Author Archives: Michel Fallah

Smiley Wesley

Posted on by
Reply

Frantic shoppers swerve their carts down and through the aisles of Key Food, pass each other, and dash out the front doors. All seem to be on auto-pilot, engulfed in their individualized thought bubbles. Left largely unnoticed and unacknowledged, stands Wesley Elisse as he peacefully restocks the shelves. Creating order out of the day’s disorder, Wesley knows how to make the grocery store run as efficiently as possible.

“I know the place inside out,” said Mr. Elisse, a 60-years old Haitian immigrant with a pleased smile, as he proceeds to restock the milk cartons into the fridge.

Every now and then, a new customer interrupts to ask where to find an item. Whether you’re looking for something ordinary like a box of cereal or something peculiar like some diet-brand loaf of bread, Mr. Elisse will know exactly where to find it. He can even recall at ease whether or not an item is found at the Flatbush Avenue location.

“They come in with their lists like, check, check, cheese, check, oh wait, no, where’s the cheese?! I forgot the cheese. And so there I come in like the hero,” jokes Mr. Elisse.

As I speak to Wesley, a woman leans her hand on the shelf across the aisle and reaches for a can of beans at the very top, knocking over a bunch of other cans in the process. Almost instinctually, Mr. Elisse goes to help the woman as he brings his tall, lanky body over, grasping the can with no effort at all. A quick thank you was exchanged and Mr. Elisse quickly straightened up the mess. “People expect it all to be organized and all, but it doesn’t happen on its own, that’s for sure,” said Mr. Elisse, “It’s routine work.”

“Just pick out the good eggs from this carton and put it in that one,” Mr. Elisse instructs a frantic customer shifting through the egg cartons looking for the perfect one without any cracked eggs. The woman looks skeptically at Mr. Elisse, who seemed to be giving her an inside secret. He chuckles at her gaze and assures her, “Don’t worry, I work here.”

Seemingly the oldest employee in the store, a co-worker shares he is also one of the sweetest staff members and takes his job very seriously. “Just look at him! He’s so focused.”

His sincerity is a constant. When two kids ran down the aisle and knocked over stacked boxes of Kraft’s Macaroni & Cheese, Mr. Elisse quietly picked up each box as he displayed a genuine smile with no hint of frustration or annoyance. Upon placing the last box at the top of the pyramid he constructed, his smile grew at each end with satisfaction of his pristine work.

Mr. Elisse makes enough money at the establishment, but wishes to save up for his family back in Haiti. He hasn’t been back in Haiti for more than five years, well before the most recent earthquake in 2010. He hopes to visit his country again and ensure the safety of his surviving family members. He had experienced many losses among his friends and family and learned to be very grateful for his life in America and his health. “Family always comes first, and I been working hard every day just for them.”

Surrounded by the high walls of products with different brands, advertisement labels, and sale tags, Mr. Elisse reminisces about the fresh open markets of his village. “Nuttin’ like Haiti, darling.”

As I examine the frantic shoppers once more, I realize how refreshing it is to see a man so involved, skilled, and passionate about a job most people rarely acknowledge or appreciate.

Growing Up Haitian in Flatbush

Posted on by
Reply

Mitsuka Attys’s Interview

as told to Michel Fallah

            Mitsuka Attys’s family wanted a better life in America. Not knowing much about the country except for New York City’s existence, Mitsuka’s grandmother, the first in her family to immigrate to the United States, attained her green card and started a new life in New York. Moving back and forth from birth until the age of about seven, Mitsuka has learned the importance of maintaining her Haitian roots in her current narrative. As a growing teen in New York’s Flatbush community, she is able to embrace both her own experiences as well as her family’s stories and, in the process, live in the middle ground between her new identity and her old heritage.

Mitsuka Attys

Mitsuka Attys, Age 20

Haitian with a Japanese Name

My father, he gave me the name and apparently my mom told me that it was a name that was found in a book. It’s a Japanese name so often people ask me like, where did that name come from? You’re Haitian but you have a Japanese name! 

Emigration from Haiti to “New York”

Its kind of a funny story too because there’s this circulating joke around the Haitian diaspora that always says that people in Haiti the only three cities they know of that exist in the Unites States are New York, Miami, and Boston… instead of saying that they’re going to the United States, they say they’re going to New York.

Nothing Sweeter than Haiti

We have a mango tree and we could take a bunch of mangoes and put them in a bucket, and people come and take it and go home with it. I love the mangoes, the cherries because you could grow cherries in the backyard. We also have passion fruit which you don’t really find here. There’s also this other fruit called abiko which is apricot which over here you don’t find it as much either but I love the food, the fruits, the juices that they make out of the fruits. I love the sweets that they have over there. There’s this thing in Haiti that they call a frisco which is like a snow cone and they have the shaved ice with a bunch of syrups and usually the grownups, the older people in the country, they get theirs with nuts in them, like peanuts… my favorite flavor was coconut and I loved it ‘cause the syrup tastes so natural.

Spiritually Connected

I am Seventh-Day Adventist so we’re a Christian denomination where we serve the Sabbath just like the Jewish people would. From Friday sundown to Saturday sundown, that’s our Sabbath… I spend my whole Saturday at church and during that time we don’t work, we don’t study, we don’t go to school, we basically keep it very religious and try not to get involved in secular events or secular things during our Sabbath time.

The 2010 Haiti Earthquake

The earthquake happened on January 12, 2010 and I was in eighth grade at the time. I remember on that exact day I was staying home from school because I was having a really bad stomachache… my grandmother had come over during her break from work to, you know, come make me soup… as soon as she left I was watching CNN news and then there was like this big blast of information that they had saying that a 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti. And I’m here like losing my mind because I had never really heard about, you know, I read about earthquakes in textbooks and all that stuff, but I never really thought that it would be happening in real life and, you know, not to mention close to home… so then I called my grandmother right away and I was just like ‘Did you hear?! You know they said a 7.0 magnitude earthquake just hit Haiti!’

Misconstrued Messages

I remember during that time it was so hard to get in contact with anyone … but somehow they got in contact with some of our family in Canada who had contact with people in Haiti, and I remember it was so hard to get the truth and the messages translated out… I got a message where somebody told me that my mom died… so I’m here like crying and balling and all that stuff because you’re telling me that my mom died, but turns out it was false information… Then, after that, they told me that her leg got broken but that’s not what happened.

The Injuries and Casualties

Our house in Haiti at that time was two levels so there were two floors. What happened to the house was the first floor went down to the ground and the second floor took the place of the first floor… there was a staircase in the back of the house that connects the first floor and the second floor… everyone tried to run out at that time so the rubble fell on my mother and she was under there for 12 hours. Right now she lost a finger and a half so this finger, the index finger, is gone on the left hand and half of this finger. And she also broke her arm so about a month later she had to come into New York after we kept pleading her to come into the states to try to get it fixed. My sister, she had her neck split open, down here, during the earthquake and also her jaw got broken because she was stuck under the rubble also but they were able to get her out, but my mom it took way longer. My dad was at work at the time so he wasn’t affected. My uncle, who was living in the house with my family, he died in the earthquake. He died on the spot… Not a nanny, but we had this servant, like a maid, working with us and she died on the spot, too.

What Makes Us a Haitian Family

The big things for Haitian parents are legliz which is church, lekòl you know school and lakay, home, so these are like three big components for Haitian families.

Coming from a “Statistically Poor Country”

I feel like often times people in America, they had a bad view of Haitians. They always thought that you were from a statistically poor country so it’s like for them, how well can you do in life because you’re from a poor country?

Celebrating Haitian Independence Day with Soup

During New Years, we have this thing called soup joumou which is squash soup or pumpkin soup…we basically usually eat it for the rest of the week. And basically the soup is supposed to symbolize how we got our freedom because in Haiti at some point the slaves were not allowed to eat pumpkin soup. It was a commodity that was thought to be for the high class people, only which were the white people and the mulattoes at that time so when the Haitians slaves got their freedom from their capturers or whatever, to celebrate, they drunk pumpkin soup.

Céline Dion Fans United

One of my favorite artists is Céline Dion, and I think it’s because of the Haitian house that I grew up in because Haitians, they like love Céline Dion. Every Haitian, you tell them about Céline Dion, they know who she is. So I grew up listening to a lot of her songs and wanting to sing like her, and that’s how I really got into it and I never stopped.

French Creole is My Language

I also sing in a singing group that I have, well, that me and a couple of my friends have from different Seventh-Day Adventists Haitian churches. We’ve come together and made a singing group where we go around, we sing at concerts, we administer during Sabbath worship… we have mostly French songs because we are all from Haitian churches, and the Haitian churches that we attend, they speak Creole and French… This is why my family like they always snicker at people who don’t teach their children Creole or French because they want you to be in touch with your culture.

Haiti IS Significant

Last year, I found the Haitian American Student Association on campus, HASA for short, and I entered. I went to some of their events. We had the taste of Haiti where my mom cooked some dishes to expose the campus to Haitian cooking, and they also had a Miss Haiti pageant which kinda forced me to learn more about my culture … we were competing with one another to see who could win the crown and I was representing Jacmel… I learned a lot about the role that Haiti played on a global scale in terms of like assuring the Louisiana Purchase for the U.S. and all these different things that I had no idea that Haiti was involved in. In my head, it’s almost like the American society got to my head making me think that my country was small and that it wasn’t really significant but being in that pageant taught me that Haiti really did play a large role for a whole bunch of other countries. We were the largest exporter of sugar at some point. It helped so many countries out and it’s not something I was exposed to to realize that Haiti was that important to the world.

My Dream

I hope to become a practicing physician one day. And if I’m not there, I hope to be in the health field somehow… One of my biggest dreams that I want is to be able to go back in Haiti and help the underserving community.

The Golden Hour

Posted on by
Reply
This photograph was taken by Lina Hayes. This photo takes advantage of what is known as the "Golden Hour." This is the time of day in which the sun rises or before the sun sets. This natural lighting offers colors that are red, orange, and yellow. This hour offers a scene more intense in color but softer than when the Sun is higher in the sky.

This photograph was taken by Lina Hayes. It takes advantage of what is known as the “Golden Hour.” This is the time of day in which the sun rises or before the sun sets. This natural lighting offers colors that are red, orange, and yellow. This “magic hour” offers a scene more intense in color but softer than when the Sun is higher in the sky.

Getting to Know Flatbush

Posted on by
Reply


By Michel Fallah, Eytan Galanter, Arun Sivan

Welcome to our Flatbush walking tour! This neighborhood has experienced vast changes over the course of its history beginning with Dutch settlement to a white and Jewish majority and now a home to the one of the largest populations of Haitians in the country. This ethnic group has moved into the area in masses beginning in the 1970s through the 90s. With political and economic disadvantage, Haitians have struggled in creating a rich presence in the neighborhood and focused their attention on forming organizations which help their families back home. And so we begin our tour at the Haitian Centers Council Inc. to highlight the political strife of the Flatbush Haitians.

Haitian Centers Council Inc.

Mathieu Eugene reading a speech at the Haitian City Council

The present status of Haitians in Flatbush is tied intimately to their history. The majority of the Haitian people that came to live in Flatbush came after the 1990’s. These people were less educated and had less funds than the first wave of the more affluent Haitian immigrants. Upward mobility for Haitians across the economic ladder was stratified due to acute labor market polarization. This means that lower end jobs and higher end jobs were available; however, there were no jobs for the middle class.

Since most Haitians came to the country with little to their name, they were forced to take up jobs on the lower end of the economic spectrum. Consequently, this caused most Haitians to take up janitorial, domestic/personal service, and elderly care positions which did not offer sufficient money to improve their standard of living. Because Haitians had economic struggles, they had enormous troubles with political representation.

Despite Haitians making up a large majority of the inhabitants of the neighborhood of Flatbush, they were severely underrepresented in district governments, thus causing a lack of Haitian-community improvement efforts. This lack of political representation led to the formation of the Haitian-American Political Action Group, a lobbyist group that formed in 1994. Constant lobbying efforts by the Haitian-American Political Action Group led to massive upheavals among district government representatives. In the early 1990s, the political group was highly critical of Representative Major Owens, a man who they claimed was completely out of touch with the needs of the Haitian community.

City Councellor Mathieu Eugene

Today, City Councellor Mathieu Eugene aptly represents Haitian interests and his office is located at this site. This is huge for a community that lacked representation for so long. I am sure that you can all appreciate this comparison between times, and how important it is to have a figure that represents your best interest in your local government.

Now that we’ve seen the Haitian Centers Council, let’s move on to our next stop, a place which claims a rich history, the Flatbush Town Hall! First we are going to head west on Linden Blvd and take a left onto Bedford Ave. We then continue south on Bedford Ave until we reach Snyder Ave, where we take a right and reach our destination.

Flatbush Town Hall

Currently one of the most prominent landmarks standing in Flatbush, this town hall functioned in full political capacity from 1894-1915 after which a demolition was planned. Luckily the National Register of Historic Places deemed the building a landmark and stopped all plans of demolition. This building is one of the few landmarks from the late 1800’s. A building that withstood the tests of time if you will.

Flatbush Town Hall

The interesting thing about this landmark is that it harkens back to a time when Flatbush wasn’t really a part of New York. During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, Flatbush was really just a town with its own municipality, police force, and banking system, and even a completely separate irrigation system from the rest of New York. Even now the infrastructure of Flatbush is oddly unconnected to the rest of the borough it is in, almost like an enclave within the city.

During the time when the Town Hall was erected, the government of Flatbush consisted of a Sheriff, two leaders of the floor, and eight members of the community that these two people picked to help them. The voting process was rather simple. The whole town gathered in the Town Hall and what we now call a Town Hall vote would take place.

Kings Theatre

A left on Flatbush Avenue and two blocks down, you will find yourself at one of the biggest feats of entertainment in Brooklyn. This would be Loew’s Kings Theatre which opened on September 7th, 1929. Magnificently designed by the renowned architectural company Rapp & Rapp, the theatre drew great appeal in its time. With 3,200 seats, it was the largest theatre made in Brooklyn. It had become a main attraction in the Brooklyn arts scheme as a whole and in the shopping district along Flatbush Avenue.

However, this was the same year that the stock market crashed on October 29. Banks were closing and having that extra money to attend a film screening was out of the question. The solution was to only present featured films at the theatre to counteract the effects of the depression and decline of vaudeville, which is stage play with interspersed songs. Even so, it faced steady decline from the 50s until its closing on August 30th, 1977. With the rise of multiplexes and blockbusters, the theatre could no longer compete and make enough profit to cover expenses.

Kings Theatre when first opened (left). Kings Theatre after its closing in 1977 (right).

Beginning in 2006, the New York City Economic Development Corporation along with the Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz have worked to have the Kings Theatre restored. On February 3rd, 2010, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Brooklyn Borough President Markowitz had announced official plans for the theatre to reopen. The ACE Theatrical Group,

LLC was contracted as the developer choosing the Martinez + Johnson Architecture firm and planning to modernize the technology for displaying modern shows while preserving some of the original architectural features. A five year lease with The Kings Theatre Redevelopment Corporation was signed on January 23rd, 2013.

King’s Theatre Today

Inside the renovated King’s Theatre

The project amounted to 95$ million dollars with its vintage carpets, seating, and historic lighting. This recreation of the old theatre shows gentrification of the area. With its new and expanded facilities and staging capabilities, the theatre will revitalize Brooklyn entertainment and increase job opportunities in the Flatbush business district.

Holy Cross Cemetery

We will now walk down Tilden Avenue until we reach the Holy Cross Cemetery. One of the parts of Haitian life that we have not yet covered is the aspect of spirituality. The majority of Haitians follow Roman Catholicism, although a sizeable minority practice Haitian Vodou, and different forms of Protestantism. No matter the religion, the vast majority of Haitians, living both in Haiti and in the States, take their spirituality very seriously and going to church has become a sort of social event.

As previously stated, Catholicism is the dominant religion in Haiti. Much like the rest of Latin America, Haiti was colonized by Roman Catholic European super powers like Spain and, in Haiti’s case, France. Catholicism had become so intertwined in the lives of Haitian citizens during colonial times that Roman Catholicism was officially stated to be Haiti’s national religion in the Haitian constitution until 1987, when Vodou joined. As Haitians began to immigrate to Flatbush in the late 20th century, they brought their deep seeded beliefs.

The Holy Cross Cemetery is an example of the religious majority in Flatbush. This cemetery is one of the largest signs of Roman Catholicism in the area, and it has been standing here since the early 1800’s. Its beautiful architectural style, yet completely unperturbed history indicate a deep seated respect for life, death, and religion.

Several notable figures are buried here such as Louie Capone, an infamous mobster that is unrelated to Al Capone. In fact this cemetery has the dubious distinction of being home to more organized criminals than any other cemetery in New York. The Cemetery itself is rather beautiful and its architecture is  Gothic. It serves as another foray into the past, rooted into the grounds of the present.

But now let’s stop being morbid and move on in our tour!

Flatbush Gardens

Now, let’s walk down Brooklyn Avenue and make a right onto Foster Avenue. Before introducing this site, you all must understand one of the issues that currently haunt the Haitian community. The issue in question is that of gentrification. Gentrification has slowly been eroding at the very essence of the community. The pay for people working the afore-mentioned sort of jobs that Haitians primarily work in has stratified due to poor economic growth; however, the price of residency is only soaring. Furthermore there is a new sense of racial bias that can be seen in the housing on Flatbush. Even store prices are rising dramatically. According to one woman, a sandwich at her Bodega used to cost her around 2.00$ and now it costs her 5.50$ This is only anecdotal evidence of course, but evidence none the less.

This site, Flatbush Gardens, is notorious in the area for unfair pricing and terrible management. According to multiple sources on Google and an interview with a Haitian from Flatbush, the establishment prices multiple families out and consistently treats people of color negatively. This is just one of the many places that is representative of a bigger problem. One that is both pivotal to prevent and incredibly difficult to stop.

Now folks, we are going to do something waaaaay more uplifting. Food!

Kreyol Flavor

Making our way toward the Flatbush Junction and walking down Flatbush Avenue, we will see one of the few Haitian restaurants existing in Brooklyn. Kreyol Flavor is a small business owned by a man named Cursy Surin. In a neighborhood lacking many signs of the newer Haitian majority, Kreyol Flavor opened its doors on May 6, 2014. Although recent, it has become a common place for Haitians of the Flatbush community to gather and have homestyle lunches. They serve traditional dishes with rice, beans, fried plantains, and choice of meat.

Many of the customers visit during their lunch break, which is when the restaurant is most crowded. Upon entering, there is the Haitian flag propped up against the window and Haitian employees waiting to serve. The interior decor reflects Haitian culture with a straw voodoo doll and painting of the recent 2010 earthquake which struck Haiti. Vodou is a common practice among Haitians and it is fairly easy to find a voodoo priest in the Flatbush area. The 2010 earthquake hit 7.0 on the Richter scale leaving the country in complete devastation and Haitian relatives in Flatbush with immense grief for loved ones back home.

That same year, Fritznel Milfort was caught in the middle of the earthquake while on a relief mission and immediately formed an organization in Flatbush known as the Canteens for the Children of Haiti. Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches in predominantly Haitian neighborhoods provided supplies en masse to charitable organizations working directly with Haiti relief. It’s quite evident that this tragedy strengthened the bond of the Haitian community of Flatbush.

Brooklyn College

In order to reach our Brooklyn College, we have to head northwest on Flatbush Avenue towards East 34th street. Once there, we turn left onto Avenue H, then a right onto Campus Road. After walking a short distance, we turn left once again towards Bedford Avenue. After traveling around 0.2 miles, we turn right towards Bedford Avenue. We then follow Bedford Avenue until we reach Brooklyn College.

Brooklyn College is rather important for the Haitian community living here. It has long been a symbol of educational opportunity for immigrants of a multitude of backgrounds since the early 1930’s. Known as the “poor man’s Harvard,” Brooklyn College is known for providing an excellent education at an affordable cost. This is  something that people who want to advance economically find extremely helpful.

These manageable tuition rates and standards for academic excellence draw immigrants from all backgrounds to enroll. This includes Haitian immigrants that are drawn to America due to promises of better living conditions and dreams of providing better lives for their children.

Historically, the influx of Haitian immigrants into Flatbush during the 1990’s caused the uptick of Haitians in the Brooklyn College community. Over the years, Haitian prominence in Brooklyn College has been a major catalyst in creating and popularizing the Haitian Creole courses offered to students looking to learn about the wonderfully diverse and prominent culture of the Caribbean.

The course is offered in four tiers: Tier I Introductory Courses include basic culture and civilization courses and two core courses that provide a basis for future electives, Tier II Genre Courses include courses titled Thematic Readings in five major literary genres (poetry, the novel, short fiction, theater, and the essay), Tier III Multidisciplinary Courses expand the study of literature beyond the traditional fields, focusing on special areas of interest in the contemporary world; women; autobiography; moral and religious concerns; historical and social concerns; and the arts, and Tier IV, Pivotal and Monographic Courses, offer the intensive study of a major author or body of literary works at an advanced level.

In addition to the Haitian Creole course, Brooklyn College has showcased its proud Haitian community through the Haitian American Students Association, a club that embraces and shares Haitian culture to both students of Haitian descent and students interested in learning more about Haitian customs and values.

This institution is currently setting the stage for young Haitians to overcome their economic obstacles and the political burdens that were placed on the community and thrive in the future to come.

NYC Police Department 70th Precinct

In order to reach our final destination, we begin by going north on Bedford Avenue. We then take a sharp left on Campus Road and continue on Campus Road for around 0.2 miles. Next, we take a left onto Avenue H and take the pedestrian tunnel until we reach Ocean Parkway. We take a right onto Ocean Parkway and continue on it until we reach Newkirk Avenue. Newkirk leads us to Lawrence Avenue where our final destination resides.

This site is important because it shows a major problem that the Haitian community faced and continues to face to this day. That issue is discrimination.

Discrimination has always been an issue for Haitians settled in America. Haitians were disliked not only for their color but also for their perceived identity as job thieves. Police brutality is also a prominent issue for Haitians settled in Flatbush.

Abner Louima

Former Officer Justin Volpe who sodomized Abner Louima.

After several accounts of violence displayed against Haitians in Brooklyn by members of the police force, the Haitian community finally reached its breaking point when Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant and father of two, was arrested, stripped, and sodomized by two officers of the 70th Precinct in August of 1997. Haitians came together to protest not only the actions of the two police officers that brutalized one of their countrymen, but also against the large amount of racism that was prevalent in the police force under Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s leadership.

Protestors March on the 70th Precinct

Today, statistics have shown that people of color have been stopped and frisked at an alarmingly high rate; the natives of Flatbush know this all too well. Racial discrimination and profiling by members of the NYPD continues to be a pressing issue for the Haitian community in Flatbush.

 

Thank you for coming on our tour. It was a pleasure telling everyone the issues surrounding the Haitian community, and I hope the stragglers find their way home.

We bid you all adieu! 

References

“About Us.” Canteens for the Children of Haiti. Canteens for the Children of Haiti, Inc.., 2015. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

Baillou, Charles. “Angry Haitians march at the 70th Precinct in Brooklyn. (Cover story).” New York Amsterdam News 21 Aug. 1997: 1. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

Barron, James. “Haitians in New York Eager to Help, but Struggle With How.” Www.nytimes.com. New York Times, 13 Jan. 2010. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/nyregion/14nychaiti.html>.

“History Behind Kings Theatre.” Kings Theatre. ACE Theatrical Group, LLC, 2014. Web. 06 Apr. 2016. <http://www.kingstheatre.com/info/history>.

Motyka, Joan. “IN YOU’RE THINKING OF LIVING IN FLATBUSH.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Jan. 1983. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

“NYC DCP Census Fact Finder.” NYC.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

Pierre, Garry Pierre. “NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: FLATBUSH; Haitians Seek New Influence In Local Politics.” Www.nytimes.com. New York Times, 7 Aug. 1994. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/07/nyregion/neighborhood-report-flatbush-haiti ans-seek-new-influence-in-local-politics.html>.

Semple, Kirk. “Haitians in U.S. Brace for Deportations to Resume.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Dec. 2010. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

Semple, Kirk, Julia Preston, and Deborah Sontag. “Worry Rises Among Haitians as U.S. Plans to Resume Deportations.” New York Times 20 Dec. 2010: 20. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

Sontag, Deborah. “Haitian Migrants Settle In, Looking Back.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 June 1994. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

“The Newest New Yorkers – 2013 Edition.” NYC Population. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

Wah, Tatiana, and François Pierre-Louis. “Evolution of Haitian Immigrant Organizations & Community Development in New York City”. Journal of Haitian Studies 10.1 (2004): 146–164. Web. 17 March 2016.

The Silver Lining of the Lebanese Diaspora

Posted on by
Reply

The year 1985 is significant in the life of my father, Antoun Fallah. The Lebanese Civil War had wrecked havoc in the country from 1975 through 1990. For ten years, my father watched the Maronite Christians of Lebanon suffer in the hands of an influx of Palestinian Muslims, mainly Sunnis. Although Maronite Christians were predominant in the country and its politics, the Islamic forces began to fight relentlessly for the upper hand. My father, an Orthodox Christian, was fortunate to be among those who escaped and arrived to the United States in 1985. He, alongside his parents and two younger brothers, found shelter in their grandfather’s home in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The grandfather had been living in America since 1974. All three teenage boys attended Fort Hamilton Public High School, worked various jobs, and struggled to master the English language.

The Newly Weds (Yolla and Anton Fallah)

The Newly Weds (Yolla and Anton Fallah)

In 1994, my father was ready to find a wife. As a Lebanese man, he wanted a traditional Lebanese wife, so the search would be futile in America. He went to Lebanon and was immediately suggested to meet a family friend’s daughter in a village twenty minutes away. There was no such thing as “dating” so the only way to meet her was to stop by the house for a cup of coffee. He had visited the distant village twice to no avail. Every time he went, he faced a belligerent father and only saw the elder sister, whom had been already engaged. Feeling rather hopeless the third time, he quickly arose from his seat to leave, only to find a beautiful young woman enter the home. Within a week, my father and mother were married as he had to return to the States. Her father did not approve and my mother didn’t know her new husband very well, but she says that he was “handsome” and a pharmacist, which is “better than the window-panel guy” she refused to marry.

Adjusting to life in America was certainly not an easy task. Two aspects that stood out to me were the change of names and the necessity of working multiple jobs. My father had changed his name to be spelt ANTON as people would never pronounce it right and made assumptions about his background. The second son, Toufic, always introduced himself as “Tommy” and the youngest son, Abraham (pronounced Brahim in Arabic), was called “Abe” among friends. One’s name is such a huge part of their identity. The fact that all three brothers became uncomfortable living under the name they had known all their lives shows the impact of societal stress to assimilate into American culture.

The Brothers Upon Arrival (Abraham, Anton, and Toufic Fallah from left to right)

The Brothers Upon Arrival (Abraham, Anton, and Toufic Fallah from left to right)

Secondly, multiple incomes were needed to survive. In my father’s situation specifically, he had been employed in jobs ranging from wiping tables at White Castle to assisting in a pharmaceutical office of a hospital and owning his own pharmacy. While working two jobs at once with the income of his father and siblings, it was still hard to make ends meet with debt from college and utility expenses. I was fortunate enough to be born and raised while my father had a stable job. He opened Best Care Pharmacy on 3rd Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in 2002. My mother had to fight with her father to even allow her to attend college. She was sent to a trade school where she studied accounting, but she remained a housewife in America. All three brothers lived with their families in one house in Bay Ridge until the 2000s as the families grew too large to stay and savings accumulated. I never had to work to help my family maintain financial stability as my father had and never had been discouraged from pursuing my career goals as my mother had been.

Although I have not experienced the same hardships as my parents assimilating into American society, I am aware of my bicultural identity. When people I meet in New York ask me where I am from, pertaining to ethnicity, I respond with “Lebanon” without hesitation. Lebanon seems to be an enigma in the Middle East and I pride myself in its beauty and reknowned capital of Beirut. However, I am immediately picked out as the “American” when visiting Lebanon by the way I dress, act, think, and speak Arabic. Realizing that I may not be a perfect fit in either culture, I learned that I can be simultaneously Lebanese and American.

In general, my Lebanese values of family, food, hospitality, manners, and strictness have been an ongoing influence on my American life. My parents always want to meet or know about the families of my friends. If aspects of the family are deemed negative, such as divorced parents or a problematic child, it was always best that our friendship drift. Sunday was always a day exclusively for family. Keeping a close-knit relationship with each member of immediate family and the most distant relatives was very important. A home-cooked traditional Lebanese meal was prepared everyday. This includes appetizers, salads, side dishes, and the main entrée. It could never be just a pot of pasta, and fast food was out of the question. My younger sisters become overwhelmingly excited when we take them to McDonald’s since they rarely eat there. If people come over, snacks or food must be offered and take-out must be paid for. If you are inviting people for dinner, it is important that you prepare the entire event yourself because potluck-style looks lazy on the host. When visiting others, a gift should be bought and a greeting of three kisses on the cheeks is expected.

Strictness was applied to two areas– religious practice and social interaction. We had to pray every time we entered the car and went to church every Sunday. We attend Mass at the Maronite Church of Our Lady of Lebanon on Remsen Street in Downtown Brooklyn, even though we are Greek Orthodox. This particular church has become a place for many Lebanese people to assemble, socialize, and pray. In the social aspect, I was never allowed to have sleepovers like the other kids around me and had an earlier curfew. My mother once caught me talking about my menstrual cycle with my friends and she scolded me about it being very private and shameful to speak of. I was expected not to kiss any boys, let alone date them. As my parents experience the aging of an American child with my older sister and I, they have become more lenient and westernized. However, one recent incident reminds me of how their Lebanese mindset will not disappear.

An argument that occurred in my family started over some ear piercings. My younger sister had gotten her second ear piercing. My older sister had also wanted to get her second ear piercing, but, without telling them, she had gotten a few extra ones. With 5 earnings on one ear and three on the other, she had only managed to get away with it for about 3 hours before my mother noticed. What ensued was the silent treatment and glares from across the room. Suddenly, I was her favorite child since I only had the usual one piercing on each ear. Then, my father came home and there was a lot of lecturing about how, somehow, the earnings will lead to drinking, tattoos, drugs, and endless reckless behavior, while my sister argued it was simply self expression. This is just a classic example of having a teenage daughter to most, but it was almost the end of the world for my parents who would have never seen this behavior in Lebanon. In this particular situation, I agree with my sister that the earrings are essentially harmless; however, our Lebanese upbringing still has an influence on the way we think and handle different situations.

Valdivia Figurines

Posted on by
Reply

Valdivia Female Figurines

By: Valdivia natives of Ecuador (3500 B.C. – 1800 B.C.)

The clay figurines exhibited are of the Valdivia women of Ecuador around 3500 B.C. Although the faces were simple, their unique expressions and flowing hair were accentuated in detail. They were made by pressing two long pieces of clay together for sculpting the body while a slab at the top became the boxed-hair look. The colors were both red and the natural tint of clay. The figurines on display were all female and had long hair which shows that the Valdivia females most likely kept their hair lengthy. The female bodies were standing upright with plump breasts, straight shoulders, and heads raised. Another themed characteristic of this particular set of figurines is that the arms are crossed over the belly.

As the figurines are female, they may be made to represent fertility, production, or agricultural development. In particular, the arms crossed over the belly suggest an association with the womb and fertility. The Valdivia culture may have involved the use of these figurines in agricultural rituals and calling for rain. Several from the collection were found to be intentionally broken revealing that the breaking of these figurines may have been a ritual. However, there are missing pieces to what we have discovered about the Valdivia natives, including when their culture came to a definite end. In reference to Native American culture, the figurines standing with poise show reverence to the female body and agriculture success.

In finding these clay figurines, it was revealed that the Valdivia culture created the oldest-known pottery of the Western Hemisphere and the oldest-known figurines in the Americas. The origin of ceramic production, still used today, can be traced back to these Native Americans who lived in the Americas thousands of years ago. This practice may have started individually in different cultures or spread through trade and cultural interaction.