From Hassids to Hip Hop, from Bedouins to the Brooklyn Boardwalk
Richmond Hill
Entrance of Little Guyana: jewelry stores, salons, restaurants, delis are interchangeable West Indian, Guyanese and Indian products and services. A main difference between Jackson Heights and Richmond Hill is the cuisine and population. Guyanese food is less spicier than its counterpart and enjoys a less claustrophobic lifestyle. Otherwise, they both have a train track above their heads.
Near Forest Park which borders Richmond Hill on the north, Victorian houses embellish the neighborhood with history and architectural glamour. Shimmering in blue-green amongst the surrounding foliage, the circulating porch is a key feature of Victorian design.
Khalid, 19, Trinidadian and sophomore at BMCC. A few blocks away from Little Guyana on Liberty Ave towards the edge of Richmond Hill, radiates a stronger Hispanic presence. With all the hues and tones of the neighborhood store fronts riding on the sights and smells, Richmond Hill is as multifaceted as its colors and people. “I was born and raised here and I see nothing hostile about the neighborhood, people are friendly, no tension beween the Guyanese and Indians. The train and traffic is what keeps you up at night.”
Ramo, Guyanese, 38, owner of the Ramo Jewelry Store for one year and owner of a previous store also on Liberty Ave for a decade has his finger down on the neighborhood. He shares half of his store with a hair salon. “Most of my customers are Guyanese and Trinidadian, the Indians hardly come to my store,” Ramo said with emphatic i’s and r’s. “Indians don’t go to Guyanese jewelry stores because we don’t have the designs they like and karat count,” with his arms crossed and raised brows,” and they’re cheap too, they don’t pay ticket price for Guyanese merchandise, not even from their own. But otherwise this neighborhood is pretty safe despite the tension.” Business is part bargaining, part culture.
Kumar, 45, Indian, Owner of Liberty Curtains for the past seven years. Kumar owns a second Liberty Curtains on Hillside Ave. “Richmond Hill is to the Guyanese as Jackson Heights is to the Indians, if they don’t recognize each other; at least they have their own neighborhoods.” Joseph, 50, Amerigroup Health Insurance Agent married to a Guyanese woman from Richmond Hill. “I was born to live here, everyone’s peaceful in Little Guyana,” Joseph said Richmond Hill. Joseph is multicuralism personificed; he lived in Abu Dhabi for 25 years and was born in India to Chinese parents; fluent in Hindi, Arabic, English, and Cantonese.
Back in 1990 to 96′, my uncle and father owned the most productive supermarket in Richmond Hill on 118th street and Liberty Ave. My brothers and I would run throught the packed aisles of West Indian products, much like the cars weaving and swerving on congested Liberty Ave under the A train. I only knew Liberty Ave, or “Little Guyana” for the predominant presence of Guyanese and Trinidadian people.
One day a Guyanese and Indian cashier exchanged hostile accents in my father’s store. And I didn’t know why some Indians didn’t recognize Guyanese people of having Indian descent. So I asked a few locals around Richmond Hill to tell me their stories about the ongoing tension, if there is, between Guyanese and Indians.
After that I went to the historic section of Richmond Hill which was an Italian neighborhood in the 1900’s to 1960’s. Along 86th ave, there is a handful of Victorian Houses which survived the years and are being supported by local legislatures to preserve and officiate them as New York City Landmarks.
2 thoughts on “Richmond Hill”
I think the reporting you did on each of the photos is amazing. You have quotes, a story that is both rich with conflict and isn’t that well known among most people outside this community.
I agree with Even, you have by far the most detailed and descriptive notes on your community.
I especially value the fact that you identified the groups that make-up this community and talked to a representative of each one of them, not only about their own lives, but about the interactions between their communities that happened to settle in the same location.
I also like that you included Joseph, who is not exactly a typical member of this community, but who became one through marriage, study of language and geographical location.
I think the reporting you did on each of the photos is amazing. You have quotes, a story that is both rich with conflict and isn’t that well known among most people outside this community.
I agree with Even, you have by far the most detailed and descriptive notes on your community.
I especially value the fact that you identified the groups that make-up this community and talked to a representative of each one of them, not only about their own lives, but about the interactions between their communities that happened to settle in the same location.
I also like that you included Joseph, who is not exactly a typical member of this community, but who became one through marriage, study of language and geographical location.