Tempest Ep 1 - The American Greek Story Director's Cut
Hello, and welcome to Tempest, UNE's arts and humanities podcast. Have you ever thought about recording a family history, interviewing your parents, your grandparents, and saving your heritage for yourself and future generations? I sat down with fellow student Elias Noffel to talk about his family history and how he created a podcast chronicling his great grandparents and their immigration to the United States.
Elias:My name's Elias George Knopfel. I am a history major, biology minor here at the University of New England and I'm on the early access to dental school BMD 4 plus 4 program. My dad is half Lebanese, half Syrian, and my mom is all Greek. So I come my family comes from the Mediterranean area of the world. So I'm half Greek, a quarter Lebanese, and a quarter Syrian.
Chloe:Audio capture and editing can sound very daunting. However, UNE offers an arts and humanities course that teaches these fundamental technical skills as well as the art of telling stories. Elias utilized this podcasting class, CMM 225, topics in digital storytelling, to help him create his family podcast.
Elias:The class was quite interesting and I did enjoy it. We didn't do a lot of audio stuff like technical, like changing sounds and stuff like that, but we did do a lot of audio editing and the biggest thing we focused on was how to put together a scripted story, how to put together a story, how to engage a person. We did small exercises where we'd go out and record sound just to hone in on those types of skills. And then we did, medium and larger size projects where we would, you know, kind of plan out a story, get an interview, and put it all together into, you know, kind of a narrative. I definitely enjoyed the class, and the reason I took it was it was something that is unique.
Elias:And I had a goal going into the class to create something for my grandparents, my family, about them and I left the class completing that goal. So I was pretty satisfied with that.
Chloe:Next, I asked Elias what the inspiration was for his family podcast.
Elias:The inspiration for this podcast is definitely, like, honoring my grandparents. I'll start off by prefacing this was more focused on my mom's side of the family. My grandparents, their parents came from Greece in, like, the early 1900. I did an interview component with them, and I, like, I'm pretty close with them, and they love to, you know, talk about their experiences and stuff like that. My grandfather, actually, he does or has done little stories for me and my siblings when we were younger.
Elias:He would tell them about his childhood. Some were funny, some were like serious, and we have like a collection of them that he put together. I always loved those growing up, like when I couldn't sleep at night, I would always listen to those or like on a long car drive, I'd listen to them. So I was like, I think I would be kind of cool if I could do something for them that they would enjoy. That was pretty much the inspiration behind it.
Elias:He kind of gave me the idea to do, like, an audio story about them. I think it's very important to have your family history, just a brief recording on your phone or something like that, because who knows, 10 or 20 years down the road, those records, anything can happen, but I think it's super important. And it shows an appreciation of, like, where you're from. It gives you, like, this identity.
Chloe:Now, let's listen to the American Greek story by Elias Georges Noffel.
Elias:Hello, and welcome to the American Greek story. I'm your host, Elias Georges Noffel. Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing my yayam papa about their parents immigrating to the United States. Their stories embody the true meaning of pushing forward and making a way where there was none. Immigration at its simplest is a person leaving their homeland to make a better life.
Elias:The American dream is commonly known for inspiring foreigners to come and make a better life for them and their families here in the United States. In my family, both of my great grandparents on my mother's side came from Greece to make a new life for their families here in the United States. So let's set the scene. It's the early part of the 20th century, and the United States has made itself a front runner for immigrants because of all the new job opportunities. Because commercial air travel was not developed at this time, traveling by ship was really the only option.
Elias:Even so, traveling by ship was not all that safe. During World War 1, German subs had a reputation for sinking passenger ships. With this being said, by 1921, all of my great grandparents on my mother's side made it to the United States safely and were ready to make a new life for themselves. But what actually caused my great grandparents to leave Greece? When I asked my Yaya about this, here's what she had to say.
Elias:So why did your parents come to to the United States from Greece?
Speaker 3:Because their island was strictly Turkish. It was a Turkish island. They Turkey occupied it, and they got tired of being bossed around. They wanted a different life.
Elias:When you said it was strictly Turkish, was it a Greek island, but the the Turks had,
Speaker 3:They occupied it.
Elias:They had a military occupation over it.
Speaker 3:They didn't recognize that they were Greek.
Elias:I also got a chance to ask my papa the same question. Here's what he had to say. Why did your parents come to this country?
Speaker 4:For a better life. You know, I look back and say, I don't know if I would ever do that. Leave a country and then go to another country. But they did it for a better life. So I consider themselves heroes because they came to this country, did know the language, and, made a life for themselves.
Speaker 4:I I don't know if I could do that. I don't know if I could go to another country, not speak their language.
Elias:It seems that deciding to immigrate to the United States was one of the biggest challenges my great grandparents faced. Because of the language barrier and just the fact that America was a foreign land to them, deciding to immigrate really presented some problems they needed to face. When the topic of challenges came up with my Yaya, she gave me quite an interesting answer. Here's what she told me.
Speaker 3:Oh, I should I should correct myself. My father always talked about when he came to America that his homeland was Greece. He always referred to his homeland as Greece. And he said, someday, I'm gonna go back. And eventually, when my mother and father were able to financially, they did go back.
Speaker 3:And my father realized it wasn't the country he left anymore. And he cabled us to meet them at the Logan Airport. And when he got to Logan, got off the plane, he got down on all fours and kissed American soil to let us know that I'm American now. I'm not Greek anymore. And that was significant to him because he always thought of himself as a Greek.
Speaker 3:He wasn't that anymore. He was an American Greek.
Elias:When this topic came up with my papa, I got a very different answer. This is what he told me.
Speaker 4:Like I say, he would have been a politician, but he was an Irish. But all the Irish politicians used to come to my father, you know, and ask for his vote, get your Greek friends to vote for me, Charlie. And like I said, at his funeral, the mayor of Lynn came and, a lot of politicians came because they knew my father. My father would have been a politician. He just was Irish.
Elias:Both of my grandparents recall their parents facing some type of challenge because of the fact that they were immigrants. Mayaya talked about an internal conflict her father faced with his identity as a Greek American and my papa talked about how his father could have been the mayor, but because he was an immigrant that affected his ability to do so. Even so, my great grandparents still managed to push forward and forge a new identity for themselves as Americans. Both Mayaya and Papa's parents adapted to the challenges they faced and lived very successful lives. Do you feel that your parents maybe were not given the same opportunity that other people were in
Speaker 3:No. They made their opportunities. I mean, they learned how to do things in this country that they didn't do over in Greece. They self taught themselves an occupation. My mother worked in the shoe factory, and she became a star on the sewing machine putting bows on shoes.
Speaker 3:And she was very well paid for that because she was considered very skilled in that job.
Elias:With my papa's father, he adapted to the United States by becoming a highly respected person in his community. So it sounds like that your parents, even though they they left Greece, they were very proud of their Greek heritage and being immigrants.
Speaker 4:They never forgot that they their their Greek heritage, but they adapted to this country. Like I said, if my father was Irish, he could have been mayor of Lynn. But, all the Irish politicians usually come to my father and ask for his help. And like I said, at his funeral, you get the mayor of Lynn coming.
Elias:So it sounds like that your father, even though he was an immigrant, he was very highly respected at the beginning of
Speaker 4:highly respected. Very highly respected. And like I said, if he was Irish, he would have been probably Mary Lou. But
Elias:Overall, my great grandparents' perseverance and ability to make a way where there was none has never been forgotten. Their legacy has survived down through the generations and is still strong and prevalent with my mother.
Speaker 5:They they were going quite literally into the unknown, and they were doing it with the glimmer of hope that this may lead to a better life for them. But was it a sure thing? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. It was not a sure thing.
Elias:The story of my great grandparents is not about fame and glory, but about perseverance and creating opportunities in the face of adversity. Thank you for tuning in to the American Greek Story Podcast. I would like to thank my grandparents, Georgia Mary Lampros, for their interviews and my mom, Elena Knopfel, for her interview. I would also like to thank my godfather, Dean Lampros, for contributing the music to this podcast, and David g t r one and Felix Blum for the sound effects used in this podcast. As always, I am your host, Elias Georgenoffel, signing off.
Chloe:After listening, I asked Elias if he had any concluding thoughts.
Elias:Recording your grandparents or anybody in your family is just a super valuable thing, especially when, maybe you don't have a family member that you can actually talk to anymore. It's it's something that you can look back on and be proud of and be able to kind of hear their story even though they're not right there with you. So I think, you know, if nothing else, it's it's just a great tool to be able to remember, your family history book.
Speaker 4:Thank you to Elias for sharing
Chloe:your story with us today, and thank you for listening. The music used in today's podcast was solo acoustic guitar by Jason Shaw. This was Tempest, UNE's arts and humanities podcast with Chloe Buhl.
