Latvian-American
Encyclopedia
Latvian Americans are citizens of the United States
who are of Latvia
n ancestry. According to the 2000 US census, there are 87,564 Americans of full or partial Latvian descent. The states with the largest Latvian-American populations are:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
who are of Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
n ancestry. According to the 2000 US census, there are 87,564 Americans of full or partial Latvian descent. The states with the largest Latvian-American populations are:
| California California California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area... |
11,000 | New York New York New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east... |
9,937 | Illinois Illinois Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,... |
5,772 | Florida Florida Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it... |
5,384 | Michigan Michigan Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake".... |
4,730 |
Notable Latvian Americans
- Rutanya AldaRutanya Alda-Life:Rutanya Alda was born as Rutanya Alda Skrastiņa in Riga, Latvia, the daughter of Vera , a businesswoman, and Jānis Skrastiņš, a poet...
(Rūta Skrastiņa, 1942), actress (Mommy Dearest, The Deer Hunter) - Gunnar BirkertsGunnar BirkertsGunnar Birkerts is a prominent American architect who, for most of his career, was based in the metropolitan area of Detroit, Michigan. Some of his designs include the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York, Marquette Plaza in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in...
(Gunārs Birkerts, 1925), architect (Corning Museum of GlassCorning Museum of GlassThe Corning Museum of Glass, in Corning, New York, explores every facet of glass, including art, history, culture, science and technology, craft, and design....
, Marquette PlazaMarquette PlazaMarquette Plaza is a highrise in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota located at 250 Marquette Avenue. Designed by Gunnar Birkerts, it was home to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 1973 to 1997 . Designed much like a suspension bridge, most of the original floors are supported by two sets of...
in Minneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary ArtKemper Museum of Contemporary ArtThe Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 1994 in Kansas City, Missouri. The core of the museum's permanent collection is the Bebe and R. Crosby Kemper Jr. Collection, a gift of the museum's founders. The collection includes works created after the 1913 Armory Show to works by present-day...
, the U.S. Embassy in CaracasCaracasCaracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, VenezuelaVenezuelaVenezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
) - Vija CelminsVija CelminsVija Celmins is an American artist.-Early life:Vija Celmins immigrated to the United States with her family from Latvia when she was ten years old. She and her family settled in Indiana...
(Vija Celmiņš, 1938), painter, in 2009 she won a Fellow Award in the Visual Arts from United States Artists - Jacob Davis (Jacob Youphes, 1831–1908), tailor, inventor of denimDenimDenim is a rugged cotton twill textile, in which the weft passes under two or more warp threads. This produces the familiar diagonal ribbing identifiable on the reverse of the fabric, which distinguishes denim from cotton duck. Denim has been in American usage since the late 18th century...
- Buddy EbsenBuddy EbsenBuddy Ebsen was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in the 1970s detective series Barnaby Jones, and played Barnaby Jones in the movie...
(1908–2003), actor and dancer, who is perhaps best remembered for his role as Jed Clampett in the popular television series The Beverly HillbilliesThe Beverly HillbilliesThe Beverly Hillbillies is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for nine seasons on CBS from 1962 to 1971, starring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer, Jr.... - Andrievs Ezergailis (1930), historian of the Holocaust
- Natalie GulbisNatalie GulbisNatalie Anne Gulbis is an American professional golfer of Latvian descent who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour.-Golf career:...
, LPGA golfer - Moriss HalleMorris HalleMorris Halle , is a Latvian-American Jewish linguist and an Institute Professor and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
(1923), linguist - Philippe HalsmanPhilippe HalsmanPhilippe Halsman was an American portrait photographer.-Life and work:Born to a Jewish family of Morduch Halsman, a dentist, and Ita Grintuch, a grammar school principal, in Riga, Halsman studied electrical engineering in Dresden....
(Filips Halsmans), photographer - Juris HartmanisJuris HartmanisJuris Hartmanis is a prominent computer scientist and computational theorist who, with Richard E. Stearns, received the 1993 ACM Turing Award "in recognition of their seminal paper which established the foundations for the field of computational complexity theory".Hartmanis was born in Latvia...
(1928), computer scientist, Turing AwardTuring AwardThe Turing Award, in full The ACM A.M. Turing Award, is an annual award given by the Association for Computing Machinery to "an individual selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community. The contributions should be of lasting and major technical importance to the...
winner (1993) - Mārtiņš KrūmiņšMartins KruminsMārtiņš Krūmiņš was a Latvian-American Impressionist painter. He left Latvia after World War II and came to the United States in 1950. As Janis Siliņš wrote in a book about Mārtiņš Krūmiņš "Mārtiņš Krūmiņš .....
, Latvian-American Impressionist Painter - DJ LethalDJ LethalLeor Dimant , better known as DJ Lethal, is a turntablist and producer and member of the bands Limp Bizkit, House of Pain and La Coka Nostra.-Early life:Leor Dimant was born in Riga, Latvia, when this country was still part of the Soviet Union...
(Leors Dimants), DJ for rap-rock band Limp BizkitLimp BizkitLimp Bizkit is an American rock band from Jacksonville, Florida. Formed in 1995, the group's lineup consists of Fred Durst , Wes Borland , Sam Rivers , John Otto and DJ Lethal . The band achieved mainstream success with their second studio album Significant Other, released in 1999... - Ed Leedskalnin (Edvards Liedskalniņš, 1887–1951), amateur sculptor, builder of Coral Castle in Florida, claimed to have discovered the ancient magnetic levitation secrets used to construct the Egyptian pyramids.
- Leo MihelsonsLeo MichelsonLeo Michelson was an American artist considered part of the École de Paris, although his works span many periods and styles.-Biography:Michelson was born in Riga, Latvia. He attended the Imperial Academy in St...
(1887–1978) - artist - Agate Nesaule, writer of A Woman in AmberA Woman in AmberA Woman in Amber: Healing the Trauma of War and Exile is a part autobiographical, part fictional novel written by Agate Nesaule. The first half of the novel describes Nesaule’s experiences of exile from Latvia imposed by the invading Soviet army, and her family’s emigration to the United States in...
: Healing the Trauma of War and Exile - Fred NorrisFred NorrisEric Fred Norris is an American radio personality known for being the longest-tenured staff member of The Howard Stern Show aside from Stern himself...
(Alfreds Leo Nuķis), Howard Stern show personality - Lucia PekaLucia PekaLucia Peka was a Latvian-American Artist. Born in Latvia, she became part of the Diaspora of artists who fled Latvia during World War II, and eventually settled in the United States where she was a successful painter of landscapes, figures, and still life for almost 50 years...
(Lūcija Pēka, 1912–1991), artist, painter of "Flowers", "Riga", and "The Well". Part of the Latvian Diaspora. - Brita Petersone, model
- Konstantīns Počs, engineer, one of the inventors of AWACS – the airborne warning and control system
- Gundaris PoneGundaris PoneGundaris Pone was a Latvian-born American composer of contemporary classical music, conductor, and professor....
, composer and conductor (1932–1994) - Lolita RitmanisLolita RitmanisLolita Ritmanis is an American composer. Nominated for ten Emmy Awards, she won the award in 2002 for her work on the animated series Batman Beyond.-Early life:...
(1962, Portland), orchestrator, composer - Mark RothkoMark RothkoMark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz , was a Russian-born American painter. He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted classification as an "abstract painter".- Childhood :Mark Rothko was born in Dvinsk, Vitebsk Province, Russian...
, painter - Raimonds StapransRaimonds StapransRaimonds Staprans is a well-known artist and playwright both in the United States and his native Latvia. Staprans was born in 1926 in Riga, Latvia. He now lives in San Francisco, California with his wife, scientist Ilona Staprāns...
(Raimonds Staprāns, 1926), Latvian/American painter and playwright ("The Freezing", 1979; "Four Days in June", 1989) - Esther Sans Takeuchi, Greatbatch Professor of Advanced Power Sources at University of Buffalo and recipient of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (Oct. 7, 2009)
- Juris Upatnieks (1936), physicist, the co-inventor of three-dimensional holographyHolographyHolography is a technique that allows the light scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that when an imaging system is placed in the reconstructed beam, an image of the object will be seen even when the object is no longer present...
, created the first working hologram in 1962 - Roberta PedonRoberta PedonRoberta Pedon was the stage name of a big-bust Latvian Jewish American glamour model who appeared in men's magazines in the 1970s.- Modeling Career and Personal Life :...
(1954-1982), glamour model - Makss VeinreihsMax WeinreichMax Weinreich was a linguist, specializing in the Yiddish language, and the father of the linguist Uriel Weinreich, who edited the Modern Yiddish-English English-Yiddish Dictionary.- Biography :Max Weinreich began his studies in a German school in Kuldiga,...
(1893–1969), linguist - Āris BrīmanisAris BrimanisAris Aldis Brimanis is an American professional ice hockey defenseman from Shaker Heights, Ohio who is currently a free agent. He most recently played with the Hannover Scorpions of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga.-Playing career:...
(1972), ice hockey player - Miķelis KnublisMike KnubleMichael Rudolph Knuble is a Canadian American professional ice hockey right winger and an alternate captain for the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League .-Playing career:...
(1972), ice hockey player - Haralds ŠnepstsHarold SnepstsHarold John Snepsts is a retired professional ice hockey player who spent 17 seasons in the National Hockey League...
(1954), ice hockey player - Ed ViestursEd ViestursEdmund Viesturs, known as Ed Viesturs is one of the world's premier high-altitude mountaineers. He is one of only 26 people and the only one from the United States to have climbed all eight-thousander peaks...
(Edmunds Viesturs, (1959), one of the world's premier high-altitude mountaineers. He is one of only 18 people to have climbed all eight-thousander peaks.
See also
- European AmericanEuropean AmericanA European American is a citizen or resident of the United States who has origins in any of the original peoples of Europe...
- Hyphenated AmericanHyphenated AmericanIn the United States, the term hyphenated American is an epithet commonly used from 1890 to 1920 to disparage Americans who were of foreign birth or origin, and who displayed an allegiance to a foreign country. It was most commonly used to disparage German Americans or Irish Americans who called...
- List of Latvians
- LatviansLatviansLatvians or Letts are the indigenous Baltic people of Latvia.-History:Latvians occasionally refer to themselves by the ancient name of Latvji, which may have originated from the word Latve which is a name of the river that presumably flowed through what is now eastern Latvia...