Page 10 - Sanger Herald 6-28-18 E-edition

Lifestyles
SANGER HERALD • 2B • THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 2018
Armenians vital to Valley history
Sanger
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Mardiros Yanukian immigrated to the United States from the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian territories in the 1870s, tagging along with some protestant missionaries.
At Ellis Island, he changed his last name to Normart, which in Armenian means “new man.” Evidently, Yanukian, like many newcomers, saw America as an opportunity for a personal renaissance and a better life. He initially settled with other countrymen in Worcester, Mass.
His travels took him across the country to California and specifically a small town called Fresno, which at that time had about 1,000 residents. He didn’t stay. “Fresno was too small for him,” wrote David Zenian in an article on the Armenian General Benevolent Union website, agbu.org.
However, he did appear to like it. Normart’s stories of the region sparked a substantial settlement over the years by Armenians to the central San Joaquin Valley. And Barlow Der Mugrdechian, a professor at Fresno State and director of its Center of Armenian Studies, detailed just how that migration unfolded at a Sanger Rotary luncheon.
Der Mugrdechian said word spread quickly amongst Armenians about the region’s familiar attributes.
“It reminds us very much of Armenia,” Der Mugrdechian said. “Plains and mountains. Farming literally started in Armenia and the Middle East. It looked like Armenia.”
Zenian chronicled the exploits of the newly named Normart to explain the very beginnings of that
To get an item into the calendar, email details to nemethfeatures@gmail. com or call Mike or Sharon at 559-875-2511.
The 4th of July Spectacular, sponsored by the city of Sanger and supported by the Sanger Chamber, has been scheduled to start at 6 p.m. July 4 at the Sanger High practice fields. There will be music, food and a flag
A Word About Forgiveness — Part 4
We are in a series about forgiveness. Last week, we discovered that people try to bury their sin and guilt by blaming others.
Proverbs 28:13 says, “You’ll never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins.”
Some of us are blamers, and some of us are buriers. But some of us are good at beating ourselves up. You act like a Madelyn or Michael Martyr. You feel like you must self- administer punishment to yourself and you’re
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
The Armenian Holocaust Monument on the Fresno State campus acts as a reminder that genocide can happen.
Armenian Town formed in the center of Fresno around Ventura Avenue and M Street, and many of the students who attended Emerson School at Van Ness and Santa Clara were Armenian.
The reason for immigration to the United States from the traditional homeland of the Armenian people has multiple answers. Der Mugrdechian said the first wave arrived from 1834 to 1890 because of missionaries’ work in the region. But numbers were small, maybe 1,500. The second was from 1891 to 1898 when 12,500 arrived. Then the third took place from 1899 to 1914, allowing 51,900 to enter the country just before the genocide in what was to become modern-day Turkey, which claimed an estimated 1.5 million.
Subsequent restrictive immigration laws like the 1917 act that required immigrants older than 16 to demonstrate basic reading comprehension and quota systems reduced the influx of those from abroad.
Der Mugrdechian said last summer he took 13 students to the Republic of Armenia, a country which is a sliver of the ancestral homeland of Armenians. It was a state in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics before the fall of communism and retains a somewhat rickety economic base.
At Fresno State, Armenian-related classes fall in general education. “It’s really popular,” Der Mugrdechian said of the subject. “The majority (of students) is non-Armenian.”
The reporter can be contacted by email at nemethfeatures@gmail.com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
9:15 10:05 and 10:50 a.m. Details, 559-876-6300 option 2 or recinfo@ci.sanger. ca.us.
Summer Fun at the Community Center continues again this year. For children 5 to 12, it includes two-week sessions 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday in sessions: June 25 to July 6, July 9 to July 20 and July 23 to Aug. 3. One session is $40 or $140 for all. Older youth 13to15canenrollina junior recreation leader program that provides fun, leadership training.
blaming and beating ourselves up are not successful ways of dealing with guilt.
Next week we will give some effective ways of handling our guilt like admit your guilt, accept responsibility, ask for forgiveness and receive his forgiveness.
Next Week: Part 5 How do we deal with Guilt? Admit it!
Pastor Sam Estes is city advance director and facilitates the Sanger Community Task Force that meets the first and third Tuesdays every month. He can be reached at pastorsam51@gmail.com.
Armenian legacy in the Central Valley, one that has grown substantially in modern times. While Normart hightailed it back to the more populated East Coast, his descriptions of a “dusty western railroad town rich in farmlands” inspired others in the Armenian community, specifically brothers Hagop and Garabed Seropian.
The pair operated a business in Worcester, but Hagop suffered from a “lung ailment” that doctors said would improve were he to live in a warmer place, Zenian said. So in 1881 they made the move, becoming the first Armenians to settle in the Central Valley. They arrived, he said, “unfamiliar with the English language or American customs, strangers in a strange land.”
Still, the brothers did
retirement ceremony in addition to fireworks. A parking pass is $10 and includes four tickets. Walk- up cost is $3. Details, 559- 876-2300, option 2.
The Centerville Fruit Station has opened its Multi Colored Sunflower Maze. The operation is east on Highway 180 from Sanger at 16155 E. Kings Canyon Road, or the heart of the little town of Centerville. The maze is about three- quarters of an acre, and
subconsciously trying to atone for the guilt in your life.
You make yourself feel bad because of the guilt. Can guilt cause illness?
Without a doubt. There was a study where a doctor said that about 50 percent of the people in hospitals could go home tomorrow if they knew how to get rid of their guilt.
If I don’t talk out my guilt to God, I take out my guilt on my body. Most of the pains in life come from either resentment or guilt. Resentment — things that other people did to us and guilt, things that we did to other people.
God did not create my
well, opening a store selling stationary, candy, tobacco and Oriental rugs. They lost it all in a fire but started again, “this time peddling fruits with a wagon on the streets of Fresno and gradually saving enough to open a grocery store,” Zenian said. Then they moved into the packing business and began making more significant income. Zenian said they became “big names” in Fresno.
More Armenians followed and by 1894, the ethnic population numbered about 360 in Fresno.
Der Mugrdechian said by 1918 the Armenian population in the country was about 10,100 with about 4,000 of those in Fresno.
While the Seropians were building their various enterprises and being joined by more relatives from their hometown of Marzovan, Sanger was
some of the stalks measure 20 feet. Details, Vicky Herkel 559-908-5676.
The Sanger branch of the Fresno County Library has a lot going on despite not being open. The Sanger Library Outdoor Fun shows are planned at 10 and 11:30 a.m. directly outside the library in the park. Bubble Show with wild child adventures is June 29. And Fridays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. the mobile or pop-up library services will be available. The library is at 1812 Seventh St. Details, 559-305-7130.
on its way to becoming a center for the timber trade. William Barr and his brothers began their own commercial ventures in Sanger as the railroad in 1887 opened a depot, which has since been turned into a museum.
Der Mugrdechian said Armenians weren’t all farmers. Some became tailors, pharmacists, photographers, shoemakers, vendors and shopkeepers. “They did what many immigrant groups do, they started shops where everybody worked,” he said.
And they worked hard. “I remember the stories of my grandmother and aunts and everybody working in packing houses,” Der Mugrdechian said.
Prosperity wasn’t simple nor was it guaranteed. “It took one, two, three generations for Armenians
Sanger’s Movie Night in the Park continues this summer. Show times are 8:45 p.m. Here’s the lineup: July 7 “Paddington 2” at Community Pool, July 14 “The Legend of Tarzan” at City Annex, July 21 “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” at City Annex, July 28 “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” at City Annex, and Aug. 4 “Coco” at Community Pool.
The Sanger Woman’s Club plans its Annual Rummage Sale from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 11 and 12 at the club, 1602 Seventh St. There will be clothing, household
to achieve material success,” he said. “But they did.”
Roadblocks came in the form of ethnic discrimination. Armenians could not be hired for any municipal or government jobs, like school teacher or police officer or firefighter, until the 1930s. And some residential enclaves banned ownership, through racial covenants, by Armenians and various other groups from owning property. For instance, Der Mugrdechian said he has records of settlements of Sunnyside and Fig Garden discriminating against a list of groups.
“You couldn’t take this to a court and fight it,” he said.
Der Mugrdechian said Armenians were dedicated to education and would “sacrifice everything” for their children.
goods, books and treasures. Proceeds go to community service projects. Details, Doris 559-875-7563.
The City of Sanger Parks & Recreation Division is offering reduced cost swim lessons to children 5 to 17 thanks to a Wonderful Community Grant. Space is extremely limited and registration must be made at city offices. Cost is $15. Classes will be held at the Washington Academic Middle School pool and will be held Tuesday to Friday starting July 10 and ending Aug. 3. Class times are 8:30,
While you won’t acknowledge it, it says, “We’ll get even and sabotage your own success” and “My guilt has overwhelmed me; like a load, it weighs me down.”
Here’s the problem with punishing yourself for your guilt. When you start punishing yourself, your conscience does not know when to stop. It just keeps punishing you and punishing. Some of you are still beating yourself up for stuff that happened months ago, years ago, maybe even decades ago. Every time you think about it you beat yourself up again.
The regret and the shame pile up on you. Burying,
Sanger News & Community Calendar
PASTOR’S CORNER
body to handle
guilt and it creates all kinds
of problems. As
David said, I was wounded, I was hurting, nothing worked in my
life — all of that.
Guilt can cause depression. The Psalmist David says it’s a heavy load.
In Psalm 38, “My guilt has overwhelmed me; like a load it weighs me down ... because I was foolish, I’m bent over and bowed down; I am sad all-day long.”
It’s a form of atonement. Guilt can sabotage my success. I’ve watched people who are very talented, bright and
intelligent on the road to success and they’re moving up the ladder and becoming more and more successful. Then suddenly one day they do the stupidest thing and sabotage their own
Pastor Sam Estes
success.
You wonder, what
were they thinking? One possibility is inside they’re believing, “I’m not worthy of this success and I must atone for my guilt.”
You don’t even know how your mind plays games on you. Sometimes you sabotage your own success because your conscience is saying, “Tilt! Tilt!”