22-Greek Texans Early Greek Arrivals

Greece is a nation in southern Europe that is surrounded on three sides by bodies of water, making it a peninsula. Many of the Greek people were fishermen, divers, and sailors, while inland the people were often herders of : sheep and goats.

From 1453 to 1831, the Ottoman Empire ruled Greece, but following an eight-year war, from 1821 to 1829, with the Turks, the Greeks once again claimed their homeland and became an independent country. There were still many Greeks, though, left within territories under Turkish control, and many of them emigrated.

1he Zenos Confectionery operated for over 30 years in Port Arthur, Texas. What do you think these fellows might buy?

The first known Greek to arrive in Texas came with the pirate Jean Lafitte to Galveston Island in 1817. Known as Captain Nicholas, he lived to be almost 100 years old, dying in the Galveston storm of 1900. He married a Karankawa Indian girl named Orta, sailed to the Yucatan with Lafitte, where he survived yellow fever. Settling in Turtle Bayou, Texas, he lived for 50 years selling fish, oysters, and charcoal.

It was not until the 1890s that major Greek immigration to Texas began, but by 1910 over 10% of the total Greek population had left their homes because of political, social, and economic problems. In 2000 there were 32,319 Greeks in Texas.

Urban Greek Settlers

The Greek immigrants to Texas did not come as family groups, but rather as single men to the cities. There they found work in cafes or

restaurants through friends already in busi­ness. They started as dishwashers or flower sellers until they learned English and could get better jobs.

The first Greek community was in Galveston, where there were 37 Greeks who worked in saloons, grocery markets, and cotton gins.

There were seven Polemanakos brothers, and by 1909 all had arrived in Houston, where they began peddling fruit and candy on the street. They soon saved enough to open a confectionery, or candy store. Later they add­ed a bakery, and then they became owners of several silent-film movie houses. With their profits they began buying real estate, or land, outside of downtown Houston. The brothers became very wealthy.

Greek Cultural Folkways

Learning English was not easy, because the Greeks did not use the Roman alphabet. Their language was based on a different al­phabet, the Greek one of <p, L, 0, 4J. Because

of their different language, some people didn't like them and said mean things about them. But as soon as the young men learned English and earned enough money, they opened their own businesses, usually cafes. They rarely served Greek food, which was considered poor people's food. With the income from their own businesses, they were able to return home to Greece to marry or to bring their families to Texas.

Almost all Greeks are Christians belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church, which con­tinues to tie together the Greek communities that live in the large cities. New Year's Day is known as St. Basil's Day in the Greek Church. It is a day of gift giving and cutting of the St. Basil's cake that has a lucky coin baked inside. The person who finds the coin expects to have a year of good luck.

Easter is another time of major celebration in the Greek communities: they hold midnight candlelight services and give red-dyed eggs that symbolize the gift of Mary Magdalene to the Greek Emperor Tiberius.

Foods common in the Greek diet are lamb, fish, goat's milk cheese called feta, olives, olive oil, and shish kabob, or souflaki. Casseroles made with lamb and eggplants are also a de­lightful treat.

Amazing Greek Texans

The United States Army's Camel Experiment in Texas included several Greeks: George and Mimico, Michelo Giorgios, Yanni Illiato, Giorgios Costi, Hagiatis Yannaco, or Long Tom, and Anastasio Coralli, or Short Tom. The men were camel tenders who worked for the U.S. Army's experiment in camel trans-

portation out west. The men landed with their camels at the port of Indianola and herded them west to Camp Verde in Kerr County. They received food, lodging, and a small monthly allowance for their work.

After the Civil War, the government sold some of the camels to Ringling Brothers Circus, where Hagiatis Yannaco got work. Mimico stayed in Camp Verde and sold camel rides.

Immigrants of many nations had problems with the spelling of their names when they arrived in America; for example, Rose Zenos was born Garifolos Zenias. Garifolos means pink carnation in Greek, but somehow it got mistranslated to Rose, and his last name had many misspellings, including Xmas, until it became Zenos. In 1909 Rose worked in his brother's sweet shop in the oil boomtown of Sour Lake, Texas. Then they moved to Port Arthur, where they sold ice cream and home­made candy from a 24-foot soda fountain with 120 feet of mirrors.

George Economou (George Papaeconomou) (1891-1951) went to school to learn to be a sea captain. But, arriving as a deckhand in Virginia, he left his ship and enlisted in the United States Navy. He served in World War I, became an American citizen, married a Greek woman, and settled in Galveston. There he again went to sea in World War II. He was master of various American vessels carrying war materials, and he led the first convoy into Hiroshima following the drop­ping of the atomic bomb. There he received the surrender sword of the Japanese. He died on duty in 1951.

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