Click Here to Listen:

Tempest is a student-run podcast that focuses on UNE’s School of Arts and Humanities on the Biddeford campus. Podcaster Chloe Boulle uses each episode to narrow in on topics including clubs, events, internship opportunities, extracurriculars, and the vibrant community that makes up UNE’s Biddeford campus.

Transcript (lightly edited for readability): 

Chloe Boulle: Hello and welcome to Tempest, UNE’s Arts and Humanities podcast. Have you ever thought about recording family history? Interviewing your parents, your grandparents, and saving your heritage for yourself and future generations? I sat down with fellow student Elias Nawfel to talk about his family history and how he created a podcast chronicling his great-grandparents and their immigration to the United States.

Elias Nawfel: My name is Elias George Nawfel. I am a history major, biology minor, here at the University of New England and I’m on the Early Access to Dental School D.M.D 4+4 Program. My dad is half Lebanese, half Syrian, and my mom is all Greek. So, my family comes from the Medderterianin area of the world. So I’m half Greek, a quarter Lebanese and a quarter Syrian.

Boulle: 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.

Nawfel: The class was quite interesting, and I did enjoy it. We didn’t do a lot of audio stuff like technical, 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-sized 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 because it was something that was unique, 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.

Boulle: Next, I asked Elias what the inspiration was for his family podcast.

Nawfel: The inspiration for this podcast, it was definitely like honoring my grandparents. I’ll start off by prefacing: this was more focused to my mom’s side of the family. My grandparents, their parent’s came from Greece in like the early 1900s. 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. He would tell them about his childhood. Some were funny, some were serious, and we have a collection of them that he put together. I always loved those growing up. When I couldn’t sleep at night I would always listen to those. Or, like on a long car drive, I would listen to them. So I was like, I think it would be kinda cool if I could do something for them that they would enjoy. That was pretty much the inspiration behind it; he kinda 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, ten or 20 years down the road, those records, anything can happen. But I think it’s super important. And it shows an appreciation of where you’re from. It gives you this identity.

Boulle: Now, let’s listen to the American Greek story by Elias George Nawfel.

Nawfel: καλώς ορίστε [welcome]. Hello and welcome to The American Greek Story. I’m your host, Elias George Nawfel. Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing my γιαγιά [grandma] and παππούς [grandpa] 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. 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. Even so, traveling by ship was not all that safe. During WWI, 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 γιαγιά [grandma] about this, here’s what she had to say.

Nawfel: So, why did your parents come to the United States from Greece?

γιαγιά: Because their island was strictly Turkish. It was a Turkish island. Turkey occupied it, and they got tired of being bossed around. They wanted a different life.

Nawfel: When you said it was strictly Turkish, was it a Greek island, but the Turks had —

γιαγιά: They occupied it.

Nawfel: They had a military occupation over it?

γιαγιά: Mhm. They didn’t recognize that they were Greek.

Nawfel: I also got a chance to ask my παππούς [grandpa] the same question. Here is what he had to say.

Nawfel: Why did your parents come to this country?

παππούς: For a better life. You know, I look back and I’m saying, ‘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. I consider them heroes because they came to this country, didn’t know the language, and made a life for themselves. I don’t know if I could do that. I don’t know if I could go to another country, not speak their language…

Nawfel: 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 γιαγιά [grandma], she gave me quite an interesting answer. Here’s what she told me.

γιαγιά: I should correct myself. My father always talked about, when it 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. And my father realized it wasn’t the country he left anymore. And he came with us to meet 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. He wasn’t that anymore; he was an American-Greek.

Nawfel: When this topic came up with my παππούς [grandpa], I got a very different answer. This is what he told me.

παππούς: I say, he would have been a politician, but he wasn’t Irish. But all the Irish politicians used to come to my father and ask for his vote, ‘Get your Greek friends to vote for me, Charlie.’ You know, like I said, at his funeral, the Mayor of [inaudible] came. And a lot of politicians came because they knew my father. My father would have been a politician; he just wasn’t Irish.

Nawfel: Both of my grandparents recalled their parents facing some type of challenge because of the fact that they were immigrants. My γιαγιά [grandma] talked about an internal her father faced with his identity as a Greek American, and my παππούς [grandpa] 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 my της γιαγιάς [grandma’s] and του παππού [grandpa’s] parents adapted to the challenges they faced and lived very successful lives.

Nawfel: Do you feel that your parents maybe were not given the same opportunity that other people were?

γιαγιά: 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. And she was very well-paid for that because she was considered very skilled in that job.

Nawfel: With my του παππού [grandpa’s] father, he adapted to the United States by becoming a highly respected person in his community.

Nawfel: So, it sounds like your parents, even though they left Greece, they were very proud of their Greek heritage and being immigrants?

παππούς: Oh yeah, they were. They were. They never forgot their Greek heritage, but they adapted to this country. Like I said, if my father was Irish, he could have been mayor of [inaudible]. But all the Irish politicians used to come to my father and ask for his help. And like I said, at his funeral, he had the Mayor of [inaudible] coming.

Nawfel: So, it sounds like your father, even though he was an immigrant, he was very highly respected in the community.

παππούς: παππούς: Very highly respected. Very highly respected. And like I said, if he was Irish, he would have been, probably Mayor of [inaudible].

Nawfel: Overall, my great-grandparent’s 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. 

Nawfel’s Mother: 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.

Nawfel: The story of my great grandparents is not about fame and glory but about perseverance and creating opportunities in the face of adversity.

Nawfel: Thank you for tuning in to the American Greek Story Podcast. I would like to thank my grandparents, George and Mary [inaudible], for interviews, and my mom, Alayna Nawfel, for her interview. I would also like to thank my Godfather, Dean [inaudible], for contributing the music to this podcast, and David GTR1 and Felix Bloom for the sound effects used in this podcast. As always, I am your host, Elias George Nawfel, signing off. Γειά σας! [Bye-Bye!]. 

Boulle: After listening, I asked Elias if he had any concluding thoughts.

Nawfel: Recording your grandparents or anybody in your family is just a super valuable thing. Especially when you have a family member you can’t actually talk to anymore; it’s something that you can look back on and be proud of and be able to hear their story even if they’re not right there with you. So, I think, you know, if nothing else, it’s just a great tool to remember your family history by.

Boulle: Thank you to Elias for sharing 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 Boulle.