GARDEN GROVE : Immigrants Enjoy First U.S. Christmas

Bozena Lojewski, who emigrated from Poland with her husband six months ago, spent last Christmas wishing she was in the United States with her sister.

“Christmas is very important in my country,” she said as the family gathered in her sister’s Santa Ana home. “Family is always thinking of everyone and crying. And probably my family in Poland is crying for me right now.”

The Lojewskis are among thousands of European, East-Asian and Central American immigrants and refugees who will celebrate their first Christmas in the Orange County area this year, said Lila Cicek of Catholic Charities services.

“It’s a very special time for them,” she said, “because they come here and it’s beautiful with stars in the sky and streets that are decorated. It’s like a special welcome for them and signifies all their dreams.”

Daniel Simoni and his family, too, are witnessing their first Christmas here, and it is a significant one.

“The reason we can be happy for Christmas this year is because we are free,” Simoni said through an interpreter.

For Simoni, a Romanian, freedom did not come easily. He was beaten and jailed by Romanian border patrol guards on two separate occasions between 1987 and 1989, he said, for illegally crossing the Romania-Yugoslavia border.

“They put me face down to the ground and beat me with a cane on the back of my feet,” he said, from the Garden Grove home he shares with another Romanian family.

That was the first time.

After serving three months of a one-year sentence, Simoni met and married Claudia, 20. The couple escaped into Yugoslavia the next year but were later caught and sent back to Romania. This time, Simoni said, border guards beat him and punched out his two front teeth.

His third escape from Romania was his last. He and a group of friends successfully crossed the border in early 1988, and continued to France. Then the Romanian revolution toppled dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Simoni sent for his wife and child, and after a year and a half of waiting the couple was allowed to come to the United States this November.

Alex Pop, 22, a Romanian who immigrated seven years ago and whose family is hosting the Simonis, said the newcomers “are very impressed with all the pretty lights.”