So now I’ve had a few days back in the ‘Land of my Fathers’ after a week in the ‘Land of the Free’ I’m starting to put my transatlantic experience into some sort of context. This was the first time I had been to the USA since my last visit to the North American Festival of Wales in Washington back in 2018. In fact I think its my first time abroad since COVID.
In the years leading up to that last trip I had become a fairly frequent traveller to the States. At one stage I took an annual trip down to the Deep South for the Tupelo Gumtree Festival and all things Elvis. I had thought my Washington trip was the start of a new set of relationships but of course the pandemic put paid to all that.
A week ago I was sweltering in the high 90’s surrounded by ‘hymns and arias’ at the Festival. It really is a remarkable affair. I was told by one of the organisers it was one of the largest gatherings to celebrate Welshness anywhere in the world, third place only to the National and Urdd Eisteddfods.
Now I have just put on a thick jumper and sparked up the central heating and I’m thinking of the differences and similarities between our two nations.
Firstly, just like home, the people of Pittsburgh were incredibly friendly and welcoming and not just the Festival Welsh. I was travelling solo which meant I spent a lot of my time wandering the streets looking for food, presents or places of interest. I was also in a film making frame of mind, so I had my iPhone in hand trying to capture images and people that represented the changing Steel Town.
Where do you start with the real history of Pennsylvania?
Before the Europeans arrived there were a number of indigenous tribes that travelled down the rivers hunting and farming and always squabbling with each other as tribes have a habit of doing. That all changed dramatically with the arrival of the Europeans. At one time or another the land was claimed by the Swedes with New Sweden, the Dutch with New Netherland as well as becoming a focal point in the French Indian War.
If Welshman William Penn had had his way the state would have been called New Wales. Penn had been granted a land charter in the Americas by Charles II as a way of repaying a debt back in Britain. Of course someone objected in the name and in the end they added the Latin word Sylvania, meaning forests, to Mr Penn’s own name and Pennsylvania it was from then on.
With so many different Europeans arriving in Pittsburgh for a better life it’s not surprising that the melting point includes names from Germany as well as Holland and Sweden, but the Welsh had another big impact in the 1800’s.
In Merthyr in 1831, for the first time anywhere in the world, the red flag was raised as a symbol of the working classes revolting against their masters. Rioting was accompanied by cries of ‘down with the king’ and ‘Bread and cheese’. At the end of the ‘Rising’ 24 protesters were dead and Dic Penderyn was hanged for allegedly stabbing a soldier with a bayonet.
This was the catalyst for many to cross the Atlantic and ply their trade in Pittsburgh. They took their beliefs with them; religious and trade unions and they had a marked impact on how the Steel works of Pittsburgh flourished and were also unionised.
Last Monday was Labor Day in the USA, a national holiday celebrated every first Monday in September to honour the American Labor movement and celebrate their impact on the United States.
This is where I found my head spinning in all sorts of directions. Everything about the city marks its industrial past. Signs on the hillsides declare Pittsburgh to be Iron Town. The American Football team are known as the Pittsburgh Steelers, but downtown Pittsburgh is now bright shiny and new.
The 3 rivers that meet at Point Park now run clear again as they did in the pre European days of the indigenous Shawnee and Lenape Tribes. There are still some big barges carrying freight into the heart of the country down the Ohio River, but you are now much more likely to see people on jet skis, or Tiki Bar boats these days.
The sky line isn’t exactly New York but from where I stood these skyscrapers still looked very impressive. The university now claims to be one of the finest centres in the USA for Medical Research and Robotics.
I did travel across the river to the South Side in search of a guitar strap which I needed for my concert performances. I was told the street where I found ‘Pittsburgh Guitars’ once had more bars than any street in the country. With the thirst developed in those steel mills I could quite believe it. But as the jobs in the steel mills have been lost so have the bars. This really is a different side to the new Pittsburgh.
Just like the UK the USA has been quite a journey over the past decade. Divisions that had simmered under the surface have come to the fore as people grapple with their place in a new global world. As jobs disappear the new under employed look for answers and of course the finger of suspicion points to incomers who have taken advantage of the system.
Labor Day was marked by a parade of union workers, from the boiler makers to police to firemen and school teachers. All proudly marched behind their banners and held true to the position so hard fought for by their ancestors…and then I visited a diner on the strip.
Wearing my Kardomah T-shirt in a Pittsburgh Diner.
As it was Labor day the diner was closing early. I was the last in the queue but when John one of the regulars arrived after me an exception was made for both of us. I ordered the ‘Famous Breakfast’ and covered my bacon and eggs in maple syrup. John ordered the omelette. John had been a steelworker but joined the military when he was made redundant. He was proud of his service working on the nuclear silos where his past life had given him a trade as a metal worker.
They say never talk about religion or politics but with a Presidential Election weeks away it was impossible to ignore. With Pittsburgh being a steel town, a union town you would have thought John was a sure fire bet to vote Democrat. I mean the Republican Candidate for President is already talking about more tax cuts for the wealthiest in society, but John had decided he had been ignored for too long by Washington. He could be a democrat no more and was sure there were many old union guys just like him.
Pittsburgh reminded me in so many ways of my home region especially Port Talbot. In some ways the regeneration of that old steel town gave me hope that with the right investment and leadership our old steel town could once again rise from the ashes but if it wants to succeed we must ensure that everyone has a stake in the future. The last thing we want is skyscrapers and no heart in the city.