FEATURE CCC Board members gave a special tour before the museum opened to the public. Pictured left to right: Judy Jonna, Francis Boji, Hani Mio, Bishop Ibrahim, Raad Kathawa, Bishop Francis, Mary Romaya, Hanna Shina, and Victor Saroki. Honoring History Birth of the Chaldean Cultural Center BY CAL ABBO When Chaldeans first came to Detroit, they struggled to integrate into American society and learn the language. They had their own unique culture, one that was different from that of other Americans and most immigrants. At first, this was a point of pride for Chaldeans. Their faith, family values, tight-knit community, and work ethic ultimately led to success in a foreign land. Chaldeans raised their families in the same traditions that they came from and passed down their culture successfully. At the same time, the children of the original immigrants were forced to acculturate to some extent. There were no Chaldean schools in Detroit at the time. Chaldean children often attended Roman Catholic or public schools. They learned English as their native language and began to Americanize in order to live, work, and play in a modern and diverse world. As time passed, fewer Chaldeans came from the homeland. Yet more were born in the United States, some even representing the second generation of American-born Chaldeans, many of whom don’t speak Sureth. This new perspective and way of life led to a concern that Chaldeans would lose their culture. Thus was born the urge for Detroit’s Chaldean population to preserve their culture and the idea for Chaldean Cultural Center (CCC). Mary Romaya is one of the CCC’s founders, and she served as its executive director for six years until her retirement in 2017. Ever since, she’s kept the organization on track when it needs her and assisted in the CCC’s move to the new Chaldean Community Foundation’s West Campus that is currently under construction. According to Romaya, the idea for the CCC was conceived around 2003 in the famed and nostalgic rooms of Southfield Manor. “When I started with the CCC, I was the secretary and a founding board member,” she said. In March of 2003, the concept was there, a full two years before Shenandoah Country Club was purchased and opened. Shenandoah Country Club was purchased by the Chaldean Iraqi American Association of Michigan (CIAAM), a social organization that also ran Southfield Manor. As it was being renovated, CIAAM designed the club so that the CCC would have around 2,000 sq. feet of space for cultural programming and, eventually, a museum. “We were just a fledgling group,” Romaya said about the CCC. “We had no money. So we were not in a position to buy a building or rent a space. We knew we needed to preserve our heritage. By 2003, the Chaldeans had been here for more than a century.” According to stories Romaya heard from her own father, Chaldeans were discussing how to maintain and preserve their identity as early as the 1920s. “They certainly didn’t want to lose the faith or the language,” she said about discussions her father had with other Chaldean pioneers. Her parents’ generation feared that their children who were born in America or brought here at a young age would become assimilated and integrated into American society and lose their unique Chaldean identity. As the generations became more Ameri- 62 CHALDEAN NEWS CHALDEAN STORY
canized, they would speak more English and eventually forget Sureth. For that reason, Romaya’s parents spoke Sureth to her. “I understand the language, but I would answer in English,” she said. There were no Chaldean schools back then. Most children went to Roman Catholic schools in the archdiocese of Detroit. Chaldeans are known for making up large portions of metro Detroit’s Catholic schools as well as funding them generously. Just last year, John, Jeff, and Chris Denha gave a generous donation of 0,000 to Brother Rice, a high school the brothers attended in the 1980s. They gave in honor of their parents, Nedal and Mike Denha. Today, nearly 30% of Marian High School’s students are Chaldean. These are only two recent examples of the impact Chaldeans have on Catholic schools in the metro Detroit area. The Chaldean pioneers were happy to live and raise their families in America, away from the hardship and persecution that plagued them in the Middle East. They didn’t, however, want to lose the tight-knit community that went along with the ethnic group. Romaya identifies as Chaldean- American. She desperately wanted her community to stay intact because she valued the rich, meaningful life it gave her. To that end, she and others created youth groups, which she attended throughout her 20s and early 30s, designed to intentionally stay together and maintain the community they were blessed with. “They encouraged us to marry within the community and socialize with other Chaldeans,” Romaya said about the generation of Chaldean pioneers. “If we didn’t, they hoped we would still marry a Catholic.” Until the birth of the CCC, most of the work Chaldeans did to preserve their culture, aside from attending and expanding the Church, revolved around creating social groups and gathering places. There were few, if any, organized efforts to archive cultural items and revive what had been lost for families who arrived in Michigan decades ago. As the CCC grew comfortable in its new space at Shenandoah, the board began planning programs to accomplish its goal. “The CCC celebrates and explores the extraordinary history, arts, traditions, and contributions of the Chaldean people from ancient times to the present, serving as a repository for our collected history and stories…” the mission statement reads. The CCC had a board of directors chaired by the late Rosemary Anton. The first executive director was Josephine Sarafa, a bilingual teacher in Birmingham Public Schools for 27 years. Her pilot program was one of community outreach and cultural sensitivity training. Sarafa first contacted different police departments and their leaders to teach them about the Chaldean community. When a Chaldean person was pulled over, for example, there was often a language barrier between the officer and the driver. Other times, when someone got in trouble, they would send their father or a community leader to speak with the police. In addition, Sarafa approached school principals, superintendents, and teachers to visit the CCC and learn about the Chaldean culture so they can better accommodate their students. Previously, few efforts had been made to explain who the Chaldeans are to the rest of the world. Soon after these initial programs, the CCC created classes to restore lost traditions and encourage cultural continuity. Live cooking classes featured rich recipes and foods like Dolma, Baklawa, Kibbeh, and more. The CCC began to teach Sureth classes so Chaldean-Americans who grew up speaking English could learn their ethnic language as adults. As these plans unfolded and gave the organization confidence in their early successes, the CCC continued to expand its mission. Whereas the earliest programs focused on explaining Chaldean culture to the wider metro Detroit community, the CCC understood its duty to preserve the stories, traditions, and documents that show Francis Boji taking measurements in the Today Gallery for an exhibit placement. who Chaldeans are. This series is perhaps the CCC’s greatest treasure, according to Romaya. It began interviewing Chaldean pioneers, some of whom immigrated to the United States before the 1920s. “They started interviewing people, the pioneers, before they all passed away,” Romaya said. “We recorded their voices, and we have physical cassette tapes. Some spoke in English and some in Sureth.” What was it like, coming to America? Where did you sleep on that very first night? These are the kinds of questions posed by the interviewers to Chaldean pioneers. “Basically, it was a bus ride from New York to Detroit,” Romaya answered, based on her understanding of the interviews. “One Chaldean woman ran a boarding house where you could sleep and eat for five dollars per week. The women would do your laundry and feed you until you got a job and could find your own place to live.” As a result of this digging, the CCC began collecting dozens of historic documents from their subjects that they could keep and preserve. Passports, immigration papers, or deeds to some of the first Chaldean stores were very common. Romaya said she doesn’t remember who came up with the idea, but eventually, the group realized they needed a museum to house and show off their collection. Nowadays, visitors see the museum as the main feature of the CCC because of its beauty and glamor. It didn’t open until 2017, however, and the CCC was plenty busy before that. “The CCC is more than just a museum,” Romaya said. “We consider ourselves the archivists for the Chaldean community.” The CCC wanted a real museum to honor and preserve the Chaldean culture. As far as Romaya knew, they were the first in the community to ever build a museum. The group ventured locally to the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Arab-American Museum, and the Holocaust Memorial Center. They travelled as far as Washington, DC to see the Smithsonian Museums and the National Museum of the American Indian. They went to Virginia to see how professionals warehouse artifacts and how to preserve them properly. It was diligent study and hard work like this that led to the grand accomplishment that is the museum embedded in the CCC. As they completed their initial discovery, the next step for the CCC was to find a firm to build the museum. In the process, they hired a creator, Sanan Media, who produces high-tech exhibits and engaging video. The CCC was close to finalizing the museum when the Great Recession wrecked the global economy. According to Romaya, “Funding dried up. People who were willing to give us money were now struggling to hang on to their own businesses,” she said. “I heard many stories of people who were barely surviving. Banks were calling in CCC continued on page 64 CHALDEAN STORY CHALDEAN NEWS 63
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