The Bronx Journal-September

Persian Memories

A Bronx Immigrant looks at changes in his homeland and recalls turbulent times

Anthony Pesca
Bronx Journal Staff Reporter

An American citizen who hails from Iran, Amir’s life is the stuff of movies. He has moved up from the bottom rung as a “fill-in” security guard at the Manhattan office building where he works to an engineer for J.E.M.B. Realty. He later designed the company’s new home. “It was from then on that all construction projects went through me. If I don’t have the manpower, I contract out the work. I’m in charge,” he says proudly.

Later in the day, when things are less hectic, Amir can’t help but return to thoughts of Iran, the country he left years ago. His homeland – and his family there – are undergoing changes, and Amir can’t help but be curious about a place he left years ago.

Amir has a personal stake in events that are affecting Iran. He has four siblings and a father that still reside in Tehran, the capital. Amir’s older brother works for the Iranian government. A younger brother is a helicopter repairman.

A quarter to seven, Gholam Reza Behzadi, a Bronx resident from the Throggs Neck section of the borough, arrives at his office at a real estate development firm in lower Manhattan armed with the morning paper and whatever he can pick up for breakfast. Amir, as he’s called, is in a rush until 8, dispatching foremen to various construction sites and drawing up plans to hire workers for future projects.

His two younger sisters are housewives. Moreover, Amir has several times found himself caught in the rocky political relationship that Iran and the U.S. have led over the last quarter of a century.

He was born in 1949, in the small town of Khashan, about 60 miles outside of Tehran. At the age of 4, Amir’s family moved to Tehran, where his father worked 12 hours a day, manning a small grocery store that, to this day, he still owns and operates at the age of 90. Amir grew up extremely poor but was still able to enjoy 12 years of private schooling due to his father’s sacrifices. “Things like new shoes would have been nice, but I was able to witness what sacrifice was all about seeing the extremely long hours my father put in at the store,” he says.

What unpleasant memories he has are tied to the years the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who ruled the nation until being deposed in 1979. “He was hated by his own people. He would have anyone killed who spoke out against him, no hesitation whatsoever,” Amir recalls. Amir also says that he and others are indignant over the billions the Shah and his family managed to take from the country and invest elsewhere.

At 18 years of age, Amir began a journey that would ultimately land him in the Bronx. He enlisted into the Iranian Navy and served on a destroyer in the Persian Gulf in 1969. He learned of a scholarship being offered to sailors who wanted to study in the U.S., signed up for a test, and made the grade. “Twelve thousand of us took the test with only 500 to be accepted,” he remembers. “I was lucky number 13,” says Amir with a proud grin on his face.

He was first shipped off to Washington D.C. for an intensive course in English. “The only English I knew was, ‘Hello,’ and ‘Thank You,’ and I smiled a lot,” he laughs. A year and a half later, with a bigger vocabulary and more confidence, Amir was off to Throggs Neck to start studies at the State University of New York at Maritime College. Amir says his enrollment was just part of an arrangement between the U.S. and Iran. “At the time, the two had a business agreement of sorts,” he explains. “The United States would educate the youth of Iran, and in return, the U.S. would continue to receive such perks as low oil prices and access to Iranian Air Force Bases.” That access was seen as a crucial check to the Soviet Union’s influence during the Cold War and was used in the name of protecting the oil fields in the neighboring country of Saudi Arabia from other armies.

Amir quickly rose to the top of his class which included about nine other Iranians. He was named to the rank of a company commander, the highest distinction for a SUNY Maritime student. As a company commander, Amir supervised between 200 and 250 cadets. “We made sure they followed the rules, went where they were supposed to go,” he recalls.

One day, while in his dorm room, Amir looked out his window and noticed a neighborhood girl playing tennis on the campus court. “I went downstairs and asked her if she would play me in a game. I was glad that she said yes.” Amir knew he had met his future wife the minute he gazed upon Margaret Rotondo of Throggs Neck. The began dating and were soon very close.

POLITICAL CHANGE

Amir could rest a bit easier. Although he was concerned about his family at home, he was also safe in the Bronx. Yet, when he applied for American citizenship, Amir was afraid he’d be in for another reminder of how strained relations between the U.S. and Iran had become, particularly after the hostage crisis. He wasn’t. “You become a number and wait your turn – which was about a year and a half,” he says.

One stipulation of Amir’s scholarship was that he would serve for 30 years in the Iranian Navy once he graduated or else pay $200,000 to the Iranian government. Now in love and attached to America, Amir was in a tough spot. He didn’t want to spend 30 years in the Navy, nor did his family have $200,000 in order to get him out of his commitment. With the help of an Admiral at Maritime College who wrote a letter to the Iranian government stating his worth to his country in a different capacity, Amir got an alternative. He would have to go back to Iran and teach for two years in an out-of-the-way village in rural Iran. Amir accepted this amazing offer and went back to Iran, followed shortly by his future wife, Margaret. He taught history, mathematics, and geography to high school students. “It was a great experience,” recalls Amir, “But it was sad seeing such bright students not able to express themselves due to the constant fear of the Shah.”

Amir recalls one especially jarring story of the time. After some small uprisings in a section of Tehran, the local police gathered some citizens into the village cemetery. “One of the officers lifted a garbage bag for everyone to see. Piercing out of the bag appeared to be human limbs, and the bag dripped dark, red blood,” he remembers. “Not a word was said by the civilians or the police (during the encounter), but the message was received,” Amir says.

In May of 1977, Amir and Margaret got married in Iran, and soon afterward, Margaret became pregnant. The couple decided that Margaret should return to the U.S, where she would wait for Amir to join her once he finished his teaching obligation. It took Amir over a month after the completion of his teaching assignment just to talk to the right people at the American Embassy in order to get his visa. “Things were really starting to get ugly in Iran, and that’s why they gave me so much trouble at the Embassy,” he says. “They were all looking for bribes and handouts. When they weren’t offered anything, they just said, ‘Come back tomorrow, come back next week.’” Amir finally received his visa and left his native land for the last time – a country by then on the verge of revolution.

It was only a few months later that the same Embassy was overrun and American hostages were taken. Now in the Bronx and living only blocks away from his former campus, Amir was able to see the events on television and witness the fallout of the hostage crisis. He also saw how the confusion back home affected students at SUNY Maritime. “Some quickly fled back home because the money would stop. Some remained. Nobody knew what to do,” he says. Some were strapped and so scared they auctioned automobiles out on the streets of the Bronx, taking the first sum of money any bidder who was lucky to come along offered.

Amir could rest a bit easier, although he was certainly concerned about his family at home, he was also safe in the Bronx. Yet, when he applied for American citizenship, Amir was afraid he’d be in for another reminder of how strained relations between the U.S. and Iran had become, particularly after the hostage crisis. He wasn’t. “You become a number and wait your turn – which was about a year and a half,” he says.

Amir was then given the standard exams. He recalls sitting in front of another Iranian during a written test. “This guy was so insulted by the ease of the questions that he yelled out, ‘What do you think, I’m American? Ask me something difficult!’” chuckles Amir. “I don’t know if he passed or not.” In seven months, Amir received notification of his citizenship. He says that during his time in the U.S. he has never faced any “real” discrimination as an Iranian-American. “If people did ever make any type of discriminating remarks, it came from their stupidity. If I responded, I’d be lowering myself to their levels, making me equally or more ignorant than them.”

Amir still keeps tabs on his homeland and recent changes the country has undergone. “Iran has always been though of as male-dominated society. Not any more – the women are in charge,” he says. Amir explains that there are more women than men in Iran due to the casualties of the Iran-Iraq conflict. “There are free elections every four years for a President, so it is up to the women of Iran to decide who is in power.”

“Women have always been highly respected in Iranian culture,” he adds. In fact an old saying in Iran has it that, “ If you disrespect your mother, you go straight to hell when you die,” he’s quick to point out. It is said in Iran that with one hand, women rock the cradle and with the other, they rule the world.

Recently, the U.S. and Iran have opened trade talks, although nothing major seems to be on the horizon. Amir is confident that change will indeed blossom from these first steps, even though some in his old country a mistrustful of the U.S. and its close ties with the Shah. “Iranians will probably have ill feelings for some time to come toward Americans, but when it comes to money, Iranians don’t care if you’re friend or foe.”

Amir and Margaret, who have remained in the Bronx in their Throggs Neck home, have raised two children. Their daughter, Dawn, 21, will graduate from college this spring with a degree in Education. Their son Jason, 17, will attend a small college in Connecticut this fall. Amir’s eyes begin to glow when he speaks of his children. “In this life, they are my greatest accomplishment.”