Latvian Americans

Latvia is a Baltic country in Europe, bordered by Estonia, Russia, Belarus, and Lithuania, with which it has strong cultural and linguistic ties. Mainly Protestant except for the Catholic minority in the south, Latvia has a sizable ethnic Russian population (about 27 percent, larger than all other minorities combined) and was formerly controlled by, first, the Russian Empire and, later, the Soviet Union. It declared independence in 1991 during the collapse of European Communism and today is one of the fastest-growing economies in the European Union.

There are 93,498 Latvian Americans as of the 2010 census information. The population is fairly well distributed. Large Latvian American populations are found in California, New York, Illinois, Florida, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Maryland. Latvian immigration began very early, with Latvians settling in Massachusetts, Delaware, and Pennsylvania in the 17th century; it is very likely there are more Americans with Latvian backgrounds than realize it, for this reason alone. More Latvians arrived in 1849 in response to the Gold Rush, many of them remaining in California after the rush faded.

Larger numbers of Latvians began arriving in the country in the late 19th century, dissatisfied with the state of affairs in Latvia under the thumb of the Russian Empire. Though many of them in this period failed to congregate in sufficiently dense numbers to create enclaves, the notable exception was in Boston, where Latvians arrived in 1888 and settled in Roxbury. Other Latvians settled in major cities throughout the country, including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland, Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco.

After the failure of the 1905 revolution against Russian rule, another wave of Latvians arrived, fleeing reprisals. Many of them were former revolutionary soldiers or political opposition leaders. It was members of this wave that founded the first Latvian church in America, in Lincoln County, Wisconsin. Although Latvians are predominantly Lutheran, a well-established Latvian Baptist community formed in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

In this era, friction among the Latvian American community was a real problem—those who had arrived in the 19th century were more conservative politically than the failed revolutionaries, and political differences were a leading contributor to the breakdown of the Lincoln County Latvian community. The two groups also had different attitudes about assimilation.

Earlier-arriving Latvians put a priority on assimilation, on their children “being Americans.” This was less true of the ex-revolutionaries (as well as of the post-World War II immigrants). Some of the 1905 wave, especially the political radicals, returned to Latvia in the following decade, after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the independence of Latvia in 1918. That independence [Page 1338]lasted only a generation: the Soviet Union occupied and annexed Latvia after World War II, and although immigration quotas had been put in place in 1924, 40,000 Latvian refugees were allowed into the United States from 1949 to 1951 with the assistance of religious and charitable organizations.

Though many refugees were skilled workers or well-educated professionals, they faced the challenge many immigrant groups have faced: proving professional or educational credentials when moving to a new country. In many cases, no paperwork or records could be produced, because of the state of things back home or the manner in which the refugees left; in other cases, the lack of any sort of reciprocity agreement or other means of gauging the worth of a foreign credential meant that the credentials were irrelevant.

...