Immigrants to Americans: Evolution of a Family

By John Draksler

Immigrants to Americans tells the story of my family's journey from immigration to raising a family and teaching them how to be truly American. They were taught to adopt the language, customs, and values of America. They did not turn their backs on their heritages but became Americans first. These values, especially religious values, were ingrained in my generation. But there is a danger now of the country collectively losing its shared vision of what America or being an American is. The second part of the book addresses these concerns.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886444476

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Introduction

The Family

Chapter 1: 1900–1920

Chapter 2: America 1920–1940

Chapter 3: The '40s

Chapter 4: The '50s

Chapter 5: The '60s

Chapter 6: The '70s

Chapter 7: The 1980s and '90s

Chapter 8: The Twenty-First Century

Chapter 9: The Family Reunion

Today and Tomorrow

Chapter 10: Where is the Country Today?

Chapter 11: Where Do We Go from Here?

Chapter 12: A Better Way

Epilogue

About the Author

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Immigrants to Americans

Evolution of a Family

John Draksler

ISBN 979-8-88644-446-9 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88644-447-6 (Digital)

Copyright © 2022 John Draksler

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

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Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Introduction

I started this project as sort of a family story. I wanted to put down on paper, or at least in digital form, a family history. I wanted future generations to know where we came from. What the country was like in the early twentieth century when they immigrated from Italy and Jugo Slavia. It is not a history book, although I mention historical events that impacted the country and our families' lives. As I began to gather information on the family from relatives, especially my brother Chuck (the family historian), my cousin Yevette, and of course, Mom, I was amazed. Both families came with nothing but the desire for a better life, not just for themselves but for future generations. They believed in the American dream and wanted to be a part of it, both for themselves and their children. Their story is not unique. Millions of immigrants succeeded and improved their families' lives. I believe the country takes this for granted. I don't know if parents today would sacrifice so much of their present comforts in order for their children to have a better life. I hope that I would, but when I hear their stories, I am not sure. We are now three generations removed from their time. I don't know if people today recognize how much their hard work and sacrifice contributed to the greatness of this country.

The second part of the book looks at where we are today and what may happen in the future. It is mostly my opinion of our current situation and what the future may bring. I wrote this because it will affect my grandchildren and their families. Americans have always had a shared set of values. They are reflected in our founding documents. Individual freedom to choose where to live and where to work. Religious freedom or the freedom to not be religious at all. The freedom to be creative, to invent new things and make positive changes. All without the direction of a big federal government. I believe we are moving away from these principals. We are becoming more comfortable with government control of our lives. We are at a tipping point in our nation's history. We can return to American ideas of freedom or continue on the disastrous road to socialism and beyond. I do not want my grandchildren to grow up in a nation in decline. We are a rich country, and it will take a while to deplete the wealth, but it will happen. My grandchildren will not know the difference. Their education will be that they are better off and more equitable than ever. Our current president says he is a capitalist, yet his policies are socialist. He wants to increase the power of the federal government. His policies will create more dependency on government programs and handouts. Eventually it will mean the end of the republic as we know it today.

In the five months since I started this book, I believe changes in America have accelerated. The COVID crisis continues to be used by the government to put more restrictions on personal freedom in some states. The new variant, Omicron, had been used to keep the public afraid. Omicron appears to be less dangerous than Delta. There are no reported hospitalizations or deaths yet, thank God. That did not stop the government from inducing a panicked reaction. Lawlessness has increased. The threat from China continues to grow. Now Russia's threatened invasion of Ukraine is taking up all the president's time. Our president continues to appear clueless. People say the problems we face are complicated and too big for individuals to fix themselves without the help and guidance of the government. That is not the way I see it. In fact, I believe the opposite is true. I offer some solutions that will cost nothing, in financial terms, to implement. That does not make them easier; they are the hardest kinds of change. We have to change ourselves. We must be responsible for ourselves and our family. We must respect our laws. We must stop relying on the federal government to provide solutions. Stop finding reasons to hate. How can this be done? Faith in God is a good start.

This book is an expression of my own ideas, and I take sole responsibility for its contents. I would like to thank my friend George Davis, my wife Candace Draksler, and Gordon Bauslaugh for their help on spelling and grammar. Also, their perspective on my work. I thank my family members, brother Chuck and cousin Yevette for their advice and information. They both filled in some interesting family stories and details. I especially thank Mom, Valia (Jonardi) Keller. I dedicate this book to her.

Part 1

The Family

Chapter 1

1900–1920

America in 1900 had a population of around seventy-five million. The population was mostly rural. By 1920, more Americans lived in cities. Twenty million were immigrants, including my grandparents. Blacks began migrating from the south in large numbers during a time known as the Great Migration. Rural Whites also moved from the county to urban areas. For all the immigrants, the reasons were the same—they wanted a better life for themselves and their families.

Immigration 1900–1920

We are a country of immigrants. Almost all politicians say this. The words on the base of the Statue of Liberty proclaim it, Give me your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Everyone knows this phrase. It is less known that the poem was written in1883 by Emma Lazarus as a means to raise money to complete the pedestal. The statue itself was a gift from the people of France. It commemorated the friendship of the two peoples.

The first Americans did not see themselves as a separate nation. The English, French, and Spanish were loyal to their home country. They claimed the land in the names of their countries of origin. Of course, the land was not empty. Yes, they drove the native Americans off their land. That is a discussion for another time. In this book, I want to focus on the twentieth century and the first two decades of the twenty-first.

From 1900 to 1929, some twenty million immigrants arrived in America. For the first time, most of the new immigrants came from Southern and Eastern Europe. Prior to the twentieth century, most immigrants were from Western Europe—England, France, Spain, and Germany. Many spoke English and were assimilated easily. They did not come in a great wave. A lot of these immigrants moved west. Agriculture was still the predominant occupation. Although they faced some discrimination, they were more easily assimilated into the culture.

The new immigrants were very different. They came from countries that still had authoritarian monarchies. The language and culture were very different. The majority settled in large cities. Eastern Europeans had a difficult time adapting. Living conditions in the large eastern cities were terrible. They rented tenement apartments. It was crowded and unsanitary. They were given jobs that Americans did not want to do. (Sounds familiar.) Eastern Europeans worked in the mines, steel mills, and the garment industry. They faced discrimination from native born Whites and immigrants from Western Europe. German Jews were derisive of Eastern European Jews. The Eastern European immigrants tended to stick together. They had their own newspapers. They met each other at their own social clubs.

WWI ended mass immigration for a while. When the war ended, the pace of immigration started to increase. But the country's attitude toward immigration had changed. There was an economic recession once war production ended. Unemployment in 1920 rose to 12 percent. Competition for fewer jobs aggravated racial and ethnic tension. Many conservative lawmakers were looking to cut the number of immigrants, especially those from Eastern and Southern Europe. The new science of eugenics became popular. Eugenics was a movement that attempted to improve the genetic composition of America. During the 1920s, its followers advocated selective breeding. This was exactly what immigration opponents wanted to hear. Eastern and Southern Europeans were deemed to be less intelligent and lazy. They would be unable to assimilate into American culture. Interestingly, one of the most powerful supporters of eugenics was feminist icon, Margaret Sanger. She supported it as a way to better the human race by eliminating all those who would be deemed undesirable or mentally and physically inferior, including African Americans and Asians. All this led to the implementation of tight quotas on Eastern and Southern European immigration. The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the number of immigrants to 2 percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the US, according to the 1890 census. The law heavily favored Western European immigration and drastically reduced Eastern and Southern European immigration. Immigration did not substantially increase again until the law was revised and quotas eliminated in 1965.

The idea that America as a melting pot that has always welcomed unlimited immigration is a pleasant myth. We have welcomed immigration when we needed it. Early in the nation's history, immigrants came here to work the land and live freely. They were mostly Western European. In the early 1900s, the country needed workers. In the steel mills and the coal mines, the work was hard and dangerous. Eastern Europeans filled those jobs. But shortly after WWI, the era of mass immigration ended. As ethnically discriminatory as these new laws and quotas were, it did accelerate the assimilation of Eastern and Southern Europeans into American culture. There was also the great distance between these immigrants and their home countries. Two to three letters a year was all you could expect. Forget phone calls. A trip home was difficult. I believe that this restriction on immigration contributed a great deal to assimilation. That was the goal of most immigrants. Both my grandparents were immigrants. My mother's parents were Italian, and my father's parents were from Slovenia then were part of the Austrian empire. Had it not been for tighter immigration after 1920, my parents may not have met. In any event, they were strongly encouraged by their parents to become Americans. Nuno, Italian for grandfather, refused to let his children speak or learn Italian. He said, You are Americans, speak English.

Discrimination both overt and covert against Eastern and Southern Europeans lasted well into the twentieth century. However, the sons and daughters of these immigrants did manage to take part in all the benefits of being an American. All of the Jonardi children finished high school and several graduated from college. In my generation, all my cousins went to college and have, for the most part, done very well. One of my cousins has received his doctorate. After WWII, overt discrimination against Eastern and Southern European's children was minor, at least as far as my family was concerned. Eastern and Southern Europeans still faced barriers. Italians were associated with the Mafia. Although the Mafia was mainly Southern Italian. My family was from the North and considered all Southern Italians either lazy, criminals, or gypsies—an unfortunate stereotype. Ethnics still faced barriers in the corporate executive ranks. It has taken a while longer to improve ethnic participation in the higher executive positions. All these obstacles made it difficult for Southern Europeans to fully integrate into the prosperity of America. But not as difficult as it has been for African Americans.

The Great Migration

Not everyone immigrating to the northern cities came from overseas. The first part of the twentieth century saw the largest movement of African Americans from the South to the North. This period was called the Great Migration. Having grown up in the North and educated in Catholic and public schools, I was never aware of this term. This is a movement from the US from the South to the North. It is estimated that almost 50 percent of the African American population moved to the North, Midwest, and the West Coast in the first half of the twentieth century. Immigrants from Eastern Europe had to learn a new language. They had to assimilate into a new culture. They faced discrimination and ethnic stereotyping from the existing population. But African Americans, some of whom could trace their ancestry in this county over two hundred years, had the most difficult time. This is not a book about race. However, the ethnic and racial makeup of the country in the early twentieth century is relevant to my family. This is the world they came into in the first part of the twentieth century.

After the Civil War, there was a period of occupation by the North. This was the time of reconstruction. Blacks were given freedom and the right to vote. They were able to participate in the economy of the South. They were able to elect Black congressmen (at that time senators were appointed by the state legislature or the governor). In the 1870s, reconstruction ended. The southern states quickly reverted back to structural racism. They passed a series of laws that virtually eliminated all civil rights. These were known as the Jim Crow Laws. The name comes from a character in a play and was considered offensive by the Black population. Jim Crow effectively, through a series of laws, made it virtually impossible for Blacks to vote. They had to pay a poll tax or meet some arbitrary requirement designed to make it impossible to qualify in order to vote. Since most Blacks were poor and uneducated, this effectively disenfranchised them and some poor Whites as well. Southern states began to restrict Blacks from every part of life. These laws were validated by the Supreme Court in 1896. In the Plessy vs Ferguson case, the Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal facilities were constitutional. Separate was already in place but equal would take much longer to be accomplished. Blacks in the South were for the most part poor, lacking education, and oppressed.

The industrial growth in the North provided Blacks an opportunity to escape. It started as small groups at first then grew. When Whites in the South figured out what was happening, they tried to stop the outflow. They made it difficult for companies to advertise for workers to come north. Recruiters from the North took their life in their hands, going South to find labor. As the migration accelerated, Southern Whites began to fear they would lose control of their African American population. They tried to stop individuals by tearing up train tickets and having Blacks waiting for transportation arrested for loitering. None of this had any effect on the Great Migration. Over the next sixty years, almost 50 percent of Southern Blacks had left the South.

It must have been quite a shock for mostly rural Blacks to migrate to the industrial North. Most Blacks went to the large industrial centers on the northeast and Midwest. Cities like New