Familiar Faces in Unfamiliar Places

Book excerpt: This book traces the ups and downs in the regional history of California with particular focus on the Assyrian Immigrants who settled the area of Turlock-Modesto back in 1911. It tells the story of a people who dared to leave the familiar behind and embrace the unknown. Together with other early non-Assyrian pioneers, they developed the area from sand dunes to a town of vineyards and orchards. It is the story of ordinary people with extraordinary experiences. The detailed family histories take the reader to the world at large from where the members of this dispersed refugee nation have come together to form the Turlock-Modesto colony in the heartland of California. It contains poignant accounts of a people who started out with modest beginnings; but whether they came as penniless hopefuls in search of farmland, or traumatized refugees from the Middle East, they worked hard and were able to establish themselves as a stable and even well-to-do part of the Turlock-Modesto community. Changes in the history of this immigrant enclave are traced in the context of the economic and political upheavals in the Middle East where the refugees came from as well as the economic boom and bust cycles in the central California valley. This book records the mutual interaction between the region and its inhabitants. The town shaped the structure of the community as a whole as much as the community shaped the character of the town.