LatinX times

[adnan201]

Here in the United States, you'll find a lot of undocumented Latin people. Living in New York I have come in to contact with hundreds of them and I see them all over the city. These people can’t even go to work without fearing for their lives of being deported and separated from their families. This is a sad reality of what is going on around us and unfortunately due to the lack of care in the government there is nothing we can do about it to help them. These immigrants had to cross a boarder risking their lives and their families lives all for a better quality of life to save themselves from either traffickers, cartel, or other dangerous gangs in their country. They do it to support their family and give their children a better life than the life they know and have experienced, yet with one phone call here they can get deported and their lives will be ruined without a single care in the world by the people who send them back. One thing that could be done is that the government here can make it easier for them to get a green card and passport to live here rather than them having to hide their identity and live in fear the rest of their life. I see it as almost a lose lose situation for them due to the fact that they have to flee their country and sneak into a new country and hide and hope they don’t get sent back by the government here. And if they were to get caught then the parents would get sent back and the children would basically become orphans not having any parents tp go to here. I just wish as a New Yorker that our government here would accept them and allow them to start their lives here without fearing to get deported and risk never seeing their family again, because it happens so much more than we think. Even crossing the boarder is a huge risk for them, Nearly 7,300 Mexicans have died attempting to cross the boarder between the year 1998 and 2017. I am stating this to spread awareness for what is going on and hopefully things begin to change in the future.

@lpavon

[adnan201]

Over the course of the past decades the LatinX community in New York City grew more and more. With each year the number and amount of LatinX people migrating and living here grows annually. This was good for the state because it helped grow the economy while also giving people a safe place to live and grow. That was until gentrification began to overtake the city in a crazy statistical jump. This was and still is unfortunately forcing lower income people to move out of their homes and a lot of these LatinX people don’t have the opportunity as someone who was born and raised here to exceed in this country and are limited to what they can do. That being said most of the immigrants are in the lower income percentage and can only afford so much for rent, especially in new york city which is ranked the most expensive place to live in the US. As gentrification rises that means the more people get kicked out of their houses and unfortunately that's happening to a lot of LatinX and I've witnessed it personally. I've witnessed it because one, I have a lot of LatinX friends who were forced to move out of their residency because their parents could not afford to live in the neighborhood. This is happening all over Brooklyn in neighborhoods such as Sunset Park, Parkslope, Dyker Heights, and many more places around the city. Just to mention, this isn't only happening with the LatinX community, it is also happening with African Americans, Asians, and Middle Easterns everywhere. I also have a good friend who works in real estate and he was telling me in 2019 that the past 2 years he has never seen this many amounts of people having to move out of their residency, and it was because higher income people began moving in. This happened with my grandparents restaurant a few years ago unfortunately, the rent kept on rising every other year and it was affordable until eventually it got so high that they just couldn't afford to pay anymore forcing them to close down. And this is very sad because most of these people can’t do anything about it and it's basically ruining their life, New york should find better ways to allow lower income people to not be forced out by gentrification. When you have NYC as the most ethnically diverse city in the US something like gentrification shouldn't be the problem for people having to be forced out of their homes.  

@lpavon

[victor1463]

Police discrimination towards Latinx

I went to different high schools during my freshman and sophomore years.  My first high school was filled with mostly black and Latinx people. The neighborhood was predominantly black, and it was a Latinx neighborhood in Brooklyn. The police were always around our school, even though nothing ever really happened. As soon as school would finish, the police would watch our every single move. This didn’t make me feel very comfortable with being in the school. It made me feel like they expected us to do something wrong just because of how we looked. These feelings eventually led me to transfer to my second high school.

In my second high school, we didn’t have the police around like my first high school. It was a high school in the city a couple of blocks away from Union Square. Sometimes they would come around if something happened in the school or randomly patrolling the area. This made me feel better because it didn’t feel like I was being watched or targeted. This feeling eventually changed. I had multiple encounters around the school. It made me change my perspective on cops and the racist system in the US.

Around the summer of my junior year of high school. I had gone to the doctor early in the morning, which caused me to be late for school. On my way to school, I had encountered a friend who was a tall Polish kid. We rode the train together until we both reached the stop where the school was. As soon as we got out of the station, we encountered a patrol unit. They quickly rang their sirens and stopped us. As they got out, to my surprise, they had started asking me all the questions and not my friend. After answering all their questions and telling them I had come from the doctor and was making my way to the school down the block, they asked for my ID. I gave it to them which then they proceeded to run my ID. After it came back clear, my friend and I made our way to school. We were being watched the whole time. My friend was never asked any question throughout the whole interaction, and they didn’t even ask for his ID.

Later into that week, I heard from other friends that there had been police doing stop-and-frisk in the main entrance of the train station that was in Union Square. That entrencance was the one that my group and friends and I would always take to go home. I had avoided that entrance to avoid the police because of the situation that had happened earlier in the week. The following week I had fully forgotten about it, and I decided to hang out with my friends in Union Square.

Most of my friend groups were Latinx, except for this guy and girl who were white. After a couple of hours of hanging out, we decide to go home, and like usual, we would take the main entrance of Union Square. As we made our way fully down the stairs, we saw the cops and noticed their table, which meant they were frisking people. I remember someone joking that we were going to get frisked. As soon as we walked to the turnstile to go swipe in, the whole group, except for two, got stopped. We got frisked, and after a couple of minutes, the cops let us go. The only two people who didn’t get stopped were my two white friends in the group. I was mad that this was the second time cops had targeted me over my friends because of our skin color.  

It is hard for people in the Latinx community to continue their education, work, and life if they are constantly being seen as always doing something wrong by the police from a young age.

[adnan201]

I went to an arabic school and I experienced the same thing. There were cops there about once a week watching the school which made a lot of the students feel very uncomfortable. So sad to have to experience this and witness it first hand. 

[rwoolley97]

Who is important and ¿por qué?

Heroines, Role Models, and Everyday People

I am heartbroken

Mi corazón está sumamente triste

She was such an AMAZING human being

Un ser humano extraordinario y lleno de amor y bondad

These were some of the Facebook posts in the days after my friend Sandra’s passing on March 31, 2020. According to this ABC news article, she was the first teacher we lost to COVID in New York City. These were early days in our latest collective experience of human frailty brought on by this crazy pandemic. At the time, newspaper articles showed crisp charts with very tall bars for people over 65, but the bar for Sandra’s age group was pretty short. Sandra was my neighbor, my friend, and my peer. At 54 years old, we were the same age. Our kids were the same age, we’d both been dual language teachers for years, and we’d shared our dreams for supporting Sunset Park kids when we retired. My dream was to help kids with all of those little gaps in support as they head off to college. Hers was to start a really great preschool for families that couldn’t afford it. For me, the virus now felt real and personal; I now knew that the virus could take something from me, something important. In addition to the personal impact on me, the effects of Sandra’s death reverberated throughout our Sunset Park community. Sandra was an everyday, regular person in my life. But the way she lived her everyday life, made her special. For many, Sandra was a role model, and even a heroine.

In the days after her death, Facebook was filled with posts about what made Sandra so special (including, The New York Times, The Daily News, Democracy Now, Chalkbeat, NYSUT, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-NtmrK-S8g ). One of the posts listed the many awards she won for her teaching. Other posts told stories of all of the special ways that Sandra helped her students, her friends, her neighbors, and her family. Still others just talked about her warmth and kindness. Recently, I was in Prospect Heights and I ran across this mural commemorating Sandra from her school community. (It turns out it is part of a project, Underhill Walls, started by Jeff Beler collaborating with Love Heals to beautify an abandoned building. Sandra’s mural was recently added to the mural.)

Just to give you an idea, let me go back in time to tell how Sandra and I started to become friends…

Years ago, when my father was ill, we brought him to live with us. Soon after he arrived, my principal called me down to the office. My father had fallen in the bathroom. He hit his head and broke his hip, said the voice on the phone. Under the influence of strong, prescribed medications, my father’s lucidity came and went. The doctors told me I needed a Durable Power of Attorney, if I wanted to be able to make his medical decisions in his less lucid moments. To get that, I needed a notary public. This detail became a stressful task at the time, getting between me and my father’s care.  After all, how can you get a notary public into the hospital and one that will keep coming back until he’s lucid?

Somehow Sandra heard about our situation and she reached out to me and volunteered; it turned out she was a notary public! She came to the hospital two or three times until my father was cognizant enough to go over the paperwork and understand what he was signing. Each time, I apologized and thanked her profusely. Each time she threw her head back, smiled a wide warm smile, and said it was no big deal.

At the time, I barely knew her. But, over the years, I learned that this is who Sandra was. She had two young kids, was helping to raise her sisters’ kids, taking care of older parents, and teaching full time in Red Hook, three neighborhoods away. And, every time I saw her, she shouted across the street and we chatted. 

At the time of Sandra’s death, so early in this pandemic, this was a huge loss for me, a personal, heartbreaking loss. It still is. 

Since then, I have come to wonder if this wasn’t more than just a personal loss, both because Sandra touched so many lives and also because, being Dominican, she was Latin@.

Back then, I was worried about my mother, my aunts and uncles, my friends’ parents, my older friends. I was shocked time and time again, as my friends lost family members at an alarming rate. One of my colleagues at school lost her father and her 24 year old brother within days. Another friend’s husband lost his grandparents and his father was in ICU for what seemed like ages. My student teacher’s grandmother was in the hospital for weeks. One of my professors told us to please be careful over Christmas break, because she had lost 3 family members within a week after  they had a small birthday gathering. At some point, I realized that every last one of these people we had lost were Latin@ or Black.  Before the press started reporting about the inequities of the ravages of the virus, it was becoming obvious to me. 

My white 77 year old mother and 78 year old mother-in law were fine, even though the former kept going out to buy food, shop for non-essential items and the latter lived in a nursing home. My sister-in-law and nephew survived infection unscathed, even though they both had  significant risk factors. In fact, my white family members and my many white friends were mostly fine. I’ve heard of only a tiny handful of white people who have lost family members or friends, mostly older and with quite serious underlying conditions. 

By April 10, 2020, news articles like this NBC article  were starting to pop up. According to the COVID Racial Data Tracker, a collaboration between the COVID Tracking Project and the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, Latin@s are dying at a rate of 167 per 100,000, while whites are dying at a rate of 121 per 100,000 (Here is the link). 

Sandra wasn’t pushed out of the neighborhood by gentrification and, since she owned her home, she wouldn’t likely have been. Still, she’s gone and I can’t help but think that, if she were white, she’d probably still be here. My anger, frustration, and resentment are palpable as I write this. Sunset Park is less without Sandra. How many other regular people, role models, and heros have we lost in the Latin@ community?

NOTE:  Other challenges for the Latin@ community have been access to educational resources (like waiting so long for DOE iPads and ongoing challenges with Internet access, unemployment, and food insecurity, and access to vaccines).

[adnan201]

I am so sorry for your loss. It is so sad to see how this country actually works, and they are aren't hiding it from anyone. This country is a business and to them most of us are just numbers in a book to them.  

[elisacquiroz]

The House on Evergreen

I am second generation of my family here in the United States. My parents were both born here in the states to immigrant Latino parents. My mother, is the daughter of a Puerto Rican-native woman named Isa and My father, is the son of two Mexican-native individuals named Ignacio and Martha. My grandmother Isa was part of the huge wave of Puerto Ricans who migrated to here in New York during the 1950s. She settled down in an area of Bushwick known as Graham Avenue which became a heavily Puerto Rican populated area of Brooklyn. My grandparents Ignacio and Martha migrated here from Mexico in the late 1950s and originally settled down in South Bronx for a few years before relocating to Bushwick in Brooklyn. It was in Bushwick where my parents met in the early 1980s. It was also in Bushwick where they started a family, had and raised me, and to this day I reside in the same beloved neighborhood.

I frequently ask my parents about what is was like to live through those times in the neighborhood. Most of the time they are very reminiscent of how happy they were as children growing up in Bushwick. My mom reflects often on how close everyone was on her block, and how funny it was to say “hi” to nearly everyone she passed as she walked to school because her mom surely knew them in some way or form. She describes how the streets in the summer were filled with all the kids of the neighborhoods, searching for a way to spend their short-lived warm days before the Fall. My dad remembers taking turns with his brothers riding a bike all around the neighborhood. My parents describe how nice it was to grow up in the neighborhood because mostly everyone came from the same place: a place of poverty and eagerness to escape from some neglection back in another country, but hopefulness for a better life here in New York City. However, my parents do no only reflect on the joys of growing up in Brooklyn, but also remember how dangerous the neighborhood was, as were many in NYC back in that time. Back in the 80s, Bushwick was a bit dangerous and had high crime levels- something I surely witnessed low amounts of in my time growing up here. The high crime levels and plummeting economy made Bushwick an area consisting of land lots made vacant by burnt down buildings and cheap properties. My grandfather Ignacio took full advantage of this time and built his small family legacy by becoming one of the first Hispanic property owners in Bushwick.

When my grandfather arrived here in New York City, he worked very hard as a car mechanic scrambling for enough cash to bring his wife, my grandmother, over here from Mexico. After succeeding in getting her here, my grandfather continued to hustle and eventually made enough money to open his own auto shop. In doing this, he was able to purchase three different properties a few years later. Of the three properties he purchased, he and my grandmother resided in this one building on an avenue called Evergreen. That building later became my entire childhood, as well as many of my other family members.

Ignacio and Martha enjoying a meal in their home on Evergreen Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn circa 1972:

I have always called that apartment building a house because once my grandfather became the owner of it, he rented out each apartment to a family and the entire building became one big home. One of the apartments eventually went to an aunt from my mother’s side, so both sides of my family were always together in that house. That house held so many birthdays and holidays for the many years to come, and to this day my grandfather still resides there along with some other family members. I become filled with so much joy remembering all the wonderful memories in that house with my family and friends. My parents also reminisce of their own years of memories from that house on Evergreen, long before I came in the picture. That house became the center of our giant family here and will always be a huge influence in the culture I embraced as a Latina growing up in a little Brooklyn neighborhood called Bushwick.

[adnan201]

I can also relate to you with my grandparents having to migrate from somewhere else and build up a new life for our families. In my case my fathers side came from Palestine and my mothers from Brazil. hearing stories is always tough to what they have to go through and that's why I think the people who have to migrate are the strongest people!

[jimenezanaa]

Home 🇩🇴

I was born in Santiago de los caballeros, Dominican Republic (DR) . I grew up very close to my family, especially the ones from my mother’s side. My father's side of the family already lived in New York City, there were only a few of his family left back at home. My father grew up very poor. He had to sell things with his mother and other brothers. My mom grew up in the countryside of Santiago. She also grew up poor but her family migrated to the city after she was around 14 years old. My mom told me how other kids used to make fun of her and her siblings from being from the countryside. I had a pretty good childhood playing in the streets with friends from my neighborhood. I used to play all day outside after school, my neighbors used to send me to buy them stuff to the colmados which is what everyone calls a bodega here. This was one of my favorite things to do as kids because they used to give me money which I used to spend buying candy. I was not poor but It was not rich. My family always had help from my grandmother who lived outside of the country.

I always knew that I was going to eventually leave DR to live in New York City. I love the freedom I had back home as a kid but I knew that I had to leave to have a better future because everyone who left was doing better. My paternal grandfather had submitted an application to get my dad a visa, my brothers and I were also in this application. After all the years that it took the application to be processed which was like eight year or more, we had to go through another process in order for them to determine if they were giving us the visa.

I remember getting the news that our application had been processed, my family was very happy. I remember having to go to the capital, waking up at 2 A.M. to go to a clinic that gave me 11 shots of some vaccines. I can't remember the names they also examine me. My two brothers and my dad did not get as many vaccines maybe because they were older. This is kind of like what they used to do to the people that came from Cuba which were checked to make sure they were not sick. Everyone that comes from DR goes through this, I am not sure about other countries. But I remember that I used to wonder why I needed all of this to come to this country? New York City in the eyes of Dominicans was like heaven, everyone used to talk about it so much and everyone who used to visit from here was expected to have money. That is what everyone in DR thought, everyone in New York City has money. But when I moved here and saw how everything was I stopped thinking like everyone else because I saw how much people struggle here. Especially the people who do not know the language. This country is my second home where I have every opportunity I do not have back home. But DR would always be something different, life in New York City is too fast, everyone is so stressed out all the time. Back home everyone is chill, always having fun even when things are hard and people are struggling

[adnan201]

This is a very inspiring story and your family sounds like they are truly amazing and hard working people. I personally visited DR and it is one of the most beautiful countries I've ever been to with the most funny and cool people. 

[adnan201]

LatinX and its movement around the city

New York City is the most diverse city in the entire world with over 700 different cultures. One of the main cultures is the Latin community in which I am gladly apart of. My mother who is half cuban spent  about half her life here while the other half she was living In Brazil with an immigrant mother and father as well who immigrated from Peru and before that Brazil. My grandmother spent very little time in Cuba as there were problems going on there and it was never truly safe accord to here. It was never easy in this city for any Latins especially when when everything moves fast and gentrification is taking over forcing people out. Gentrification has been on the rise for years now and has already forced about 5 of my close relatives out of this city. with rents rising and neighborhoods changing it doesn't make anything easier. Back in the early 2000′s my mothers mom and my grandfather were working in their restaurant when the landlord came in and told them the rent is rising in the next 6 months by a couple hundred dollars, and that was a huge deal because they were already not getting enough business as is. They contemplated having to back to Peru with the rest of the family but thankfully they fought it in court. I would always ask my grandfather to tell me stories of what life was like for my grandfather working in the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s, and she would tell me stories where he would get a gun pointed at him, robber on several occasions, and even watched his friends get stabbed. It was never safe so they eventually immigrated to Florida for a few months then moved to New York City where in 1993 where my mother got married a few years later and had me and my siblings. I always look back at this for motivation because they didn't have much and they had to immigrate to an entirely new country for safety and to put food on the table, so whenever something is happening in my life I always look back and say just be grateful for what you have now. They moved to sunset park which till this day has a massive number of LatinX people where they got to keep our culture while living a new life in a entire new country. My father on the other hand and this is where a I get my middle eastern side from and there a entire different story that goes on there as well but for now this is the story of my LatinX side of my family and their what they had to share. 

[mh-morehugs-deactivated20230409]

Journal 2: Music Embedded In Me

one 

La Gozadera, by Gente de Zona, is a song that mentions all the Latino cultures. We can see this prideful Latino culture. 

This class helps me reconnect with my Latino culture. Above you can see an old song from 2015. I was 14 at the time when this song came out. I found out about this song while I was in high school. During this time I learned to understand that is is okay to be proud of my Latino culture. Now when I walk down the streets of the Sunset park area, I hear the music that I love the most and will never change: Reggaetón. This will be one of the few music genres I will not change. Reggaetón is a very popular music genre in the Latino culture. 

Reggaetón is not just music. There are many songs contain many symbolic signs that fight against specific issues. 

Watch with subtitles

Bad Bunny is one of my favorite Reggaetón singers that demonstrates the way music can be powerful. In his song Yo Perreo Sola, the phrase “Yo perreo sola” translates to “I twerk alone.” This phrase alone fights against the sexual harassments many women face in our society. The concept behind this song is to demonstrate that women are independent and that men should learn to respect women. In the video we can also see the phrase “Ni Una Menos.” This is a movement that fights against the murder of transwomen and women in Latino America. Women face femicide in Latino America. Our Latino music is meant to symbolize strength and used to fight against hate. In the end of the music video is states in bold letters “Si no quiere bailar contigo, Respeta, Ella perrea sola.” This statement translates to “if she does not want to dance with you, respect, she twerks alone.” This is meant to emphasis that men should respect a women if she is not interested in you.

A few days ago I was talking to a cousin of mine who listen to different genres of music. I played a song from bad bunny and he automatically knew and enjoyed the music the same way I did. To me this showed that many Latinos can understand each other through our Latino music. This does not have just be Reggaetón. Latino music can be salsa, bachata, cumbia, merengue, and more.

I tried showing a friend of mine, who is a foreigner of Latino music, a song from cumbia. Cumbia often sounds similar to each other and this can make it difficult for foreigners to distinguish them. Their response was that “The two songs sound no different to me.” This statement made me chuckle because I felt proud that I was able to distinguish the sounds between the two songs. I felt more proud that a friend of mine was listening to them and enjoying it.

Latino music is diversely beautiful and i am proud to have this unique type of music embedded in me. To me all Latino music symbolizes strength and community. The strength come from those songs that have played a role in society to fight against hate. The community comes the ability to make people come together. I am proud to have this music embedded in my culture, in my history, and in me and my soul. 

[adnan201]

I enjoyed reading about how latin music affects you and what it means to you. I am part Cuban so whenever I hear Latin music I also get proud to hear music from that region. I also enjoyed reading about what it symbolizes and what it means. 

[adnan201]

This mural was taken on the side of a school in sunset park. This mural was drawn by students along with an artist. I am not completely sure what it means but I believe it signifies unity and love. It has the woman with open arms and children each doing their own thing. I thought this mural was beautiful and very significant. I pass it a few times a week and it always catches my eye.

This is one of my favorite murals to this date. I’ve seen it and passed it ever since I was a child and I always learn something new about it. This is on 3rd Ave in sunset park and it signifies that minorities are their own people. That goes along with Spanish Americans, Arab Americans, African Americans and so on. It shows that we are all one race deep inside and no one controls us.

If there’s one thing I love most about sunset park, it would have to be the amazing food they have there and the murals all over the neighborhood. This is one of my favorites, I can never pin down what exactly they mean but that’s the beauty of it. It opens your mind up to the countless possibilities of answers. This one here is a further continuation of the first mural because it is so large it can not fit all on one picture. But as I said before, I believe it is a mural of unity and peace. I can not exactly pin it down but it makes you feel comfortable looking at it and it opens your mind to different meanings.

@lpavon

[adnan201]

Adnan Hasan

Latinx Cultures

Journal #1:

For my journal I have interviewed my Grandfather about his immigration to the United States. My Grandfather moved here when he was only 14 years old, he migrated all the way from Palestine on his own which I found to be extremely fascinating. A 14 year old moved to an entirely new country not knowing anything about it all on his own. When he first moved here in the year 1961 he automatically moved to Connecticut to start selling clothes to Tobacco farmers all over a town named Hartford.

A few years later when he was about 18-20 he was drafted into the Vietnam War where he had to fight for his life. By that point in his life he moved most of his family with him to Connecticut including his Mother, brothers and sisters. He fought for about 2 years achieving a purple heart, brown star and many more accomplishments before being sent home for injury reasons. I can go on for hours telling about my grandfather's life but that is just the beginning of a lifetime of accomplishments for him.