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Vigil in memory of four Indo-Caribbean teens held in Smokey Oval Park, south Richmond Hill in October 2012. (Photo Courtesy of Jeffrey Liu, Wheel and Torque.com)

TOGETHER Indo-Caribbean teens, parents, community leaders, car enthusiasts, elected officials, teachers, and principals stood on a brisk October evening in the Smokey Oval Park as they heard a neighborhood pandit offer a prayer in Hindi in memory of the tragic death of four teens.

At the end of the vigil, hundreds of teens holding candles dripping of wax and tears swayed to a Jamaican reggae song “Fallen Soldier” stating life on the battlefield is so real.

“That was the first time ever the community has seen such an outpouring of emotions,” said Dhanpaul Narine, a vigil organizer, community leader, and president of a Hindu temple in south Queens.

He mentioned that many family members and friends were in denial that such a tragedy could occur.

Last year on an October night, 17-year-old Joseph Beer took his new Subaru Impreza on a joyride on the 25 and a half-mile Southern State Parkway—a highway notorious for its sharp curves and unpredictable interchanges.

Beer’s parents did know where he was going but he took along four of his friends. They never returned. Later the next day, Beer was found wandering around the wreckage; a tree crushed the car. According to a Patch article, a Nassau County trooper noted that Beer was under the influence of marijuana that night and he was speeding at a rate of over 110 miles per hour.

The accident is just one of many in the Indo-Caribbean community, which have left families, friends, and relatives to mourn the death of such young men for, as local critics say, “reckless” and “stupid” behavior. In 2007 two Indo-Caribbean high school students died after speeding into a guardrail along the Van Wyck Expressway with a black Dodge Charger. And in 2011 Bishnu Dinanauth, a car enthusiast, raced another vehicle along the Southern State Parkway, that ultimately ended in his death.

A New York Times feature suggests that Indo-Caribbean immigrant parents of modest means should be more careful when giving their children an expensive, fast vehicle and many members of the community agree.

“Why is it we would give a 17 year old an expensive vehicle to go joyriding on a dangerous night in a dangerous city?” asked Narine later adding, “Children are having all this freedom and aren’t accountable to any.”

Bhopaul “B.P.” Singh, a parent and long-time owner of an auto repair shop in Ozone Park, Queens said that if parents give their teenage son or daughter a sports car, they should be able to monitor how and when they drive it. “If you give them a sports car you have to watch them,” he said noting that parents can also keep the keys of the car.

Though he also mentioned, “You have to know what kind of car you give them.” He pointed out that often parents are not aware that some cars are specifically made for performance value and racing.

Yet while giving a car to a teen may be a concern, the right group of friends is also an important factor to Singh and Narine.

Narine said it is almost like a rite of passage for young men to receive their learner’s permit at 16 years and then when they get a vehicle, the friends appear.

“Because he got wheels now everyone goes for the joyride,” he said.

“You got to know who your kids friends are,” said Singh.

But when friends are not the problem, the culture can be. To many teens and car enthusiasts, racing is often portrayed as glamorous and is a culture that they say will never end, even to those who oppose and have coped with the deadly consequences.

“There’s no stop to racing,” said Sateesh Parsotan, a twenty-six year old ‘low and slow’ car enthusiast. “You have movies like Fast and Furious, you have movies like Need for Speed, you have video games, you have things that come out every single day that causes racing to come out on top—when it comes to stance you only have me.”

He explained that after the death of Bishnu Dinanauth, his best friend, found racing his car on the Southern State, he no longer wanted to engage in the risky behavior.

“The consequences are not fun,” he said pointing out that “stance,” or lowering the coil springs of cars to ride slow with a “slammed, pretty” look is the new culture he is advocating with his network called Lowered Congress.

But he added that racing is a behavior that is not likely to be tamed anytime soon among not just Indo-Caribbeans, but a community of those who speed with beautiful cars throughout the city.

“You have no control over it, I have no control over it. Racing in itself is just something that people are just gonna do, because its just competitive and its just fun,” he said. “When they can’t do it on the track they do it on the street”

Unlike many other states like Florida, there is no racetrack in New York City designed for racing fast vehicles with a nearby emergency crew and no other vehicles on the road. Although, there are paved asphalt speedways for motorsport enthusiasts, many teens prefer longer strips of lonely highways for drag racing.

But some say that driving while under the influence of alcohol and marijuana are other factors in the issue of joyriding. “The problem is a combination of a lot of things,” said Narine who noted alcohol being an issue seen both back home and in the Indo-Caribbean immigrant enclave in south Queens.

With popular chutney songs, originating from Guyana and Trinidad, and broadcasted through the homeland and spreading to the Indo-Caribbean diaspora in the U.S., rum is often heard as an object of desire. “Ah drinka,” “Bring de Rum,” and “Where deh Puncheon deh?” are just some of the top hits within the past several years among Indo-Caribbean mainstream music.

Some Guyanese officials argue the glorifying of alcohol in music and lifestyle of Guyanese people are related.

According to a piece in TIME published in 2010, Evan Persaud, Guyana’s chairman of broadcasting advisory committee has said they are considering issuing a warning to television stations against airing chutney music videos that promote drinking after reports show Guyana drink nearly a gallon and a half of alcohol per capita.

Though despite the semblance of issues from fast cars, peer pressure, a dangerous culture, substance abuse, and bad music, schools continue to be the playing field where having a car means much more than being able to drive to the nearest grocery store or even to school.

“What does it mean to really have a nice car in high school? It means a lot. It means the world. It means you get to pick up girls and go someplace and then go back to school. You know, you’re one of those lucky kids,” said Parsotan who pointed out, “There’s a lot of kids that have to take the bus.”

He was gifted a “really fast car,” a RX 7 that he modified to make even faster at his father’s auto shop in Queens. Though he mentioned that although he did experiment with driving fast, he quickly graduated from the risky behavior.

Although many cite the issue of teens driving fast with cars gifted by their Indo-Caribbean parents, Parsotan said it is okay to give your child a sports car, as long as you teach them how to use it. After all, it’s not a bad thing to give your child what you never had in life.

“I wouldn’t call you lucky, I would call you fortunate—not wealthy but someone whose actually fortunate to have parents that worked in life,” he said.

Singh noted back home in Guyana, he was one of the very few who had the opportunity to drive a car. His father was a rice farmer and in addition to their tractor, their family also owned a car though most of his neighbors in the village used the bus, motorcycles, or simply bicycles to get from one part of the country to the next.

Though Beer was also gifted a fast car by his parents but after the death of four of his friends, he has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Was it the right sentence?

“That’s a long time, and he was a teenager,” Narine said. “I don’t know if it’s too much or too less. It’s kinda hard to say because he’s a young man.”

Beer’s Facebook page, still open for comments, reflects a number of teens who support and miss him.

“It’s been almost a year bro. Hope your doing well,” said one family member. “The justice system of America is f*cked up. Keep your head up bruh.”

In the middle of the day on Third Avenue between 104^th and 105^th Street, Geraldine Mariano walks slowly to the corner where La Isla, a Spanish restaurant is displaying a couple of roasted chickens spinning slowly above a warm fire for all pedestrians to see. She stops and looks across the street where another Spanish restaurant is displaying its own assortment of roasted chickens on a rotisserie surrounded by pork, fried chicken and a couple of yellow rolls full of cheese known as Bollitos. After a moment of indecision, Geraldine turns around and enters La Isla.

“This is a constant struggle for me to decide where to eat everyday. Once it was a good struggle, now it is simply annoying,” Geraldine says. Geraldine is a Filipino professional chef born and raised in the United States who loves food and has lived in Spanish Harlem for a couple of years. Despite being a professional chef, she loves to just buy Spanish food because she isn’t Spanish herself. Talking about the restaurants, she said that, “These restaurants have been in constant war with each other for quite some time, and everyday there’s a new twist that sort of makes this a soap opera.”

In a radius of two streets there are three Spanish restaurants. Each restaurant has a similar menu, which usually consist of lunch specials and combos tailored made for whatever they are serving that day. The first is La Isla on the corner of 104^th Street and Third Avenue; it is a small cozy place that is known for its commitment to the customer by offering delivery service and great store hours of operations. They have four small tables, and 5 high chairs to eat over the counter. El Caribe is on 105^th Street and Lexington Avenue and is known for the number of locations it has in the upper west and east side of Manhattan. It is a bit darker and unlike La Isla, you cannot see what is going on unless you are inside. The third and final one is La Lechonera located on 103^rd Street and Third Avenue. La Lechonera has a little bigger menu that includes pasta and seafood and benefit from being the first restaurant viewed for commuters coming from the 6-train line. It has a lot more tables, and a bathroom for the customers. However, they do not offer delivery like the first two restaurants.

The Hispanic restaurants in Spanish Harlem have escalated what was a friendly competition, into one that is becoming an issue in the neighborhood. Escalating pressure between trying to dominate the area, has led the restaurants into a war among themselves. There is a divide among those in the area on whether the competition is good or bad for the neighborhood. The conflict among these Spanish restaurants is significant because the area is predominantly Spanish. According to the Community District Needs report for the 2012 fiscal year, Spanish Harlem houses over 18,000 residents of Hispanic origin. The issue lies on whether the restaurants should come to an end on their war, or whether letting it run its course is what’s best for the neighborhood.

All three restaurants have a nice share of clientele. The idea however, that one is a hindrance to the other is a sentiment shared by both employees and customers alike. Catherine Johnson, a part time worker at La Isla believes that, “It’s a pick your poison with these restaurants. Obviously there are positives of having so many of us so clustered up together, because the area has become popular for Spanish food. So that attracts more customers constantly.”

On the flip side though she said, “there is a constant battle over who is better that affects everybody, if one of the restaurants brings down their lunch menu to $6.50 instead of  $7.00 then that forces the other to adjust in ways that may or may not be negative.”

Geraldine said that, “there are clearly strategies that come into play between these restaurants, La Caridad began bringing down the prices on the price of their chicken for example. This in turn made La Isla expand its hours of operations to 24 hours a day.” The consensus among all these restaurants is that there will always be a target audience, not because of what they sell but because of whom they sell it to. Spanish Harlem’s population is 48 percent Hispanic.

Another worker at one of the restaurants, who declined to give her name because of her employment, said that, “no matter, what big food chains move in here, the competition will never be MacDonald’s or Burger King. It will always be the restaurant across the street because this area is predominantly Hispanic, and Hispanics want Hispanic food, not a cheeseburger.”

Many Hispanics are aware of the competition, and there is fear that it will bring down the quality of the overall food and service. Geraldine who lives off cooking explained that, “If these restaurants are bringing down the price of these lunch menus, how are they compensating for the loss in revenue? By bringing down the quality of the food, which is really sad for all of us.”

La Lechonera is the first restaurant seen by commuters coming from the 6 train line

Another surfacing issue is that of commercial food chains. They have slowly integrated themselves into the neighborhood. The MacDonald’s was remodeled a couple of weeks ago, and a Taco Bell was placed right across from La Isla. The conflict between the Spanish restaurants has a direct effect on this trend. When speaking to Hector Guzman, manager at the local pharmacy and resident of Spanish Harlem for over 10 years, he explained that, “the friendly competition kept these large food chains from interfering with the local businesses. Because they had no real incentive to come in and try to make money in an area that favorites Spanish food heavily.” The problem he said, “is that now that this competition has led to negative effects such as the decline of the quality of food that its not worth its price, people are turning towards these food chains because they are just as bad as the Spanish restaurants and the same or even cheaper price. I personally think this war needs to come to an end.”

La Isla has been around for over 10 years, and while it has its fair share of loyal customers, the constant war with La Caridad and the other Spanish restaurant Lechonero has prevented it from expanding. The location is about half the size of a classroom, and between 1 pm and 2 pm it is impossible to manage to sit and eat because of the high volume of customers.

Another interesting effect of their conflict is the effect it has on the small local businesses that aren’t food related.  “All of these small businesses benefit from the restaurants because people from all over Harlem and even the upper east side, come to this area looking for Spanish food. This brings footsteps to the area which in turn brings customers into our stores,” Hector said.

However, he continued, “If they continue to bicker and find ways to outdo each other, the traffic will diminish and businesses will do bad.  The overall economy of the area will suffer.”

As Geraldine sits in La Isla, the waitress who serves her food smiles at her and asks: “Where were you yesterday? I was expecting you.” She merely smiles and says, “I was undecided on where to eat, I wasn’t sure which roasted chicken I wanted today.”