Historical Fiction Example
Diving Into A New Life: A Greek Immigrant’s Story
Sometimes I think I’ve spent more of my life underwater than on land. I grew up on
Chalki—an island off the coast of Turkey. When I was born in 1893, our island was still
controlled by Turkey—but we were Greek to the core and proud of it (“Dodecanese”).
My father was a sponge diver, like his father and grandfather had been. Unlike them, he
used a skafandro—a diving suit—to do his dives (Hendrikse and Merks). While diving to collect
sponges is a dangerous job, my father was careful and our family’s business did well while
others faced injuries from decompression sickness. I dropped out of school to work when I was
around fifteen. When I was seventeen, a man came through the village offering diving jobs over
in America. His company offered to pay for our tickets and guaranteed good work (“History of
Sponging Industry”). My mother did not want me to go. But even though I’d never thought
about leaving Chalki before, once the idea was planted in my mind, I couldn’t let it go.
I left on a ship in the fall of 1910, traveling in steerage with four other boys from our
village. The steerage area was huge but it was so crowded that I felt sure we would run out of air
to breathe! When we got off the ship in New York, I was thrilled just to be back in the sun and
fresh air. None of us spoke any English but thankfully, we each had papers and twenty dollars
from our new employer. You had to have some money or they’d never let you leave the Ellis
Island. They worried about hungry new arrivals stealing or ending up on the streets (Spako 278).
When I arrived in Tarpon Springs, Florida, I felt much less overwhelmed. At that point,
Tarpon Springs already had a big Greek community. There were Greek restaurants, grocery
stores, and churches. After work, we would gather at a café near the docks; we drank rich
Turkish coffee, read Greek newspapers, and ate familiar food (Poole 254-255). I actually met
my wife there—she just joined her brother in town & worked as a waitress (Brownstone and
Franck 222-223).
I was lucky that I came to America when I did; the war between Greece and Turkey made
life back home difficult and then in 1921, the new U.S. immigration laws put limits on the
number of immigrants from many countries, including Greece (Brownstone and Franck 223). I
wanted to bring at least one of my brothers over but it became impossible. However, I’ve had a
good life here. I never really learned much English. Even when I started my own business with
my brother-in-law, I didn’t interact much with people outside the Greek community. I’m proud
that I built a business to pass down to my children—just as my father did back on Chalki.
Bibliography
Brownstone, David M., and Irene M. Franck. Facts About American Immigration. Bronx: H.W.
Wilson, 2001. Print.
"Dodecanese." Encyclopedia Britannica. N.p.: Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. N. pag.
Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Hendrikse, Sandra, and Andre Merks. "Diving the Skafandro Suit." Trans. Bert Dodde. Diving
Heritage. Diving Heritage, 12 May 2009. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
<http://www.divingheritage.com/greecekern2.htm>.
"History of the Sponging Industry: Tarpon Springs, Florida." Welcome to the City of Tarpon
Springs. City of Tarpon Springs, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. <http://www.ci.tarponsprings.fl.us/tourism/history.htm>.
Poole, Ernest. "A Mixing Bowl for Nations." Makers of America: The New Immigrants 19041913. Ed. Wayne Moquin. Vol. 6. N.p.: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1971. 250-60. Print.
Spako, Theodore. "Theodore Spako." Ellis Island Interviews: In Their Own Words. Comp. Peter
Morton Caan. New York: Facts On File, 1997. 277-78. Print.