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Speaking with Contilo Pandeleon about how she came to open Symposium Restaurant and Pizza, one gets the impression she has recounted time and again the events and circumstances that carried her across the Atlantic, from her native island of Paros to Montreal, Canada, eventually landing in Davis with her family.
When asked why she left behind the still, cerulean waters and translucent marble of the Greek island - situated in the middle of the Cyclades group of the Aegean Sea - she chuckles with the weariness of a woman who has had to explain her life’s journeys a dizzying number of times.
"It’s a long story," she says, seemingly content with this brief synopsis. "That was over 50 years ago."
Pressed for what prompted her family’s initial move from Paros to Canada, she pauses, laughs again, and sighs deeply before continuing.
"Well, because we were very poor," she explains. Although a lifetime ago, speaking of her youth still seems to bring a heaviness to Contilo’s words. She is small in stature, but she possesses a robustness that belies the courage and consistent hard work required to leave one’s home and create new possibilities for oneself.
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