Discover Top Posts Tagged with #james fernandez

Wenner-Gren's 100th symposium, Symbolism Through Time, was a chock-full of Famous Anthropologists.

Here is their caption for the event: "Back: J. Clifford, L. Drummond, J .Fernandez, J. Peacock, J. Boon, E. Leach, P. Burke, V. Valeri, B. Kapferer, N. Watson Front: D. Krupa, D. Handelman, N. Miyata, K. Blu, K. Komatsu, P. Rabinow, M. Sahlins, E. Ohnuki-Tierney, S. Ortner, C. Geertz, F. da Silva, L. Osmundsen"

Another image in which Sahlins is in the front row -- I'm keeping track of that.

via Wenner-Gren.

#Wenner-Gren #James Clifford #Lee Drummond #James Fernandez #James Peacock #James Boon #Edmund Leach #Peter Burke #Valerio Valeri #Bruce Kapferer #N Watson #David Krupa #Don Handelman #Noboro Miyata #Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney #Sherry Ortner #Lita Osmundsen #Clifford Geertz #F da Silva

"The Sixties"

"The Seventies"

"The Eighties"

"The Nineties"

Four decades of James Fernandez, via his personal website.

#James Fernandez #Personal website #anthropology

NYU professor's photo exhibit tells the story of early Latino and Hispanic immigrants in New York

Antonio Nespereira, sitting as a boy in the center, and his family. On the right is a photo of his grandfather, who stayed behind in Galicia, Spain, attached to the family photo. (Photo: Arturo Conde)

By ARTURO CONDE Channel: Immigration, Culture

History is often told from the perspective of mainstream heroes who personify the values of our identity and culture. The more we learn about those historic figures, the more we understand about ourselves and others. But for one university professor, the essence of being Hispanic or Latino is personified by ordinary men and women — Spanish-speaking immigrants and their families — who challenged the black and white definition of what it means to be American. The stories of their failures and successes reveal the cultural and historical bonds that bring us together as a migrant community.

While English-speakers tend to divide Hispanics or Latinos by race, James Fernandez, a professor of Spanish literature and cultural studies at New York University, explains that common migration patterns and cultural heritage are the foundation for the Spanish-speaking America that we know today.

“To understand the lives of the Spanish immigrants in New York,” he said in an interview with Univision News, “is to understand the lives of much larger Spanish-speaking groups in the city [referring to the Cuban and Puerto Rican diaspora at the beginning of the 20th century] who became their neighbors, comrades, and allies in antifascist coalitions during the Spanish Civil War, and [partners and] clients for all kinds of businesses.”

Fernandez’s immigration exhibit, “The Colony: A Photographic Album of Spanish Immigrants in New York, 1898-1945,” which has just made its way from New York to Spain on tour, points out that, while there were just 23,000 Spaniards among 110,000 Spanish-speakers citywide in 1930 (according to the census), their connection with Cuba and Puerto Rico enabled them to become the cultural brokers of the Hispanic or Latino community.

“A lot of Spaniards in New York had been to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Argentina, and they relied on that experience to become the mediators and suppliers of newly arrived Spanish-speakers,” he said.

Fernandez points out that emblematic Latino brands like Goya Foods and Café Bustelo were founded by Spanish immigrants who had close ties with the Puerto Rican and Cuban communities.

Fernandez also explains that Spaniards played an important role in less obvious ways. The band leader Xavier Cugat, a Catalan who had been to Cuba, positioned himself well in the New York music scene to promote Cuban talent like Desi Arnaz to mainstream listeners.

Accompanying video testimonial to Fernandez's exhibit "The Colony": Dolores Sánchez and Manuel Alonso

Early 20th century Spanish immigrants lived in four Manhattan enclaves — in the Lower East Side near the Manhattan Bridge, on 14th Street along the Hudson River, in Washington Heights, and Spanish Harlem — and another colony in Brooklyn, which extended between Red Hook and Brooklyn Heights along the East River. But towards the end of the 20th century, these communities had already disappeared. Their children and grandchildren had moved to the suburbs in Queens, Long Island, and New Jersey, and others had pushed further south to Florida and west to California. Only the stories and rumors of a golden age of Spanish cafes, restaurants, and businesses remained.

Now Fernandez hopes that, by rediscovering this lost community, Spanish-speakers in the United States can learn universal lessons about immigration, fostering a greater kinship between Spaniards, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and other Hispanics or Latinos.

When asked how these Spanish immigrants should be remembered, Fernandez explained that their stories could offer young Spanish-speakers encouraging examples of social mobility.

“A lot of [Spanish] immigrants came from regions in Spain that were often considered underdeveloped, where they faced a lot of prejudices,” he said. “Thousands of them came to the United States, and within a generation prospered — their kids made it to college, and their grandchildren are professionals. They are a unique example of people who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.”

Fernandez’s exhibit presents seven family albums, and six video testimonies, that chronicle their immigrant experiences. Some are tangled trajectories that led them from Spain, to France, then New York as ship workers shoveling coal. Others were tobacco workers who migrated from Spain, to Cuba, Tampa, then New York. No matter how complicated these stories are, they will inspire you to ask yourself: What is my family history?

Accompanying video testimonial to Fernandez's exhibit "The Colony": Luz Castaños

#James Fernandez #NYU #Immigration Exhibit #New York Immigrants #Spaniard Immigrants #Cuban Immigrants #Puerto Rican Immigrants #Cafe Bustelo #Goya Foods #Desi Arnaz #Xavier Cugat #Arturo Conde #Univision News #News #Immigration #Culture