Catch a glimpse of the gardens hidden within the buildings’ parameters and you know you’re there. Walk into a restaurant where ceviche is the first item on the menu and you know you’re there. Don’t feel like having Ecuadorean food? Just go outside to the restaurant next door for some Chinese take out, or better yet, stop by Mama’s Empanadas and order a few pieces of carne molida. If the weather is nice, you can enjoy them on a bench at Travers Park, while watching the local kids play baseball in the same field where Jackie Robinson once practiced.
This is what it means to live in Jackson Heights.
Lined with verdant trees and hedge-adorned co-ops on every block, Jackson Heights is a neighborhood that brims with its own charming personality. The neighborhood was initially planned by the Queensboro Corporation, for middle- to upper middle-income families in the early 1900s—right after the 7 train arose between Manhattan and Flushing—and was intended to be a community where those working in Manhattan could raise their children away from the crowded bustle of the city. Because of this, Jackson Heights is known for its slight suburban feel, as there are numerous blocks of private homes in addition to famous “garden apartments” such as the Greystones, Hampton Court, and The Towers. To this day, it remains a very family-oriented community, with a total of eleven schools, 7,482 trees, over fifteen playgrounds, and ten indoor play areas. Also, because 62% of the residences were built before 1950, it’s no surprise that the neighborhood was named a New York City Historic District in 1993.
However, much has changed in Jackson Heights since its early beginnings. The majority of the first immigrants to come to Jackson Heights were Italian, and a strong Italian American presence had been held until the 1960s, when many Colombians and other Latin American immigrants began to arrive. This wave of Hispanic immigrants continues to have a standing in Jackson Heights today, along with the more recently arrived Asian immigrants. As a result, the current population of foreign-born residents is at 40,370 out of 66,235 and rising. This number accounts for the fact that 54% of residents speak Spanish at home, whereas only 17% of residents speak English at home. In a survey, it was found that countries like Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, China, and India are the most common places of birth for foreign-born residents. This being so, cultural and ethnic diversity is a prominent feature of Jackson Heights, and one of the main reasons why immigrants choose to live in the neighborhood.
When asked about how and why she settled in Jackson Heights, Sunita Chawla, an immigrant from India and proud mother of two, replied, “We wanted to stay with our own people.” She also mentioned the low cost and convenience of the neighborhood, as public transportation and business (cheap restaurants, delis, electronic stores, etc.) is just a short walk away from most homes. After a long interview on a beautiful day at the park, I got to know more about Sunita and her transition from growing up in a poor, rural village in India to living in a New York City apartment building shared with Bangladeshis and Dominicans.
Sunita’s story is a classic representation of the Jackson Heights foreign-born population. From a northwest Indian town known as Nagpur, her family could barely afford to put food on the table, and any money that was earned went into getting an education. In this way, she grew to appreciate all opportunities that helped lead to a better life, as well as value the importance of education. After graduating college with a degree in fashion and earning a job in clothing manufacture for American designers, Sunita got a job offer that required her to travel to America. In 1972, she moved with her husband to her employer’s house in New Jersey, making the travel to New York’s Garment District five days a week, where she did quality control for clothing.
The perception of gender roles changed drastically for her upon arrival, because most women in India are housewives and the men are usually the ones who work. Despite this, Sunita was now the primary source of income for not only her family but her extended family too, since she would send money to her relatives in India. Another change was the difference in social attitudes; according to her, “In India, there’s a lot of problems with gossiping—also because I came from a small town. But here, everyone minds their own business.” She took comfort in knowing that the abundance of opportunities meant less societal interferences. In other words, no one judged. However, this New York state of mind came with its own obstacles. Sunita found that, although people tended to mind their own business, this could often be taken too far for her comfort zone. The freedom of expression sometimes made her uncomfortable, especially seeing sexualized advertisements or young women in revealing clothes, which weren’t acceptable for the public eye in India.
After supporting the rest of her family’s move to America by sponsoring them, filing their visa applications and other paperwork, and eventually finding a house for all of them to live in, she, her four siblings, and their mom, stayed under a four-family house in Newark. In 1994, they decided to branch out to New York for commute reasons. Because everyone worked in the city—and also because everyone was starting to raise their families—it only made sense to move closer to their jobs. First coming to Woodside, Queens, the large family of extended relatives decided that, after two years, they wanted to be part of a bigger Indian community where their children could grow up in. And Jackson Heights in the mid-90s was a perfect place to find this. Finding a decently priced building with three available apartments on the corner of 76th and 35th Avenue, Sunita’s family thought the neighborhood to be safe, clean, and quiet—exactly what they were looking for. Sunita lived on the sixth floor, along with her two kids, husband, mother, and sister. Meanwhile, her brother lived just two floors down with his own family, and her other sister lived on the third floor with her family.
Originally, the building had been predominantly Indian with a small white population. But a great amount of Bangladeshi immigrants have since occupied it. To her family, the change has created a sense of loss and nostalgia for the past, as Sunita remarks, “I miss the feeling of belonging in a community of my own.” Even the neighborhood surrounding the apartment building itself is no longer Indian, and instead, mostly Colombian and Dominican. When asked about her family’s attitudes toward the other immigrants that currently live in the building and nearby residences, she said that they like that Hispanics are family-oriented and keep to themselves, however, cultural (mostly religious) tensions do exist between the Indians and Bangladeshis.
Like many other foreign-born residents who have spent most of their life in America, Sunita no longer considers permanently living in her country of origin. According to her, the culture is very conservative there, and arranged marriages are rather common. “In India, silence is considered beauty,” she observes pensively. At the same time, India is a stark contrast from the comfort and stability of America, since the government there is relatively corrupt, the quality of the air and food is not as great, and the economy is much worse. In her opinion, no other place in America has the same extent of convenience as Jackson Heights, and that the proximity to both Manhattan and Long Island makes it worth the stay.
For Sunita, Jackson Heights is the soil on which she grew the American Dream. It was there, not New Jersey, and not India, that she felt as though her happiness was truly achieved. “If you come here and you work hard, anything is possible. I believe that is the American Dream and I have accomplished that because I am satisfied. I have all the necessities of life. I’m happy. I only want the same for my kids,” she said to me as a final reflection. She has sent both of her kids to Catholic school because private schools are considered disciplined and structured. Another reason is her own experience attending British private schools in India, which were Christian and helped her to learn English better. In hopes of letting her children diversify their experiences in a similar manner, Sunita thinks that Jackson Heights will contribute much to her family, as well as future generations. With so many cultures in just one area, the neighborhood has impacted them in a positive, cultivating manner. And it’s unlikely that such an impact will cease to have its presence in the residents of Jackson Heights for years to come.
