Alexandra Papadopoulou is one of Greece’s highest-ranking diplomats, serving as her country’s deputy foreign minister. But when she came to New Orleans in 1987 to lead, at age 28, the city’s Greek consulate in her first diplomatic posting, she was feeling lost and a little unsure of herself.
Soon after her arrival, Papadopoulou met a local Greek American businessman. Things changed quickly after that.
“He came to my office on my second day here, and when he found out we were from the same area (in Greece), he said, ‘OK, now you come to my house,'” she said. “They adopted me.”…