Talk:Albanian Americans

Tie Domi
I don't know why Tie Domi is listed here, as he is a Canadian. I'm deleting him. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.18.27.189 (talk) 00:18, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Arvanities and Arbereshe in America
How many Albanians have imigrated from Italy and Greece to America?

I want to know how Albanians Arvanities and Arbereshe are living in America today and consider themselves Greeks or Italians. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.40.114.51 (talk • contribs) 22:05, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

their are more Albanians than 130.000,becuase in New York their 500.000 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Albanco (talk • contribs) 15:43, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

WHY you are so idiots?!!!!!!!! When i New York live more then a half Million Albanians then their are more then 133.000!!!!!!!!!!!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Albanco (talk • contribs) 15:01, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

When asked, a total of 100,000 people in America identified themselves as Albanian or as having an Albanian parent/grandparent. 99.236.221.124 (talk) 01:11, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

Now I have done a little research on the subject, and it proved to be the articles have been wrong about how many Albanians live in New York city!

In this article about The Bronx, it says that 2.54% of the Bronx's population speaks Albanian. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_The_Bronx

So 34,891 thousand people speaks Albanian only in the Bronx! Then appears the whole article credibility if they only live 32,428 thousand Albanians throughout New York where they live only 34,891 in The Bronx.

In Brooklyn article says that the Albanians living in 5000 in Brooklyn.

A few months ago in the Queens article that lived around 60,000 Albanians in Queens.

Even now, we have figured out that they live around 100,000 ethnic Albanians in New York City. Then we have only figured out ethnic Albanians and not Arbereshe and Arvantiars. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.69.0.96 (talk) 10:38, 14 March 2009 (UTC)


 * I recalled a The Simpsons episode clip of the Springfield elementary school had a special diversity/girls empowerment meeting, but there was a small banner that read "Albanians MUST enter from the back". I wonder any Albanian-American ethnic organizations caught it or gotten emotional over the reference to segregation, although this is only a joke as part of prime-time comedies. But the series had an Albanian before. It may been a reminder of the one episode from season 1 (1990) when Bart was an exchange student in France, they sent an Albanian boy, a secret spy, to stay with Bart's father Homer and he spied on his nuclear power plant, the boy took pics of the plutonium reactors and faxed it over to the Albanian armed forces. The grade school learned to hate Albanians ever since, except the notably liberal Hollywood media corporations always felt to make jokes about segregation in public places was not comedy material, maybe the taboo has lessened and Albanians aren't familiar to most Americans anyway. + Mike D 26 (talk) 11:45, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

List of Albanian Americans
I removed the list of notable Albanian Americans and pointed to the other article. We should expand this article rather than having it as a list article and writing the list of notable Albanian Americans twice in two different articles. This is consistent with other similar articles such as the one on Italian Americans, which are very good articles. Hope no one will object.--SulmuesLet's talk 20:05, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

Orphaned references in Albanian American
I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Albanian American's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "Vickers": From Chameria: Miranda Vickers, The Albanians: A Modern History, I.B.Tauris, 1999, ISBN 1860645410, 9781860645419 From Albanian Revolt of 1847:  From Cham Albanians:  

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT ⚡ 16:42, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Non-free file problem
File:Fannoli.jpg was removed from this article because it either does not have a Non-free use rationale or there are problems with the existing rationale. Please see Non-free content criteria for the applicable policy and Non-free use rationale guideline for how to fix the problem. If further input or help is needed, questions can be directed towards Media copyright questions, the help desk or my talk page. Thank you. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 10:44, 31 October 2011 (UTC)

Why Gjeke Marinaj with photo ?
Wikipedia is spammed by Gjeke Marinaj, self-acclaimed academic and "founder" of some bizarre literary alignment that he calls "protonism". Gjeke Marinaj is at best a modest hobby-poet, therefore he should definately not be in the list of most brilliant and famous Albanians. When was Gjeke Marinaj added with photo in the article ? This applies also to the article Albanians, he has added himself with photo. Look at the article List of Albanian American article, Gjeke Marinaj has spammed himself to the first spot on that list. Therefore James Belushi should be in the list and not Gjeke Marinaj. Or some other famous Albanian. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 37.17.252.233 (talk) 20:01, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Stop it
Johnspring and 37.17.252.233 stop it both of you. Your constant reversions aren't going to help any readers interesting in this article. Johnspring, see WP:OWN. Comments such as If you think our team is going to let you continue like this you better think again, is clearly presenting ownership behavior, and is leading to disruptive behavior such as edit wars. Soviet King Who, me? 04:48, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Well said Soviet King, Gjeke Marinaj shouldn't definately be listed with photo on infobox on Albanians article, neither should he be listed under notable Albanians, definately not by removing someone who really deserves to be there like James Belushi or John Belushi.Johnspring seems to be Gjeke Marinaj himself. 37.17.250.28 (talk) 10:23, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

"Gjekë Marinaj’s words help defeat communism in Albania” (The Dallas Morning News)
I am not surprised by the comments of the above anonymous users, because Marinaj’s works can be very upsetting, especially if you have a communist background, but I am very surprised that the Albanian administrators allow such nonsense to stay here. I’m not going to remove anything at this time, but instead here are some real press “quotes” from some of the most notable people and publications around the world:

- Ismail Kadare, a candidate for Nobel Prize in Literature, TEMA
 * "Gjekë Marinaj is one of the most distinguished Albanian poets of our time. He belongs among Europe's best poets. In his poetic universe, there transpires a superb harmony between the high spirit of the Balkans - the continent's most storied region - and the Earth-bound reality of existence. ... As often happens with true poets, the poetic spirit moves from his life to his verse and vice versa."

- Ilir Paja, Nacional
 * "... Protonism requires us to raise the spirit of artistic and literary criticism beyond Europe and America, to an all-embracing horizon. It is a healthy theory that can serve simultaneously as a prologue and epilogue to our needs to flourish the state of the arts and humanities."

- Vjollca Tytyni, Shkoder.net
 * "We need to take advantage of Protonism, as an enhancer of the world's linguistics, by carefully implementing its theory into the current methods of improving the current historical and political aspect of our lives."

- Rudina Çupi, Nacional
 * " ... The book Protonism: Theory Into Practice left me under the impression that he [Marinaj] would willingly read a work left on his desk, without knowing the name of the author or the name of the person who could have referred it. Protonism is a concrete literary theory that outlines a specific system of values that should be taught in Albanian universities."

- Veli Rada, RTSH TV Show Host
 * "It is an immense treasure that actors have the opportunity to interpret Marinaj's work - such poetic art that comes from an incredible poet."

- Çerçiz Loloçi, Writer
 * "Gjekë Marinaj is an unparalleled poet. With the existence of his work, the Albanian poetry and literature is much more competitive with the literatures of the Balkans, Europe, and even outside of these borders. I hope that the level of fairness and professionalism of literary awards in Albania will continue to be as fair as this award, because we are so accustomed to seeing competitions where the first prize is awarded and yet the recipient of the second prize would, in reality, deserve the first prize. [A comment on the ceremony of Pjeter Arbrori Literary Award presented to Marinaj in 2008.]"

- Besnik Mustafaj, Writer, Former Foreign Minister of Albania (2005-2007)
 * "I think the jurors who awarded the Pjeter Arbrori Literary Award to Gjekë Marinaj have made an excellent selection based on his quality of poetry, which has a universal value. They have made an exceptional selection because of his conceptual imagination of a great writer who incorporates his country into his poetry as a universe where planets do not collide with each other, but nourish each other with light and energy. [A comment on the ceremony of Pjeter Arbrori Literary Award presented to Marinaj in 2008.]"

- Cindy Hulbert, The Durango Herald
 * "Translated into many languages, the twenty-one-line poem, Horses, is considered the most trustworthy poetic icon that reflects the Albanian reality during its dictatorship period."

- Ramadan Bigza, Albania Press
 * "His poems, full of feelings, are part of his overall formation or development. These and other qualities that fulfill the portrait of Gjekë Marinaj have earned him great respect of his colleagues."

- Vangjush Ziko, Z. Shqiptare
 * "The newness that we find in Gjekë Marinaj's poetry is a civilized verse dressed in art. By a civilized verse, I mean refilling the old poetic vessel of poetry with a new brew. This 'new wine' is a production of ancient fruit grafted with his multileveled erudition. The poet dares to mix in his verse an antique culture - biblical and contemporary - with hidden knowns and unknowns of the genetics of humanity's mysterious cosmos with that of concrete and abstract, freedom and nature."

- Tomë Mrijaj, Kuvendi
 * "Marinaj's poems are valuable for the younger poets as textual reference of the best model of artistic poetry, especially for those who are just starting. Every poem puts one into meditation and leaves you with great impressions. The rich spiritual world of this poet is present in every word, in every line, in every stanza. The metrics and the rhythm of his line sounds are like the finest of musical chords. His work translates into an unparalleled esthetic pleasure to the reader."

- Ali R. Berisha, Writer
 * "From the creative pens like that of Gjekë Marinaj the art of poetry, itself, strengthens its reputation. Within his verse breezes an astonishing poetic beauty. When I read the poetry of Gjekë Marinaj, I see clearly that my self-importance increases. His work contributes so ily to the betterment of poetry as an art form."

- Nexhat Rexha, Poet
 * "The poetry of Gjekë Marinaj has forced me to delve deeper into poetry. I must say one will do that with such an important and unique poet of the Albanian culture. Enriched by his characteristically colorful metaphors his verse is notably his."

- Marjan Bunaj, Writer
 * "After reading his book [Prayer on the Eighth Day of the Week], I was pleasantly surprised that a distinguished writer like Marinaj is also a man of fierceful emotions. His are a mountaineer's feelings that project the finest of cultural enlightenment. Through his affectionate lines, we feel his warmth, but we are not singed from his poetic flames and that is true poetry."

- Gjekë Gjonaj, Koha Javore
 * "Gjekë Marinaj, who became a well-known name, is an inspiration and model for every successful Albanian emigrant. His difficult road to success is a road map for every Albanian writer who desires to create a name for him or herself in Albanian literature."

- Edmond Ndoja, Comment
 * "Gjekë Marinaj is the pride of the Malësia e Madhe and Albania. Our country misses the presence of such a great intellectual but, on the other hand, he is honoring us wherever he goes."

- Preç Zogaj, Mapo Review
 * "Gjekë Marinaj has undertaken a difficult mission to bring Frederick Turner's sonnets into Albanian. Utilizing precise words and meanings, Marinaj has given absolute priority to a faithful translation."

- Frederick Turner, Express
 * "Marinaj erupts on the scene with all the brilliance of youth and the erotic energy of the mature adult. He shows us a way of seeing the world - beyond magical realism, beyond the metaphysical conceit, even beyond the colorful surrealism of Eastern Europe - that reveals how very much we are still in the first hopeful dawn of human civilization."

- Peter R. Prifti, Translator
 * "Gjekë Marinaj has distinguished himself as a writer. Renowned authors have accorded him the highest praise for the excellence of his poetry. His writings are notable, among other things, for the originality of his thought, the vivid imagery, and the wide range of the subject matter. As an artist of the written word, he has a remarkable and enviable record of accomplishments."

- Ed Garcia, Brookhaven Courier
 * "Gjekë Marinaj is a most sincere lover of literature with a mind like a sponge. He's a natural walking around poet."

- Charlotte Karam, Translator
 * "Gjekë Marinaj has many hidden facets. An Albanian-American icon, he has proved to be a poetic genius who shyly reveals his complex past with each stanza. With a mere pen, this one person has done more for Albanian society than any politician has ever dreamed of doing. Watch him grow."

- Mujë Buçpapaj, Nacional
 * "Gjekë Marinaj has daringly created a new and sophisticated poetic code. His verse, an asset to contemporary poetry, places the bar high for other poets to meet."

- Brent Flynn, The Dallas Morning News
 * "… 'a first-rate poet' … Gjekë Marinaj understands the illuminating power of the written word in a nation that wishes to be free. His commitment to writing was born out of a harrowing personal tale of dissent and retribution."

- Ramadan Musliu, Poeteka
 * "Gjekë Marinaj's poems deal directly with life's problems. They are instantaneously inspirational, at once lyrical and sensitive, clear and abstract. He reconciles these extremes by creating equilibrium between opposing ideas, contrasting imagery, and antithetical meanings. Above all, his poems are authentic, singular compositions, uniquely elegant in their motives, figurative style, poetic perception and vividness. His is a verse we must distinguish as first-rate poetry."

- Wm. L. Dubnov, Phoenix Review
 * "In the troubled and turbulent times we inhabit, it is rare to find a voice of stillness - an anchor to which we can attach our trust. With the world changing every day, and not always for better, we require the safe harbor of sanity and soundness. In the poignant poetry of Gjekë Marinaj, we do find such a sanctuary."

- Arben Çokaj, Illyria
 * "The poet Gjekë Marinaj has achieved impressive versatility in his creative work. Effortlessly, he extends his reach from poetry to journalism and vice versa. Posing intelligent, insightful questions to the icons of Albanian and international art, literature, politics and sports, he offers his Albanian readers a book of interviews that is as interesting as it is meaningful."

- Eric Nicholson, The UTD Mercury
 * "[Marinaj's] poem was a sensation. Papers flew off the stands; by mid-morning the entire country had sold out, but word of mouth continued to spread like wildfire. Those with a newspaper would scribble copies of the poem on scraps of paper to pass to strangers. Some recited the poem to passersby on the street. The entire country was abuzz with excitement over what the unknown young poet had written."

- Adnan Mehmeti, Pavarësia News
 * "When I entered his studio, it was filled with an intellectual air, as if a pleasant Albanian breeze were blowing through. It was something that would inspire one to remember to fly with the dalenduchie to Shkodra, and, from there, all over Albania."

- Dashamir Cacáj, Atdheu
 * "In a way, it is a joy to see that a writer from the Balkans, one of the most outstanding poets of my country, still stands firm, even though he has lived two decades in the heavenly kingdom of the United States of America. Gjekë Marinaj is the name of this graceful poet who, just as a range of high mountains has enriched the soil of his country, he has fertilized the imagination of his generation with unmatched poetic skill. This is a challenge that inspires all of today's Balkan poets to move inexorably forward toward the pinnacle of poetic achievement."

- Peter R. Prifti, Translation Review
 * "Gjekë Marinaj attained sudden notoriety in Albania when he published an allegorical anti-communist poem titled Kuajt (Horses). To evade arrest, he fled his native country, eventually migrating to America, where he has since published a number of books, among them Infinit (Infinite), 2000; and Lutje në ditën e tetë të javës (Prayer on the Eighth Day of the Week)."

- Dhurata Hamzai, TemA
 * "My title of this review, "Gjekë Marinaj's poems like Bible-pages," is influenced by the multi-layers of meanings that are present in his verse and by the poli-spheres of his overall poetic act that leaves his readers with a sense of faith."

- Ndue Ukaj, Drita
 * "Gjekë Marinaj symbolizes a new peak in Albanian poetry; his innovative and contemporary-specific poetic elements are truly distinctive within the body of Albanian literature of the last two decades."

- Mikel Gojani, Shqip
 * "Contemporary critics have placed the ideo-artistic values of Marinaj's verse at the same rank with that of Camaj, Reshpja, Agolli and other distinguished names of the Albanian and world literature."

- Anton Gojçaj, Koha Javore — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tiranaere (talk • contribs) 04:50, 22 July 2012 (UTC)
 * "… Marinaj's collection of poems Prayer on the Eighth Day of the Week, in my opinion, is an exception; the book is beautifully designed and artistically satisfying."

We need Marinaj back in the infobox
I agree with usurer Tiranaere and with everyone quoted including the Dallas Morning News. Isn’t the infobox supposed to be about the notable people who have or are making a difference in the world? Like it or not, Gjek Marinaj is a most important Albanian-American public figure of our time. I would like to see him back in the infobox. Astrit Tafa, Journalist.--71.159.174.70 (talk) 14:04, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Related ethnic groups
The editor working from the dynamic IP range 92.22X has earlier tried to introduce European Americans as a related ethnic group to Albanian Americans. This time it is Non-Hispanic Whites and White Americans. Perhaps this editor is confusing "related to" with "being part of". These groups are completely incommensurable. Stretching this a bit further, you could just as well say that all humans are related to Albanians. You would, of course, be right, but it would not be very illuminating. The relationship between Albanian Americans and German Americans or Irish Americans is not any closer than between Albanians and any ethnic group in Europe. Note also that other articles on Albanians in Australia, Germany etc. does only mention Albanians and in some cases Albanian diaspora. Please stop the nonsense! Regards! T*U (talk) 12:28, 20 August 2013 (UTC)

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