Hungarian Americans
Greek Catholicism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
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Hungarian Canadians, European Americans |
Hungarian Americans (Hungarian: Amerikai magyarok) are Americans of Hungarian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau has estimated that there are approximately 1.396 million Americans of Hungarian descent as of 2018. The total number of people with ethnic Hungarian background is estimated to be around 4 million.[3] The largest concentration is in the Greater Cleveland Metropolitan Area in Northeast Ohio. At one time, the presence of Hungarians within Cleveland proper was so great that the city was known as the "American Debrecen," with one of the highest concentrations of Hungarians in the world.[4]
History
In 1583, Hungarian poet Stephanus Parmenius joined Humphrey Gilbert's expedition to North America with the intention of writing a chronicle of the voyage and its discoveries. Parmenius reached Newfoundland, likely becoming the first Hungarian in the New World.
Hungarians have long settled in the New World, such as
Agoston Haraszthy, who settled in Wisconsin in 1840, was the first Hungarian to settle permanently in the United States[5] and the second Hungarian to write a book about the United States in his native language.[6] After he moved to California in the Gold Rush of 1849, Haraszthy founded the Buena Vista Vineyards in Sonoma (now Buena Vista Carneros) and imported more than 100,000 European vine cuttings for the use of California winemakers. He is widely remembered today as the "Father of California Viticulture" or the "Father of Modern Winemaking in California."[7]
The first large wave of emigration from Hungary to the United States occurred in 1849–1850, when the so-called "
An increase of immigration from Hungary was also observed after World War II and The Holocaust, a significant percentage of whom were Jewish.
By the time I was twenty, I had lived through a
German military occupation, the Nazis' "Final Solution," the siege of Budapest by the Soviet Red Army, a period of chaotic democracy in the years immediately after the war, a variety of repressive Communist regimes, and a popular uprising that was put down at gunpoint... [where] many young people were killed; countless others were interned. Some two hundred thousand Hungarians escaped to the West. I was one of them.[10]
In 1956, Hungary was again under the power of a foreign state, this time the Soviet Union, and again, Hungarians rose up in revolution. Like the 1848 revolution, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 failed and led to the emigration of 200,000 "56-ers" fleeing persecution after the revolution, 40,000 of whom found their way to the United States.
There was a renewed economic migration after the end of communism in Hungary during the 1990s to 2000s.
Demographics
According to the
The states with the largest Hungarian American populations include:[13][14]
State | Population[13] |
---|---|
Ohio | 203,417 |
New York | 157,863 |
California | 133,988 |
Pennsylvania | 132,184 |
New Jersey | 115,615 |
Michigan | 98,036 |
Florida | 96,885 |
A plurality of Hungarian Americans within the United States reside on both the East and West Sides of the Greater Cleveland Metropolitan Area.[4] It has often been said that Metropolitan Cleveland has the most Hungarians outside of Hungary itself.[4] Once known as "Little Hungary," the Buckeye–Shaker neighborhood on the East Side of Cleveland proper was a cultural enclave for Hungarians and Hungarian Americans in the early to mid-twentieth century before many left for nearby suburbs, such as Shaker Heights. In their place arrived African Americans and other groups in the 1960s. Remnants of Hungarian culture can still be seen in the Buckeye Road area today, namely in street names, restaurants and shops as well as occasionally hearing Hungarian on the streets as spoken by older residents who have never left the area. Other cities which include a significant Hungarian American presence include metropolitan New York City, Buffalo, New York, Chicago, Illinois, Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas and Virginia Beach, Virginia.
The highest percentage of Hungarian Americans in any American town, village or city is in
Hungarian-born population
Hungarian-born population in the U.S. since 2010:[18]
Year | Number |
---|---|
2010 | 78,368 |
2011 | 77,485 |
2012 | 69,154 |
2013 | 74,213 |
2014 | 65,845 |
2015 | 70,255 |
2016 | 62,296 |
By state totals
Estimated population by state according to the 2018 American Community Survey.[1]
- Ohio – 183,170
- New York – 143,884
- Pennsylvania – 124,045
- California – 118,005
- Florida – 97,823
- New Jersey – 94,848
- Michigan – 89,785
- Illinois – 49,734
- Texas – 37,806
- Indiana – 35,595
- Connecticut – 33,115
- Virginia – 30,347
- Arizona – 27,223
- North Carolina – 26,349
- Wisconsin – 23,601
- Maryland – 23,161
- Washington – 22,365
- Colorado – 22,279
- Massachusetts – 18,807
- Georgia – 18,381
- Missouri – 15,516
- Oregon – 14,494
- Minnesota – 13,405
- South Carolina – 12,762
- Nevada – 11,958
- Tennessee – 11,181
- West Virginia – 7,903
- Kentucky – 7,348
- Alabama – 6,753
- Utah – 5,648
- Louisiana – 5,634
- Kansas – 5,257
- New Hampshire – 4,967
- New Mexico – 4,293
- Maine – 4,005
- Oklahoma – 3,986
- Delaware – 3,980
- Iowa – 3,723
- Montana – 3,483
- Idaho – 3,408
- Vermont – 3,276
- Nebraska – 3,187
- District of Columbia – 2,621
- Arkansas – 2,586
- Hawaii – 2,506
- North Dakota – 2,416
- Rhode Island – 2,097
- Mississippi – 1,987
- Alaska – 1,948
- Wyoming – 1,875
- South Dakota – 1,488
By percentage of total population
Estimated percentage of the population by state according to the 2018 American Community Survey rounded to the nearest hundredth of a percent.[1]
- Ohio – 1.57%
- New Jersey – 1.07%
- Pennsylvania – 0.97%
- Connecticut – 0.92%
- Michigan – 0.90%
- New York – 0.73%
- Indiana – 0.54%
- Vermont – 0.52%
- Florida – 0.47%
- West Virginia – 0.43%
- Delaware – 0.42%
- Nevada – 0.41%
- Wisconsin – 0.41%
- Colorado – 0.40%
- Arizona – 0.39%
- Illinois – 0.39%
- Maryland – 0.39%
- District of Columbia – 0.38%
- New Hampshire – 0.37%
- Virginia – 0.36%
- Oregon – 0.36%
- Montana – 0.33%
- Wyoming – 0.32%
- North Dakota – 0.32%
- Washington – 0.31%
- California – 0.30%
- Maine – 0.30%
- Massachusetts – 0.28%
- Alaska – 0.26%
- North Carolina – 0.26%
- South Carolina – 0.26%
- Missouri – 0.25%
- Minnesota – 0.24%
- New Mexico – 0.21%
- Idaho – 0.20%
- Rhode Island – 0.20%
- Utah – 0.19%
- Kansas – 0.18%
- Georgia – 0.18%
- Hawaii – 0.18%
- South Dakota – 0.17%
- Tennessee – 0.17%
- Nebraska – 0.17%
- Kentucky – 0.17%
- Alabama – 0.14%
- Texas – 0.14%
- Louisiana – 0.12%
- Iowa – 0.12%
- Oklahoma – 0.10%
- Arkansas – 0.09%
- Mississippi – 0.07%
Notable people
In entertainment, Szőke Szakáll, known as
Actor
Actress
In filmmaking,
Director
Animator
In music,
In sports,
Jewish physicist
.In computer science,
In sociology,
In astronomy, Victor Szebehely became a leading figure in NASA's Apollo program.
In biology and chemistry,
In mathematics,
In art,
In politics,
Others include famous
American Hungarian language use
American Hungarian language use has been studied by several Hungarian linguists, including Elemér Bakó, Endre Vázsonyi, Miklós Kontra (in South Bend, Indiana), Csilla Bartha (in Detroit, Michigan), and Anna Fenyvesi (in McKeesport, Pennsylvania).[25]
Fictional people
- S.Z. Sakall played Hungarian chef Felix Bassenak in Christmas in Connecticutand made famous the expression "everything is hunky dunky."
- Lisa Douglas (née Gronyitz), immigrant Hungarian wife of Oliver Wendell Douglas, protagonist of 1960s CBS situation comedy series Green Acres.
- Three of the four main characters in Jim Jarmusch's award-winning 1984 film Stranger Than Paradise were Hungarian-Americans (one was a recent Hungarian emigre).
- Karchy Jonas and his father Istvan are Hungarian immigrants to the United States in the 1997 movie Telling Lies in America.
- Scot Harvath, the protagonist in many works by best-selling author Brad Thor.
- Hannah Horvath, protagonist of the contemporary HBO comedy-drama series Girls.
- The characters Helga Pataki, Robert (Bob) Pataki and Olga Pataki from the cartoon Hey Arnold!are believed to be of Hungarian descent due to their surnames.
- Kati Farkas on Gossip Girl.
- Kelsey Pokoly, an adventurous eight-year-old girl, and her widowed father, Neil Pokoly, from the cartoon Craig of the Creek are of Hungarian-Jewish descent.
- Phyllis "Pizzazz" Gabor, lead singer of the Misfits and Jem's enemy, and her industrialist father, Harvey Gabor, from the cartoon Jem.
- Katalin Hunya, a character in the musical Chicago who does not speak English.
- Arkosh Kovash ("Ákos Kovács"), a Hungarian mobster in the 1995 film The Usual Suspects.
- The Átmeneti are a people who live in a post-apocalyptic Budapest in Fenn Thornbot's Now. Then. To Come.[26]
Gallery
-
Hungarian immigrants celebrating the sunflower harvest in Cleveland, 1913.
-
Hungarian Reformed Church Fairport Harbor, Ohio
-
Hungarian Reformed Church. Taken in Homestead, Pennsylvania
-
Saint Elisabeth of Hungary Church in Smethport, Pennsylvania
-
The First Church of Christ, Unitarian of Lancaster, Massachusetts
-
Birmingham Historic District, Roughly bounded by Genesee, York, Esther, Magyar, Consaul, and theNorfolk Southern tracks in Toledo, Ohio
See also
- European Americans
- Hungarian Canadians
- Hungarian diaspora
- Hungarian Ohioans
- History of the Hungarian Americans in Metro Detroit
- Hyphenated American
- Hungary–United States relations
- Hungarian Slovak Gypsies in the United States
References
- ^ a b c "PEOPLE REPORTING ANCESTRY 2019: ACS 1-Year Estimates Detailed Tables". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
- ^ "Hungarians in the USA".
- ^ "Magyarok az USA-ban". Hírnök Magazin - Hírportál - Címjegyzék - Média (in Hungarian). Retrieved August 11, 2022.
- ^ a b c "Hungarians". The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Case Western Reserve University. May 11, 2018. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
- ^ Brian McGinty, Strong Wine: The Life and Legend of Agoston Haraszthy (Stanford University Press, 1998), 1.
- ^ Útazás Éjszakamerikáában (Travels in North America), Pest, 1846, 2d ed., Pest, 1850; McGinty, Strong Wine: The Life and Legend of Agoston Haraszthy, 101.
- ^ Pinney, Thomas, A History of Wine in America (University of California Press, 1989), 269; McGinty, Strong Wine: The Life and Legend of Agoston Haraszthy, 1.
- ^ Steven Béla Vardy, "Lajos Kossuth and the Slavery Question in America," East European Quarterly (2005) 39#4 pp 449-464.
- ^ Istvn Korn'l Vida, Hungarian Emigres in the American Civil War: A History and Biographical Dictionary (2011) excerpt and text search
- ^ Grove, Andrew S. Swimming Across: a Memoir, Hachette Book Group (2001) Prologue.
- ^ Bureau, U.S. Census. "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved May 27, 2018.
- US Census Bureau. 2000. Archived from the originalon February 10, 2020.
- ^ a b Data Access and Dissemination Systems (DADS). "American FactFinder – Results". Archived from the original on February 12, 2020. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
- US Census Bureau. Hungarian Human Rights Foundation. Archived from the originalon July 21, 2013. Retrieved December 9, 2008.
- ^ "Ancestry maps – Hungarian communities". ePodunk. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved December 9, 2008.
- ^ "Fairport Harbor, Ohio". Retrieved March 17, 2015.
- ^ "West Pike Run township, Washington County, Pennsylvania (PA)". Retrieved March 17, 2015.
- ^ Bureau, U.S. Census. "American FactFinder – Results". factfinder.census.gov. Archived from the original on February 14, 2020. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
- The Biography Channel. Archived from the originalon June 13, 2008. Retrieved September 12, 2008.
- ^ a b c d e "Hungarian Americans". Encarta. Archived from the original on November 1, 2009. Retrieved September 13, 2008.
- ^ "Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi" (PDF). NASA. Retrieved December 16, 2008.
- ^ a b Dao, James (September 25, 1995). "In Hungary, Pataki Gets Treatment Of a Star". The New York Times. Retrieved February 27, 2008.
- National Archives.
- ^ "In Memory of the Original Road Warrior and a Car and Driver Institution – Column". Car and Driver. January 2008. Retrieved December 16, 2008.
- ^ Fenyvesi, Anna. 2005. Hungarian in the United States. In: Fenyvesi, Anna, ed. Hungarian language contact outside Hungary: Studies on Hungarian as a minority language. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 265–318.
- ISBN 979-8-9884567-1-1.
Further reading
- Fenyvesi, Anna. Hungarian in the United States. In: Fenyvesi, Anna, ed. 2005. Hungarian language contact outside Hungary: Studies on Hungarian as a minority language. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 265–318.
- Frank, Tibor. Double Exile: Migration of Jewish-Hungarian Professionals Through Germany to the United States, 1919–1945 (2009)
- Frank, Tibor. Genius in Exile: Professional Immigration from Interwar Hungary to the United States (2006).
- Lengyel, Emil. Americans from Hungary (Lippincott, 1948).
- McGuire, James Patrick. The Hungarian Texans (San Antonio: University of Texas, Institute of Texan Culture, 1993).
- Papp, Susan M. Hungarian Americans and Their Communities in Cleveland (Cleveland State University, 1981).
- Puskas, Julianna. Ties That Bind, Ties That Divide. One Hundred Years of Hungarian Experience in the United States (Holmes and Meier, 2000), 465 pp.
- Várdy, Steven Béla, and Thomas Szendrey. "Hungarian Americans." Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 2, Gale, 2014), pp. 373–386. Online
- Várdy, Steven Béla and Agnes Huszar Vardy, eds. Hungarian Americans in the Current of History (2010), essays by scholars; online review
- Vida, István Kornél. Hungarian Émigrés in the American Civil War: A History and Biographical Dictionary (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012) 256 pp.