De Facto Times

Albanians appear distinct. Their diaspora reaches far and wide, exhibiting significant numbers across Europe, the Americas, and even Egypt and Australia. Despite the homeland’s small population of over two million, over a million Albanians live abroad in various communities and maintain a strong connection to their culture. By contrast, other small Balkan countries with higher populations do not exhibit nearly the same numbers and spread in diaspora. Many people have grown up knowing of a few Albanians in their hometown who stick unwaveringly to their identities. Such a strong and adamant ethnic group is perfect to observe in order to ascertain how minority subcultures can be preserved.

Last weekend, I visited the Albanian Festival in Worcester, Massachusetts, a three-day biannual event that tends to exhibit well over 10,000 attendees at and around St. Mary’s Albanian Church. Children danced in traditional garb under a large tent while lines of guests waited patiently to purchase locally-made Albanian foods. The Albanians exhibited a high degree of welcomeness and openness, with some interviewees sharing great laughs and stories before they even learned my name. Undoubtedly, their warmth and joy were contagious.

Several common themes pervaded the four interviews, with the most notable being the emphasis on family and hospitality, the church as the community centerpiece, and the continuity of the Albanian language outside of the homeland. Other points of interest mentioned were a focus on education and hard work, the prideful nature of Albanians, and an argument against America’s “melting pot” quality.

According to Tina, a long-standing member of the Albanian community in Worcester, she and her mother were the last two immigrants to come to Worcester before the war started. At that point, the Albanian community was far smaller than it is now, having experienced major growth during the era of communism in Albania. Tina asserts that after communism was gone, there wasn’t much reason for the natives to stay in Albania due to its state of ruin. Family came first. When other Albanians began coming to the United States, Tina’s family offered them a place to stay. One family, whom Tina was related to, lived with Tina for a year. “You rarely hear of families splitting up and not talking to each other,” she commented. “It’s unusual for members of the family not to get together.” She added, “It was never a second thought for us to help my cousin come and live with us. It was just something you do.” The Albanian mentality on family is best exemplified by the high frequency at which Albanians in diaspora give remittances, something Tina attested to.

Other interviewees reciprocated the focus on family. Effi, the owner of an Auburn Albanian restaurant called The Coffee Mug, which provided delectable food for the festival, said that she has two jobs: the restaurant and her family, the latter of which comes from the soul. After all, your children and your grandchildren are the means by which you are remembered. Her granddaughter Brielle, a college student, posited that Albanians were distinguished by the unconditionality of familial love, an unconditionality that she suspects most Americans do not hold. “Everyone’s my cousin. Especially here at church, everyone’s my cousin, you know, with no blood relation. We’re all cousins; we’re all family; we’re all there to help one another,” she continued. Effi finished by stating, “It’s easy to be separate, it’s hard to be stronger.”

When asked what might be Albania’s distinguishing factor as a culture, Tina replied that the Albanians have always been hospitable. “It was just something that you did; this basic kind of sense of helping the other.” She provided the example of Albanians who helped save Jews during the holocaust, in spite of Albania having been occupied by Fascist Italy. “That idea of giving help; that’s a very cultural thing.” Effi’s sentiments of family are not limited by blood, but also include others. “They love to be Albanian, too!” she exclaimed about the customers at her restaurant. The customers of Effi’s restaurant seem to be loyal supporters, with some coming to the festival. Her granddaughter attributed this to people feeling at home in an almost familial manner.

Although Albania is religiously split between Muslims, Orthodox Christians, and Catholics, the church still appears to be a focal point of their community. Tina herself taught Sunday School. “As a whole, the church has grown and it’s prospered,” Tina described as we sat in the church’s entrance, “If all the immigrants had not come over, I would say we would have lost this church.” The core base of the church changed over time, with some attendees marrying off and moving to other churches. As a result, the new influx of immigrants was necessary to maintain a steady flow of attendees. Effi explained that her family was very religious and faithful, saying, “We do the best we can for this church.” She described their Orthodox church as a piece of Albania; they give it everything they have and always work together. “[Everybody’s asking], ‘What can I do for you? What can I do for you?’” Effi informed me that she had made 63 trays of baklava as a donation for the church and trays of roast pork for the festival. Everybody contributes to the church in the way they can, and that’s what makes the community so strong.

Tina also described how Albanians love to party, often doing so in the context of the church with “Name Days,” wherein members of the community would gather in celebration of a saint. In such events, up to 30 people would come to eat. “The ones who weren’t close enough to come and eat would come to the house to extend their greetings.” Even Muslim Albanians would join the gatherings during the Name Days.

Every individual interviewed, as well as a large portion of the attendants and attendees I interacted with at the festival, spoke Albanian fluently. Many Albanians in America learn Albanian before they learn English, reinforcing their difference from their surroundings and attachment to their Albanian culture. Even the youngest individual interviewed, a student in college, spoke and understood Albanian with her family and those passing by during the interview. She shared that in her college, there is a club of Albanians who are first-generation immigrants and communicate in their mother tongue regularly. She wishes to teach the Albanian language to her children, and does not feel deterred at all by not being in Albania.

“I won’t say this braggingly, but they are intelligent, they’re hardworking, and they have a respect for education. They make sure they go to school, they do their work…” Tina said regarding the immigrants. The hardworking nature of the Albanians may be exemplified by Tina’s cousin that she lived with for a year. On top of having two daughters and having migrated from another continent, he was a doctor (an anesthesiologist) who spoke eight languages and later worked for hospitals across Massachusetts as a translator. Others she knew opened restaurants, one became a lawyer, among other professions. Elizabeth, Tina’s daughter, added that “there were, I think, three or four of us in that were in the top ten at Dartmouth.” Her mother explained that the Albanian students are encouraged by their communities and family to focus and do the work.

Brielle explained that the Albanians are proud because of what they’ve overcome. “Albanians have a lot of ego, which can be really good in certain aspects. It teaches you to have self-confidence, self-respect, which is definitely a big thing.” She explained that this pride seems to counteract depression and anxiety, something she feels is less present in Albania than in other places. “My college essay was about the fact that I’m Albanian. That just… kept me going. Like, I can do anything. My ancestors have gone through so much… It definitely teaches you how to be stronger as an individual, hard-headed—like speaking up for what you want, having that self-assurance in yourself—like not second-guessing yourself. It’s something that’s really helped me a lot.” She ended the interview by saying, “We’re prideful of ourselves, of our country, of our families—it’s definitely a very big thing.”

The importance of preservation, according to Tina, is that preservation gives the Albanians an identity. Tina tackled whether or not the United States truly is a “melting pot” of cultures as it is commonly described, saying that although in some ways it might be, “It’s really not a melting pot, because each one brings their own gifts. And they don’t all necessarily melt together, but you can take something from each one, and as a whole, the city grows. So we’ve been a good city that way, because we have all kinds of people, and there isn’t a lot of, ‘Oh, they’re Irish!’ or ‘Oh, they’re Jewish!’ There isn’t a lot of that, and I think it’s because we have this diversity of groups who have learned to live with one another. It’s a wonderful custom…” She recounted an ongoing event from when the city was more divided along ethnic lines, wherein one ethnic group would visit the other at their church. The Irish had come over to build a canal, and so the Albanians visited their church. Each person would grab a tray of food and go down a line asking each other how their wife and children were. Tina laughed when recounting a joke her husband once made in regards to food, “Aren’t you Irish glad that we Mediterraneans came over?” Such a joke should not be disregarded, as it demonstrates Tina’s point well. Each group lends their strengths as a gift to their community, and for the Albanians, food was and is a major component. Now, Tina points out that there are immigrants coming from Vietnam and Cambodia that have given the teachers a new perspective. This old program made the teachers equipped to understand incoming groups and ask what gifts they could bring. Thus, it’s not entirely accurate to say the United States is a melting pot, as that would imply a complete dilution of the aspects that make each subculture different. Rather, subcultures, especially smaller minorities, can maintain their cultural aspects while sharing them with the community. A mosaic is commonly described instead of a melting pot, but that too, is far too rigid to encompass the nature of subcultural mixing. Rather, the United States is more like an expertly-crafted painting—its colors subtly gradated between each other with various contrasts about, but in total creating a mostly cohesive and beautiful image.

Before finishing each interview, I asked each interviewee to describe Albania in one word. The words I received were hospitable, family, the best, and pride. Examining Albania’s attributes as a subculture may enlighten more about the behavior of other subcultures. Cultures thrive in their identity when placed in contrast with others. Their families and communities may tighten and hang on to focal points, such as their local Albanian church. Such a community facilitates motivation to preserve the language and culture for generations despite the surrounding, larger ethnic groups not having done the same.