This gold jewelry is a relic of my grandfather’s life in communist Hungary, where a deep distrust of banks led families to invest in gold. My great-grandfather, a carpenter, taught my grandfather how to build furniture with secret compartments to hide these valuables underground or within the home—pieces we still cherish today. In his early twenties, after fighting in the Hungarian Revolution, my grandfather escaped to America as a refugee by posing as a tourist in Italy. He settled with an uncle in Queens, working as a carpenter by day and studying English at night. To assimilate, he changed his name from Ferenc to Frank. Years later, he returned to Hungary to retrieve his family’s hidden treasures and bring them to his new home. He eventually met my grandmother at a Hungarian festival in New York. While he was a fiercely proud Hungarian who filled our home with the scent of goulash, nokedli, and traditional pastries, he refused to teach his children the language; he wanted them to be fully American. From a refugee with hidden gold to a successful business owner, my grandfather lived the American Dream. This jewelry, and the secret cabinets he built, represent our family’s history of resilience and the legacy he left behind. 

– CK

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant