While current national stories focus on negative views of immigration in America, immigrants and immigrant owned businesses continue to contribute to the successes in many cities and municipalities, including Jamestown.

Across the United States there are cities and towns such as Middletown, Ohio — Vice President Vance’s hometown — that have been seeing a growing population thanks to immigration. According to a March story from The Guardian, the city is bouncing back from past hardships, with immigrants playing a central role. Nearly all of its population growth since 2010 can be attributed to its foreign-born population, which stands at more than 2,000 people.

Locally, Jamestown is home to many different immigrants from many different places, some of which own and run successful businesses as well such as El Greco Woodworking, Inc. Founded five decades ago, El Greco Woodworking was founded by George Theofilactidis, a Greek immigrant and his Greek-American wife, Kathy. Today, the company continues to thrive under the leadership of their three children and a dedicated team of 15 employees.

Currently, the company is run by president Alexis Theofilactidis Singleton and her brothers Dimitri and Lazaros who serve as vice presidents, each overseeing separate plants in Jamestown. El Greco specializes in children’s cribs and beds and adheres to the strict safety standards of the United States government and the American Society for Testing and Materials. The East First Street facility handles rough lumber processing and assembly, while the Allen Street plant is where the handcrafted pieces are finished and shipped. The company’s heirloom-quality furniture is sold nationally through Room and Board, a partnership that has flourished over the years.

Like many businesses, El Greco has weathered its share of challenges and economic shifts, and a devastating fire in 2004. The fire ultimately led to the purchase of the company’s 38,000-square-foot Allen Street facility two years later. Despite these hurdles, the company remains committed to producing “no-nonsense furniture that looks good, feels good, and lasts,” says Singleton, a Princeton University graduate.

She credits her parents’ determination and hard work for the company’s enduring success. Her mother, a student of Bryant and Stratton College in Buffalo, initially managed the bookkeeping and continues to lend her support wherever needed. Singleton also acknowledges her late father’s gratitude to the Prendergast Free Library, whose books and magazines on furniture construction helped inspire and inform the company’s craftsmanship.

Another immigrant owned business in Jamestown is the Italian restaurant, La Cucina Della Nonna, owned by Pablo Flores and his wife Elizabeth.

“There have been a lot of opportunities for us in a small town like this,” Flores said. “It’s been super good and we love this town. It has also been better for our family.”

Flores ran a similar successful restaurant in Carey, North Carolina, for eight years before moving north to assist family members who had opened a Spanish food restaurant in Lakewood. Once that was running smoothly, Flores and his wife opened their Italian restaurant on Fairmount Avenue near Jamestown in 2017 and subsequently relocated it to West Third Street in Jamestown three years later.

They both thrive in the business, often putting in 80-hour workweeks each while raising a family. Their 19-year-old son, Francisco, is studying computer design at Gannon University. Once Francisco graduates, the plan is for him to assist Megalei, or Maggie, now 13, with undergraduate and law school tuition so she can become an immigration lawyer. And the youngest Angelina, age six, is earmarked to eventually take over the restaurant.

Like most immigrants, Flores has faced obstacles after coming to his new country at 17, following high school. He had help from his father and other family members who had arrived earlier, and he succeeded through “family help, hard work and following the rules.” He now owns three houses in the United States as well as one in Mexico where he and his lawyer-to-be daughter vacation each summer.

Following the rules is key, Flores emphases, especially when it comes to immigration and taxes. Both he and his wife are Americanized citizens and his children are native-born Americans, and Flores said the citizenship process is not “all that bad”.

While not all immigrants in Jamestown own and operate successful businesses, they still help contribute to the city’s overall success, including in areas such as the city’s decreasing population. In a recent letter to the editor, Momina Di Blasio, an immigrant herself and director of the New Neighbors Coalition program in the city, highlighted ways that immigrants contribute to the city, and the challenges they face under America’s current administration.

“When we first began to participate in refugee resettlement efforts, I was incredibly excited for the prospect of welcoming immigrants in Jamestown, even before I had the pleasure of working with them,” Di Blasio wrote. “How exciting to have people moving TO Jamestown! The thought of more children playing in parks and attending schools, families investing in housing, contributing to the workforce, opening restaurants, and seeing opportunity in Jamestown felt like a beacon of hope for the city I had come to care for so much.”

Di Blasio added that while she cherished the idea of others like her coming to Jamestown and loving it and making it their home, she had also worked to mentally prepare herself for what was coming with the new administration. Additionally, she said she was hurt for what the possibilities could have been for Jamestown and the local area before these new policies.

“It wasn’t until I was forced to grieve what immigration could have done for this region, that I realized how hopeful I had been for Jamestown,” she wrote. “The use of immigrants as scapegoats for many of society’s ills is a tale as old as time. Politicians have continuously found them easy targets to blame for their own failures in prioritizing the health and safety of those who need it most, the working class. Despite the fear mongering, most immigrants embody many of the traits and values Americans view as essential to our society: a devotion to family and faith, a strong work ethic, and an appreciation of the freedoms that have made the US a beacon of hope to the abused, neglected, and poor of the world for countless generations.”

While attacks on immigrants continue and the current administration continues to create policies to hurt immigrants, Di Blasio said she feels less hopeful each day for the ability to grow the local community, and that she feels that this is depriving Jamestown of a future that she hopes is not lost but continues to feel farther away each day. And yet, as negative stories on immigration continue to be the national norm, stories such as these immigrant owned businesses and those that Di Blasio has worked with continue to help make Jamestown the city that it is today.