Norma Hakim reminisces
Norma Hakim reminisces with an old family photo. pioneering women Remembering the early days of immigration BY JENNIFER T. KORAIL Metro Detroit is highly concentrated with Chaldeans, but it wasn’t always this way. In the 1930s, the early days of immigration, things were very different for the first Chaldeans who settled in America. Norma Hakim, the mother of eight from Beverly Hills, is among some of the first settlers in the United States. She was only 11 1/2 years old when she left her village of Telkaif. She did not travel alone, being accompanied by her 23-yearold husband, Karim, whom she had recently married in her homeland. It took more than 30 days for the newlyweds to arrive to America by ship. “It was a beautiful boat, the SS Escambia,” Hakim recalled. “We dressed up every night, and we even stopped in Paris.” Despite the thrilling experience, it was still a difficult trip for Hakim. She was lonesome for her family and unfamiliar with Western culture, particularly the food. “I remember that all I ate were hardboiled eggs and potatoes,” Hakim said with a chuckle. “I was not used to the American food.” When the newlyweds arrived in New York in 1937, Hakim was detained overnight on Ellis Island because immigration officials did not believe that she was married at such a young age. “Things were very different in our culture in those days,” Hakim said. “It was very normal for girls to marry at a young age.” Jamila Thomas of Southfield was also detained on Ellis Island when she reached America in 1936, because she had glaucoma. Just 12 years old, Thomas was traveling with her new husband, Alexander, on the Queen Mary. She had to be separated from her husband for six months. “I stayed in a hostel on Ellis Island,” Thomas recalled. “That’s where I learned English.” Thomas was eventually reunited with her husband, who had threatened to return to Iraq unless officials allowed her to complete her travel to Michigan. Hakim and Thomas left practically their entire families behind when they immigrated to the U.S. They found that very little was familiar to them in Michigan; there were barely 10 Chaldean families living in the area. “I did not know anyone,” Thomas said. “But everyone was so friendly to me.” 30 CHALDEAN NEWS MARCH 2007
PHOTO BY ALEX LUMELSKY HAPPY TOGETHER Hania Abbo, a longtime resident of Southfield, shared similar feelings. She also traveled on the Queen Mary, but was accompanied by her extended family. At 18, she found it difficult to be in a country with so few people she knew and could identify with, but she quickly found her place in the community. “I was glad to leave Telkaif, to find opportunities and work in America,” said Abbo. “But first of all, I missed my family. I had never left Telkaif. I did not know anyone at first. There weren’t so many people here then. But we were all together all of the time. We were like a family. We were all like cousins.” Abbo took as active a role as she possibly could in the small yet growing Chaldean community, participating in church activities and clubs. “I was one of the first ladies to drive, and was the first Chaldean to be honored as Mother of the Year,” Abbo said. “The mayor of Detroit gave me a key to the city, and I also received a beautiful purse.” While most of the early Chaldean settlers were not related, they came to grow as strong as any family. “We were all very happy together back then,” Victoria Kattula recalled fondly. “Even though we didn’t know each other at first, we got used to each other.” Kattula, who lives in Commerce Township, emigrated from Baghdad in 1936 on the Queen Mary. At 17, she had never left home before. “I was seasick, lonesome for my family. It was very hard for me to separate from them,” she said. “When I came to Michigan, all of the Chaldeans were from Telkaif. They would tease me about my accent. But we all loved each other.” Abbo, Hakim, Kattula and Thomas all remember their beginnings in Michigan warmly. While they might have had to adjust their lifestyles, they always had help from one another. “We were really a family,” said Abbo. “The Chaldeans were all there for each other, to help each other. It was real love.” Thomas agreed. “In the beginning, every family that would come to Michigan, we would visit,” she said. “We prayed together, went to church together and our children played together. We took care of each other.” Hakim too remembers how close the first Chaldeans were. “I was lonesome for my family the first year,” she said. “I was so lucky to have my loving husband and my in-laws, especially my two sister in-laws. They helped me learn and we were always there for each other. I thank God for that every day.” The women were each very eager to learn, but recall that they were not able to take advantage of the same opportunities that young Chaldeans have today. “When I left Baghdad, the only English I knew was ‘How are you?’ and ‘Good morning,’” said Kattula. “But I learned from my Chaldean friends, my children, from the television, from shopping.” She and Abbo were lucky to have tutors for a short while, and although all four women attended school for a few years and learned to read, write and speak excellent English, the responsibilities of marriage and family were soon upon them. Thomas is proud of how Chaldeans have grown since the 1930s. “There is so much life to Chaldeans. They are very smart and educated,” she said. “Our husbands did not all have the chance to go to school and become educated because they had to work right away.” “Most of us worked in the grocery store business,” Hakim said. “We came right after the Depression, so there were some hard times. But we still made the best of everything. We had company every night. Chaldeans would come over each other’s homes all of the time.” As more and more Chaldeans continue to emigrate from Iraq and other countries, it is becoming increasingly difficult to know each other these days. “We just have to keep working hard with our families to keep our culture,” Hakim said. “We just have to keep going to church and spending time with each other.” Top to bottom: Jamila Thomas with her husband, Murad, and first child, Frank, in 1939. At the time this photo was taken, Jamila was pregnant with her second child, Alex. Norma Hakim (right) with her family in Iraq circa 1935: brothers Salman (left) and Lateef, and mother Norme Dalaly. The Queen Mary, a ship many early Chaldean immigrants traveled on. MARCH 2007 CHALDEAN NEWS 31
