Archive for the ‘Peoples’ Category
Girl Power in Flatbush
Under the searing sun and stench of roadside garbage, a teenage Hispanic girl carrying a baby boy comes out of a door next to a church. Her tousled hair looked like she’d been up all night. The baby’s unwashed face was smeared with dirt; a diaper was the only thing covering his bare skin. Was [...]
The “Mixed Veggies” of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, religion in ethnic flavors Part 3: Mexicans and Muslims
Sunset Park is also now a center for Mexican immigrants. Fifth Avenue is full of Mexican shops, restaurants and employment agencies. The religious center of the Mexicans in Sunset Park is the huge Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help on Fifth Avenue and 59th Street. The church also has a large congregation of Chinese [...]
The “Mixed Veggies” of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, religion in ethnic flavors Part 2: the Fujianese
Fujian is a coastal province in China that is north of Gwangdong and across from Taiwan. In 1995 and even 2004 the Fujianese were not a significant presence in Sunset Park. Now, the Fujianese seem overwhelmingly present. About one-fourth of the foreign born residents of Sunset Park are Chinese. Besides Fujian, Cantonese immigrants continue to [...]
NYC Mexican Americans as “the Chosen”
Mexican immigrants in New York City believe that Mexicans and Mexico are “the Chosen Ones” to bring the message of Christ to the city. The roots of this conviction lay in the belief that the Virgin Mary, the Virgin of Guadalupe, appeared to a poor indigenous man named Juan Diego. By this appearance the [...]
NYC’s Brazilian “Black Swans”
Something unpredictable is happening in New York City. It is the arrival of “Black Swans.” For a millennia most people thought there were only white swans. Then, the news spread that in Australia there were black swans. Thousands of years of experience and a mindset that said that swans are only white were contradicted. Everyone [...]
Washington Heights Kids & Pilgrim’s Progress
Over a twenty year period over 1000 kids, 600 mentors, 200 tutors and staff have taken a journey from the City of Despair to the City of Destiny through the remarkable successful efforts of Operation Exodus Inner City (OE), an afterschool tutoring and mentoring program in Washington Heights and Inwood Heights in northern Manhattan. This [...]
