Preservation of American Hellenic History
Preservation of American Hellenic History
by Jason C. Mavrovitis
In the 1930's, Evangelia (now Lily) became fearful of deportation. She attempted to obtain permanent residency in order to become a naturalized citizen, but was not able to show proof of legal entry into the United States. Her status as an undocumented alien, which she kept secret, worried her.
In 1958, Lily decided again to try to obtain legal residency status. Under Section 249 of the Immigration and Nationality Act she was permitted to file for permanent residency if she could produce two witnesses to verify that she had lived in the United States prior to 1922.(84)
Lily filed a petition for permanent residency supported by depositions that affirmed her entry into the United States before 1922. Just before the date for Lily's hearing government officials found Eleni and Evangelia's names on the manifest of the S.S. Macedonia. Her legitimate entry into the United States in 1912 was established and Lily became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
References in Lily's naturalization file, obtained from the National Archives, led to court records including depositions and testimony; references to newspaper articles; property deeds; addresses in Manhattan; and indications of when other family members came to the United States. Without the immigration files that documented her application for permanent residency and naturalization much of Evangelia's life story would have been lost.
Lily told her children and friends a different version of her early years in the United States, part-truth and part-myth. Most likely created to erase the name and memory of Christos Stamatiou, her story was that she and her mother had come from Greece alone. Officials at Ellis Island, she said, believed that there was a community of Greeks in St. Paul, Minnesota, so sent Evangelia and her mother there. Eleni found that the community was in fact Bulgarian. After the experience of her expulsion from Bulgaria the last place her mother wanted to live was in a community of Bulgarians. So after two or more years in St. Paul they moved to Chicago where her mother worked in a dry-cleaning establishment.
In Chicago, a new man entered their lives. Working with Eleni was a young Italian, Leonardo Perna. Born in Avellino, Italy,(85) he had emigrated from Monteleone di Calabria, Italy,(86) arriving at Ellis Island on board The Sicilia (87) on 13 June 1906.
Evangelia remembered watching Eleni and Leonardo beating carpets in the back of the dry cleaners. Eleni needed the protection and comfort that a man could give to her and to her daughter. Somehow, in their mutual need Eleni and Leonardo overcame both an age difference and a language barrier, joined and looked to a future together, with Evangelia.
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