Background
Parkchester is a planned community and neighborhood located in the central Bronx, New York City. The neighborhood it includes from the north is East Tremont avenue, Castle hill avenue to the east, Westchester avenue to the south, and the Cross Bronx Expressway to the southwest. Some of the histories of Parkchester is that it was derived from the two neighborhoods on each side of the site of the housing development, Park Versailles, and Westchester Heights. Based on the data from the 2010 census, the racial makeup of the neighborhood was 42.8 percent African American, 12.4 percent Asian, 3.7 percent white, 0.2 percent Native American, and Hispanic or Latinos were 38.1 percent of the population. It is an area that is full of diversity with Muslim, Christianity, and many other religious and diverse cultural people from all over the world. Here, one can find people from Latin America, Asian countries like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Middle Eastern countries, and including many countries from Africa. The restaurants and the grocery stores are full of diverse cultural foods. It is rare that one cannot find their cultural food or spices here at Parkchester. It is being distinguished that the Bengali culture at Parkchester has had a great expansion in two decades.
My experience in the neighborhood
An area or the community that I have lived in since I moved to the U.S. in 2016 from Bangladesh. I find this place very similar, again dissimilar to my home country. This community has existed even before I moved here, and now it’s growing very fast. In Parkchester, the Bangladeshi community is largely expanding as well as I could also say the Muslim community too. The place I live in includes a large Mosque (Mosque is the holy place where Muslim people unite and pray together) in figure 1., which is the largest Mosque in the Bronx – The ‘Parkchester Jame Masjid’. The Mosque illustrates the fact about how large the Bengali Muslim community lives in this area.
Bengali Muslim Community with Halal Food
A large group of Bengali Muslim people lives in Parkchester. The Bengali Muslim community in Parkchester is expanding as could be seen in the various stores that illustrate this particular culture of having halal food. The picture depicted below in figure 2. explains the sign of ‘Halal’ food that the Muslim community lives here. Halal food means that the food is being processed by following Islamic rules. The grocery stores that include the word ‘Halal’ means they follow the Islamic laws to prepare food. Specifically, they slaughter animals in the name of Allah, and food that does not touch pork, eating and touching pork is forbidden in Islam. Besides figure 1. shows the Mosque where not only the Bengali Muslims, but Muslims from all ethnicities come here to pray, which is a sign of Muslim diversity at Parkchester.
Figure 1: Parkchester Mosque (Rabeya)
Figure 2: A Bengali Muslim Grocery Store (Rabeya)
Figure 3: White Plains Road, Parkchester (Rabeya)
Bengali Alphabets
The Bangladeshi store owners use Bengali alphabets and writings to grab Bengali customers. Figure 4, 5, and 9 specifically shows the Bengali calligraphy or the alphabet to show the culture they represent and the Cultural products they sell. In figure 8, it shows the saree that Bengali women wear in their home country as everyday clothing. It is a type of long garment that women wear to cover their whole body. Some may find it similar to Indian and Pakistani garments, as these countries were historically connected. As a traditional cloth, unlike pants and t-shirts, in Bangladesh men wear dresses like long garments that cover their body till the knees and sweatpants like pants. These all can be distinguished in figure 8. store.
In figure 4. shows the store has Bengali clothes, and the writing is included in Bengali as the store title “Natoor Saree Ghor” in Bangla means ‘Natoor Saree House’, where women can buy the traditional clothes for events and any celebrations. In figure 8. It says ‘Tangail Saree Ghor’ similarly means ‘Tangail Saree House’. The ‘Natoor’ and ‘Tangail’ are two districts in Bangladesh that are famous for making comfortable cotton sarees. So famous that they expanded to Parkchester as well. In figure 5, in the Bengali alphabet, it was written that it is a hair salon for men and children, and the prices are written in English. Perhaps, the targeted audience could be Bengali families especially men, and men from different cultures. In figure 7. It has a template in the glass of the store that includes the word ‘Bangladesh’ in Bangla and ‘Wall Street Finance’ in English where Bangladeshi people go to send money in their home country. The store is used for money transfer services.
Figure 4: Bengali Shop (Rabeya)
Figure 5: Bengali Hair Salon (Rabeya)
The color Pattern
The red and green represent Bangladesh as it in the flag. Bangladeshi flag includes a red circle in a green rectangle. The red illustrates the blood of martyrs who died during the Liberation War in 1971 and green for the green geography of Bangladesh. All of the pictures provided have a color pattern of the color green, that represents the flag of Bangladesh, which is combined with red and green. In figure 1, the Mosque includes the color green, and the same color could be found in all other figures including 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. They all include this pattern to show the Bangladeshi culture. In figure 6. illustrated the famous art that represents only Bangladesh. The art was created in 1971 during the liberation war with respect to the freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives to free the country.
Figure 6: Art that represents Bangladesh (Rabeya)
Figure 7: Money transfer store owned by Bengali owner (Rabeya)
Figure 8: Bengali traditional cloth store (Rabeya)
Figure 9: Bengali money transfer store (Rabeya)
Figure 10: Area called Bangla Bazar, means Bengali markets (Rabeya)
Expansion of Bengali Communities
All of the figures above represent how this area is largely occupied by Bangladeshi people. This area is called Starling, and another world also called Bangla Bazar, which means Bangla Market, or that Bangladeshi people have many businesses in this area. In this particular space, people can find every type of Bangladeshi material like spices, clothes, or any other Bengali products. By the time this Bengali area has been expanded. During 2016, it was not as busy as it is now, as it keeps expanding as more Bengali immigrants come to the U.S., Bengali people not only have businesses, and high official jobs including politics and other wall street businesses.
The Mosque was depicted above represents the Bengali Muslim community, every time in Eid prayer when every Bengali Muslim comes together for Eid prayer [Large group of Muslims prays together on the day of Eid] there is not enough space for everyone to fit in the Mosque. Therefore many people end up praying on the street outside of the Mosque. This is a huge representation of how Bengali communities have a large unity to live together in the Bronx. Starling avenue is so dominated by Bengali communities that they named the street ‘Bangla Bazar’ in figure 10. along with Starling Avenue. In conclusion, it was clearly distinguished that Parkchester is the area where most Bengali people live, and the community is expanding by the time.