JUNE 2023

COVER STORY
Remembering
Chaldean
Town
BY ADHID MIRI, PHD
It is often said that our Chaldean
history in the USA has evident
Mesopotamian roots.
Looking back on our immigration
saga, it kicks off with the Chaldean-American
frontier period, goes
through the hardships of the fifties,
the tough years of assimilation, and
the frenzy of life caused by the rush to
riches. Mix in the political turmoil in
Iraq and worries about relatives, and
you get some defining moments in our
history.
But it wasn’t all war, crime, and
violence. The early arrivals helped
move the community forward toward
innovative ideas and identities. A pioneering
spirit, quest for success, and
the combined love of old and new
countries were all positive outcomes
we continue to see today from that glorious
past.
More than 500,000 people of
Middle Eastern descent live in metro
Detroit, and combined, they generate
billions of dollars in economic activity.
Although the road to self-reliance can
take years due to language and cultural
barriers, the influx of refugees has
been a boon to the regional economy.
Everyone wants to pursue the American
Dream.
A New Homeland
Chaldeans from Iraq began coming
to Detroit a century ago. In the 1960s,
they began pouring in, some to join
their families, some to escape the persecution
that this Christian minority
faced over the years in their ancestral
homeland. Metro Detroit now is home
Steve and Joseph Kada of S & J Meats.
to an estimated 200,000 Chaldeans.
Tens of thousands of them started
their lives in Chaldean Town; at one
point, a quarter of the area’s Chaldeans
lived there.
Due to a stream of immigrants attracted
to the already pre-established
Chaldean community and the monopoly
they had over certain industries,
the neighborhood boomed in the seventies.
The passage of the Immigration
and Nationality Act of 1965 ended
the United States’ decades-old policy
of limiting immigration based on nationality,
thereby enabling an influx of
Chaldeans to the neighborhood.
They settled in the Penrose neighborhood
which flanks 7 Mile between
Woodward and John R., where some
streets had homes so old, they didn’t
have driveways because they were built
before cars were invented. There was
barely space to walk between them.
The crowded housing meant a life intertwined
with the neighbors, not unlike
their lives in Iraq. Literally, the
whole community was within reach.
On scorching summer nights or
warm summer afternoons, without
the luxury of air conditioning in their
homes, men, family, and friends would
sit and socialize on small porches. Usually
dressed in their white “wife-beater”
shirts (Fannelah), under-shorts,
pajamas or dishdashas, they would
watch the kids play in the street, worry
beads in hand, drinking tea, beer, or
their favorite Arak — often with a loud
transistor radio listening to the famous
Egyptian singer Um Kalthoum singing
Inta Umri while enjoying grilled Tikka
Kabab (Jarihyatha) as Mezza.
20 CHALDEAN NEWS JUNE 2023