Greeks chicago

Day and night they sat around coffee tables, arguing interminably about politics, consuming strong Turkish coffee and sucking in the thick smoke of Turkish pipes. To compete the classical educated college women of Hull-House opened up a Coffee House liberated from intoxicating drinks and bad habits.

They had minimal success taming the local Greek masculine culture, oblivious to the ancient Greek classical aesthetic of proportion and beauty. The Padrone, an Italian word for boss or manager, was a patriarchal figure in a system of temporary contract labor.

A middleman the Padrone was a labor broker matching unskilled mostly urban immigrants with temporary jobs in areas of a labor shortage, including picking field crops, manual labor in mining and construction, and digging canals. Ideally he served two functions As a facilitator assisting uninformed immigrants ignorant of the capital-intensive American labor system.

And as a benefactor and counselor to his dependent patrons, providing a range of services including the costs of transportation and lodging, sending money home, writing letters, and producing documents.

More realistically, the Padrone exploited and enslaved his mature but especially his young wards, charging excessive fees for his services, and requiring submissive obedience. While the record was mixed, it trended towards the abusive. Search for:. One-third of the wholesale business in Chicago markets in South Water and Randolph Streets was conducted with Greek American merchants. This immigrant community worshiped overwhelmingly in the Greek Orthodox Church, beginning in in rented facilities in cooperation with Slavic Orthodox brethren.

A distinct Greek Orthodox house of worship was established in , at Union and Randolph Streets, again in rented quarters, and later relocated to a Masonic hall at 60 West Kinzie Street, close to the wholesale market area where most Greeks were employed.

In , Chicago was made a diocesan center of the Greek Orthodox Church in America with jurisdiction over the Midwestern states. Greek Orthodox parochial schools followed closely behind the establishment of churches. Holy Trinity created the first in the nation in , Socrates Elementary School. Soon, a network of Greek schools sprouted up—some full day schools with a bilingual English and Greek curriculum; others, afternoon and Saturday schools with only a Greek-language curriculum.

While the vast majority of Greek children attended the Chicago Public Schools except for those enrolled in Greek day schools , practically all Greek children attended afternoon following public school attendance and Saturday schools, where they learned the rudiments of the Greek Orthodox faith along with Greek language and culture.

This immigration surge accelerated with the repeal of the National Origins Act, which enabled some , Greeks to enter the United States, many of them settling with relatives in Chicago.

By the U. The census counted 93, people of Greek ancestry in the metropolitan region. Community estimates, however, ranged from 90, to , This movement to the suburbs reflects widespread success among Chicagoans of Greek descent.

High rates of literacy and college attendance have helped Greek Americans move into medicine, law, education, politics , and business.

Diacou, Stacy, ed. Hellenism in Chicago. Kopan, Andrew T. Melvin G.