Category: Immigration and Ethnicity

PIEN, WEI TIEN (10 July 1926 - 2 April 1999) was a leader in Greater Cleveland's CHINESE-American community (See ) and a physician who ran a family medical practice. He was born in Mukden, Manchuria,, in the northeast corner of China, to Xing-Ling (Shao) and Pei-Bing Pien. After graduating from medical school in Mukden in the late 1940s, Dr.

POLES. Poles formed one of Cleveland's largest nationality groups in the 20th century and had an important influence on the city, particularly during its period of heavy industrial growth.

POLISH DAILY NEWS. See WIADOMOSCI CODZIENNE.

PRIMO VINO, which opened on April 15, 1982, was a restaurant that both epitomized and catalyzed Little Italy’s growth as a major dining and entertainment district in Greater Cleveland during the last quarter of the twentieth century.

The PUERTO RICAN FRIENDLY DAY PARADE OF GREATER CLEVELAND first began in 1969.

PUERTO RICANS. See HISPANIC COMMUNITY.

REILLY, RAYMOND J. (October 22, 1935 - February 20, 2003) was the “guiding force” of Cleveland’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade for decades. The grandson of Irish immigrants, Raymond Reilly was born in Cleveland to John and Mary (Gibbons) Reilly. He was given the nickname “Rip” by his sister due to his unruly behavior as a child; the name stuck for the rest of his life.

RIDNA SHKOLA (School of Ukrainian Studies) in Cleveland originally was organized by members of the Prosvita and supporters of the Ukrainian youth organization Plast (scouts) in 1950. It opened under the direction of Mrs. Mychajlyna Stavnycha at SS. Peter & Paul Parish on W. 7th St. There were 27 students and a limited curriculum.

ROMANI (or ROMA) are a people with origins in northern India, and later, Europe, historically known for being a nomadic itinerant group.

ROMANIANS. Among the new Southern and East European immigrants coming to Cleveland in the late 1800s were an increasing number of ethnic Romanians, most from the province of Transylvania, at that time part of Austria-Hungary. Other Cleveland Romanians came from the province of Bucovina on the Polish and Russian borders, also part of Austria-Hungary before WORLD WAR I.

RUSSIANS. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian community of Greater Cleveland and Cuyahoga County has grown substantially.

RUSYNS. Cleveland's Rusyns trace their heritage to the Carpathian Mountains, a large mountain chain extending from central to eastern Europe and across modern-day Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, and Romania.

SAINT LAWRENCE PARISH was founded in 1901 in the NEWBURGH area of Cleveland by Father Francis Kerze.

SCANDINAVIANS. Scandinavian migration, relatively insignificant prior to 1850, increased rapidly after the CIVIL WAR because of successive crop failures and unemployment in the homeland and reported opportunities in the New World. Attracted by opportunities for work as longshoremen on the docks, Scandinavian immigrants began arriving in northeast Ohio ca.

The SCHUHPLATTLER AND TRACHTENVEREIN BAVARIA was formed in 1972 from the remnants of the Schuhplattler & Costume Club, a singing and dancing club. The group specializes in the form of dancing known as Schuhplattler, or shoe slapping.