LOCAL AUTHOR EMPLOYS HISTORICAL FICTION TO EXPLORE
GREEK-AMERICAN CULTURE IN TARPON SPRINGS
Delving into sometimes exotic foreign cultures is a popular theme among today’s journalists. A good discussion about what contrasts one culture with another, while standing on the outside looking in, depends how far the writer finds himself from the subject matter. Imagine the utter confusion confronting a Bulgarian journalist visiting New York with an assignment to report on American customs and traditions while a fellow Bulgarian journalist is sent to Los Angeles.
Historical fiction seems to suit Tarpon Springs author, Harvey Alexander Smith, as seen in his most recent novel, Danger Beyond the Reef, an action-adventure-drama about two Greek-American families confronting the issue of an arranged marriage in Tarpon Springs, widely acclaimed as the sponge-fishing capital of the world. Previously, Smith paid his dues as a writer who gets inside a culture by actually living it. A former advertising executive and copywriter for over 30 years, he has written about what he observed from inside the cultural arena as an “ex-pat” living in Guadalajara, Mexico for 11 years and, most recently, El Salvador for two years as an advisor to the Minister of National Defense and Director of National Civil Police. Smith clearly chooses not to be confined to the role of a tourist overstaying his visit. According to one reader, “…his work is a bit like traveling without leaving home.”
His first visit to Mexico in 1959 at the age of 19 from his hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona began when he enrolled in Guadalajara’s Institute of Technology as a business administration major and, to his surprise, the lone Gringo in the school. Between the end of his schooling and his home building business, Smith was employed as a sales manager for Volkswagen distributorship, zone manager and optometrist for Mexico’s largest optical chain and a brief stint as a translator for the yachting events during the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico.
He managed to find time to publish a bi-monthly English language tourist magazine, “Spotlight on Guadalajara” to help promote his construction business centered on building homes for the area’s “ex-pat” Americans. Smith is now working on his third book, Margaritas Are for Tourists, chronicling his wild and exciting 11-year experience living in Guadalajara, Mexico during the free-wheeling 1960s.
Being both bi-cultural and bi-lingual enabled Smith to take full advantage of his acquired knowledge of Mexico’s rich culture and colorful traditions to write his first novel, El Idolo: In Search of a Legend; a heartwarming story of a young man’s difficult struggle to become a successful singer while living in the shadow of his idol, Mexico’s legendary singer and actor, Pedro Infante.
Moving to Tarpon Springs in 2005 from El Salvador brought Smith into close contact with the Greek community and the sponge fishing industry. He was amazed at the similarities he discovered between the Greek and Hispanic cultures – respect for God and the church and close-knit family units – so close, in fact, that he enlisted the help of Tarpon Springs mayor, Beverley Billiris and her Greek husband, George, to pen his second novel about the local Greek culture, Danger Beyond the Reef.
Reminiscent of classic 1953 film, Beyond the 12-Mile Reef where Greek sponge divers face off with their Key West “Conch” rivals, the story’s theme deals with similar cross-culture culture issues. The complexities of an arranged marriage with one Greek-American couple take the reader from the sponge docks of Tarpon Springs to the beautiful little Greek island of Kalymnos in the Dodecanese Archipelago. The book is replete with the customs and culture of Greek-Americans and cleverly salted with colorful Greek proverbs leading into each chapter.
For those preferring a casual approach to history, Smith’s novel paints an authentic historical picture of Tarpon Springs during the late 1970s reaching back to the end of the 19th century when Tarpon Springs first became a fashionable destination for well-to-do East Coast visitors fleeing the cold winter weather to the north. The immigration of Greek sponge fishermen to Tarpon Springs didn’t really begin until 1905, when it was discovered that harvesting sponges in deeper water with diving suits was more lucrative than “hooking” them with a long pole from a skiff. It was also much more dangerous. An amateur SCUBA diver, Smith underwent training briefly as a hard-hat diver in California and likes to say that he knows just enough about it to respect those who do it for a living.
Beverley Billiris, mayor of Tarpon Springs, businesswoman and wife of George Billiris, collaborated with Smith from the time he first put pen to paper in May of 2008. She offered valuable first-hand experience and insight as a non-Greek who had married into a traditional Greek family of sponge fishermen and merchants over 30 years ago. Today, the St. Nicholas Boat Line of Tarpon Springs, owned by George Billiris who retired from sponge fishing years ago, is the only sponge diving exhibition in the world and operates daily from the sponge docks on Dodecanese St. in the heart of “Greek town.”
Danger Beyond the Reef is an enjoyable literary recipe offering readers a close and intimate look at the people and places in Tarpon Springs and Kalymnos, Greece, along with liberal doses of romance, danger, humor and excitement all wrapped around the history, culture, traditions and customs of two of the best destinations found anywhere in the world.
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Submitted by:
Anna Corman
Palm Harbor, Florida
(727) 744-9491
November 1, 2009
Harvey Alexander Smith
H.A. SMITH COMMUNICATIONS, LLC
1501 Hillview Lane
Tarpon Springs, FL 34689
http://judsonalumni.com