The purpose of the National Hellenic Museum, in Chicago, is to promote the understanding of the cultural traditions of the ancient and contemporary Greece. The word Hellenic is a synonym for the word Greek it pertains to Greece, its people, language and culture. They chose this word to use because the word perfectly links to their whole purpose of the museum. The National Hellenic Museum has four floors to show the people their purpose. On the first floor which is the Greek Refugee Crisis exhibit captures the reality of what the Greeks are going through in order to give themselves or their families a new life and spare them the tragedies that is going on in their homeland. Most of the civilians that are fleeing are also going to Europe to escape violence, prosecution, and war – specifically the Syrian Civil War. All the photography in this exhibit was captured by Tasos Markou, a fellow Greek. In 2015 he traveled to the island of Lesvos to do a cover on the refugee crisis. He captures the difficult journey the civilian went through: sea crossings, the living conditions in camps, and the boundaries encountered – the northern borders of Greece. In the camps he captured people adapt to the limited resources of food and thousands of people waiting for their turn to board a raft. During his coverage of the tragedies that was going on in Greece he decided to not only bring awareness to the events happening, but he helped aid the civilians by becoming a volunteer. One part of the exhibit in particular that caught my eye was a photograph of thousands life jackets floating in the ocean. Markou captured this because he wanted to show people the reality that not everyone who seeks refuge makes it out alive. There were thousands of life jackets that were waved back to the shore and all the refugees knew that those people didn’t make it. They died trying to find a better life for themselves or their families. On the second floor the main exhibit was the George Kokines exhibit. Kokines was the first-ever retrospective of the Abstract Expressionist. This exhibition also shows Kokines’ journey to embrace his Greek American identity. He had immigrated parents and he eventually traveled back to his parents’ hometowns that allowed him to connect with his history and artwork of ancient Greece. My favorite part about his exhibit was his point of view of 9/11. He was in a coffee shop across from the World Trade Center when it fell. Due to this traumatic event he stopped any kind of art work for some time. When he returned, he painted three canvases to show what he thought of the event Ground Zero, The Sky Above, and Agios Nikolas. Geroge Kokines was an important figure because of his embrace for improvisation and textural, large scale art work. The third floor is an exhibit about Reaching for the American Dream: The Greek Story in America. This exhibit is about thousands of unique experiences that portray the successes and hardships of people. This exhibit showcases many different Greeks life and their impact in American Greektown mostly in Chicago. There was a typewriter from a lady, that passed away, in the exhibit and it’s there because she wrote about the traditional Greek life that helped many Greek – American people learn more about their cultures. Here in Chicago the exhibit also talks about how they had a Greek school for Greek – Americans, it helped them learn the language of their home country, how to read and write in Greek, they were taught about their history and their cultures. That was my favorite exhibit because I liked how even here in America, they are still teaching the younger generations about the true Greek life so that they won’t feel like they aren’t part of the community. The fourth floor, the rooftop, is just a view of the Chicago’s very own Greektown. After finishing all that learning about Greek life, culture, and traditions someone can hang out on the rooftop and take in the beauty of not only downtown Chicago but also Greektown. Visitors have the opportunity to take pictures of their experience in the National Hellenic Museum. Based on all this information, the National Hellenic Museum did in fact accomplish its purpose for being an ethnic museum.
Ethnic Boundary markers that are on display in the National Hellenic Museum are Greek clothing, the display of the Greek school, and the religious displays. Even in America children had a traditional clothing item that they wore it was called a foustanella which consisted of a belt, shirt, vest, and a fez, topped off with a traditional pleated skirt. This item is an ethnic boundary marker because it signified as a child in a group of other children wearing the same costume. The Greek school is an ethnic boundary marker because it taught the students the Greek language. People that did not know how to speak Greek were usually separated from the group that held people who knew more about the Greek life and language and overall had more knowledge about Greek culture. The last ethnic boundary marker that I saw was their religious display. Their display for this was a baptismal font. Traditionally when being baptized the priest would submerge the infant in the baptismal font, they had a whole corner dedicated to this process. Religion in Greece is important in their cultural so not being part of it significantly detaches a person from that community. This part of the exhibit was interesting because it if different from the baptism routine that I have experienced and noticed in the past. Instead of just pouring the holy water onto the infant’s head like a traditional Roman Catholic baptism would have done in Greek Christian Orthodox the priest submerges the infant’s entire body, sometimes even dunks the infant multiples times in the holy water, not a delicate procedure too. It was interesting to learn this new fact and comparing it to how my tradition does it very differently. Another big ethnic boundary marker that I unfortunately did not see in the National Hellenic Museum was cuisine. So, I did some research and I saw that consumption of Greek foods such as stuffed grape leaves and gyros is considered to me an ethnic boundary marker. It is weird that this was not in the exhibit at all, cuisine, because I think cuisine is something that differs for all different kinds of cultures around the world.
The National Hellenic Museum portray the original country as being a single ethnicity. The museum does not physically say this but throughout the exhibits everything was unified. In the museum they had a wall dedicated on how the Greeks took back their independence from the Ottoman Empire. With the Greek Independence; for nearly 400 years under the rule of the Ottoman rule. The Greeks finally rose up against their oppressors. They fought for twelve long years to regain their freedom. Even though they were taught about democracy through the Western civilizations the Greeks still struggled to find their way back into regaining their freedom from the Ottoman Empire. The Greeks were Christians living under the Islamic Ottoman Empire, during their oppression they were heavily taxed and had to surrender one in five boys to the Ottoman army. They had little to no money to buy supplies to defeat their oppressors and they were taking away men that should be fighting alongside with them to gain back their freedom. Even with these unfortunate situations, the movement for independence grew, the Greeks revolted with their uprising. Their fight for the freedom were fought through land and sea, where their leaders lead the Greeks to their victory. Because of the determination of the Greeks it inspired artist and writers whose detailed artwork and writings caught the attention of not only the Europeans but also the Americans, who in turn became their allies to support the Greeks cause. Even today, Greeks throughout the world celebrate the Greek Independence every March. During at which time they recall their ancestors perseverance for freedom. Their story of how they gained back their freedom is the best example on why they are a single ethnicity because ethnicity is the state of belonging to a social group that has a cultural tradition. Based on this story Greeks have a common cultural tradition with not only their history but also with the religion views. They aren’t separated with their views with one another, traditionally, and they are not made up of other nationals and subnational groups that were mentioned or given an example of in the National Hellenic Museum.
The museum portrays the relationship of Greece to the United States very fondly. With the Greek Refuge Crisis many Greeks found a new home here in the United States. The United States was not the ideal place to go because of how far they had to travel from Greece to North America, but the distribution was between Europe and here. It is nice to know that we are able to help these people seek a better life, away from all that violence, to help build a better life for the younger generations. They are able to find a comfortable place because there are well known Greektown all in the US. As a nation we have history with Greeks especially in the US Military – The American Civil War. First-generation Greek immigrants returned to Greece to fight against with the Balkan Wars. Also, in World War I and II Greek American fought along the side of Americans who wanted to liberate Greece from the Nazis and the Communists. With the military service it offered young men and women to give back to the Greek – American communities. Here in Chicago our relationship with the Greeks are fairly strong. We celebrate here in Chicago the independence of Greece on March 25th annually. This event is also celebrated around the world to celebrate their ancestors fight for freedom. In Chicago we hold a parade that has occurred annually since 1965. This parade originated in State Street and is not held in the Greektown neighborhood. Other citied like New York celebrate this day and has their parade on 5th Avenue. This celebration shows the lasting impact of Greek culture has had on modern society, and the value of freedom and democracy. To continue Chicago’s relationship with the Greeks the first Greeks settled in Clark and Kinzie Streets. Then they settled in Halsted Street and Blue Island Ave. The Greektown here in Chicago is the largest in the country and serves as a central location. It is where most Greeks lived and raised their families. Having the biggest Greektown in the United States makes our city even greater. We have so many different cultures around us that we can learn about different cultures and have knowledge on what they had to get to where they are now. Our city is so culturally diverse that we are able to experience all these different cultures just by taking a train ride to a different location to learn more about their traditions and history.