Hunting Armenians in Santa Fe
So, I’ve been here over five months now, and I’ve had very few worthwhile Armenian-related things to report. I had an adventure today, though.
The good thing about this college where I study is the freedom to organise just about anything. There are study groups of all sorts, and I decided to get together an Armenian one. Just three meetings, a basic introduction to the language, with some history and culture thrown in.
Now, I had already happened to run into two or three Armenians, and these classes are to be mostly for them, just as a refresher, or to get them interested in Armenian stuff. (Actually, today itself began with a chance meeting of yet another one, so that was a good omen.) Plus, maybe a few odars on campus might be interested. “But why stop there?”, I said to myself, “Why not do… the ole phonebook thing?!”. Yes, I had heard of this, crazy Armenians going through phonebooks, looking for names of their compatriots, just as we wait to read the credits at the end of movies…
So, I did. Santa Fe is a small town, so it wasn’t all that long and tedious of a task (although I did go through two different editions of the white pages), and I ended up with around forty names, some of which seemed dubious, that is, whether they were, in fact, Armenian. And today, I made all those telephone calls. Some of the numbers were disconnected, and I ended up mostly leaving messages (to the uncertainly-named, I would say, “I’m not sure if you are Armenian, but if you are, then…”), but then again, I got to have a few VERY interesting conversations.
I asked one lady if she was Armenian, and she said, “No, but my ex-husband was”. Yikes! I thought that was embarrassing, but then I called up some other lady, and she said, “Yes, my husband was Armenian.”
“Was?”, I asked, and, as I was saying it, realised that I shouldn’t have…
“Yes, he’s passed away…”
!!!
So embarrassing…
Then, I got one woman, who not only said she wasn’t Armenian, but added that she’d been asked it before! Too many random Armenians making too many random phone calls, it seems…
One that got me down was a man who said he was Armenian, but wasn’t interested at all in learning the language, or meeting others. My nationalist spirit gets deflated a bit when coming across such cases. Oh well… That was only-too-well supplanted by a lady who was VERY excited in hearing from me. She said she’d definitely come, and bring burma too (one of those sweet, cinnamony delicacies). She was incredibly bubbly; it was hilarious.
Then there was this lady who was temporarily renting the house of a man with an obviously-Armenian name. She turned out to be one, too, and told me the story of her grandfather who came over, and added in some details which, I think, might just be the ancestor of a friend of mine. I left him a message.
Another woman (yeah, I mostly talked to ladies) said she was Jewish, but wasn’t surprised in the least in hearing from me, because her barsgahy husband is just like that, too, always hunting around for other Armenians. They have kids, and one of the expressions that’s often-used in their household is ‘sous ara’!
But I think the icing on the cake – and I mean the really thick icing – was this old man I called. He didn’t even let me introduce myself or mention why I was calling, when he began to talk about how he needs to get in touch with a certain someone. Now, Armenian that I am, I knew exactly who this person was he wanted to contact, so it ended up being very Providential indeed. This guy had been around, and he spent a while telling me his stories, which were fascinating, but I did finally manage to get in why I was calling in the first place…
This was such a delightful experience. Very random, as they say, very random indeed, but I got to hear a lot of interesting bits and pieces, backgrounds, stories… I even got to congratulate one family on a newborn child. Frankly, it was hard to keep a straight face sometimes. Weird, but fascinating, just the way I like it…
Well, I’m looking quite forward to these Armenian classes. It’s always an adventure getting Armenians together, and I hope it’ll turn out all right. If anyone’s around Santa Fe during the next three Sundays, pop on by.
The good thing about this college where I study is the freedom to organise just about anything. There are study groups of all sorts, and I decided to get together an Armenian one. Just three meetings, a basic introduction to the language, with some history and culture thrown in.
Now, I had already happened to run into two or three Armenians, and these classes are to be mostly for them, just as a refresher, or to get them interested in Armenian stuff. (Actually, today itself began with a chance meeting of yet another one, so that was a good omen.) Plus, maybe a few odars on campus might be interested. “But why stop there?”, I said to myself, “Why not do… the ole phonebook thing?!”. Yes, I had heard of this, crazy Armenians going through phonebooks, looking for names of their compatriots, just as we wait to read the credits at the end of movies…
So, I did. Santa Fe is a small town, so it wasn’t all that long and tedious of a task (although I did go through two different editions of the white pages), and I ended up with around forty names, some of which seemed dubious, that is, whether they were, in fact, Armenian. And today, I made all those telephone calls. Some of the numbers were disconnected, and I ended up mostly leaving messages (to the uncertainly-named, I would say, “I’m not sure if you are Armenian, but if you are, then…”), but then again, I got to have a few VERY interesting conversations.
I asked one lady if she was Armenian, and she said, “No, but my ex-husband was”. Yikes! I thought that was embarrassing, but then I called up some other lady, and she said, “Yes, my husband was Armenian.”
“Was?”, I asked, and, as I was saying it, realised that I shouldn’t have…
“Yes, he’s passed away…”
!!!
So embarrassing…
Then, I got one woman, who not only said she wasn’t Armenian, but added that she’d been asked it before! Too many random Armenians making too many random phone calls, it seems…
One that got me down was a man who said he was Armenian, but wasn’t interested at all in learning the language, or meeting others. My nationalist spirit gets deflated a bit when coming across such cases. Oh well… That was only-too-well supplanted by a lady who was VERY excited in hearing from me. She said she’d definitely come, and bring burma too (one of those sweet, cinnamony delicacies). She was incredibly bubbly; it was hilarious.
Then there was this lady who was temporarily renting the house of a man with an obviously-Armenian name. She turned out to be one, too, and told me the story of her grandfather who came over, and added in some details which, I think, might just be the ancestor of a friend of mine. I left him a message.
Another woman (yeah, I mostly talked to ladies) said she was Jewish, but wasn’t surprised in the least in hearing from me, because her barsgahy husband is just like that, too, always hunting around for other Armenians. They have kids, and one of the expressions that’s often-used in their household is ‘sous ara’!
But I think the icing on the cake – and I mean the really thick icing – was this old man I called. He didn’t even let me introduce myself or mention why I was calling, when he began to talk about how he needs to get in touch with a certain someone. Now, Armenian that I am, I knew exactly who this person was he wanted to contact, so it ended up being very Providential indeed. This guy had been around, and he spent a while telling me his stories, which were fascinating, but I did finally manage to get in why I was calling in the first place…
This was such a delightful experience. Very random, as they say, very random indeed, but I got to hear a lot of interesting bits and pieces, backgrounds, stories… I even got to congratulate one family on a newborn child. Frankly, it was hard to keep a straight face sometimes. Weird, but fascinating, just the way I like it…
Well, I’m looking quite forward to these Armenian classes. It’s always an adventure getting Armenians together, and I hope it’ll turn out all right. If anyone’s around Santa Fe during the next three Sundays, pop on by.
posted by Nareg at 3:05 AM
4 Comments:
We need more people who do what you do with that enthusiasm. You were very brave to call so many random people and put yourself out there like that, I wish you luck with whatever this turns in to!
Imagine if in every random Armenianless city in the US there was one of you to try and contact whoever cared about being Armenian. This kind of thing needs to be nurtured everywhere, no matter how many few there are.
Too bad we missed you in New Mexico May 24-May 31...
Oh my goodness. Most of the time I cringe at crazy Armenian habits, but it sounds like you had quite an adventure! This is something that my great-aunt (a typical Armenian-American woman of the completely-out-of-her-mind species) would do--in fact, I'm pretty sure she HAS done it in the past. A lot of the time I get really angry at how crudely forceful some Armenian habits can be. I guess I turn into that one man you mentioned who wasn't interested in what you had to say. But then I realize how important it is to hold on to the common threads that a small nation of people hold. So good luck with what you're doing! If I hear of anyone coming near Santa Fe soon, I'll let them know.
That is such an Armenian thing to do...and at the same time such a 'Nareg' thing to do! Love it! :D
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