(Picture: Lenny’s Pizza was in the opening scene of “Saturday Night Fever.” The pizza spot still stands today and is loved by many.)
Bensonhurst, or Little Italy as it is sometimes called, is a neighborhood in southwest Brooklyn that promotes the idea and image of family. From its beginning, to its present state, Bensonhurst has always been a place where communities are built and prosper from hard work and togetherness. The two most prominent groups that are represented in Bensonhurst are the Italians and the Chinese. They are the perfect example of people coming to America and working with their family and neighbors to build a better tomorrow. Any outsider looking in will be amazed at the perfect imperfectness of their communities and day to day operations.
The idea to do this paper originally came from the knowledge that the class would be watching “Saturday Night Fever,” which was set in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. I for one was quite excited because I have a special place in my heart for Bensonhurst, the neighborhood where I went to high school for 4 years. I vividly remember the first time I ever went to the area. At 13, I was only really familiar with my own neighborhood where there were buildings and huge houses with backyards, lawns, and space between houses. Looking at my surroundings in Bensonhurst, houses were extremely close together, everyone knew each other, and the number of family-owned businesses was enormous. Also, probably the most obvious feature of Bensonhurst was the overwhelming presence of Italians.
I never really bothered to figure out the history of Bensonhurst and the reason for the massive Italian presence, but one thing that I did pay special attention to, whether it was consciously or not, was the interactions among the different age cohorts and the clear division between ethnicities in the neighborhood. One of the greatest times to really observe what Bensonhurst is all about is at the beginning and end of school. As I used to walk around the area of my school, older folk could be seen watching the younger generations partake in their daily activities, and they’d be engaged in conversation with any young person that would stop and talk to them. The first time that I witnessed this, I really was amazed because I didn’t think interactions like this occurred in America, a place where everyone is fast paced, and respect for elders and their wisdom isn’t as emphasized as in other countries. I wasn’t a part of the interaction, but I truly felt that the community was close-knit and valued each person for who they were and how they were.
Looking around, everyone seemed to be friends. The girls that I went to school with who were from Bensonhurst or had gone to school in Bensonhurst looked at one another and treated each other like they were family. In getting to know them better, it seemed that their ties extended to their parents, aunts, uncles and siblings. In a school where Italians were the majority, it didn’t take long for me to realize that everyone knew everyone, and upon realizing this, it was easy for me to understand why a school with only four hundred girls could still be standing on its feet. It was because of the joint effort, and the attitude of everyone being family that prompted these people to keep a school open that had produced excellent women, their mothers, sisters, aunts, cousins, and in some cases, their grandmothers.
Bensonhurst started with a family. Egbert Benson, the namesake of Bensonhurst died in 1866 and left his land to his children and grandchildren. In the mid 1880s, Egbert Benson’s descendants sold the land to James D. Lynch, a real estate developer who began selling the lots in 1888. In the early 1900s, an influx of Jews and Italians began to move into the neighborhood. The ratio of Jews to Italians remained pretty equal up until World War II. After the war ended, an overwhelming number of southern Italian immigrants began to flood Bensonhurst, and with new houses being built in the suburbs, the Jewish population began to decline. After many decades, most of the Jewish inhabitants left the neighborhood, leaving Bensonhurst predominantly Italian.
In Bensonhurst, there is a population of 213,831 people. The total amount of households stands at just over 74,000, with a little over 50,000 of them being family households. These statistics alone show that Bensonhurst is family oriented. The plethora of family owned businesses also shows that this is the case because the businesses have stayed in the family from generation to generation with at least one family member usually feeling that it is their duty to carry on the family name and business. I interviewed a former classmate of mine, Gabby Iacono, who really reinforced the importance of family. She told me that the family business, a pizza shop, is a joint effort. It isn’t what the family revolves around as many of them are professionals, students, etc, but everybody contributes to making the business prosper; everyone works when they can, and most importantly, they work together to ensure its success. She told me that this was a mentality that didn’t only apply to the business, but also in their everyday lives and tasks. The closeness of their family and even their neighbors and friends was what they and the community thrived on.
The movie “Saturday Night Fever” gives some attention to the small businesses owned in Bensonhurst. Lenny’s Pizza, a pizza shop that is still open today, is a part of the opening scene. The hardware store where the main character, Manero, worked still stands today and is called the Bay Ridge Home Center. The dance studio, Phillips School of Dancing, where Manero practiced his dance moves, is also still standing till this day. “Saturday Night Fever” was filmed in 1977, and although the movie didn’t focus too much on specific places in Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge, highlighting certain small businesses accurately portrayed the reality of the neighborhoods. They were neighborhoods that focused on the well-being of the neighborhood through service.
Yes, Bensonhurst is called Little Italy but there is a very noticeable change that is occurring within the neighborhood, and it is a change that has occurred gradually over some time. Generally, people of the same race and or ethnicity live in the same section of a neighborhood. If a person goes to Bensonhurst where it is only Italians, they might not realize the great amount of Chinese immigrants and Chinese-born individuals that actually reside in Bensonhurst. The first time I realized that there was a large amount of Chinese people in Bensonhurst, I was taken aback because quite frankly there was no indication that this was a reality. The population of Asians in my school was even less than African American, which means that they were less than 1%. Even more so, those that were Asian mostly lived in Staten Island, not in the surrounding neighborhood. My high school is located on 60th Street and Bay Parkway. I never really saw any Asians on 60th Street, 61st, or 62nd, and I knew well that on all those streets, only Italians lived there, and they went to St. Athanasius on 61st Street for mass. Now venturing onto 63rd Street, there is a Chinese restaurant and from there proceeding down the Parkway, you’ll see a Chinese owned ice cream shop, a Chinese owned fish store, a Chinese owned 99 cent store, a Chinese owned bakery, until you reach the market. Literally, when I’d walk there I’d feel like a single seahorse in a sea full of fish. They just come at you, minding their own business, maneuvering perfectly in what I view to be a chaotic atmosphere.
In trying to understand how Little Italy now had its own Chinatown, I interviewed Mr. Molaro who lives on 61st Street right behind my high school. Mr. Molaro told me that the Chinese presence really became noticeable in the 1990s when more and more of them came to the neighborhood and settled. He said that they just like his people, found an opportunity to work with their family and neighbors to build something substantial. I asked my former biology teacher, Ms. Gentile, who actually went to Bishop Kearney back in the late 70s and 80s, how the neighborhood has changed. She said: “The people. In my day, it was just Italians. Of course there were the occasional something else like there is in any neighborhood, but this was practically Italy. You know it’s not like they ran us out or anything because when you look at what gentrification is, you’d think we’d have been out a long time ago, but Italians are stubborn people. What they see as theirs, they want to hold on to for a long time. Us Italians have probably stayed here for so long because we are so rooted in places. But seeing that more and more Asians are moving here and seeing the new generation who like myself, in my day, want to find their own path, I think this neighborhood in the next 10-20 years will see Asians as its predominate population.”
Statistics actually prove what Mr. Molaro claims. In 1989, the influx of Chinese immigrants began to arrive. Many other immigrants from other countries around the world also began to arrive in Bensonhurst but their presence isn’t as noticeable as that of the Chinese. The Chinatown of Bensonhurst is said to resemble the Manhattan Chinatown during the 1970s-80s during its expansion. In that time, it was still mixed with other ethnicities, much like Bensonhurst’s Chinatown. Interestingly enough, that area of Bensonhurst is serviced by the D train, which goes directly to the Grand Street station which is in the middle of Manhattan’s Chinatown. I don’t take the D train, but I do take the B train. I know first-hand, stopping at the Grand Street station, there is an enormous amount of Asian people waiting for a train, and they don’t take the B. Understanding that there is a direct connection between these two Chinatowns, it can be easy to make the conclusion that Bensonhurst’s Chinatown will only mimic that of Manhattan’s Chinatown in terms of formation and establishment. “Saturday Night Fever” introduced new ethnicities into the plot that really only focused on people on Italian descent. It was almost a foreshadowing of the introduction of other ethnicities in the actual environment.
Bensonhurst is truly a place centered around a sense of community. That is something that does not and has not changed regardless of who the predominant ethnic group is. Having had a personal glimpse what Bensonhurst is, it’s great to see how anyone that comes into the neighborhood has the opportunity to make it, and the dynamic doesn’t change. Bensonhurst is the neighborhood of countries. From Little Italy to Chinatown, it’ll be interesting to see what is next.
