Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Fall/Section017/Mr Pete Miltiades

Overview

Pete Miltiades emigrated from a Greek region of Turkey to the United States in 1912 during the progressive era, a fifteen-year period where more than 15 million immigrants came to the US, predominantly from eastern and southern European countries. This coincided with America’s industrial revolution, therefore, Mr. Miltiades was able to find low-skilled job opportunities for comparatively high wages. Mr. Miltiades worked in steel mills and rail in New England until World War Two where he lost his job and was forced into low-skilled labor work once again. During this time, The Great Depression and World War Two coupled with xenophobia and racism prevented many immigrants from securing jobs. This made many Greeks eager to assimilate to American culture and form the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association which focussed on Greeks becoming "good American citizens". Like many Greeks displaced by World War Two, Mr. Miltiades eventually settled in Asheville North Carolina which is often likened to the mountainous regions of Greece. In Asheville, he set up his own cafe which is where this federal writers project interview took place on March 16th 1939.

Biography

Early Life

Pete Miltiades was born in 1984 in a Greek town governed by Turkish authority and grew up in a small rural town on a farm with his twelve siblings. In those times, it was tradition to divide up the farmland between sons once they married. Since Mr. Miltiades' father was one of seven, he only stood to inherit one sixteenth of his grandfathers original seventy five acres. During Mr. Miltiades' youth, "farming was no good""and the boys had to work somewhere else if they could" due droughts and diseases, therefore his father could not always afford to send him to school. As a result of these conditions, Mr. Miltiades was forced to find work and live at a bakers in a nearby town where he was paid very little. The money he did make was sent home to his father to support his family. Mr. Miltiades eventually quit this job due to the harsh working conditions and heard promise of a higher pay check if he emigrated to America, according to some of the other boys in town who had made the journey. Mr. Miltiades emigrated to the USA in 1912 at the age of eighteen and began work at a steel mill in Pennsylvania.

Adult Life

After working in steel mills in Pennsylvania, Mr. Miltiades eventually transferred into rail in Pittsburgh and was able to progress to foreman and eventually ran an entire rail camp and the payroll. Unfortunately, he was laid off after world war one and went back into low skilled labour washing dishes in restaurants and cafes. He continued this line of work for quite some time until he finally set up his very own cafe in Virginia and later moved to Asheville following the promise of better business.

Social Issues

Greek migration to the USA

Greek migration to the USA had its first mass wave between the years 1900-1924 with around 421,000 people emigrating to the US which was around 6.5% of the entire population. This mass movement coincided with the progressive era for the USA (1900-1915) where over 15 million immigrants came to the US, an amount roughly equal to all the immigration in the previous forty years. In addition to this large growth, there was also a demographic shift in those immigrating to the USA. During this time, they largely came from non english speaking Eastern and Southern European countries such as Italy, Greece and Poland. This created challenges for the immigrants who struggled to adjust to the foreign language and culture and also put strain on cities whose infrastructure couldn't keep up with the rapid population growth. This first mass wave of Greek immigration was during America's industrial revolution, therefore many immigrants found themselves working in low paid labor intensive jobs, including Mr. Miltiades.

Xenophobia and Racism in the 1920's

In the 1920's, many immigrants faced harsh discrimination and xenophobia upon arriving in the US from the "native-born Americans", those born from the original thirteen colonies, not indigenous people. “This xenophobic and nativistic 1920s America was more strict and selective as to its immigrants: ‘white, Anglo-Saxon, English speaking, and Christian’” ,those who did not fit all these criteria were considered another race for example the "German race" and were discriminated against for not being quite "White" enough. Anyone who immigrated in subsequent waves of immigration for example during the progressive era was considered non white. Due to this discrimination, many immigrants were denied jobs and couldn't use certain services, therefore, they attempted to assimilate to American culture with hopes of being more accepted. Immigrants made many sacrifices to fit in to American culture, "By giving up the Old World ways, we ran away from being Greek. We married non-Greek blond women . . . We made a conscious effort to forget Greece. Because the immigrants' past is understood as a source of pollution”. This desire to fit in caused the formation of groups such as AHEPA (The American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association), a group for those Greeks who wanted to become "good American citizens" and "put America first".

The Great Depression

The great depression was a worldwide economic downturn that occurred between 1929-1939 and originated in the USA where GDP fell by 30% and unemployment rose to around 20%, which is over four times times the current rate (4.8%). Between 1929 and 1933, industrial output decreased by 47% which may explain why Mr. Miltiades didn't go back to work in steel mills and rail and instead chose to stay in the hospitality industry.

Although Mr. Miltiades never mentions The Great Depression during his interview, there is very little chance it didn't significantly impact his life, especially as an immigrant. During this period of financial instability, xenophobic and racist attitudes became increasingly popular. Many Mexican and Hispanic immigrants were forcibly deported across the border, regardless of whether they were legal or even from Mexico. Therefore, despite his efforts to assimilate to American culture, it is very likely Mr. Miltiades was disproportionately affected by the great depression as most minority groups were denied opportunities and left struggling for money.

Bibliography

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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311983.2016.1191123

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Miltiades, Pete. 2021. Hellas in America Douglas Carter Interview by . Radio. 7 Broadway, Asheville, N. C.

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"The History Of Greek Immigration To America – Hellenic-American Project". 2021. Hapsoc.Org. Accessed October 11. https://hapsoc.org/greeks-in-america/.