JULY 2020

chaldeans AROUND THE WORLD
Chaldean Communities in the
American Southwest: California,
Arizona, Nevada and Texas
BY ADHID MIRI, PHD
PHOTO BY SEYOZ 4 ALL
There are more than 500,000
Chaldeans in America today,
with large communities in
Detroit, Michigan and San Diego,
California. They may have been in
the United States as early as 1889,
but as far as the record books from
the nineteenth century go, there
were virtually none - the Oussani
family from Baghdad were the first
and only documented Chaldeans to
settle in the U.S. before 1900. By
the mid-20th century there were
Chaldeans around the country, with
a significant population in Detroit
from 1910 onward, attracted by the
dynamic and lucrative auto industry.
Michigan has remained the
American heartland of the Chaldean
community. For decades, Chaldeans
have been building communities in
the southwestern region of the United
States. As ISIS was driving Christians
from their homes in Iraq, these
communities have grown into a base
of support and hope across the globe.
The Chaldean Catholic Church
based in Iraq is one of the 22 Eastern
Catholic Churches in full communion
with Rome. The Chaldean people,
who now live mostly in northern
Iraq, trace their ancestry back
8,000 years. They are mentioned in
the Book of Genesis; Hammurabi
was Chaldean, as was Nebuchadnezzar.
Chaldeans began converting to
Christianity before the middle of the
first century. They’re now aligned
with the Roman Catholic Church.
Chaldeans in California
California gets its nickname, “The
Golden State,” for a reason. Besides
copious amounts of sunshine, the
state’s diverse cultural and geographical
offerings, vibrant cities and critically
acclaimed culinary scenes are
truly the gold standard for travelers.
California is the second-most ethnically
diverse state in the U.S.
Southern California was an especially
attractive destination for many
displaced Chaldeans craving a new
locale, featuring plenty of sunshine,
mild warm weather, a relaxed, easygoing
lifestyle and diverse population
such as they were accustomed to
in Iraq.
In fact, El Cajon, California is
home to the largest population of
Iraqi war refugees in the world. It
hosts the second-highest population
of Chaldeans in the United States,
behind only Metro Detroit. Roughly
50,000 Chaldeans live there.
Over the years, El Cajon, which
Clockwise from left:
El Cajon is home to the largest population
of Iraqi war refugees in the world.
A service at St. Peter church in El Cajon.
St. Peter church exterior.
lies east of San Diego, has taken on the
shape of its growing community of Iraqi
Christians. Signs in many of the city’s
shops and restaurants are in Chaldean
or Arabic, leading some to dub East
Main Street, “Little Baghdad.”
A great majority of San Diego
Chaldeans trace their roots to the
province of Nineveh in northern
Iraq. These Chaldeans left their ancestral
land troubled, in search of a
better life and hoping for more peace
and freedom in their new country.
According to Fr. Michael J. Bazzi,
Pastor Emeritus, the first-known
Chaldean immigrant to San Diego
was Dr. Joseph Gibran in 1951. Then
Ramzi Alex Thomas arrived from
Baghdad to study at San Diego State
University in 1954 and went on to
open a used auto parts store. In 1955,
Aziz Habib from Detroit visited San
Diego and in 1957, moved to stay
and opened the first Chaldean grocery
store in the area.
Mr.& Mrs. Wadie Deddeh moved
from Detroit to San Diego in 1959.
Mr. Deddeh, a University of Baghdad
graduate, had come to Detroit
in 1947. He taught political science,
moving up to become a State Senator
in 1986. In 1960, Slewa Semaan
arrived from Baghdad to visit San
Diego and found only 10 Chaldean
families living there.
Since the enactment of the Refugee
Crisis Act in 2008, the town of El
Cajon has received more than 11,000
Iraqi refugees, most of whom are Chaldean.
While earlier waves of Chaldean
immigrants to El Cajon were largely
urban elites, the post-2008 wave was
comprised of refugees from Christian
villages in the Nineveh Plains.
The newer refugees live mostly
in downtown El Cajon and on the
northern periphery of the city. This
group has expanded the number of
Chaldean-owned businesses, and
Chaldean youth now make up most
of the student population at the
schools in the city’s downtown area.
Early waves of Chaldean immigrants
had worked hard to build cultural
capital in El Cajon. Aiming for
cultural acceptance as well as financial
success in their new city, the first
generation of Chaldean immigrants
established businesses that were palatable
to their new American neighbors,
without conspicuous Chaldean
or Arab markers.
Likewise, their social clubs and
churches blended in with the surroundings.
Above all, Chaldeans
stressed their Christian faith, hard-
32 CHALDEAN NEWS JULY 2020