Michael Jones-Correa opens his book, Between Two Nations: The Political Predicament of Latinos in New York City, with a chapter entitled, “Intimate Strangers: Immigration to Queens.” Right off the bat, the title introduces an interesting idea that Jones-Correa further develops. This notion of an “intimate stranger,” a paradoxical sentiment, lends itself to what Jones-Correa coins as “communities overlapping but not touching.” However, before he addresses that, he gives the historical and sociological context of this community shift.
According to his premise, the idea of a community being bound by arbitrarily drawn lines is one that can be debated, particularly with regards to Latino immigrants. Queens, having originally been farmland, is a relatively new place to live, in the grand scheme on New York City. Emphasis on the word live, because that is exactly what people in Queens do. This is not an area for tourists or people to simply pass through, but rather a place for people to carry out their daily lives. Therefore, much more emphasis is placed on this idea of a community.
Jones-Correa refers to the white population of these Queens neighborhoods as “white ethnic residents,” accrediting the fact that they were once too immigrants. However, they do not identify with recent immigrants. Jones-Correa introduces the concept of assimilation, without actually saying the word. He quotes a person saying he never spoke Italian to his friends, despite living in an Italian neighborhood as a child. This contrasts the American-born Latinos who still converse in Spanish with their peers. This thereby lends itself to the idea that perhaps, if Latino immigrants more consciously tried to “blend in” and abide by the social rules put in place by the community’s original residents, there would be no problems.
However, this often isn’t the case, bringing back the idea of an “intimate stranger.” The idea of “communities overlapping but not touching” refers to the reality of an “overlap,” in the sharing of a space, without “touching,” the interaction of the inhabitants. Jones-Correa addresses this in his opening, painting a picture of the 7 train as full of people, but still being a solitary endeavor. Therefore, the question is raised of 1) whether or not asking these people to assimilate is ethnocentric, and 2) how can we integrate these various enclaves, so to speak, into a single thriving community?
