Through Their Eyes
A Chinese actor prepares backstage before performing a traditional opera. Tribune Photo By Ira Cohen
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Chinese:
Strength in Numbers
The 2000 census counted 139,820 Chinese people in Queens, marking them as the largest immigrant nationality in the borough. Until 1920, Chinese people were placed into the United States Census’ “other” category, along with any other group that was not white or black.
Where They Live
Since 1986, a booming economy in Flushing has attracted large numbers of Chinese—more than one-half of Queens’ Chinese population.
While there are still some vibrant Chinese communities in Ridgewood and Long Island City, the Chinese mostly congregate in Flushing.
How They Got There
The number of Chinese immigrants to the United States remained small until 1943, when The Chinese Exclusion Act, which kept America’s doors closed to Chinese immigrants, was repealed and replaced with a quota of 105 immigrants per year from both Mainland China and Taiwan. It was still rare, however, for the full 105 Mainland Chinese people to gain leave from China’s government.
In 1946, the War Brides Act allowed Chinese Americans who fought in the war to bring their wives to the United States. Many Chinese Americans pooled their loan monies and opened large wet wash factories, which employed hundreds of Chinese Americans for low pay.
What Makes Them Who They Are
“Chinese people as a whole are becoming educated and more Americanized,” says past Flushing Chinese Business Association President Fred Fu. “They’re focused on education. They send their children to school, and many succeed.
“People that are born in the United States are American. They’re not Chinese. They speak English, so they’re American. In 50 years, no one will ask a Chinese person, ‘When did you come to America?’”
One example of just such a Chinese-American is Flushing Councilman John Liu, who was elected in 2001 as New York City Council’s first Chinese member.
“You hear John Liu speak?” Fu asks. “He’s not Chinese. He’s American. We are growing here in the country.”
The Good Life
Flushing is currently filled with Chinese signs and businesses, and major chain stores are taking an interest in opening in the area. The Flushing Mall opened in 2001, and members of the Flushing community are currently exploring the possibility of making Flushing a Business Improvement District (BID).
The Not-So-Good Life
Councilwoman Julia Harrison was quoted in a 1996 New York Times article as saying the movement of Asians to Flushing was “an invasion, not assimilation.” Her comments were met with uproar from the community, and three Asian Americans challenged her council seat—but she still won re-election by a 61% majority.
“Everyone knew of it, but it’s in the past now,” Fu says of the negative comments. “Not important. What’s important is that business is good in Flushing and we’re doing well.”
Though divided by unforgivable history, African Americans, like any other groups, will work to help one another when disaster strikes, as these people helped deliver supplies to a post-Katrina New Orleans. Tribune Photo by Ira Cohen
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African Americans:
Strength in Numbers
The 2000 Census counted 69,425 people in Queens who identified their ancestry as sub-Saharan African, and 476,563 who identified it as West Indian.
Where They Live
African-Americans have maintained a steady 10 to 12 percent borough-wide population since late in the 17th Century, with certain areas—like parts of East Elmhurst and Corona and most of southeast Queens—maintaining black populations of 70 percent or more.
Though parts of South Jamaica, South Ozone Park and Far Rockaway are occupied by apartment buildings and low-income housing and their corresponding quality of life problems, much of southeast Queens is an area of middle-class prosperity confirmed by neat houses—some of them small mansions—and meticulously manicured landscaping.
How They Got There
After leaving the south, blacks started coming to Queens—parts of which some consider to be stops on the Underground Railroad—as early as they could. Government records from 1698 noted that there were 199 black people in the borough that year. The number represented an unknown mix of slaves and free blacks.
The contemporary identity of Queens as a major destination for blacks began around the time of the first World’s Fair and the building of the Triborough Bridge in the 1940s. After the widespread development of northern Queens for the Fair, and the opening up of access to the borough with the bridge, a significant migration of blacks from Harlem started. Most of those early intra-city migrants lived in the apartment buildings and attached housing of that part of the borough.
Incoming immigrants from West Indian, or Caribbean, nations tripled between 1940 and 1990, particularly between 1965 and 1980, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
What Makes Them Who They Are
When you ask Clarence Irving, founder of the Black American Heritage Foundation and longtime St. Albans resident, about “African Americans,” he makes the point that we’re speaking about people of African descent from all of the Americas, not just in the United States.
For Irving, the 2000 Census term “Sub-Saharan Africans,” for example, is something to laugh about. “You mean black people?” he asks. “Well, why don’t you say it that way?”
Irving, an historian who began the U.S. Postal Service’s Black Heritage stamp series, reminds that the story of West Indians in Queens, for example, is one intertwined with and inseparable from that of the area’s American-born blacks. Though the two groups entered the country under very different circumstances and have had their share of culture clash though the years, they are increasingly finding themselves in the same lot, for both good and ill.
The Good Life
Queens has always been a gold coast of sorts for African-Americans in New York. Irving paints a picture of a borough that was always seen not as a first step or a last resort, but as a place to move up into; many of Queens’ blacks left cramped walk-ups or projects in Harlem or Brooklyn for this borough’s open skies, fresh air and green backyards.
The Not-So-Good Life
Strained relations between native blacks and Caribbeans were—and to some extent still are—multiplied by the factor of Caribbeans of South Asian descent. Thousands of Indians went to the Caribbean as laborers after slavery was abolished there in 1834. Almost 150,000 Indians migrated to Trinidad between 1845 and 1917; over 35,000 went to Jamaica during that same time; many thousands still went to Guyana. While today the West Indies are characterized by their unique mix of African and Indian culture, those two groups and native blacks have always had some amount of culture clash when they met in Queens.
Still, today, amidst a level of tension, Caribbeans and native blacks in Queens are closer than ever to not only accepting but embracing each other.
Amar Touati
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Amar touati
France & Algeria
Age: 32
Years in America: 17
Amar Touati is the product of two countries: France and Algeria. Raised by an Algerian father and a French mother, Touati traveled back and forth between countries, never feeling fully at home in either place. Now he has tacked on another nationality to his identity: American. Amid all of his traveling and cultural confusion, Touati found baking to be a common thread.
“My family traveled between France and Algeria all of our lives,” Touati said. “Fifteen years ago in France, there was a lot of discrimination and Algeria was a tough country, too. We wanted to go far away from both cultures. For us, it was like peace of mind to come here because nobody knew us or cared where we came from. I didn’t have to explain to people that my daddy was a Muslim and my mom was a Christian.”
Touati and his family found refuge in Queens, but the move wasn’t as easy as they hoped it would be. When he arrived in New York in 1989, Touati felt confused, lost and frustrated at his inability to speak the language.
“When I first came here, it was very difficult,” Touati said. “The language was the biggest problem. How are you going to speak up or defend yourself if people can’t understand you? People look at you like you are not even human.”
A third generation baker, Touati grew up baking and assumed he could get a job in an American restaurant. Despite his work experience in Algeria and France, he had a difficult time mustering the courage to apply for jobs in Queens.
“I used to stand in front of stores and be afraid to go in,” Touati said. “My resume used to be a blank page. Nobody knows or cares that I worked in Algeria and France.”
After a few months, Touati landed his first job as a dishwasher at Le Train Bleu, the sixth floor restaurant at Bloomingdale’s in midtown. When one of the bakers quit, Touati found himself making cheesecakes and pastries in the kitchen. Although he enjoyed baking, he was forced to find a more lucrative job and began waiting tables at a variety of restaurants, including Balthazar.
Now a resident of Long Island City and an American citizen, Touati is a fluent English speaker and a seasoned waiter. But he said that he misses baking. “I worked as a waiter for so long, but never had the chance to work inside the kitchen,” Touati said.
While meandering around his neighborhood, Touati stumbled on the Artisan Baking Center, a baking and culinary training facility that is funded by the New York City Council. Two weeks ago, Touati graduated from the Introduction to Baking course, and is now hoping to return to his baking roots.
“Baking is in my blood,” Touati said. “Nobody in my family went to school for baking, we just learned from generation to generation. After finishing the class, I felt like I was honoring my dad, like I had some true basic training.”
Julio C. Romero
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Julio C. Romero
Peru
Age: 25
Years in America: 4
Julio C. Romero has always wanted to be a part of the healthcare industry. After incurring injuries in both his home country (a broken shoulder) and his new country (two twisted ankles), he witnessed firsthand the discrepancies in healthcare.
“A doctor is supposed to teach you how to take care of yourself,” Romero said, referring to the hasty and impersonal treatment he received in a New York hospital. “I felt like it was two different worlds here and there. A doctor should not be intimidating, and I think I can give better treatment to patients.”
In Peru, Romero split his time between the city and the country. During the school year (March to December), Romero lived and studied in Lima. He spent his summers (January to March) visiting his grandfather in the Peruvian countryside.
“I had the experience of being a city boy and a country boy,” Romero said. “In the city, everyone is in a rush. In the country, it was much quieter.”
Nearly five years ago, Romero decided to move to America. He was in his second year of studying engineering, but he knew that he wanted to explore new opportunities. His father, who was already living in America, convinced him that he would have a “better chance” here.
“It was a tough decision,” Romero said. “But I knew that I needed a change, so I talked to my father, got my paperwork together, and came here a few months later.”
Romero said that the hardest thing about the initial move was the detachment from his family and overcoming the language barrier. Although he had learned some English in Peru, he was unable to communicate here.
Now a resident of Bayside, Romero is a fluent English speaker and an active member of the community. He is graduating from Queensborough Community College this semester, and will enter SUNY Stony Brook next semester. He plans to become a dentist.
“Lima and New York City are very different,” Romero said. “Here, the cultures are much more diverse. Queens is so multicultural that you can find everything here. If I want Peruvian food, for example, I can go get some and find a little place here that feels like home.”
Romero has not only acclimated to his new life in Queens, but has excelled in all of his endeavors. At QCC, he took on leadership positions as the vice president of evening students and as a math and science tutor. In January, he will begin fulfilling the pre-dental requirements as a biochemistry student at SUNY Stony Brook. He is now well on his way to becoming a dentist.
“It doesn’t matter where you start,” Romero said. “It matters what you accomplish and where you go after. This is a country of second chances and opportunities.”
Members of a Caribbean steel drum band take the stage in a Queens elementary schoool. Tribune Photo by Ira Cohen
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Africans & West Indians:
Strength in Numbers
The 2000 Census counted 69,425 people in Queens who identified their ancestry as sub-Saharan African, and 476, 563 who identified themselves as West Indian of non-Hispanic origin.
Where They Live
African-Americans have maintained a steady 10 to 12 percent borough-wide population since late in the 17th Century, with certain areas—like parts of East Elmhurst and Corona and most of southeast Queens—maintaining black populations of 70 percent or more.
Though parts of South Jamaica, South Ozone Park and Far Rockaway are occupied by apartment buildings and low-income housing and their corresponding quality of life problems, much of southeast Queens is an area of middle-class prosperity confirmed by neat houses—some of them small mansions—and meticulously manicured landscaping.
How They Got There
The contemporary identity of Queens as a major destination for blacks began around the time of the first World’s in the 1940s. After the widespread development of northern Queens for the Fair, and the opening up of access to the borough with the Triborough Bridge, a significant migration of blacks from Harlem began. Most of those early intra-city migrants lived in the apartment buildings and attached housing of that part of the borough.
Incoming immigrants from West Indian, or Caribbean, nations tripled between 1940 and 1990, particularly between 1965 and 1980, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
What Makes Them Who They Are
When you ask Clarence Irving, founder of the Black American Heritage Foundation and longtime St. Albans resident, about African Americans, he makes the point that you’re speaking about people of African descent from all of the Americas, not just in the United States.
For Irving, the 2000 Census term “Sub-Saharan Africans” is something to laugh about. “You mean black people?” he asks. “Well, why don’t you say it that way?”
The Good Life
Queens has always been a gold coast of sorts for African-Americans in New York. Irving paints a picture of a borough that was always seen not as a first step or a last resort, but as a place to move up into; many of Queens’ blacks left cramped walk-ups or projects in Harlem or Brooklyn for this borough’s open skies, fresh air and green backyards.
The Not-So-Good Life
Strained relations between native blacks and Caribbeans with African ancestry still exist. Today, the West Indies are characterized by their unique mix of African and Indian culture, those two groups and native blacks have always had some amount of culture clash in Queens.
Still, today, amidst a level of tension, Caribbeans and native blacks in Queens are closer than ever to not only accepting but embracing each other.
Russians & Eastern Europeans:
Strength in Numbers
In the 2000 Census, 51,192 Queens residents identified themselves as being of Russian ancestry, 10,306 Ukrainian, and 4,164 people claimed Lithuanian. (Earlier censuses lumped all different Soviet republics under the heading of “Russian.”)
Where They Live
Sections of Forest Hills and Rego Park and, to a lesser extent, Kew Gardens and the Rockaways, have evolved into mini-Moscows, with Russian language filling the air, and Cyrillic lettering widely visible on the streets.
Bukharian Jews, an offshoot of Middle Eastern and Persian Jewry dating from the 6th Century A.D., consider themselves socially and culturally different from the other East European Jewish sects.
During the 1990s, approximately 30,000 Bukharian Jews found homes in the area of Rego Park, Forest Hills, and Kew Gardens.
Today, many Bukharian shops and synagogues—most bearing Cyrillic lettering—court residents along the length of 108th St., providing a taste of Uzbek culture to all area residents.
How They Got There
Vast Russian migration to the United States began in the late 19th century, when boatloads of Russian Jews landed at Ellis Island, seeking to escape the increasing oppression and pogroms that emerged following the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881.
Russian culture began to emerge in Western Queens throughout the early 20th century. Socialist Revolutionary Leon Trotsky even spoke several times at Urban Hall in 1917, in the area then known as Winfield.
Although the number of Russian immigrants in Queens increased throughout the 20th century, the explosion of Russian and former-Soviet immigration to the borough did not truly begin until the early 1970s, when hundreds of thousands of Jews fleeing Communist oppression made the borough their home.
What Makes Them Who They Are
It’s important to note that all immigrants from the former Soviet Union can’t necessarily be called Russian. Many hail from other former Soviet republics, including Uzbekistan, Lithuania, Georgia, and Ukraine. Collectively, these Soviet émigrés have loaned a distinct and memorable presence to the streets of Queens.
The Good Life
Throughout the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s the United States government and Jewish aid groups sponsored the exodus of many oppressed Russian Jews.
On one monumental day in 1989, a total of 1,750 Soviet refuges—1,356 of them Jews—landed at John F. Kennedy airport in an extraordinary airlift exodus that involved eight different planes. The cost of resettling each immigrant was split between Jewish aid organizations and the U.S. government.
The Not-So-Good Life
“Housing, jobs, language barrier, acculturation, adjustment, and schools,” have traditionally been some of the biggest problems for Russian immigrants from the 1970s onwards, says Lali Janash, a caseworker at the Esther Greenblatt Russian Service Center.
Also, though many immigrants may have been well educated back home, they have been forced to take drastic job cuts in order to make their way in Queens.
Barbara Barriga
Ecuador
Age: 26
Years In America: 4
Barbara Barriga, a Queens College student, thought she knew English well until she came to New York from Ecuador and someone asked her about a cab.
“One particular guy said, ‘You take a cab to go home?’” Barriga recalled. She was confused until the man finally explained that a cab was the same thing as a taxi, the word Barriga learned in school when she was taught British English. Knowing the old version of the language also did not come in handy in restaurants if Barriga wanted to request “wa-ter,” which she pronounced with a heavy Brit tone.
“I would look like a snob,” she said of her accent.
Barriga was born in Manhattan, but left the United States when she was 4 because of her parents’ troubled legal status. She grew up in Guayaquil, Ecuador and eventually enrolled in college there. When Barriga was 22, a trip to New York to pick up a birth certificate turned into a permanent stay.
“Ecuador is a small place,” she said. Guayaquil “is one of the biggest [cities], but it’s still really small. I felt like I had more opportunities here and that’s why I decided to stay.”
She enrolled in Queens College to earn a degree in accounting and also works in an office in Midtown. The rush of New York doesn’t bother Barriga, who said some immigrants find it hard to deal with the noise and fast pace of the City.
Barriga said besides the hurried lifestyle, she also notices how family relationships are different and said teenagers have more freedom than teens in Ecuador.
It’s the freedom of being able to explore the big City that Barriga enjoys the most, and she likes shopping in Forest Hills and Manhattan, bustling retail centers that only exist on a small scale in Ecuador.
“I know that since I left, they have two or three new malls and new highways,” she said. “There are certain malls, it doesn’t matter who you are, there is a high possibility you’ll see someone you know.”
The anonymity of the big city that allows for endless possibility is why Barriga is building her future in New York.
She always remembers her roots, but said America is also a part of her identity. She doesn’t believe she has to choose between being Ecuador or America.
“I have never put a priority on what is first or second. I think I am both,” she said.
Ezra and Mordecai Cohen
India
Age: 64 and 60
Years In America: 25, 28
Morde’s Antiques on 162nd Street in Flushing is a modest storefront surrounded by bodegas and the traditional two-floor houses that you might see on any side-street in Flushing.
Inside, the antiquities are heaped high in crowded rows, statues sit on shelves, the floor, other antiques, full-length mirrors reflect chandeliers that have no ceiling to call their own. Every relic in the shop is stacked nearly to the rafters, so high that the place resembles a library whose shelves boast not books but trinkets of a handful of by-gone eras.
Three stores down the block, Ezra’s Antiques is another institution of the neighborhood. Run by Mordecai’s brother, Ezra, the two shops have inhabited the same strip of Flushing retail for about as long as any other fixture in the neighborhood, one that has changed drastically over the years.
“It used to be all buyers and sellers here,” Mordecai said of former antique dealers on 162nd Street. “It has changed.”
The complexion of the street, and the neighborhood, has taken a turn to the modern, as the bodegas and salons on the street now have neon signs and glowing facades, a luxury that Ezra and Mordecai forego in favor of the simple block lettered awnings and signs that cap their shops.
The stores are a remarkable reflection of years of acquired Americana, cobbled together by two men who have made the United States their home for a combined total of 55 years.
Mordecai left his home in Calcutta, India, at the same time that many young Jewish men were leaving the country. The Jewish population in the country was shrinking at the time, he says, and everyone was traveling the globe in search of opportunity.
“It is to better yourself,” Mordecai says, of leaving his home country. “You have more freedom here; in India, you had a lot of restrictions on antiques.”
“The law of the country was not so good,” Ezra agrees. “That time was difficult over there.” Ezra is quick to say, however, that his native India and the United States are truly neck and neck for his affections.
In spite of the fact that he has not returned to his native country, Mordecai has his finger on the pulse of the globe.
“It’s an international business,” he said. “Everybody knows each other all around the world.”
Lory Diez, a Holocaust survivor, keeps her native traditions intact, despite having lived in the U.S. for 60 years.
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Germans:
Strength in Numbers
While there are a substantial number of people of German heritage in Queens—about 79,000, according to the 2000 census—the number of recent German émigrés is no longer rising substantially, according to According to Werner Schmidt of the German Consulate in Manhattan.
Where They Live
Ridgewood and neighboring Glendale were among the first neighborhoods settled by German-Americans, and they still bear a noticeable German accent today. German can still be heard on the streets and many of the shops and restaurants feature authentic German entrees and pastries.
College Point is, and was, another prominent German-American neighborhood in Queens.
How They Got There
Schmidt notes that the last large-scale wave of German immigration occurred in the decade following World War II, when many Germans left their shattered and recovering homeland in search of a better life in America.
Between 1852 and 1854, more than half a million Germans arrived in New York. Although most German-Americans settled in Manhattan at first, they began to move to Queens to establish farms and settle the undeveloped areas. Their contribution to Queens’ early development can still be seen today.
What Makes Them Who They Are
Perhaps the most recognizable German-American contribution to Queens is the name Steinway. The famous pianos were originally the work of William Steinway, a German immigrant in the late 1800s—and one of the city’s first millionaires.
In 1909, Steinway and Sons moved all piano-manufacturing operations to the Astoria factory. William Steinway sought to plan a community for workers in the neighborhood, building home sand parks and establishing the Steinway Kindergarten, a private school for preschoolers.
The Good Life
Back in the day, German-American neighborhoods like Ridgewood often had large picnic grounds where families could spend a day outdoors, eating, drinking beer, and listening to traditional music. One of these beer gardens, the Ridgewood Park and Coliseum, was located on what is now Summerfield Street.
Beer halls, carousels and bowling allies were among the diversions available to German-American families. Nearby Banzer’s Park also offered ample picnic grounds, and was later renamed Cypress Hills Park. At what is now the intersection of Myrtle Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard, a two-story saloon and restaurant once stood in what was called Eldorado Park.
The Not-So-Good Life
One of the most tragic moments in Queens German-American history came on June 15, 1904, when a steamboat chartered by the St. Mark’s Lutheran Church for a Sunday School outing caught fire and sank off the shores of Astoria. 1,021 people perished aboard the General Slocum—almost as many as aboard the Titanic. A monument for the dead now stands in Ridgewood, and a memorial service is held there each year.
The Papageorges were one of the first Greek families to call Astoria home.
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Greeks:
Strength in Numbers
159,876 Queensites identified themselves as being of Greek ancestry in the 2000 Census.
Where They Live
About 30,000 Greeks live in the Astoria area. Many children of Greek parents who settled there in the 1960s have chosen to move to Whitestone, Bayside and other Eastern Queens communities. A close-knit familial community, they come home to Astoria for holidays and celebrations to stay in touch with the largest Greek community outside Athens. (Also, the area’s cultural and educational opportunities often encourage the twenty-something group to come back home.)
How They Got There
The history of Queens’ Little Athens began in 1927, with 16 newly settled Greek immigrant families.
“They were the pioneers of the Greek community in Astoria,” says George Zachariadis, Community Manager of St. Demetrios Cathedral. “Those families worked to raise funds to build a Greek Orthodox Church in the area. They were only able to raise enough funds to lay a foundation, and build the church basement,” he said. “And for the next 13 years, members of the Greek community in Astoria worshipped in that basement.”
What Makes Them Who They Are
There are now more than two dozen Greek Orthodox Churches in Queens, helping to preserve the rich culture and history of Greece for everyone living in Queens.
The Good Life
Queens elected its first Greek-American to public office in 2000. Michael Gianaris, an Astoria resident, fought hard for and won a seat in the New York State Assembly. Today, Gianaris serves almost 200,000 constituents from his offices on Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria. Italians, Hispanics, Asians and Greek Americans seek his help and counsel on any number of issues.
“The Astoria Greek community is a classic New York story,” Gianaris said. “It is a story of immigrants coming to this country, working hard and making a better life for their children than they had themselves.”
The Not-So-Good Life
Though an issue rarely spoken of publicly, a sore point between many Greek-Americans and the U.S. Government started in 1974, when hostilities were inflamed between Turkish and Greek military forces on the island of Cyprus, a territory of long dispute between two cultures of long dispute. The conflicts culminated in a quarter-million Greek Cypriot refugees. The U.S. effectively backed away from—some say thwarted—efforts to restore areas of Cyprus to Greek control.
Many stores in woodside, Sunnyside and Maspeth offer Irish items for the heavy concentrations of Irish immigrants found there. Tribune Photo by Ira Cohen
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The Irish:
Strength in Numbers
The 2000 Census counted 121,917 people in Queens who identified themselves as being of Irish ancestry.
Where They Live
Over the last 20 years, a younger generation of Irish has joined the older immigrants and their American-born children in neighborhoods throughout the borough, especially in places like Woodside and Sunnyside where there has been a reinvigoration of existing traditional Irish culture.
How They Got There
In the years after the American Revolution, New York City saw an influx of immigrants from the island of Ireland where a population explosion coupled with low crop prices and the eventuality of the Potato Famine made emigration to the United States a desirable option.
In the early years of Irish immigration, many new arrivals built close-knit communities and settled in various areas throughout the five boroughs—including sections of Queens.
What Makes Them Who They Are
During the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th Century, many of New York City’s Irish earned jobs as teachers, nurses, police, firefighters and civil servants.
Others labored on major public works projects, like the construction of the subway system and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Building outward from Manhattan led to the establishment of summertime havens like the “Irish Riviera,” better known as the Rockaways.
“That’s where they often stayed,” said Kevin Callaghan, a retired FDNY lieutenant who served as the coordinator of the Rockaway Irish Festival—a get together that enjoyed a 19-year run in south Queens before ending in the early 1990s.
The Good Life
In March of 2000, the Queens St. Patrick’s Day Parade stepped in line for the first time.
Organized by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, it has been billed as an alternative to the Manhattan parade, which is the largest in the world.
Although the Hibernians have traditionally disallowed gay and lesbian groups to march under their own banner, the Queens parade has banners from all groups.
In 2002, Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Mayor Jimmy Mulroy of Drogheda, Ireland led the march along Skillman Avenue in Sunnyside.
The Not-so-Good Life:
Author and Irish immigrant Malachy McCourt told the says there are positives and negatives on both sides of the hyphen in the moniker Irish-American.
Like the stereotypes.
“We didn’t eat corned beef and cabbage,” McCourt said. “We are not the ‘fighting Irish.’ If that were the case we wouldn’t have been occupied for the past 800 years. Above it all, the Irish are a decent and generous people.”
Rodney Mendez
Ecuador and Puerto Rico
Age: 34
Years In America: 34
At a time when Rodney Mendez, the first-generation son of immigrants, was going through some changes in his own life, he sat down to watch television when an episode of “King of Queens” involving the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program happened to flash onto the screen. As Mendez watched, he realized that this program was exactly the kind of thing that might make a difference both in his own life, and in the life of a child who needed guidance.
Mendez sought out the New American Partnership, a service of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of New York City. The program is designed to help immigrant and first-generation children find a positive role model to connect with in the community. As a result, the child, no matter where they came from, has at least one stable influence in their life in the United States.
Volunteers in the program spend just a couple of hours per week with their “Little Siblings,” but the time spent, and the wisdom shared represents a world of influence for a child who is still trying desperately to feel at home in a new place.
Mendez joined the program, looking for a “Little Brother” who had a similar background, and was paired with Andrew, whose family is from El Salvador.
“It’s been a bit more rewarding than I initially thought it would be,” Mendez said. “You don’t realize how much of an impact you actually have.”
Mendez has been mentoring Andrew since May of this year, and says it’s important to him to be able to connect with someone from a similar background, because growing up with a multi-ethnic background in the United States can be confusing.
“Basically, you’re left with trying to understand the traditions of [America] that you’re brought up with, and in your home life you’re trying to understand another culture that no one else understands,” Mendez said.
The immigrant and first-generation identity is certainly one of conflict, Mendez admits, but ultimately can be the source of a great deal of pride.
“It’s actually cool that you’re not just American, it’s okay to accept that you have another side of you.”
Mendez said the program is immensely rewarding, and worth the time and commitment that it takes, because of the profound impact that a person can have on a child’s life.
“I live in Queens, I’m doing something for a child who lives in Queens, as well.”
Chong Ok O
Country: South Korea
Age: 47
Years In America: 18
When Chong Ok O came to the United States from Seoul, South Korea nearly 20 years ago, she knew that she had a passion for clothes; how they looked, how they were made, the art of fashion.
“I was so infected by it,” she said, standing against a rainbow of spools. She also came armed with pride in her heritage and a desire to maintain it.
“My name is very simple and good, so when I got my citizenship, I didn’t change it. Chong Ok O, it’s simple and very good.”
O also knew that the United States represented a unique opportunity for her to take her dream into her own hands, and make something from nothing. So O went to work in a sewing factory in Manhattan.
For eight years, O sewed other people’s clothes, tailored other people’s dreams, and longed for a day when she could make that dream her own. She attended night school to be able to work her way through the ranks of the company, and even got into a two-year program at the Fashion Institute of Technology, graduating in 1991.
After saving some money, O was able to open her own shop in Elmhurst, Four Seasons Cleaners, a tailor and dry cleaner that she hoped would eventually serve as a springboard into the world of fashion.
The name of the shop, she said, is inspired by hopefulness. “My idea is, maybe ‘Four Seasons’ the store will always be busy, the whole year.”.
Four Seasons Cleaners has been in business for eight years now, and O herself, along with some occasional seamstress help from her sister, is able to keep the shop busy and popular in her neighborhood.
The shop, tucked between a salon and a deli, is like a bright blue bead set against the aging bricks of other shops on the street. Her window is alive with mannequins wearing consigned dresses, and one blouse in particular, that O hopes will be the genesis of something new.
“My dream is big,” she said, brandishing a blue and polka dot blouse that bears her own Four Seasons fashion label. “I want to satisfy every woman by making clothes for them.”
For now, O spends time tailoring and pressing, but, she says eyeing her creation, “I get a little time to do things for myself.”
Former Queens resident and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the son of Italian immigrants, served as Grand Marshal of last year’s Columbus Day Parade
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Italians:
Strength in Numbers
According to the 2000 Census, 187,540 residents of Queens identify themselves as Italian in ancestry. This was an increase in the number of Italians in the borough since 1990, making the group the largest ancestral category in Queens besides “other.”
Where They Live
Three-quarters of the borough’s Italian-Americans now live in Eastern Queens, but you’ll find plenty of Italian influence in the West. One is the statue of Christopher Columbus right under the Triborough Bridge.
How They Got There
“The Italians came to Queens for a more suburban life,” says Jerry Iannece, the chairman of Bayside’s Community Board 11 and legal counsel for the Federation of Italian American Organizations of Queens Incorporated. “As they settled into the borough, [they] emphasized education and learning English. Their children went to school. Many of them went into the professions. They became lawyers and doctors, and the trend was that they moved east to Bayside, Douglaston, Little Neck, Malba, Whitestone, and areas like that . . . As they moved up in the world and had more money, they moved into bigger homes in more rural areas.”
What Makes Them Who They Are
“If you look at the Italian areas of Queens, no matter where they are, you’ll see one and two family homes with very strong family units,” Iannece says. “That’s one thing Italians have definitely kept from their culture, the family unit. We still sit down every Sunday at the table and eat together. That part of the heritage will never disappear. As long as that’s the case, we’ll keep growing.”
The Good Life
Throughout Astoria, you’ll find a taste of Italian in stores. Try Forno Italia, with its brick oven pizza and handmade mozzarella; it’s been distributed around New York longer than any other city distributor’s mozzarella.
There are bocce courts on Steinway Street between Ditmars Avenue and 23rd Avenue. Old World Italians can be found playing bocce and cards, and can be heard discussing the latest news in Italian.
Astoria is also home to the Federation of Italian American Organizations of Queens Incorporated, which is an umbrella organization for other Italian organizations. It runs citizenship drives, announces job opportunities, holds English classes, offers cultural trips and several other things—not just for Italians, but for everyone.
The Not-So-Good Life
At times, differences between Italians caused conflict in early Italian neighborhoods.
“People from Northern Italy looked down on people from Southern Italy, and people from the Mainland looked down on people from Sicily,” says Iannece. “There was some jealousy and some biasness, even people from town to town. But I don’t see too much of that now.”
Jews walk up the steps of the Hillcrest Jewish Center for High Holiday Services. Tribune Photo by Ira Cohen
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Jews:
Strength in Numbers
According to a 2002 UJA Federation of New York’s Jewish Community study, there are 186,000 Jewish people living in Queens.
Where They Live
Since Jews are one of three ethnicities that have had the most impact on Queens evolution (alongside the Irish and the Italians), you can see their influence borough-wide, especially in Laurelton, Bayside and Flushing.
Many Soviet émigrés who settled in Rego Park in the 1980s and ‘90s were Bukharan Jews from Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states.
How They Got There
In 1907, the Sons of Israel Congregation was formed at 69-06 75th St. Its synagogue attracted many Jews from Manhattan’s Lower East Side. In 1972, the Sons of Israel merged with the Congregation Ahavath Achim, which maintained a temple at 75-27 67th Dr.
Although the numbers of Russian-Jewish immigrants increased throughout the 20th century, it wasn’t until the early 1970s when hundreds of thousands of Jews fled Communist oppression and settled in Queens. Their arrival came after the Soviets agreed to allow as many as 250,000 citizens to emigrate in response to a new trade act with the United States in 1974.
The migration brought Jewish settlements to central Queens, which had roots that were prominent in Slavic and Central Asian cultures.
What Makes Them Who They Are
After World War II, most of the world entreated the United Nations to provide a recognized Jewish state. The vote, cast at our own Flushing Meadows, the U.N.’s first home, passed on November 27th, 1947. Six-thousand miles away, people of Jerusalem joined in celebration with the crowds that gathered at Flushing Meadows to rejoice the state’s U.N. acceptance.
Don’t be confused, though; being a Jew in America doesn’t necessarily mean identifying culturally or politically with Israel any stronger than with the neighborhood you grew up in. Being Jewish means living in two worlds at once—the world of ethnicity and of religion.
The Good Life
Since the late 18th century, Jewish progression in Queens has blossomed into all aspects of life and helped shape the melting pot we have all come to embrace. From Russian-Jewish barber shops in Fresh Meadows, to business tycoons and elected officials scattered throughout the borough, Jewish heritage is one that continues to flourish while maintaining its centuries-old traditions.
The Not So-Good Life
Of course, Jews have been witness to some of the world’s most infamous conflicts. From centuries-old hostilities (and outright war) between them and Arab cultures, inflamed by Israel’s creation and continuing today, to the Nazi atrocities of WWII, the Jews have battled anti-Semitic prejudices on several fronts.
Streets in Downtown Flushing are dominated by Korean businesses. Tribune Photo by Ira Cohen
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Koreans:
Strength in Numbers
The borough’s Korean population is now the third largest Asian group in Queens behind Asian Indians and the Chinese, according to the United States Census, which counted 62,130 Koreans in 2000.
Where They Live
The first Koreans who came to Queens stayed in Sunnyside, Jackson Heights, and Elmhurst—but they’ve now moved into Flushing, Bayside, Douglaston, Little Neck and Nassau County.
How They Got There
On Jan. 13, 1903, the first Korean immigrants to ever set foot on American soil arrived in Hawaii, preparing to work on a plantation there. Since then, Koreans have fought to overcome the obstacles of a militaristic government at home.
“That’s why there were very little Koreans in Queens until the eighties,” says Kwang Kim, president of the Korean American Association of Queens.
Many of the Koreans opened shops in Western Queens and Manhattan.
In the 1970s, during a time of financial crisis for the United States, Flushing was nearly empty, wide open for newly arriving immigrants to grab cheap housing. Chinese students were buying shops there for little money. The Koreans followed, and bought shops on Northern Boulevard in Flushing.
What Makes Them Who They Are
Much of the Korean lifestyle surrounds education and the church.
“Many Koreans are very dedicated [to the church],” says Kim. “They meet each other there, and congregations become communities.”
The Good Life
In 1997, Korea had an economic crisis. “Most Korean business people saw it coming, and put their money and business overseas.”
Flushing was a profitable business center, he said, and many Koreans escaping the fiscal crisis invested in it, creating “an increase in Korean stores in Flushing in the 1990s.”
As individual Koreans become wealthier, they’ve started to move out of Flushing and into Bayside, Douglaston and Little Neck. “Koreans don’t like to own their stores like the Chinese. They like to rent their stores and own a home and buy a car. So once the Koreans made money, they moved out of Flushing and into other areas.”
The Not-So-Good Life
Although many Korean businesses in downtown Flushing are thriving, Kwang Kim says many only try to attract Korean customers.
“The Asian population is growing and [there are] so many Chinese and Korean stores in [the] Flushing area,” he says. “But many of the stores, they target Korean customers only. In [the] future, this is bad for their business.”
Kim points out that many Korean businesses do not have English on their signs, which is against the law.
“They don’t know how to fix that,” he says.
David Barbalatt
Poland
Age: 70
Years In America: 70
David Barbalatt, noted rabbi, educator and cantor for over a dozen synagogues in the New York metropolitan area, died last week at the age of 70. Rabbi Barbalatt had a 40-year career in the New York public school system and also served as principal of more than five Hebrew schools in Long Island.
Rabbi Barbalatt, a descendant of a long line of Polish rabbis, combined a love for his fellow man with an enthusiasm of connecting others through his lifelong occupation of bringing people together, whether at the synagogue, in the classroom, or at the bus stop.
The son of European immigrants, Rabbi Barbalatt came to embrace Judaism and earned his rabbinical ordination from Torah Vaddaat, as well as his BA from Brooklyn College and MA in Education from New York University. He also received formal cantorial and voice training through the Salmoggi Opera Company and the Cantorial Training Institute, forerunner to the Belz School of Music at Yeshiva University, and served on the board of the Cantorial Council of America for more than 30 years.
Rabbi Barbalatt served as a Jewish leader to thousands of congregants all over the New York area in countless synagogues including: Lindhurst Hebrew Center of Lyndhurst, N.J., Junction Boulevard Jewish Center of Lefrak City, Temple Israel of South Merrick, of Merrick, N.Y., Queensborough Hill Jewish Center of Flushing, Rockwood Park Jewish Center, Clifton Jewish Center, Lyndhurst Hebrew Center, Kings Park Jewish Center of Suffolk County, Mahopac Jewish Center, of Mahopac, N.Y. and Bergenfield-Dumont Jewish Center of Bergenfield, N.J.
As a Hebrew School principal, Rabbi Barbalatt made Judaism come alive for thousands of Sunday school children, including such educational institutions as Lindhurst Hebrew Center, Junction Boulevard Jewish Center, Wantaugh Jewish Center, Temple B’nai Sholom and Temple Israel South Merrick.
His love for teaching and for children was truly manifested in his four-decade-long profession in the New York City Public School system, where he taught at JHS 294 Fort Greene and IS 73 Maspeth.
Rabbi Barbalatt is survived by his wife Frances (nee Schneiderman), and his children Jay Barbalatt, Gerald Barbalatt, Cindy Frankel and Esther Rosenbloom and his brother Al Barbalatt, sons in law David Frankel and Yehuda Rosenblum and grandchildren Shayna Leah Frankel, Shira Frankel and Miriam Malka Frankel.
Elizabeth Brem
Colombia
Age: 35
Years In America: 35
Elizabeth Brem was born on June 14, 1971, the daughter of Anna Ramirez, an illegal immigrant from Colombia. Elizabeth was born and grew up in Elmhurst.
Anna came to this country to make a better life for her children. She wanted her children to have a chance to succeed on merit and hard work, and particularly for any daughters she might have to not be limited by traditional Columbian stereotypes of the appropriate role of women.
Anna did whatever work she could to provide for her children, such as cleaning office buildings and working at a seamstress in New York’s apparel industry. Elizabeth was her first child, would be her only girl, and was extraordinary almost immediately. She began reading at 3 years old. At age 4 she started preparing daily “homework” for what would ultimately be a lifetime obsession with self-betterment.
Elizabeth excelled at Bronx Science, Barnard College and Yale Law School . She chose Yale because of their reputation for promoting diversity and enabling achievement among women. While there she participated in the immigration law group, helping asylum victims immigrate to this country. One summer she ended up working at a law firm that her mother had cleaned during her early years in this country.
After law school Elizabeth joined Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, the largest California based law firm. At Gibson Dunn she specialized in securities litigation and hostile takeover work. She worked on high profile cases and often was asked to be a member of New York teams that were involved in hostile transactions. She was one of the hardest working and highest hourly billing associates in the firm. She married a California boy, also a lawyer at Gibson Dunn, and had two boys. She spent time with the Hispanic Bar Association and was particularly proud of the work she did with Adelante Mujer Latina, a group dedicated to providing positive support and role models for Hispanic girls.
Elizabeth’s mother moved to California to provide assistance in raising her two boys, despite the fact that her husband was still five years from retirement. For the past five years, Anna has helped raise the boys while her father, Timothy, remained in Queens to reach retirement.
This extraordinary life came to an end last Tuesday. Elizabeth and her cousin Paula Ramirez, a Columbian native who Elizabeth viewed as her sister, were vacationing in Kauai. As they were hiking to a waterfall, one of them slipped. The other went to assist. Both of them fell 300 feet below and died.
Elizabeth is survived by her parents, Timothy and Anna Warke ; brother Timothy Warke Jr.; husband Monte Brem; and children Aidan, 5, and Ryan, 1.
Families line Northern Boulevard during the annual Colombian Day Parade. Tribune photo by Ira Cohen
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Latinos:
Strength in Numbers
Latinos are an indispensable part of the borough, totaling 551,004 in Queens, according to 2000 Census figures. The four main groups within the Latino community are Mexicans, Dominicans, Ecuadorians and Colombians. There are 69,875 Dominicans; 60,298 Colombians; 57,716 Ecuadorians and 55,418 Mexicans. Each of those numbers is roughly the size of the population of Southampton, Long Island (55,000).
Where They Live
Different groups of Latinos are dotted throughout Queens. They hold strong ties to family, country and language. In most Latino communities, residents are very comfortable speaking among each other in their native tongue. Many Dominicans have settled in Corona and Woodside. Colombians are very easy to find in the Jackson Heights area, specifically down Roosevelt Avenue. The number of Mexicans in Queens has soared since 2000; the folks from south of the Rio Grande settle in places like Jackson Heights and Corona.
How They Got There
Latino immigrants are often drawn to Queens because they can get jobs easily—and because they’re turned off by high rent prices in Manhattan. The economic downturn suffered by Mexico and Colombia in the 1980s and early ‘90s lured many to the US seeking work. Colombia’s civil war, also in the ‘80s, was another big reason for migration.
What Makes Them Who They Are
Latinos in Queens are still very much in touch with homeland cultures. Just like many minorities working hard to become Americanized and gain acceptance in their communities, Latinos are becoming stronger by the year within Queens.
“All the guys I know are doing great, going to universities and getting Master’s Degrees,” says Gonzado Salvatore, a Bolivian man who has been living in Queens for 7 years. Hispanic Heritage Month starts on September 15th, the anniversary of independence for five Latin American countries: Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
The Good Life
Politicians like Assemblyman Jose Peralta of District 39 and Councilman Hiram Monserrate of District 21 are prime examples of Latinos moving up in Queens. There are also many clubs and restaurants that hold plenty of Salsa flavor. Some hot spots in Queens are Club Casablanca on Queens Boulevard, Club Casino in Woodside, Club Melao in Long Island City, and Ilusiones in Astoria.
The Not-So-Good Life
“We have made incremental steps,” says Councilman Monserrate of a Latino representation in government equal to the ever-increasing populations. “[But] we are still working towards adequate representation as far as numbers. We are the largest and fastest growing ethnic group in the city, and the numbers of elected officials do not specifically correspond to that growth we are working this year.”
74th Street in Jackson Heights has become a center of South Asian Queens Commerce. Tribune Photo by Ira Cohen
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South Asians:
Strength in Numbers
South Asians populations grew more than any other Asian ethnic group in New York City during the last 15 years. The census confirmed their numbers more than doubled to 214,146 in 2000 from 88,247 in 1990.
Where They Live
South Asians are more scattered across Queens (and the rest of New York City, for that matter) than other ethnic groups. Queens has a larger concentration of South Asians than any other county in the country. The group is more scattered because they’re less likely to settle in receiving areas like Flushing, Elmhurst, Richmond Hill, and Jackson Heights. South Asians have moved to various parts of Queens, including Bayside and other Eastern parts like Jamaica and Jamaica Estates.
How They Got There
South Asians from India came in a first wave of immigration during the mid-1960s. They were predominately professional with high levels of education and who knew the English language.
The second wave of immigrants in the 1980s and onwards marked a gradual widening of class and status, and included family and relatives.
South Asian immigrants come from countries like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan. But the cultural group is not limited to these ethnicities, since “South Asian” peoples have generally not lived by exacting political boundaries, but rather a cultural assignment, and that can extend to the islands of Trinidad and Guyana as well part of Africa, where Indians were sent to be laborers over 150 years ago.
What Makes Them Who They Are
Even though political tensions still exist between countries like Pakistan and India at home, national identities tend to become blurred once South Asians come to Queens.
Education, religion, and family, are three elements strongly emphasized in Indian culture.
The Good Life
74th Street in Jackson Heights, the strip commonly known as Little India, is testament to the prosperity many South Asians have tasted over the last thirty years.
Ramesh Havani set up an ethnic clothing store there in 1976, and was one of only two businesses of the kind on the block. Now, it’s grown into the 4,000 square foot India Sari Palace, and takes its place among dozens of similar ethnically inspiring stores in the neighborhood.
The Not-So-Good-Life
National identities cause plenty of friction from time to between peoples of South Asian ethnicities back home. But it’s a problem Havani says is slowly dissolving on the streets of Jackson Heights.
“Politics which exist back home don’t exist here,” Havani says. “We have so many customers who are Pakistani, or from Bangladesh.”
He half-smiles.
“The beauty of the American system is that you’re at the mercy of the landlords,” he says, noting how tough it is to fight when everyone has bills to pay.
