Evenagelo’s: An Immigrant Becomes an Icon
Take a walk down East San Francisco Street in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and just two blocks from the Plaza you’ll find a bar that stands as a testament to the true spirit of America. A land where anyone can make it, where anyone can be a success, where anybody can be somebody through hard work, grit and determination.
There’s three things you’ll notice walking through the doors of Evangelo’s Cocktail Lounge.
First, the woodwork. The bar, the shelving behind the bar, the walls, all carved, all looking like they came from some Tahitian or Hawaiian Island.
Second, the older gentleman behind the bar wearing the Panama hat, looking like he walked straight out of central casting from some Cuban cigar plantation.
Third, the supersized black-and-white photographs of a World War II GI and a young soccer player doing one of those back flip kicks where they’re hanging in mid-air, somersaulting backwards while simultaneously kicking the ball.
How they do that without ending up in traction, I will never understand.
The real story is even better than the images.
The wood is definitely carved and very much island inspired. But the island isn’t Tahiti, it’s Kefalonia, a part of Greece, and yes, the guy behind the bar, the owner, is from Kefalonia, sort of. His mother and father are from there, and he lived there for several years.
We’ll get to that.
The photos? The young soccer player doing that crazy kick is him in his younger years, when he played for a Greek national team.
The GI? His father, the subject of one of the most recognized WWII photographs ever, taken on Saipan during some of the most intense fighting of the war against Japan.
If you look closely, you’ll see that GI photo in the framed Time magazine cover behind the bar. 100 Heroes and Icons of the 20th Century.
Oh, and, by the way, the man in that photo, he was an illegal immigrant.
An Immigrant Sails to America
Evangelo Klonis was born on Kefalonia, October 28, 1916. He was the second oldest of eight children in a poor family.
He quit school after the third grade to pitch in and help support the family. A half dozen years later, give or take, he moved with his older brother to Athens, still working, still sending money back home.
It was there, while walking near the harbor one day, he saw US sailors preparing to ship out, and a dream began. Two years later, at 16, he stowed away on board a ship sailing for America, searching for a better life.
He arrived in Los Angeles, found his way to Denver and made a living working as a hot dog vendor.
His life took a romantic turn there, but not the kind you might imagine.
A young Greek girl fell in love with the handsome Greek boy and, when he spurned her advances, both because he felt he was too young to be married and also because he was still sending money back to his family in Kefalonia and didn’t feel his could support a new family of his own, she threatened to report him to immigration services.
Not surprisingly, Evangelo decided this was a good time to move on to new pastures, finding his way to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
An Immigrant Becomes a Soldier
Fast forward to December 7, 1941. The day that will live in infamy. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.
A day that will dramatically change the life of our young protagonist.
The US fully enters World War II and desperately needs new Army recruits. To do so it opens the doors to citizenship for illegal immigrants volunteering for the service. He tried to enlist as a Marine, but they would only accept immigrants into the Army.
Evangelo soon finds himself on the way to a Fort Bliss, Texas, Army boot camp. However, he catches the site of his superiors, performs so well, that his wish becomes true, he is sent to Virginia to become a Marine.
By this point in the war, the Nazis have taken control of his homeland of Greece and so Evangelo requests assignment to Europe. He ultimately sees battle in Germany, France, Austria, Poland, and, Saipan, a battle that claimed the lives of 3,400 US soldiers, 27,000 Japanese and 15,000 civilians.
Life After the War
Following the war, Evangelo, now an American citizen, returns to Santa Fe and becomes co-owner of a restaurant. On a trip back to Kefalonia in 1950, he meets a beautiful woman named Angeliki (Kiki), instantly falls in love and marries her just a month later.
As if there haven’t been enough twists in this story already, stay tuned.
He brings his new bride back to Santa Fe, they become the parents of three boys, Nicalaos (Nick), the current bar owner, is the middle son. They continue to work the restaurant for eight more years, until, they lose the lease.
They make the decision that this would be the time to pack their belongings and move back to their family in Greece. There, they build a new home made mainly out of bamboo, heavily decorated with Polynesian elements. See where this is going?
They remain in Greece for a full decade until, in 1969, a good friend invites Evangelo to return to Santa Fe to work at his restaurant,. Once again, Evangelo, and now with a wife and three sons, travels to America.
Just two years later, 1971, he buys a bar on San Francisco Street, names it after himself, “Evangelo’s”, and remodels it with a very Polynesian-inspired decor, just like that design in the home he built back in Greece.
The Photograph
Along the way, young Nick has become something of a soccer star, futbal as it's known to the rest of the world outside the United States.
One day in 1972, he mentions to his father that a magazine has taken his picture playing ball, remember that photo of a dude jumping backwards while kicking the ball hanging behind the bar?
In response, the dad, just happens to mention his picture was taken by some LIFE magazine photographer during the war, but he didn’t know what became of it.
Intrigued, Nick starts searching.
For you youngin’s out there, this was before the days of Google, so he heads to the library and starts combing through old magazine covers.
Only one problem, the photo was never appeared on the magazine cover, it was inside the pages.
It wasn’t until 1991, 19 years later, that Nick finally finds the photo, or rather, it finds him, as well as millions of other Americans, when the close-up of his father with a cigarette in his mouth appears on the cover of a book just published by Time magazine. That one we mentioned above, 100 Heroes and Icons of the 20th Century
Sadly, Evangelo, the man in that photo, had died two years earlier, February 18, 1989, never having seen the image.
(Just an FYI. If you're wondering how a photo by a LIFE photographer ended up in a Time magazine. LIFE and Time were sister publications.)
Wait, our story isn’t finished!
In 2002, the United States Postal Service created a commemorative set of stamps with iconic images from Masters of American Photography. The series celebrated such notable photographers as Ansel Adams, Alfred Steiglitz, Imogen Cunningham, Man Ray and W. Eugene Smith, the man who took that war photo of Evangelo.
For the stamp set however, they selected a second image of Evangelo. This one of him drinking from a canteen.
Sixty million stamps were sold.
Notes
Evangelo’s bar was prominent in one of Jeff Bridges’ biggest movies, Crazy Heart. He won the Best Actor Oscar for it in 2010. You can see glimpses of it in this trailer.
If you happen to look up the LIFE photo of Evangelo, you might find the soldier identified as Angelo. Evangelo shortened his name when he signed up for service.
Evangelo’s is open every day, beginning at 4 p.m., but make sure you have cash in your pocket, Nick doesn’t take credit cards.
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**I allow use of my photos through Creative Commons License. I'm not looking to make money off this thing. I only ask you provide me with credit for the photo by noting my blog address, alansheaven.com, or a link back to this page.
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