-Autor I librit “SHQIPTARET NE AMERIKE”/
NGA PETER PRIFTI*/
When Mrs. Victoria Kosta, the niece of Nini Demo, asked me to speak at this happy occasion, I accepted without hesitation. The reason is that I have known our friend Nini ever since I came to Boston, about 15 years ago. We met and got to know each other while I was working in Vatra’s office as Co-Editor of Dielli and Secretary of the Vatra organization. I will come back to that later, when I tell you something about Nini’s book The Albanians in America. But right now, let us go back to the beginning, and let me tell you something about Nini’s past, a few facts about his background.
Konstandin A. Demo was born in Katundi, one of the villages known as Vakëfet, in the Korçë region, 85 years ago tomorrow, that is to say, on March 25, 1889. You wouldn’t think so, to look at him, but that is a documented fact. He came to America when he was a mere boy of 14, in the yae 1903. He located in Natick, Massachusetts, where he spent the first six years of his life in the new country. Traveling to the United States in those days was no simple task. It tokk Nini 57 days to make the trip, which is just about as long as it took Christopher Columbus to discover America. But to appreciate the story of his trip, I must tell it to you in Albanian.
Pasi arriti në Korçë, Nini u nis për në Manastir. Po me se? Hipur mbi kalë? Jo, aspak. Udhën e bëri mbI një araba, që ia dërrmoi kockat gjer sa arriti në Manastir. Pastaj nga Manastiri shkoi me tren në Selanik të Greqisë. Atje mori vaporin për në Pire, ku ndenji plot tetë ditë, gjer sa u nis vapori për në Napoli. Në Napoli u desh të priste 15 ditë, më parë se të nisej për n’Amerikë. Udha nga Napoli në Amerikë mori 17 ditë.
Atë udhë e atë vapor Nini nuk do ta harrojë kurrë. Ay udhëtoi jo “Second or Third Class,” po “Fourth Class.” Ky kllas quhej “the cattle class,” sepse me të vërtetë pasagjerët e këtij kllasi përdoreshin si shtaza. Vapori mbante erë si mos më keq. Po më e keqja ish që Ninin e zuri deti që ditën e parë, dhe për tetë ditë me radhë ish shtritur në shtrat. As që vuri bukë në gojë. Të tetën ditë mësoi se pasagjerin fqinj, që e kish zënë deti aq keq sa Ninin, e kishin marrë dhe e kishin hedhur në det. Kur dëgjoi këtë Nini, u ngrit nga shtrati menjëherë, dhe si për çudi u shërua krejt nga “sea-sickness.” Që atë çast Ninit jo vetëm i erdhi oreksi, po s’ngopej dot me bukë.
Well, you can imagine after that ordeal, that Nini was very glad indeed to set foot in America. And speaking of boats and voyages, I think it’s appropriate that we are celebrating our frind’s birthday on a boat, since life itself is like a voyage on a boat. And what better boat and setting to celebrate this special occasion than that of our own Anthony Athanas, whose great success and renowned as a businessman in our adopted country is a source of pride to all of us.
Nini, as I said, arrived here in 1903, 71 years ago. That, mind you, was before Petro Nini Luarasi came to America, and before Sotir Peci, and Fan S. Noli, and Faik Konitza; in short, before any of the distinguished leaders of the Albanians of America had arrived in this country. And Nini met them all, knew them well, and worked closely with some of them.
Nini Demo worked hard to improve his lot in the new world. He worked days and went to school nights. His devotion to education is shown by the fact that between 1909 and 1917, he studied at the American International College in Springfield, Mass., the Wilbraham Academy in Mass., the Green Mountain College in Vermont, and the Oberlin College in Ohio. He enrolled at Oberlin, by the way, through the assistance of Kristo Dako, who also studied at Oberlin College. But, lest any of you think that this youthful and ambitious student was a bookworm, let me tel you that Kostandin Demo in those days played football, and for a while served in the United States Army, in Alexandria, Virginia.
Nini came to Boston in the year 1920, to be reunited with his sister, and has lived here ever since. He worked as a printer all his life, mos with the popular and liberal daily, the Boston Globe.
As I said earlier, Nini and I met when I worked in Vatra’s office from 1958 to 1960. We worked together on his small, but valuable book, entitled The Albanians in America, which tell the story of the very first Albanian immigrants in this country, who incidentally were all from Katundi, Nini’s home town. I recall that when the manuscript for the book was ready to go to press, Nini said to me that he was going to ask Metropolitan Noli to write an introduction for it. And I confess that I didn’t think there was much chance that Noli would agree to do that. After all, this was but a small work, a short study, I said to myself, and Noli had other, more importants things to do. But Noli was more perceptive than I was, for he judged Nini’s work not by its size, but by its quality. And so he wrote a fine introduction to it, saying, “this is a booklet which every Albanian should read.”
A copy of it is today in the Widener Library of Harvard University. Indeed, Nini’s study has attracted the attention of writers and scholars in Albania, as well. In late 1972, the monthly Nëndori, published an article about the old Kombi newpaper, in which there are several references to Nini and his book. The author of the article calls Nini “një plak i urtë dhe atdhetar i flaktë,” and describes his study as “një tregim i thjeshtë e i shtruar.”
Besides the study on Albanian immigrants to America, Mr. Demo has published a good number of articles both in Dielli and Liria, on issues of concern and interest to our community. Some of his most important articles were written in defense of the Albanian Orthodox Church of America against attacks by Patrikana e Stambollit and its represantiteves. For, as Gary Riska and I can testify, there are few people in our midst who know the history and developments in our Church as well as Nini Demo.
In addition to being an author, a journalist, and a patriot, Nini is a confirmed traveler. In this, he has shown a continually youthful spirit. Not for him the sedentary, home-bound life. He has traveleled almost annually all the way from Maine to Miami; and in 1968, at the age of 79, he went to Rome to attend the festivities for Skënderbeu’s 500th Anniversary. It’s quite clear that Nini has overcome the traumatic experience of the dismal, 57-day trip to America back in 1903.
And now, to crown all his previous trips and his life-long devotion and service to the cause of Albanian nationalism, he has received his visa to travel to the land of his birth, Albania, which he has not seen for 71 years. Surely, the visa could not have come at a more appropriate time. And I, and I’m sure all of us here, are as deligted with the good news as Nini is, along with his two nieces, Mrs. Viktoria Kosta and Mrs. Magdalena Perikli, and their families.
*(Ky është fjalimi që u mbajt nga i ndjeri Petr Prifti në darkën për nder të Nini Demos të dielën me 24 mars 1974 në Peter Styuvesant boat of Anthony’s Pier IV Restaurant-Dielli-Arkiv)