History of Lithuanians in Los Angeles

The Lithuanian community in Los Angeles may be considered to be composed of four significant waves of immigration to the city. However, Lithuanians first surface in Los Angeles in 1905, with twenty-five members of an organization "trying to unify all Lithuanians who had immigrated (Baškauskas 1985:76)." The first major wave of immigration into the city occurred in the 1930's, and by 1939 eight hundred forty Lithuanians were in the Los Angeles area, culminating in the establishment of a consulate in the city (Baškauskas 76).

The presence of a Lithuanian community in Los Angeles led to the second and greatest influx of immigrants, following World War II. Indeed, this influx would not have been possible without the earlier group, as immigrants were not allowed into the US without a sponsor to guarantee housing and gainful employment. Ms. Danguole Varnas, for example, reports that her family was admitted with the sponsorship of a close friend of her mother's who was living in Los Angeles. This wave of immigrants might more properly be termed refugees (see especially Baškauskas 12-14). Nearly 48,000 Lithuanians are estimated to have been living in refugee camps in central Europe at the end of 1946 (Baškauskas 1929); it was from these refugees that the post-war wave of immigration reached Los Angeles, with the others scattered among Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Latin America, and other Lithuanian communities in the US, most notably in Chicago. By 1949 over 3,000 Lithuanians were reported in Los Angeles (Baškauskas 76).

Of the latter two waves of immigration by Lithuanians into Los Angeles, the third was also composed of these post-war refugees. Rather than coming to the area directly, however, these people lived elsewhere, mostly due to the existing community and the climate. The bulk of these immigrations occurred in the late 1950's and early 1960's, amounting to as many as two hundred new families per year (Baškauskas 78). The fourth and most recent wave of immigration has taken place since the restoration of Lithuanian independence in 1991. The is a much smaller group, estimated by Ms. Varnas at about fifteen families, although Baškauskas puts the figure at 300 individuals (personal interview, May 23, 1996).

The overwhelming majority of Lithuanians in Los Angeles, then, are those who fled their homeland in the face of Stalin's return there, as well as their descendants; everyone in the Lithuanian community with whom I have spoken thus far has been from this group. Their original status as refugees rather than as willing immigrants has provided them with a particular sense of purpose, even of "a mission," as one teacher at the Lithuanian school at St. Casimir's Catholic Church describes it, to preserve their language, culture, and heritage. This feeling in turn has no doubt contributed decisively to the success of the very small and, as will be described in more detail below, geographically diffuse Lithuanian community in maintaining its identity and resisting complete assimilation. As one of Baškauskas' informants for her study, conducted for her 1971 dissertation, observed, "We will assimilate sooner, if Lithuania is free, now the occupation is a common enemy and a common goal to fight against (123)." The members of the second and third waves of immigration took upon themselves the task of keeping alive the traditions they brought with them, perceiving the danger of their suppression and elimination in Lithuania itself.

This urgent sense of purpose has, on the other hand, led to a sense of distance between the post-war immigrants and the other segments of the Lithuanian community, which haven't shared their focus. While acknowledging their debt to the earlier wave that arrived in Los Angeles during the 1930's for their sponsorships and the establishment of a community, the members of the post-war groups found them losing their identity as well as their language. A further lack of closeness is demonstrated by a seeming inability on the part of the post-war segments to explain their predecessors' reasons for emigrating from Lithuania. As for the most recent arrivals, they were paradoxically criticized both for their eagerness to become assimilated and for having been "Sovietized" during to post-war years.

There is no public bilingual education in Lithuanian available in Los Angeles, and the parochial school once operated by St. Casimir's Church for the first through eighth grades (with approximately 100 students total) is no longer operational, leaving no full time schooling in Lithuanian in the Los Angeles area. There are, however, classes in Lithuanian language and culture offered to all age levels by the St. Casimir's Lithuanian School of Los Angeles. Classes are held on Saturdays at St. Casimir's Church. According to school principal Maryte Newson, a total of 109 students are enrolled, approximately one hundred in grades one through twelve, and the remainder in an adult language class. All instruction at all levels of the school is in Lithuanian. Consequently, students must arrive with at least some working knowledge of the language. The school is conducted under the auspices of the Lithuanian Educational Council based in Chicago, which supplies the curriculum. Lithuanian independence has resulted in the availability of additional materials from Lithuania.

Religious and Cultural Institutions

As mentioned, St. Casimir's Catholic Church in Los Feliz is the focal point of the Lithuanian community in Los Angeles. It offers religious services in both Lithuanian and English; mass in Lithuanian is at 10:30 AM on Sundays. Attendance is estimated at around 300 to 400. Beyond hosting the Lithuanian school as described above, it serves as the social and cultural hub of the community. Sunday church services offer an important social as well as a religious function, as they present an opportunity for scattered community members to gather in one place and meet with one another:

Frequently, those who do attend the religious service slip outside during the sermon and socialize with one another. Others leave church early to beat the crowd in the courtyard... When the service is completed, the members of the congregation leave the church and stand outside on the steps, sidewalk, and roadway in a mass of small groups, meeting their friends, some of whom have traveled long distances. (Baškauskas 93)

Record and book dealers also set up shop outside the church, and refreshments are made available inside. Sunday services are thus major social events.

The church also organizes a number of other social activities, including a Lithuanian Days festival in September offering food, crafts, music, and dancing. A church-sponsored organization meriting special mention is Spindulys (meaning 'ray' or 'sun-beam'), a dance ensemble which has served to showcase Lithuanian dance, music, and culture since it was first organized in 1949. It has performed in various cities in the US and has toured Europe, Australia, and South America (Baltušiene et al. 1994). A major cultural event not held in Los Angeles but significant to Los Angeles' Lithuanian community is a national Lithuanian festival held in Chicago every June. A national Lithuanian summer camp is held annually in Michigan.

Media

There is no Lithuanian language or cultural programming on local television. There is, however, a one-hour program on radio station KTYM AM-1460 in Inglewood, broadcast Saturday from 12:00 to 1:00 PM, with the first half hour in English and the second in Lithuanian. The program features news of the local community and of Lithuania, interviews with community members, and Lithuanian music.

A variety of printed media in Lithuanian have been available locally. St. Casimir's Church's newsletter, printed in Lithuanian, has a circulation of about 1,000. The newspaper Draugas, published in Chicago, is available by subscription and has a local circulation of about 200. A children's magazine, Eglute, published in Lockport, IL, is available through the school at St. Casimir's. In the past, a magazine, Lithuanian Days, and a companion newsletter were published with a peak circulation close to 1,00, with 600 locally, shortly before ceasing publication in 1992 due to the age of the magazine staff. At least one book in Lithuanian has been published in Los Angeles in 1994, Ona Razutiene ir Los Angeles Jaunimo Ansamblis (Baltušiene, et al.), a biography of the founder of Spindulys and a history of the organization.

Language Maintenance

Given the geographically diffuse character of the Lithuanian community in Los Angeles, it is difficult in addition to pinpoint a location in which language maintenance is strongest. According to members of the post-war waves of immigration, these groups have made more concerted efforts at maintaining the language than the prewar and post-immigration immigrants. Presumably this last, most recent group would also possess a naturally high level of maintenance at present.

As mentioned, students in the Saturday Lithuanian school must have a high enough level of language skill to follow instruction in Lithuanian, from which it can be seen that Lithuanian is routinely spoken in a significant number of homes. One parent who is also a teacher at the school said that it was "a real chore" to get children to speak Lithuanian, although another parent-teacher disagreed with this assessment. A third said that in her house Lithuanian is spoken as a matter of course, but that "when you need to say something really fast" English is used instead. One may thus suppose that in many cases some effort is required to maintain the language but that it can be maintained with this effort, and that finally it is considered worth the effort. During my visit to the Saturday school, I would guess that Lithuanian was spoken among staff members about 60 percent of the time, and another 20 percent Lithuanian sprinkled with English phrases; I was informed that a special effort is made to speak Lithuanian at the school.

In addition to Lithuanian and English, many community members know other European languages, including Polish, German, Russian, Latvian, and Yiddish. Some members of the third wave of immigrants who left Lithuania after World War II for Latin America and subsequently moved to Los Angeles are also fluent in English.

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For questions or comments regarding this page's contents, please e-mail C. Wilhelm via christopher.wilhelm@mayfieldsenior.org.