Serbian American

Serbian Americans are citizens of the United States who are of Serbian ancestry. For the 2000 US Census, 140,337 Americans indicated Serbian as their first ancestry,^[2] while 170,312 persons declared to have Serbian ancestry.^[3] Those can include Serbian Americans living in the United States for one or several generations, dual Serbian American citizens, or any other Serbian Americans who consider themselves to be affiliated to both cultures or countries. Some Serbian Americans might be born in Serbia, the United States or other countries with an ethnic Serbian population. Because some Serbs are not American citizens, others are dual citizens, and still others' ancestors have come to the US several generations ago, some of these people consider themselves to be simply Americans, Serbs, Serbs living in the United States or American Serbs.

Demographics

According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2005, 169,479 Americans declared Serbian descent. The metropolitan area around Chicago, Illinois, is of particular note for its large Serbian community. This can be seen in a number of architecturally notable church complexes such as St. Simeon Mirotochivi in the East Side neighborhood and New Gračanica monastery in Third Lake.^[4] Other substantial Serbian-American communities are Atlanta, Georgia; Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; New York, New York; and Wheeling, West Virginia.

But more Serbians are thought to live in the Southern and Western U.S., primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Las Vegas area; Los Angeles as well across Southern California (i.e., Orange County, San Diego and the Coachella Valley) by recent Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian immigration; and Phoenix, Arizona, since the 1980s; and Dallas, Texas; Greensboro, North Carolina; Houston, Texas; and Orlando, Florida, since the 1990s.

There are some 359,254 American-Yugoslavs^[5] (15.1% Entered before 1990, 59.7% Entered 1990 to 1999).

History

In the 1880s Serbs settled in Montana.^[6] Serbs came in two periods to Cleveland, the early 20th century and from World War II to the 1980s. Lazar Krivokapic, a Serb from Montenegro who settled in Cleveland in 1893, is considered the city's first Serb. ^[7] In the second half of 19th century, most Serbs in California lived in mining regions, but later settled in larger communities. Serbs in California formed social-cultural organizations, church-schooling communities and parishes. They were initially united with Russians, Greeks and Syriacs thus part of mixed Orthodox Christian parishes. Russian clergymen supported the idea of Serbian parishes since the ethnic groups had differing customs, (language, overall traditions, Krsna slava, etc.) The largest number of Californian Serbs today live in San Francisco and Los Angeles.^[8]

Chicago is regarded the Serbian stronghold of America. In 1872, Ivan Vucetich arrives in Chicago. The first organization "Obilich" is formed in 1878. In 1893 the first Serbian parade is held in Chicago on Michigan avenue. Mihajlo Pupin, a Serbian inventor, lived in Chicago.^[9] In 1930 there were 40.000 - 60.000 Serbs (Yugoslavs) in Chicago.^[10] Chicago is also known as second city by the number of Serbs, right after Belgrade. According to unofficial data, the number of citizens of Serbian origin is between 350,000 and 500,000.^[11] One always notes why there is not a Serbian Village or Serbian Town within Chicago. Resident and American Born Serb Dejan Tadic stated back in 2000 that Chicago would make a perfect host for a Mini Yugoslavia section of the city sort of like Chinatown or Little Italy. Serbs, along with Croats and other South Slavs settled in the state of Pennsylvania in fairly large numbers in the late 1800s and in three phases throughout the 20th century. The first wave was halted by World War I, then came refugees fleeing World War II and Josip Broz Tito's regime of what was then Yugoslavia and the recent wave since 1980 by the breakup of Yugoslavia followed by the Bosnian Civil war of the 1990s. Large Serbian communities and ethnic neighborhoods can be found in Pittsburgh; Philadelphia; Harrisburg and Erie, Pennsylvania.

Notables

Notable Serbian Americans among others include war veteran Mitchell Paige who was honored by Medal of Honor from World War II and Mele "Mei" Vojvodich a major-general with great reputation and many decorations. George Fisher (settler) had an important role in history of Texas and he was a sort of polymath. George Musulin was an officer of the Office of Strategic Services and naval intelligence services, and later became a CIA agent.

Rose Ann Vuich was the first female member of the California State Senate. Helen Delich Bentley is a former Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the State of Maryland (1985–95). The port of Baltimore was named Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore after her in 2006. Many notable Serbian American come from the field of film and generally art, such as - Brad Dexter and Peter Bogdanovich. Steve Tesich (1942–1996) was an Oscar-winning screenwriter, playwright and novelist. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1979 for the movie Breaking Away. Predrag Bjelac is mostly known for his roles in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Charles Simic and Dejan Stojanovic are the finest among poets. Walt Bogdanich (1950) is an investigative journalist. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Specialized Reporting in 1985, the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2005 and the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2008. Bogdanich led the team that won the 2008 Gerald Loeb Award for their story "Toxic pipeline". Branko Mikasinovich is a scholar of literature as well as a noted Slavist and journalist. He has appeared as a panelist on Yugoslav press on ABC's "Press International" in Chicago and PBS's "International Dateline" in New Orleans. Alex N. Dragnich is the recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Award for distinguished service to Vanderbilt University, and he is author of numerous books on Serbian/Yugoslav history. Nikola Tesla and Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin are the world-known scientists. Another accomplished Serbian-American scientist, Miodrag Radulovački, was named the 2010 Inventor of the Year at the University of Illinois ^[12] for producing a dozen potential therapies for sleep apnea. Pete Maravich (1947–1988) is listed among the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. Sacha Kljestan is American football player, Alisa Marić holds the FIDE titles of Woman Grandmaster and International Master.

References

External links

• USA SERBS/Serbian-American network
• Famous Serbian Americans
• Chicago Serbs