Armen Remembers Trying to "Fit In"

• Armen Remembers Trying to “Fit In”

  
  

  Armen Jermakian recalls having his mother turning off Armenian music so they didn’t stand out in the neighborhood.

  Credit / Author:

  Ellis Island Oral History Collection

  Date created:

  10/14/2020

 

Armen Remembers Trying to "Fit In"(Transcript)

Interviewee: Armen Jermakian
Date of Birth: September 8, 1923
Date of Interview: September 26, 1996
Interviewer: Paul E. Sigrist, Jr.
Immigrated from Turkey in 1923 at Ellis Island
Ellis Island Collection: EI-808

Jermakian (Armenian Music and Foreigner):

My mother used to love to play the music. It was Armenian and Turkish music that they played. And in the summertime the windows would be opened. And my playmates now were both Armenian and non Armenian. And they'd hear that music coming out, you know, they'd call us "foreigners" and things like that because of that music. And I used to go home and tell my mother, "Shut it off," or "Stop that music. Everybody thinks we're..." and that I distinctly remember because we didn't want to, and I love that music now myself but at that time, you know, they always think you're, they always looked upon you as being not native, you know. They looked down on you, they did. At the beginning they did look down on you.