On Thursday
May 15, 1969, in a special arrangement with the
Austrian and the Italian Immigration Officials, HIAS
had sealed a railroad car of a train going to Rome,
Italy from Vienna, Austria. All refugees and
immigrants-to-be who were going to the United States
were placed in that special car. At both ends of the
car were people securing the car and making sure
that no one could leave or enter the car. The great
majority of people in that transport were refugees
from Poland and with certainty I was the only one
from Romania. It was a long ride some 20 hours. Our
car was not checked by anyone at the border, as no
one was allowed to enter the car. We thus reached
Rome, Italy without any problems. Everything was
extremely well organized. When we arrived in
Rome, HIAS had reserved for us housing consisting of
a room in a family home. Afterwards, we were
provided with money for rent and food. 
Soon after our
arrival in Rome, HIAS had made arrangements for
each of us to have an interview at the American
Embassy in Rome. For me that was a major event as
it represented, in a way, my first contact with
America. I saw a Vice Consul, a young, tall man
who was extremely polite. After he invited me to
sit down and as he was looking over my
application, he abruptly raised his head and,
looking at me, he stated: "I have only one
question that I have to ask you" after which this
dialog took place:
[Me]: "Please ..."
[Consul]: "As you perhaps may
recognize, now that you are here in Italy, you
can live anywhere in the world that you like as
any country could take you right away. You could
remain here in Italy and pursue your Astronomy
career at one of the many Italian Observatories.
Or you could choose any other country with many
fine Astronomical Observatories. I am curious to
know, from all the countries from which you now
have the possibility to live, WHY did you choose
America?"
[Me]: "Oh, for me this is
very simple to answer, Mr. Consul. You see, I
hate Communism from the bottom of my heart, and
for me America symbolizes freedom in the world.
That is why I chose America from all the
countries in the world."
[Consul]: "That's good enough
for me!"
[Me]: "Now, I have one
question too that I would like to ask you."
[Consul]: "What's that?"
[Me]: "I would like to
know what is the fastest way to become an
American citizen, because that is what I would
like to be."
[Consul]: "To appreciate my
answer to your question, I have to give you a
crash course in American history."
[Me]: "If you have to,
please ..."
[Consul]: "Some centuries
ago, a group of English Protestants called
Puritans no longer believed in the teaching of
the Church of England and as a result of that
many were killed. Others, to avoid persecution,
were able to flee England and came to the "New
World" forming a new country called now The
United States of America. In their wisdom, they
agreed that in this new country all people
should be allowed to believe in 
whatever they
desired to believe in without fear of
repercussion or oppression. And ever since, this
principle has been held as a cornerstone of our
entire democracy being deeply embedded and
rooted into our American Constitution. Now, the
modern counterpart of all this is Communism. You
cannot go back to Romania as your life could be
placed in jeopardy because of your beliefs
against Communism. So you will find a safe haven
in America where your beliefs, whatever they may
be, can never interfere with your pursuit of
liberty and happiness.
You could
come to the United States as a scientist as we
have a quota for that. That process is through a
waiting list that can take some time. However,
in your case, the fastest way to obtain American
citizenship is to apply for Political Asylum. We
give those applicants the very first priority."
[Me]: "Well, here is my
Romanian Passport. I surrender! I ask for
Political Asylum."
After completing
a short form with the handing over of my passport
the interview was over. I was relieved and happy
that everything went so smoothly. I knew that this
represented another milestone towards my long
journey to America.
Aside from
providing refugees with money for food and
shelter, HIAS also made available to us a school,
with American teachers, where daily classes were
provided for learning English on three levels:
beginner, intermediate, or advanced.
Notwithstanding that daily schooling I picked up
Italian much faster than English. And that was in
part because of the tremendous similarities that
exist between the Romanian language and the
Italian language. [Not many people to this day
recognize the affinity between these two
languages. The name of the country Romania comes
from the Roman Empire and the language itself is
part of the so-called Romance languages (together
with French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese).
Notwithstanding its geography that Romania is part
of the Balkan states, Romania is the only country
from that group with Latin origins.] That similarity
between the Italian and the Romanian language,
however, put me in "hot water!" as I inadvertently
created a situation of great embarrassment and a
serious potential problem.
As long as the
refugees could stay within the budget provided by
HIAS, we were allowed to live anywhere that we
wanted. After about two (2) months, I was
looking around to see if I could find a better
place to live. Responding to an ad placed in a
local Italian newspaper, I found a very nice place
to live in the heart of Rome for the same price.
As I moved into my new residence, I saw that the
landlady had a small adorable little daughter with
her. In the Romanian language, "daughter" is
called "fica" and since because of the great
similarities between the two languages, I had
assumed that in Italian that meant the same thing. [This assumption of
mine proved to be disastrous as in fact "fica" in
Italian is a vulgarity meaning female genitalia!]
So, upon
seeing the landlady with her little daughter, I
said:
"Madam,
what a beautiful 'fica' you have!"
The woman, upon
hearing that, in a burst of tremendous outrage
said:
"Get
out of my house immediately! I am going to
report you to the Police! You are truly
disgraceful!"
Not recognizing
what had just happened, and being enormously
puzzled by all this and of the fact that only
minutes before, the landlady without her daughter
at her side was extremely nice with me, I reasoned
that this had something to do with her daughter,
so I said:
"Excuse
me madam, but is something wrong with your
'fica'?"
For the landlady
this was the very last straw. After ushering her
little daughter into another room, she came back
with a vengeance:
"Listen,
if you do not leave my house this very minute, I
will call the Police."
Without having a
clue as to what had just happened and being afraid
to escalate further (if that was possible!) the
entire situation, I left quickly the premises,
bewildered and in complete silence, saying at the
very end:
"Send
my regards to your 'fica'!"
To this,
slamming the door as I exited the house, the
landlady shouted:
"What
a disgrace you are!"
Stunned by all
this, here I was on the street with my suitcase
and no place to go.
