Matesi abroad

This page is for an important portion af Matesians who live and act out of Greece.

Matesians, like the rest of Peloponesians, always tried to improve their life and to find new opportunities for that. The history says that from the beginning of Steamships people from Peloponesus and from Matesi went to the America for a better life.

Matesi land, infertile and mountain, did not provide opportunities for an improved cultivation and life. So Matesians left Matesi and it is important that from 1900 until 1940 there was an unwritten rule under that, the most of boys of 13 years old, left their families to go to Athens to find a job and to send money back.

That was the main cause of Matesi's population decrease. In two periods, first around 1900 - 1915 and secondly around 1960 many Matesians immigrated abroad, mainly in United States and Canada, secondarily in Australia, Germany, Ethiopia and Venezouela. In US the main Matesians concentration was in Milwaukee and Chicago and in Canada in Calgary and Toronto.
Inside Greece, they immigrated to Athens and Corinthia.

Greeks in America