You could not take a gypsy cab from Atlantic Ave to Ocean Parkway without having an Armor-Alled, Boysenberry Black, Town Car pull up with all types of warbling feedback and chirping from inside the car where an Osvaldo asks you, para adonde joven?
No, this Osvaldo is not a gypsy cab driver even though hands-down, pretty much all the Ecuadorians from Cuenca living in around Brooklyn from 2003 to now in 2008. This is Osvaldo Chiqui and he works at Los Magos in Sunset Park; he lives around the corner from Los Magos (a modest Spanish restaurant) and enjoys the abundant commerce that traverses this part of Brooklyn, so far from the centro.
Sure there are 'Ricans and Dominicans, but mostly it's Ecuadorians from Cuenca. I'm not sure what made it so easy for Ecuadorians, especially from Cuenca, to come and immigrate to this part of NYC, but it was as if Cuencans had been born with an internal homing beacon; because, somehow or other they all lived in and around this Brooklyn quadrant. And the industry that these little Incas had decided to bumrush was none other than the taxi and limousine racket. And what a racket they held.
Uncanny, indeed. The reason I know this is because when I lived on Ocean Parkway in 2003 and personally, informally interviewed every gypsy cab driver that I had the honor of employing; I have taken a personal interest in the casting of this very personal matter, and so you must go along with me if this story is to match up or connect in any meaningful way.
Every now and then the city becomes like a repository for special visas and permisos. And you could almost intuit the nationality of the person behind the counter or on the other side of the partition based on the industry. For example, presently in Harlem, if you walked into a bodega and found an Arab behind the counter, chances are they were from Yemen. This had become more pronounced since Department of Homeland Security devoured whole departments (like Immigration and Naturalization Service) whole from within the Mastodon Justice Department.
Spicaresque:
A Spanglish blog dedicated to the works, ruminations, and mongrel pyrotechnics of Yago S. Cura, an Argentine-American poet, translator, publisher & futbol cretin. Yago publishes Hinchas de Poesia, an online literary journal, & is the sole proprietor of Hinchas Press.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.png)
1 comment:
YC,
Interesting ethnography. Although NYC is the capital of multi-ethnic migration, Iraq is rapidly, or rapbidly becoming, the middle eastern poor man's version of a get rich quick scheme- Filipinos dominate the on base barber, beauty salon and massage stalls. Ghurkas, Sri Lankans, Angolans and Ugandas are the self-appointed base defenders, and Americans populate the air-conditioned, bitch sessions called oficinas.
Post a Comment