Summaries

Synopsis

STOYAN CHRISTOWE: IMMIGRANT, LEGISLATOR, WRITER, VERMONTER

This is the life of STOYAN CHRISTOWE: IMMIGRANT, AUTHOR, LEGISLATOR -- AMERICAN. Born a in Ottoman Macedonia in 1898, young Stoyan came to the US in 1911 at the age of 13. His life goal? To find the unity of mind and soul that would make him an American. He became an authentic American hero, fulfilling his dream, becoming a distinguished journalist, author, and finally, a Vermont state senator.A century after his birth his views and values, perspectives and experiences offer native born Americans and immigrants alike, inspiration and direction.

The Balkans, a mysterious region that remains little known and poorly understood, has been the source of many immigrants to the US.

Turning back the clock to 1911, three years before the Balkan Wars prefaced World War I, an 11 year old boy, Stojan Hristov, made the journey from his isolated village in what was then Ottoman Macedonia to America on a quest for a new life, and a new identity.

Born September 1, 1898, Stojan, like most boys of this era, hoped for and dreamed of being a komitadji, a freedom fighter, who would, unlike the heroes of bygone days, succeed in overthrowing the oppressive Ottoman regime and bring liberty to Macedonia. Instead, at the urging of his grandfather, he set out across Europe to reach America and find a different fate. Stoyan Christowe, as he was called in the US, arrived in America knowing no English. Yet he was to grow up and become a journalist, author, and Vermont legislator -- among his many accomplishments. Much of what he wrote about had to do with Balkan affairs or the immigrant experience and the process of becoming an American. Some if it dealt with his own inner struggle to understand his roots.

Arriving in the US, a land of such magical attributes as electricity and motor propelled cars, Stoyan headed for St. Louis where he lived in an immigrant ghetto, where for most of his countrymen the goal was to work and save with the idea of perhaps returning home one day "to live like a pasha." Never did they express the wish to shed their Balkan past and grasp an American future.

He wrote:

....Their beings were not inoculated with the leaven of America that worked so powerfully with earlier immigrants from other lands. They were familiar with the heat of the steel mills and iron foundries and roundhouses but never came in contact with the heat of the melting pot. America had not put her finger on their minds or hearts as it had done to millions before them and as it would to their children and grandchildren. (The Eagle and the Stork, p. 75)