My great grandmother, grandma, and sisters immigrated to New York from Quito Ecuador around the time period of the 1960’s. My grandma was around 20 years old. Binder (p4) states that “Women predominated in this immigration stream, as they did in most others coming to this city in this period.” On my fathers side of the family a large group of women came to New York to better their lives. There was alot of crime in Ecuador as well as poverty.
My grandma came to better her life. She told me once she came here she found a job in a factory. which she kept for about ten years. The wages were low and long hours were required. Like we discussed in class, immigrants were stuck with low paying jobs, but to them it was a decent pay that they were happy and greatful for.
Binder(p5) also talks about how drug dealers and groups were forming in Washington Heights bringing corruption to the neighborhood. Innocent bystanders were killed in the process. My grandma would visit Ecuador occasionally and things eventually got a little better. However she has told me that recently people began robbing and kidnapping/killing out of towners or even locals. My grandma told me five family members who were robbed, recently. So its interesting to see how everything is like a circle effect and eventually returns to its original state after improvement has occured.
