Photo by ELIZABETH A. MUNDSCHENK Uticans Khanh Vo, left, from Vietnam, Suvada Veiz, from Bosnia, and Hanifa Tricic, from Bosnia, are sworn in during naturalization ceremony held on Feb. 28, 2003 at the Oneida County Office Building in Utica.

Arrivals shape communities of
the Mohawk Valley

Like crafting a quilt, the Mohawk Valley for more than three centuries has plucked color, texture and patterns from faraway lands – here a crimson patch from Italy, there an emerald design from Ireland. The seams of the city's neighborhoods are now strengthened by newer waves of arrivals from across the seas, particularly the thousands of Bosnians who came in the past 10 years. FULL STORY >>

First Bosnian family recalls journey from war-torn home
For the first Bosnian refugees to settle in Utica, it has been a long road. A war shattered their dreams of a quiet life. As they warily sized up their surroundings in a cockroach-infested apartment on South Street nearly 10 years ago, it was by no means clear their presence would lead to a success story for themselves and Utica. FULL STORY >>

New groups add culture, shape area
Utica's long history of accepting newcomers not only continues 185 years after Irish immigrants started to build the Erie Canal, that history is broadening. Almost with each passing year, new groups are arriving from more distant corners of the globe. FULL STORY >>

Social, religious ties bind immigrants
Eugene Dziedzic remembers his grandmother telling him how she worked for a nickel an hour after coming to Utica from Poland in 1907. Immigrants toiled in textile mills, laid tracks for the area's railroads, dug ditches for the Erie Canal and kept the wheels of industry spinning. FULL STORY >>

CULTURAL PROFILES

Food means family
For Hispanic people, food means family, says Juan Ortiz, the owner of Family Grocery on Bleecker Street in Utica. In the Dominican Republic, where Ortiz is from, the extended family gathers three times a day to eat. PROFILE >>

A better life found
Kim Nguyen traveled from the southern part of Vietnam to Utica when she was 8 years old, not knowing a word of English. Now, at 26, she still remembers how happy her Columbus Elementary School teacher was when she wrote her first sentence: "I Kome from Vietnam." PROFILE >>

Prayers for home answered
Kaw Soe Win had high hopes for his family's new life in America. He fled Burma with his wife, Naw Win May, and seven children. They arrived in America in 1999 with nothing except a desire for freedom and a better life. PROFILE >>

'I became what I am in America'
When Oskar Schriever left Germany for the United States in 1948, he was a 16-year-old trying to find his way in life. Now, the husband, father and grandfather says he has done that. PROFILE >>

'Heritage is just all about family'
Rosie Salek does everything with her extended Irish family. "Everything we did growing up, we did it together," the 51-year-old Little Falls resident says. "We celebrated everything." And they still do — birthdays, weddings and other important days. PROFILE >>

'What a beautiful language'
As a child, New Hartford resident Luigi Cizza was wary of speaking his native Italian. It wasn't that he didn't have the language skills — Cizza, an East Utica native, grew up in a duplex with the other half occupied by nine Italian-speaking aunts and uncles. PROFILE >>

'We need to hang on to our culture'
Kandice Watson wants her daughters to live the same "simple life" she did on the Oneida Nation Territory. She also wants them to accept the outside world. PROFILE >>