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Historical Background
Modern Assyrians are the
descendents of the ancient Assyrians who have
continued and for thousands of years to occupy a
land known by the Greeks as Mesopotamia, a
reference to a region between the Tigris and the
Euphrates. Although the Assyrian Empire fell in
612 BC, the Assyrian people, contrary to common
belief in the west, did not vanish. Just as
today’s Italians, Greeks, Egyptians, Jews, and
Persians rightly claim that they are the
descendents of the ancient Romans, Greeks,
Egyptians, Israelites, and the Medes
respectively, so do the modern Assyrians who
trace their heritage to the ancient Assyrians.
After the fall of their empire, the Assyrians
continued to live as peasant subjects under
conquerors such as the Mede Persians and the
Greeks. With the coming of Christ, Assyrians
were one of the first people, besides the
Armenians, who accepted Christianity. As
Christians, the Assyrians lived chronologically
under the Parthians, Romans, Sassanid Persians,
Arab Caliphate, Mongols, Ottoman Turks, and
finally Arabs.
In 1915, and during World War One, a systematic
extermination of all indigenous Christians of
today’s Turkey, i.e. the Assyrians, Armenians
and the Greeks, was ordered by the Turkish
Government. The Turkish army assisted by the
Kurds burned many Assyrian villages in the
Hakkari Mountains in southeast Turkey and forced
the Assyrians to flee and join their Assyrian
brothers and sisters in Azerbaijan (northwest
Persia). The Russian army stationed there gave
the Assyrians some protection but withdrew later
and many Assyrians (some 20,000) fearing for
their lives followed the Russians. The Russians
returned to Azerbaijan later and protected the
remaining Assyrians for some time but the
Russian Revolution of October 1917 changed
everything. All for a sudden and in January 2,
1918, the Russians withdrew again from
Azerbaijan leaving the Assyrians at the mercy of
the Turkish army and the Kurds. Thousands of
Assyrians and many Armenians were killed. Some
(80,000) Assyrians, including some Armenians,
were forced to evacuate Azerbaijan and flee to
the south and seek the protection of the British
army stationed in Hamadan, Persia. The Assyrians
were later set in a refugee camp in Baquba,
Iraq. One-third of the original (80,000)
perished in what became known as one of the most
horrifying exoduses the world has known. It is
reported that two-thirds of the Assyrian total
population was killed during WWI (1914-1918).
In 1924 the Turkish army while massacring and
harassing the remaining of the Assyrians in the
southern Turkish region of Tur Abdin, forced
thousands into mass deportation towards the
Syrian frontier. Consequently, Assyrians in
southern Turkey dwindled to only couple
thousands due to persecution policies or the
later Kurdish-Turkish bloody conflict as the
Assyrians were caught in the middle. Due to the
above and other reasons directly related to the
massacre of Assyrians in 1933 in Iraq by the
Iraqi Army, other Assyrian settlements were
established in Lebanon too. The Assyrian
settlements in Iran, meanwhile, are of much
earlier periods dating to pre-Christianity.
For some two millennia, the Assyrians have
continued to form ethnic clusters confined to
southern Turkey, northern Syria, northern Iraq,
and northwestern Iran. But World War I changed
the political and demographical shape of the
region. Instability and continuous persecution
against the Assyrians in the Middle East in the
last 100 years have scattered the Assyrians in
almost every continent of the world. They live
in countries such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon,
Russia, Armenia, Jordan, Greece, Italy, Sweden,
The Netherlands, France, Germany, England,
Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, and many
others, with the majority of the Diaspora
Assyrians in the United States numbering some
250,000.
The nature of the Assyrian
society is very complex. Today, they are living
in isolated and separated communities due to
circumstances beyond their control. The various
Assyrian communities today are desperately
searching to come together again as one people.
Many reasons have fostered the creation of these
isolated Assyrian Christian communities:
- Theological
controversies and debates rooted and
developed in the 4th, 5th,
and 6th centuries regarding the
nature of Jesus and his relation to God and
the Virgin Mary, created polarized Christian
Centers in Antioch, Constantinople,
Alexandria, Selucia-Ctesiphon, and others.
This polarized the Assyrian Christians into
various rival Christian sects.
- The long Roman –
Persian wars in early centuries of
Christianity separated the Assyrians into
two major communities, one under the Roman
(west) and the other under the Sassanid
Persians (east), each showing loyalty,
whether willingly or reluctantly, to the
ruling power they were living under.
- The coming of western
missionaries, specifically the Roman
Catholic to the Assyrian region and the
establishment of the Catholic rite among the
Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans)
fragmented the Assyrians yet further.
In time, and due to the
above-mentioned reasons, the Assyrians came to
be known by their ecclesiastical designations:
Nestorians (members of the Church of the East);
Chaldeans (members who separated from the Church
of the East, joined Catholicism and formed the
Chaldean Catholic Church); Jacobites (members of
the Syriac Orthodox Church); and Melkites
(Christians who refused Monophysitism and
remained faithful to the Byzantine rite of
Constantinople and mainly Catholic).
The Assyrians
are an ethnic group separate from the Arabs,
Kurds, Turks and the other groups in the Middle
East. The Assyrians are born into their
ethnicity. The Assyrians’ unique racial
background determines their unique ethnicity.
The Assyrians’ ethnicity is
focused upon their race and Christian religion;
both go hand in hand.
Brief Description and
Reasons of Early Settlements
Early Assyrian settlers
began to arrive in the United States during the
last part of the 19th century. The
Assyrian settlers of the San Joaquin Valley came
mainly from northwestern Iran (Urmia region) as
early as 1910 but the migration increased due to
the genocide committed against them before,
during and after World War I by the Turks, Kurds
and Persians Moslems. The Assyrian Christian
migration continued throughout the 20th
century with peak points during and post WW1 and
WWII and after other specific political and
religious upheavals specially after the Ba’ath
Pan-Arab Party took power in Iraq in 1968 and
the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979.
According to Smith, the
reasons for the Assyrian Christian migration
from the Middle East could be generally speaking
classified under three categories: family,
politics and religion. [1] A good percentage of
Assyrians did not come to the San Joaquin Valley
directly from the Middle East. They came from
Chicago, San Francisco and other American
cities. Some came from Canada. Smith’s study
showed that one-third of the Assyrians polled
have lived in the United States for over ten
years before moving to Stanislaus County. [2]
Almost half of the Assyrians polled stated that
family was the reason why they moved to
Stanislaus County, another 25% did so because of
the existence of the noticeable Assyrian
community and some 20% gave the climate as their
reason. [3]
Early Settlers
Dr. Isaac Adams, an
Assyrian Medical Missionary, had begun to plan
to settle in California, as early as 1902. In
that year, he wrote to Sacramento for the
availability of land for settlement but the
answer came negative from the authorities. Then
he contacted the Canadians and was told that a
settlement in North Battleford was possible. Dr.
Adams thereafter brought a group of Assyrians
from Urmia to Canada. In 1906, Dr. Adams and few
others moved to Chicago and it was there that he
met an official from the Santa Fe Railroad, who
recommended the San Joaquin Valley as a
settlement area. [4] In 1910 he established an
Assyrian colony in Turlock after his first
attempt to settle in near by Delhi region had
failed. His failure was due to a foul play by a
real estate agent who gave the Assyrians the
wrong picture regarding the true condition of
the soil. The real estate agent did not tell the
Assyrians that they did not have access to water
for irrigation in that part of the valley. [5]
Despite this set-back, Dr. Adams and few others
including George Peter, Odisho Backus, Joseph
Adams, and Sargis Hoobyar liked the climate of
that part of California, which was similar to
that of their homeland in Urmia, Iran, and
thought that they could have better chances in
near-by Turlock. In 1915, while the total
population of Turlock reported being (1,500),
there were ten Assyrian families living in
Turlock. [6] “By 1921, the Assyrian community
grew to a degree where an area south of Turlock
proper became known as “little Urmia.” [7] The
Assyrians migration to the region was so
noticeable that the Turlock Daily Journal
published an article titled “Assyrian refugees,
persecuted by the Turks, are coming to Turlock”
in its issue of May 14, 1920.
The Assyrians During the
Early to Mid 1900s
The Assyrian population
continued to increase significantly. In 1930,
20% of the Turlock population was Assyrian;
unfortunately, they still did not have adequate
representation in the local political power. [8]
This was not completely strange since as
minorities in their original homelands the
Assyrians were kept away from any participation
in the local governments, therefore, they did
not have the tools necessary to understand what
the concept of representation in government
meant and how important that was. Even after
moving to the west, they continued to shy away
from local politics. Most Assyrians
concentrated, generally speaking, on living in
peace and making an honest living. They worked
year-around picking melons, tree-fruits; later
pruning. Women picked grapes or worked
seasonally in the canneries, cutting apricot and
peaches. [9] It seems that many Assyrians began
to purchase land and started farming during the
early days of their settlements. The 1926
Stanislaus County Rancher’s Directory contained
forty-four Assyrian surnames. The size of the
Assyrian farms ran from five to forty-two acres.
[10] Most planted alfalfa and fruit trees such
as grapes, melons, peaches, beans and they
raised Turkeys and Chickens. The 1931 Stanislaus
County Rancher’s Directory listed sixty-five
Assyrian surnames, totaling some (320) people,
and they were mainly small or medium family
farmers. [11] The depression of the 1930s forced
some Assyrians to sell their farms, while others
found work in San Francisco to pay for their
mortgages. Those remaining helped each other by
joining forces in order to survive.
The Depression of the 1930s
slowed the Assyrian migration to Turlock
considerably. The Assyrians population from 1930
to 1940 increased by a mere seventy-two people,
increasing from five hundred to five hundred
seventy two. [12] The boom of the 1940s though
allowed many Assyrians to buy back their farms,
which they had lost during the Great Depression.
In addition, Assyrians from Chicago began to
move to Modesto-Turlock area and began to buy
orchards and continued to be mainly farmers.
[13] The 1950 Turlock-Modesto Polk’s City
Directory recorded a listing of (414) Assyrian
surnames in the district or about (1656) total
Assyrians. The Turlock Assyrians meanwhile
consisted of (148) families, making about 8% of
Turlock’s population, working as farmers,
business owners, professionals, clerics, skilled
laborers and other professions. The breakdown of
the Assyrians in the district, in 1950, is
illustrated in the chart below. [14]
|
Town |
Numbers |
|
Turlock |
148 |
|
Modesto |
57 |
|
Unincorporated |
161 |
|
Keyes |
23 |
|
Hughson |
17 |
|
Denair |
5 |
|
Ceres |
3 |
|
|
|
|
Total |
414 |
There is a noticeable drop
in the Assyrian population in the town of
Turlock from the 20% in 1930 to 8% in 1950. This
is due to the increase in Turlock’s overall
population to the whopping (6,800) people and
the move of some Assyrians from Turlock to
Modesto, Keyes, Hughson and other areas in the
district. During this period the Assyrians
continued to be absent from managerial or
executive positions whether in private or public
offices, with one exception of Mary Shimmon. She
was the 1927 Turlock High School graduating
class Valedictorian who later became a lawyer
and the Stanislaus County Deputy District
Attorney. In addition, she held the position of
the Counsel for the California State Dept. of
Employment. [15]
Despite the considerable
success of some Assyrians with farming in the
region, discrimination was an issue they had to
learn how to deal with in the early years of
their settlement. The Swedes who made the
majority of the Turlock groups in the 1920s
looked down at the Assyrians. Some stores would
not sell farming equipments to the Assyrians or
some banks refused Assyrians’ loan applications.
Other problems arose when a couple Swedish girls
in the Presbyterian Church fell in love with
Assyrian boys. The Assyrians, who attended the
church at the time, with the absence of an
Assyrian church, were kicked out of the church
because of these relationships and hence forced
to retreat in to isolation. [16]
This non-friendly behavior
motivated the Assyrians to begin to plan to
build their own church. They began to raise
money and decided to establish an independent,
non-denominational Evangelical Assyrian church.
Joseph Adams donated seven lots and a few
Assyrian contractors in San Francisco like Paul
Karib, Aprim of Kossi and Eshaya Aveetar among
others donated generously for building the
church. The decision was to build a hall first,
which could nicely be used to conduct the Sunday
service in and at the same time use it for other
purposes such as weddings and special
gatherings. They decided to build a typical
church structure later. But it was not until
1948 though that the real church was completed
under the title of the Assyrian Evangelical
Church. The church is situated on 500 Morof
street, Turlock, California 95382, and has over
(300) member families.
One of the interesting
incidents occurred when Dr. John Sergis, an
Assyrian dentist from San Francisco, bought
forty-three acres of land in Keyes for $20,000
and moved in after he finished building his
house on the property in 1925, but this is not
the point. What is interesting to say is that
his house was the first in the area to have
tiled bathroom, which attracted the curiosity of
many neighbors and they were dropping by to
inspect it. [17]
On April 14, 1926, the
Assyrians build a second church, The Assyrian
Presbyterian Church. Today the church is located
on 450 S. Palm, Turlock, California 95380. And
late in the 1940s the number of the Assyrians
from Iraq, who were members of the Church of the
East, began to increase and donations began to
be collected to built a church for them and thus
the Mar Addai Assyrian Church of the East was
consecrated in January 1950 by the Late
Patriarch Mar Eshai Shimun. [18] Situated on
Canal street, Turlock, California, and has some
(450) family members.
At the same period, the
thought of building an Assyrian club to host the
Assyrians and their events began to materialize;
hence, the Assyrian American Civic Club of
Turlock was established in 1946, today situated
at 2618 N. Golden State Blvd., Turlock,
California, 95381. The Civic Club today has over
(1,200) family members and is involved in many
Assyrian civic and national activities. Such
activities include the Assyrian Martyr Day (on
August 7th) in commemoration of the
Assyrians massacred during the 20th
century, and the Assyrian New Year (start of
Spring season). It worth mentioning here that
the Assyrian year of 6751 is equivalent to the
2001 of the Gregorian year. The club in addition
has a beautiful national choir and orchestra
under the name the Nabouram Assyrian National
Choir and Orchestra. The Choir and Orchestra
have twenty-five and fourteen members
respectively under the direction of maestro
Alexander Shoora Michalian. Nabouram promotes
Assyrian culture and heritage through concerts
conducted throughout the United States.
Assyrians in More Recent
History
By the 1960s the Assyrian
population doubled according to Smith. Polk’s
Stanislaus County Directory gave (253) Assyrian
surnames, meaning over (1000) Assyrians in the
county, many living in urban locations. [19]
Need to make clear here that the Polk figures do
not reflect the total population of the
Assyrians rather the farm owners only. Since
many Assyrians had left the farming business at
this time, the (253) figure in the Polk 1960
reflects the natural decrease from the (414)
Assyrian farm owners in the 1950. Many second
generation Assyrians had begun to seek
non-farming jobs and moved to Modesto or few
moved to Ceres. These Assyrians were intent on
getting accepted as Americans and were less
interested in the maintenance of Assyrian ethnic
identity. [20] These second generation
Assyrians, wrote Smith, began to join
non-Assyrian churches since they did not
understand the Syriac language and did not
relate to the non-western aspects of the
service. [21] These were natural consequences to
the early discrimination their parents had
witnessed in the valley. They needed to break
the Assyrian isolation of their parents whether
due to those discrimination practices or
language barriers. Still, Assyrians have begun
to have some impact in the political arena. An
Assyrian was elected as a County Supervisor and
served for two terms in the 1960s. Other
Assyrians began to hold positions in local
political offices.
At this time, the Catholic
Assyrians (i.e. Chaldeans) increased and
accordingly the Assyrian Chaldean Catholic
Church was established in May 24, 1964, situated
on 2901 North Berkeley Ave., Turlock, California
95382, and has about (350) family members today.
By 1970 Assyrians in the
San Joaquin Valley experienced a change in
profile, writes Ishaya. The Assyrians were no
longer practicing family farming. They were
engaged in urban occupations instead. As
powerful non-local agricultural businesses moved
in, they provided opportunities for wage work.
Family farmers, who could not compete with
corporate operations, sold out and took up urban
occupations. [22] It was not surprising to
notice that the 1970s Assyrian working class in
Turlock for example increased compared to the
1950 figures.
Below are the owned
businesses, professionals, clerical jobs or
sales and skilled labors categories of the two
periods. [23]
|
Occupational Profile |
1950 |
1970 |
|
Owned Business in town |
18 |
20 |
|
Professional |
8 |
23 |
|
Clerical and Sales |
17 |
31 |
|
Skilled labor |
13 |
41 |
In April 1974 the Bet
Nahrain Inc., an Assyrian organization dedicated
to Assyrian educational and cultural activities,
was established. The organization, in addition,
promotes national awareness among the Assyrian
people. The organization succeeded soon after in
establishing a radio and later a TV station
(AssyriaVision) broadcasting programs in Syriac,
also known as the Neo-Aramaic (the Assyrian’s
mother tongue), and in English and Arabic. The
Station later in 2002 was linked to the
Satellite system and AssyriaSat was born; it is
viewed worldwide. The organization is involved
in many social and cultural activities just as
that of the Civic Club. The Assyrian Cultural
Center of Bet-Nahrain is located at 3119 South
Central Ave., Ceres, California 95307.
The 1975 special census
indicated that in Turlock the Assyrians were the
third largest ethnic group after the
Mexican-Americans and the Portuguese. [24] In
the 1980s, Assyrians had large investments in
commercial and residential property in Turlock.
Assyrian real estate agents confirmed that some
twelve Assyrians had assets worth one million or
more. An Assyrian family owned a whole block of
a residential property in down town Turlock. One
real-estate firm owned a block of business
property on Main Street. The firm belongs to the
heirs of Bob Abraham, the first Assyrian
businessman who started a hamburger and hot dog
stand on the above street in the early 1920s.
[25] Although very few Assyrians ventured into
business in early settlement periods yet as the
number of Assyrian immigrants increased in the
San Joaquin Valley, businesses owned by
Assyrians increased accordingly. In 1985 there
were some ninety-one Assyrian owned businesses
in the Turlock-Modesto area ranging from
restaurants, auto dealers, repair shops,
groceries, gas stations, real estate agencies,
beauty shops, jewelers, tailors and many others.
[26]
To accommodate other
Assyrians in the valley, the Assyrian Club of
Urhai was established in 1989 on 2016 N. Central
Rd., Modesto, California 95357 and it has close
to (200) members today. Furthermore, the
Assyrian American Association of Modesto, which
is still very young, was established too in the
last few years.
We hear from older Assyrian
residents in the valley that in the 1960s
Assyrian church members had begun to dwindle
seriously. We are told too that the Assyrian
community feared that it would eventually
decline in regards to ethnic identity and began
to face a dilemma. [27] As much as Assyrians
love America and being Americans, at the same
time they fear complete assimilation. The
majority of the early Assyrian settlers of the
1920s and their heirs have indeed lost all ties
to Assyrian culture, language and customs. The
influx of the Assyrian immigrants and refugees
in the 1970s brought new blood to the region; it
revitalized ethnic identity in the community.
Prior to this influx, Smith’s study showed that
65% of the Assyrians polled were marrying
non-Assyrians. If this trend continued, the
researcher stated, the continuity of the
Assyrian ethnicity in Stanislaus County would be
questionable. [28] The percentage mentioned by
Smith in 1981 would be completely revised in my
opinion if the study were to be conducted today
since a good percentage of the new Assyrian
immigrants and refugees choose their marriage
partners from within the Assyrian community. As
far as language, Smith writes, almost half of
the first generation Assyrians spoke, read, and
wrote Syriac, while none of the second
generation was proficient in all the three
aspects of the language, although many spoke it
only. [29] The study finally showed that half of
the second generation Assyrians at the time of
the study in early 1980s in Stanislaus County
did not attend Assyrian churches. [30] This
issue has been addressed many times in Assyrian
Church meetings. The sixty-four thousand dollars
question continues to be what should the Church
do in order to attract the Assyrian youth?
Still, some Assyrians
continue to complain at times that more churches
are needed as more immigrants and refugees
continue to arrive and establish new communities
in the valley. In 1991, the Mar Zaia Parish of
the Assyrian Apostolic Catholic Church of the
East was consecrated at 1457 Mable Ave. Modesto,
California 95355. Its membership is not known
today exactly, but it is stated that it might
reach (100) families. Then the St. Mary Church
was born on 7401 Fox Rd., Hughson, California
95326, with approximately (200) family members.
And most recently in 1998, the Mar Giwargis (St.
George) Parish of the Assyrian Apostolic
Catholic Church of the East was consecrated at
3900 Brickett St. Ceres, California. Today, the
St. George church has over (400) family members.
We have to admit that
despite all the obstacles the Assyrians faced
and the complete change of life style and
environment, Assyrians have generally succeeded
in adapting to their new home. Sarah Sergis
Jackson and Victoria Yonan Nevils write:
“Indications are that the Assyrians have
achieved what they were looking for in migrating
to the United States; opportunity to develop
their individual potential. Nothing really
stands in the way of their doing so, unless it
is whatever hampers anyone in this country, be
he of long time native stock or of recent ethnic
origin.” [31]
Many freelance writers in the valley have become
interested in the Assyrians, their culture,
language and way of life. Brenden Cassidy
describes one Assyrian in an article for a
Modesto publication. She writes:
“Our
family's friend Janet came to America from Iran
in 1975. Some of her relatives from Turlock
sponsored her and her family. Janet is 100%
Assyrian …Being a religious minority in their
homeland has helped keep them together for 2000
years. Janet celebrates American and Assyrian
holidays.”
[32]
The
Assyrians who have arrived very recently to the
Stanislaus County as refugees have witnessed
some of the most unpleasant and horrific
experiences mankind has witnessed. Most of them
have fled Iraq after the Gulf War or Iran after
the Islamic Revolution. Many of them had stayed
for years in poorly maintained and disease
infected refugee camps mainly in Turkey.
The
Stanislaus County Refugee Health Program’s staff
has worked with these Assyrian refugees and has
examined (218) refugees, in the span from fall
of 2000 to April 2001, for parasites from
contaminated water or food, or for tuberculosis
that may have been spread in those crowded
refugee camps. That was double the number
examined for all of 1998. In fiscal year 1999,
the staff examined (152) people and had a
backlog of (101) more cases, says program's
refugee coordinator, Roselyn Cunningham. [33]
“ … The refugees are coming to Stanislaus County
to join family in the growing Assyrian
communities in Turlock, Modesto and Ceres, said
Peter Kucher, who resettles families in the
Modesto area for New York-based World Relief.”
[34]
These Assyrian refugees go
through different adjustment process to their
new life in the United States. This process is
very difficult and especially in the first
years, depending on their socioeconomic status,
age, educational background and their knowledge
of the English language. The previous factors
influence in addition their social interaction
with other ethnic groups. [35] Studies had shown
that the process of migration effect these
refugees directly as they develop various
psychological problems such as panic attacks,
social phobia, and PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder). [36]
“…The refugees, according to Baskauskas, L.
(1981) and Loizos, P. (1981), pass through three
stages: conservatism, a defensive element to
maintain the past; bereavement and anger for the
irretrievable losses; and, moving on beyond
one’s loss to develop new patterns of life.”
[37]
Most of heads of families
experience harder times in the process of
adjustment. However, they learn how to adjust
and adapt to the new life, with very few
exceptions. One of the most important reasons is
the well-being and safety of family members,
mainly spouse and children that become more
important to them. [38] Treatments for these
eastern refugees in the west are, unfortunately,
culturally biased or insensitive in general and
do not take into consideration their unique
background.
Badal states: “These
refugees may have limited resources to deal with
their stressors, but their extended family, self
defense mechanisms, and cultural and community
support may provide some immunity against
persistent and long-term emotional disorders.”
[39]
Having experienced a
culture shock, i.e. lost everything on their way
to their new home in the west, the Assyrians
feel that preserving social and cultural
identity could provide self-esteem, security,
purpose and a mean for a better life. A sense of
identity and purpose therefore is very essential
for Assyrians, which explain their strong tie to
their culture despite their financial or health
conditions. [40] Many portray this behavior of
semi-isolation as a rejection or dislike for the
new culture and life style, which is not the
case at all. The Assyrians value the opportunity
given to them to have a better life and most
importantly the freedom they experience as
American citizens. They understand that the USA
is the land in which dreams come true. The
Assyrians had to learn how to walk that thin
line where they can be successful and good
American citizens yet still preserve their
unique Assyrian culture, language, customs and
identity. And if there is one country in which
Assyrians could make that dream come true, then
it is in the United States of America.
Although the Assyrians are
a distinct ethnic group, they still believe and
act as part of the larger fabric of the American
society. The Assyrians try to facilitate and
promote greater interaction with the society at
large to have a better understanding, respect
and harmony among all various ethnic groups in
the region. In that respect, the Assyrians
donated on April 24, 1999, through the renowned
Assyrian Food and Wine expert Narsai David, a
bust of the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal to the
Vasche Library of the California State
University, Stanislaus. King Ashurbanipal had of
course established the first library in the
world in the Assyrian capital of Nineveh during
the 7th century BC. Furthermore, they
had started, with the cooperation of the local
school district, special Syriac language classes
held at the Turlock High School for anybody who
is interested to learn the language of the
Assyrians. In accordance with that same purpose,
the Assyrians hold annual Food Festivals at the
Assyrian Cultural Center of Bet-Nahrain where
literature about the Assyrians is made available
and special Assyrian food is enjoyed while
typical Assyrian music and dance are played and
performed.
Today, the San Joaquin
Valley (Turlock, Modesto, Ceres, Manteca and the
neighboring towns) is the home for some (15,000)
Assyrians. It is a bustling Assyrian community
with seven churches, four clubs, and youth and
adult cultural groups, in addition to various
athletic teams and much more. Assyrians have
available to them many hours of TV and radio
broadcasting whether via public or private
enterprises. Many Assyrian youth attend local
and remote universities and go on to become
prominent citizens in the community. The
Assyrians are part of almost every business in
the San Joaquin Valley. They are the lawyer,
engineer, teacher, professor, technician, car
dealer, farmer, real estate agent or broker,
insurance agent, hair stylist, restaurant owner,
doctor, nurse, convenient storeowner, artist,
gas station owner, and others. Among the
Assyrians today, there are those who live an
average life and those who had become
millionaires and live lavishly. They all work
together to make their community a better place
to live.
Fred Aprim
Califorina
References:
[1] Smith, Gary. A Ph.D. Dissertation: “From
Urmia to the Stanislaus: A Cultural-Historical
Geography of Assyrian Christians in the Middle
East and America”, p. 174.1981.
[2] Ibid, p. 178
[3] Ibid, p. 172
[4] Hohenthal, Helen.
“Streams in the Thirsty Land: A History of the
Turlock Region”, p. 100. 1972. Chapter XII by
Sarah Sergis Jackson and Victoria Yonan Nevils.
“The Assyrian Settlers from the Near East.”
[5] Ishaya, Arianne. A Ph.D. Dissertation:
“Class and Ethnicity in Rural California: The
Assyrian Community of Modesto-Turlock
1910-1985”, p. 140-141. 1985
[6] Smith, Gary. A Ph.D. Dissertation: “From
Urmia to the Stanislaus: A Cultural-Historical
Geography of Assyrian Christians in the Middle
East and America”, p. 116.1981.
[7] Ibid, p. 119.
[8] Ishaya, Arianne. A Ph.D. Dissertation:
“Class and Ethnicity in Rural California: The
Assyrian Community of Modesto-Turlock
1910-1985”, p. 139. 1985
[9] Ibid, p. 142.
[10] Ibid, p. 143-145
[11] Ibid, p. 147.
[12] Smith, Gary. A Ph.D. Dissertation: “From
Urmia to the Stanislaus: A Cultural-Historical
Geography of Assyrian Christians in the Middle
East and America”, p. 126.1981.
[13] Ishaya, Arianne. A Ph.D. Dissertation:
“Class and Ethnicity in Rural California: The
Assyrian Community of Modesto-Turlock
1910-1985”, p. 151-152. 1985
[14] Ibid, p. 152-154.
[15] Hohenthal, Helen. “Streams in the Thirsty
Land: A History of the Turlock Region”, p. 104.
1972. Chapter XII by Sarah Sergis Jackson and
Victoria Yonan Nevils. “The Assyrian Settlers
from the Near East.”
[16] Ishaya, Arianne. A Ph.D. Dissertation:
“Class and Ethnicity in Rural California: The
Assyrian Community of Modesto-Turlock
1910-1985”, p. 146. 1985.
Read also Smith, p. 121.
[17] Hohenthal, Helen. “Streams in the Thirsty
Land: A History of the Turlock Region”, p. 104.
1972. Chapter XII by Sarah Sergis Jackson and
Victoria Yonan Nevils. “The Assyrian Settlers
from the Near East.”
[18] Smith, Gary. A Ph.D. Dissertation: “From
Urmia to the Stanislaus: A Cultural-Historical
Geography of Assyrian Christians in the Middle
East and America”, p. 107.1981.
Read also Hohenthal, p. 107.
[19] Smith, Gary. A Ph.D. Dissertation: “From
Urmia to the Stanislaus: A Cultural-Historical
Geography of Assyrian Christians in the Middle
East and America”, p. 131.1981.
[20] Ibid, p. 130.
[21] Ibid, p. 133.
[22] Ishaya, Arianne. A Ph.D. Dissertation:
“Class and Ethnicity in Rural California: The
Assyrian Community of Modesto-Turlock
1910-1985”, p. 161-164. 1985.
[23] Ibid, p. 153 and p. 167.
[24] Ibid, p. 170.
[25] Hohenthal, Helen. “Streams in the Thirsty
Land: A History of the Turlock Region”, p. 105.
1972. Chapter XII by Sarah Sergis Jackson and
Victoria Yonan Nevils. “The Assyrian Settlers
from the Near East.”Read also Ishaya, p. 179.
[26] Ishaya, Arianne. A Ph.D. Dissertation:
“Class and Ethnicity in Rural California: The
Assyrian Community of Modesto-Turlock
1910-1985”, p. 181-182. 1985.
[27] Smith, Gary. A Ph.D. Dissertation: “From
Urmia to the Stanislaus: A Cultural-Historical
Geography of Assyrian Christians in the Middle
East and America”, p. 134.1981.
[28] Ibid, p. 197.
[29] Ibid, p. 198.
[30] Ibid, p. 207.
[31] Hohenthal, Helen. “Streams in the Thirsty
Land: A History of the Turlock Region”, p. 107.
1972. Chapter XII by Sarah Sergis Jackson and
Victoria Yonan Nevils. “The Assyrian Settlers
from the Near East.”
[32] Cassidy,
Brenden.
Stanislaus Connections:
A Modesto
Peace/Life Center Publication,
“A Culture Without a Country”.
May 2001.
[33]
Hurt, Suzanne. “Health
staff sees influx of Iranians”. Modesto Bee,
April
22, 2001.
[34] Ibid.
[35] Badal, Ashour. A Ph.D. Dissertation: “A
Qualitative Case Study of the Psychosocial
Effects of Acculturative Stress and Forced
Displacement of Assyrian-Iranian Refugees Living
in the United States,” p. 8. 2001
[36] Ibid, p. 16
[37] Ibid, p. 102
[38] Ibid, p. 88-89
[39] Ibid, p. 91
[40] Ibid, p. 94 |