nationalities. Even as we all became full-fledged
Amerikanoi, we clung to many traditions of our respective ancestors and our
youth.
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On March 27, 1936, in
Philadelphia, 14 persons formed a “Professional Club”--
E S E EllhnikoV SullogoV Epistimonwn
-- an event hardly
imaginable 30 years earlier when my ancestors had arrived in America.
This band of
university-educated, professionals of Greek descent organized to advance paideia.
The 14 pioneers were: Nicholas
Padis, Kively Padis, Nicholas Hetos, Peter Theodos, Abraham Michaels, Theresa Chletcos, Dimitrios
Papantoniou, Constantine Stephanis, Aristides Zangakis, Phokion Sober,
Harry Nickles, Xenophon Ides, George Perakos, Peter Petropoulos.
I was only five years
old in 1936, but I knew it was a significant milestone for the Greek
Community. It was my good fortune
as a young man personally to know and admire 12 of the founders, as I did many
of the earliest inductees -- especially my uncle, Gregory Lagakos. And thanks to the records of Club Historian Virginia Botsis,
I was reminded that the speaker at the Club’s first official function on
November 19th of 1936, was a common hero to all of us, Archbishop
(later Patriarch) Athenagoras. There
was indeed an auspicious beginning for what is now called the Hellenic
University Club.
For many in my
generation of young Greek-Americans, this new organization issued a clarion
call for us
-
to pursue paideia
for our personal
benefit, and for the public good;
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to pursue excellence, truth and justice in our
lives as Americans;
-
to serve others, including the larger community,
with fidelity.
The establishment of the
“Professional Club” reinforced
the optimism, values and message of my family.
And it did more.
It became a clearinghouse or mini-Chamber of Commerce for college
graduates and professionals of Greek descent, and a source of pride for the
larger community.
Even more significantly, it pointed us towards the “Amerikanoi,” as we called
everyone outside our immediate “Greek” community.
For me, the Club symbolized the possibility that Greeks of our
generation could someday contribute to American life as the ancient Greeks had
helped to lay the foundations for western civilization some 2,500 years
earlier.
Thus, the
“Professional Club” instilled confidence in my generation of Americans of
Greek descent seeking to make our marks in our native America.
We believed that if persons of Greek origin had already become
successful here, so could we.
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Some of you will recall that during the 1940’s and 1950’s, our
intellectual leader was Professor Michael Dorizas.
Dr. Dorizas was a political geographer and faculty member at Penn, a
former Olympic wrestling champion, and popular raconteur on geopolitical
issues.
In the twenty or so
times I was in Dr. Dorizas’ presence, I was awe-struck.
It didn’t matter that he was somewhat aloof and crusty, or that I
disagreed with his position on several issues, or that he would chide me about
my voice saying: “Peter, your
voice sounds like a sexy woman’s.”
It was enough for me
that Michael Dorizas was a man renowned for intellectual integrity and
professional achievement. He was
a Greek who had blossomed in America. He
was contributing to the development of all Americans as a professor.
Even today, Dr. Dorizas
remains my hero.
I also admired my gifted
and loving sisters -- Helen, Vilma and Aliki -- as pioneers among
Greek-American career women of our generation. I am delighted that our niece,
Eleni Lambros, is here representing the families of my sisters.
Helen Bertas and Elpis Halkides Kyriazis were two of many others I recognized as trailblazers.
My cousin,
John Manos, was also an enduring influence. He was the brother I never had.
I have never come close to attaining John Manos’ faithfulness, love,
brilliance, humility and service to others.
And, of course, there was St. George’s, Pater
Papantwniou, Theresa Chletcos, Gus Sosangelis, and others who
inspired us to strive in our thoughts and deeds to be worthy of eternal life.
I mention these early
influences because they contributed immeasurably to the development of my own
values … and certainly to whatever modest contributions I’ve made along
the way.
For the past 43 years,
Ann and more recently our children and grandchildren have been the source of
daily inspiration and “the Gibraltar” to a restless Peter Liacouras.
We’re happy that our son, Stephen, is with us from San Francisco
representing all of our children and grandchildren.
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It
was also my good fortune to learn from intellectually tough, humane and
open-minded students, teachers and colleagues of every conceivable
background…at every stage of my life. They
were of Italian, English, Greek, German, Polish, Irish, Armenian, Jewish,
South American, Spanish, Arab, Muslim, Hindu, Turkish, African, Asian
backgrounds. Women and men.
Young and old. City and country folk.
Artists and poets, chefs and engineers,
artisans and jurists, physicians and homemakers,
janitors and Nobel Laureates.
It’s as though each of them from ostensibly diverse backgrounds is really related to one another. Their ancestors may hail from other parts of the world; their religions may not be the same; their occupations and successes may vary. But there is a commonality in the best of them. It is that they possess the same values I developed in this Greek American community – values that permeate and, in some form, have influenced virtually all the world. Universal values.
A universal Hellenism.
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I have tried to be worthy of my good fortune in being nurtured
by this community. I’ve tried
to maintain fidelity to the ideals of the elders of my youth, including those
who founded the Hellenic University Club, and the universal Hellenism on which
they are based.
Despite our best
efforts, though, we often fail. No
one is perfect.
Even a culture as
advanced and honored as Fifth Century Athens was not perfect.
Didn’t Athens kill the
best of its citizens, Socrates?
If democratic and
glorious Athens could err, so can the rest of us, including most certainly me.
The Founders of the
Hellenic University Club of Philadelphia understood this. They pointed us in the direction of pursuing paideia for the progress of all
humankind.
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For these reasons, and
many others that you could recount yourselves, I am honored as a child of this
community to accept this award from you.
Finally,
I’d like to direct a word to each Scholarship recipient and the generation
you represent. As you work to
advance your own personal goals, please also work to enlarge your conception
of “community” until your “own” community includes all
humanity. You will then leave
this world better than you found it.
Sugcarhthria.
Kai eiV anwtera.