9781422277423

13

Getting Here

Greek history in Chicago

market. When the price tanked, so did Greece’s economy. Many Greeks found themselves bankrupt, unable to pay their taxes or make a living. They knew there were jobs in other countries, though. Desperate to try to make it somewhere else, emigrants began leaving Greece in even bigger numbers than they had in the last two decades. Most of themcame fromtheGreekmainland or the Peloponnese, a peninsula connected to the southern part of the country, but some also came from the Greek islands and Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). TheGreek diaspora —Greeks living abroad—spread all over theworld, but for many, the United States was the land of opportunity. Between 1890 and the early 1920s, about 400,000 Greeks settled throughout the country. Many lived in cities in the Northeast andMidwest, such as NewYork, Chi- cago, and Detroit. Some went to the West, and a few settled in the South. In each region, they led slightly different lives. In the Northeast, many jobs were in the textile mills. The West offered employment in mines and