Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Telegram |
Catalog Number |
2018.4.1082 |
Scope & Content |
telegram from Simon Sawaya to Melaid Lettis regarding the immigration detention of Simon's mother and three young children Simon's son Abraham, his two unnamed daughters and elderly mother had been detained by the Immigration Department in Boston after arriving from Syria (or "Assyria" as it says on their birth records). The Sawayas had been denied entry to Boston because the quota for Syria had already been exceeded, and the elderly grandmother was blind and had a goiter, which meant she could not be released into the US unaccompanied. World War I had just ended, and what had been known as Ottoman Syria then included what are now modern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Transjordan, and Israel. So though the Sawayas' birth records state that they had come from "Assyria" or Syria, that could mean they came from any of five or more countries that are now distinct nations. Many in Trinidad thought of the Sawayas as Lebanese, and they are recorded to have arrived in Boston after embarking in "Baymouth". That could be a corruption of Beirut (called "Beyrouth" at the time), but in any event it is likely the Sawayas emigrated from Lebanon. |