The journey of Constantine Zafiropulos from the Bosphorus to theSsouthamerican seas

Abstract

Greek immigration to the American continent as part of the general phenomenon of European migration reaches a peak between 1900 and 1917 encouraged by the American "open doors" migratory policy (1880-1917). The impressive migratory figure for that period (over 500,000 immigrants) included a substantial number of Greeks from Asia Minor an other territories under Turkish rule as a result from adverse circumstances prevailing in the Ottoman Empire, and especially because of the extension of Turkish military service after 1909 to Christian subjects. K. Th. Zafeiropoulos, a Greek islander from Mármara Sea, left Turky in 1914 for the United States, but chance did not help his plans. After a run of bad luck while being in Greece and Argentina he ended by emigrating to North Chile. The present article after choosing representative passages from Z.'s traveling journal -the trip from Constantinople to Piraeus, his stay in the above mentioned countries, his adventures as a sailor on merchant steamers, the difficult return to Europe, etc. provides mostly the historical frame where those events took place, but focusing the attention on some aspects which Spanish-speaking readers are usually not acquainted with.