Word: greekness
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...search of work and a better life. On wages of 75 cents a day, the early laborers crowded into a shantytown of mud huts and shacks. "I learned to speak French just hanging out on my street," says Nicholas Georgoulis, 76, who grew up in the Acre with Greek Orthodox parents and French-Canadian neighbors. The Irish were followed by Greeks, Poles, Scots, Portuguese, French Canadians and Italians, all escaping economic and political chaos in their native land. Today Hispanics, mostly from Puerto Rico, make up 35% of the Acre's 15,000 population. Vietnamese and Cambodians who fled their...
Although chronically plagued by crime and violence, the gateway still beckons. Family by family, block by block, each ethnic group adds its own restaurants, markets and schools to the Acre's evolving mosaic. St. Patrick's Catholic Church, built for Irish immigrants in 1831, and the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, circa 1906, remain firm spiritual landmarks for each generation of new workers. "At midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, Silent Night is now sung in Vietnamese," says David McKean, 40, a third-generation Acre- ite of Scottish and Irish descent. "For some it's a sign of unity. For others...
...tensions between old-timers and new arrivals remain. George Karafilidis, a tailor whose Greek family has owned a business in Lowell for 35 years, complains that newcomers are ruining his neighborhood. When a reporter reminds him that his relatives were immigrants, Karafilidis flies into a rage and bellows, "Don't come in here and talk to me about immigrants...
...Irish, Greek and French-Canadian merchants have proved their worth and moved to better neighborhoods, energetic Southeast Asians have opened their doors for business. Dien Tran, 43, and his wife Buu Ma came to Lowell in 1980 speaking little English. Six years later, both graduated from the local branch of the University of Massachusetts. Now they own an apartment building in the Acre as well as two Vietnamese restaurants. Each works more than 80 hours a week. "We're not successful yet," says Tran. "Success will be a big income and paying off my debt...
Gradually, each ethnic group has found that hard work pays. Poulios is Lowell's third Greek mayor. The superintendent of schools is Greek American. The city fire chief is of French-Canadian ancestry. The police chief's grandparents were Irish. And Lowell native Paul Tsongas, whose parents were Greek, served as Massachusetts' Congressman and Senator for 10 years before running for President. History suggests that a Vietnamese-American boy or girl may someday run Lowell -- and who knows what else after that...