A city of Immigrants- Ellis Island





I had a full, busy, and amazing month in December and January hosting old friends from Athens. One of my closest friends came to visit after a long absence from the U.S and a couple I hosted had never been to the United States before. This was quite exciting for me, as I find it wonderful to host and show people the city that has been my home for the past four years. I find great joy in being able to take people around my city, be that Athens, New York or London. Each place seen through the unique eyes of a native makes it that much more wonderful for a visitor. 

No matter how many years you live in a given city, visitors have an innate ability to make you see it through the eyes of a tourist, which in many cases is a perfect opportunity to see things through a fresh vantage point. As with Yoga, I often highly encourage experienced teachers to go to a beginner's class to reinvent their seasoned eyes, to the mindset and awareness of a beginner. And so it goes with long time residents of any city, go back to the first time you saw a certain neighborhood, open your eyes, look with wonder and you will rediscover your home, your city your streets with a new perspective. 
See it with the eyes of a visitor that has come for the first time and you will be surprised by how much you will learn, appreciate and reconnect with the places you live. 


              "New York City- A City of Immigrants"


Last week I had the chance to take my commitment to seeing New York City through the eyes of a tourist a step further. On a somewhat cold and sunny day, my friends and I boarded the Liberty Boat Cruises to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We saw the city through the eyes of a newly arriving Immigrant. We all know New York was the welcome port for millions of immigrants in the 19th and 20th century. We all have heard the story of Ellis Island, as it welcomed thousands of immigrants every day from every corner of the world. Many families can trace their ancestry to a manifest and arrival document kept at Ellis Island. It was a symbol of hope, a refuge to those coming to the United States for a better life, those escaping famine and war and those who had no choice. 


Those foreigners disrupting the "America" the older immigrants are used to, with their religious beliefs, their strange customs and their invasive "otherness".


Its an experience that holds true for my family as well. My grandmother's youngest brother Lefteris Seretis escaped war and imprisonment during WW II, by boarding a boat with nothing more than his belongings and very little money to make a life for himself in Norfolk, Virginia. He was accused of stealing from the Red Cross in Greece, for something I am quite sure many did; stealing food. My uncle was given two choices; board a boat illegally and escape imprisonment, or stay and stand trial for your crime. He chose the former, (I don't blame him for his choice) took one suitcase and left only to return many many years later with his sons and wife for vacation. He worked hard, opened a diner like most Greeks did at the time, married a Greek American woman and raised his family with many comforts. He bough his Cadillac and lived what he felt was a very privileged life. I will never know what that experience must have been, I can not pretend to understand the fear and insecurity that comes with not knowing whether all the travel, all the money spent, all the sacrifices made, will pay off. 



The land is Y(our) land. Painting by Yiannis Kounelis


The Ellis island museum gave me a haunting and thought provoking historical journey of these millions of immigrants who came through its doors between 1892-1954. The last immigrant to walk through its doors, as a processing center for immigrants arriving in the United States was  Arne Peterssen, a 48-year-old merchant seaman from Narvik, Norway.

I wanted to go deeper into this experience. I felt it was important to know what it was like to be picked, questioned, examined, and scrutinized as a newcomer to this vast land of opportunity. There were many who didn't make it and were turned back even though they had spent their last savings just to come to the United States. Those who were deemed unfit, unwell, unworthy of entry, were examined, tested and inevitably turned away. 

Some who's mental acuity was questioned were made to do psychological evaluations and, mental stress tests. Would this be considered unheard of in our day? Yet here we are in the dawn on a new immigration surge from countries who are war torn and the United States a land of immigrants is once again turning away people they deem unfit, unwelcome and unworthy. There are many cases of those who sought asylum in the shores of the United States in the past, who were ultimately  turned away, only to face war, persecution and death. 


"Those who were deemed unfit, unwell, unworthy of entry, were examined, tested and inevitably turned away."


After walking through these incredible halls, and rooms that were witness to thousands upon thousands of immigrant arrivals every day, I ask myself and others. What would you do? I have been lucky. I was born in Greece to an American mother and a Greek father. I've had the privilege of two nationalities, two countries and two languages, two passports. I've have not faced the difficulty of trying to stay in the United States after my visa expired and fearing every day that I might be deported, but knowing full well that I had nothing to go back to. I have not worked at horrible jobs that pay next to nothing just because they were willing to hire illegal immigrants. I have had many difficulties living in New York, but I am fully aware of my privilege. 

I highly recommend viewing this exhibit to any of those who question the incoming of refugees and immigrants. Many New Yorkers don't have a clear idea what their ancestors went through. They have an image in their minds, or a story they have been told,  but their minds and hearts are not aware of the suffering their ancestors went through who left everything just to have a taste at the American dream. 


"All Americans, with the exception of indigenous Native Americans, come from mass migration to the shores of North America, every one of those families are immigrant families."



Listen to the voices of your grandparents, and great grand parents, who sought refuge in a unfamiliar and at times hostile land. They were not always welcomed with open arms, but with skepticism, greed, fear, and discrimination. They wanted to assimilate, be "American" (whatever that means), often letting go of their identity so they would fit in with the American way of life. The very same reactions we have been hearing today by so many of the decedents of immigrants, were the exact ones heard by their own ancestors. 

Those foreigners disrupting the "America" the older immigrants are used to, with their religious beliefs, their strange customs and their invasive "otherness". Many worked twice as hard to survive, in ghettos in the Lower East Side and in tenements that held twenty and thirty people in one room. They were viewed as parasites, unworthy of equal treatment and discriminated against over and over again. 

The spics, the kikes, the wet backs, the wogs, the wops, the wasps, the cheeseheads, the gyppies, the krauts, the japs, the oven dodgers, the pakis, the ragheads, the towel heads, those are your ancestors, your fathers, your mothers, your sisters and your brothers. They endured so you don't have to, they heard these hurtful, racist epithets, so you could go to college, thrive, be all that you can be, and possibly travel back to the country they came from, and realize what they left behind. In the spirit of welcoming those who have journeyed through perilous paths to find a better life in another country, I always invoke the Ancient Greek protector of travelers Xenios Zeus. In ancient Greece the acceptance of a traveler, seeking refuge was considered the highest honor. The guest was treated with respect, friendship and dignity. The exchange of cultures, languages, beliefs, customs and identities has been the fabric of this land we call America, and in it we are all guests coming together as one. 




Medical examination to eliminate undesirable or sick immigrants from entering the country. 




Greek Immigrant in National Dress ( Foustanela)






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