MY UNCLE ‘KERI’ AND THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
By Gregory Aftandilian
Lowell Sun (Massachusetts)
July 20, 2007 Friday
I recently traveled to Worcester with my uncle to visit the grave of
a family relative, Sarkis Manuelian, who died in 1985 at the age of 90.
Technically, he was not even my great uncle, but the cousin of my
grandfather. He spoke with a heavy accent even though he came to this
country at the age of 15, smoked bad-smelling cigars, and usually
wore the same type of clothes — white or blue shirts, dark pants,
and a straw hat. He was not famous or rich, but owned a corner spa
(variety store) in Arlington in his later years after working in
factories in Worcester and Chelsea in his early years. He had a
heart of gold, however and was much loved by three generations of
relatives. He was also an illegal immigrant, having sneaked across
the Canadian-New Hampshire border when he was a teenager.
When I was a teenager I sat down with him one day to hear about
his early life. He grew up in the village of Kesserig in the Kharpet
province of the Armenian plateau in Anatolia, near the present-day city
of Elazig in eastern Turkey. In 1910, at the age of 15, he decided
to leave for America, either because he was looking for economic
opportunity or because he sensed that bad winds were blowing. Five
years later in 1915, the Ottoman government embarked on a methodical
plan of genocide that killed more than a million Armenians and drove
the rest into exile. All of Sarkis’ immediate family — father,
mother, brother and sister — were killed. Had Sarkis stayed in
Kesserig, he would have almost certainly been one of the victims,
as young men of his age were usually the first to be slaughtered.
Sarkis was very fortunate to have been in America at the time, but
he suffered from the trauma of being here while his family was being
killed over there. When he spoke to me many years later of his lost
family members, his voice would begin to crack and he would pause
for a long time, not knowing what to say. It was a pain that he
carried with him for the rest of his life. Fortunately, some of his
cousins (like my grandfather) survived and joined him in America,
and they adopted him as a brother. The children of his cousins would
respectfully call him Sarkis Keri, the latter word meaning uncle or
more specifically, mother’s brother, for he was related through my
mother’s side of the family.
As my brothers and I were growing up — not being fluent in the
Armenian language — we would call him Uncle Keri, believing that the
word "Keri" was his first name. My father, who did speak Armenian
fluently, would chuckle at our poor use of the ancestral language,
and Sarkis himself would get a good laugh as well. But he never
corrected us, as he enjoyed the visits to the home of his cousin’s
grandchildren, and didn’t want to appear as a disciplinarian.
Sarkis, who never married, was a fixture at family picnics and
get-togethers. He was always generous and would slip us young kids
money or candy. He even gave his old car to my brother. Later, I heard
a story that in the 1940s he gave an Armenian-American student $300
(a lot of money in those days) so that he could complete his college
education.
Why Sarkis slipped over the border from Canada in 1910 and not go
through Ellis Island (as nearly all of my other relatives did) I never
understood. Perhaps he caught a ship to Canada and didn’t want, for
economic reasons, to pay for another one to New York. Perhaps he heard
about stringent health examinations at Ellis Island and didn’t want to
take a chance there. I don’t know. But when he came to America — first
to Worcester like so many immigrants — he worked long, hard hours in
factories. In the 1930s, he took advantage of Franklin Roosevelt’s
"amnesty" for illegal immigrants and became an American citizen. He
was very proud to be an American and cherished his citizenship after
having been in "illegal" status for a couple of decades. Aside from
his border-crossing episode, he was a law-abiding citizen except for
a few games of pinochle with his cronies.
All of which brings me to the present immigration debate. Most of
today’s illegal immigrants did not face genocide in their homelands,
but came here for economic opportunities. But like Sarkis, they are
working long, hard hours, and contributing to the economic vitality
of our country. Is it not better to legalize their status and have
them become citizens down the road than to keep them in illegal
status? The right-wing hysteria over "amnesty" for such people seems
to me to be a bit un-American. After all, it was done in the past,
and our country was better for it. And I think that many Americans, if
they dig a little deep, have one or two Uncle Keri’s in their family.
Gregory Aftandilian is a research fellow at the Belfer Center for
Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of
Government and a former Middle East analyst at the State Department.
Statements and views expressed in this column are solely those of
the author and do not imply endorsement by Harvard University, the
Kennedy School of Government or the Belfer Center for Science and
International Affairs.