USA > New York > New York City > New York panorama : a comprehensive view of the metropolis > Part 13
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Small colonies of Filipinos have grown up along Second Avenue bin tween Thirteenth and Sixteenth Streets and on Sixty-Fourth and Sixt Fifth Streets between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattat In Brooklyn there is a settlement along Sands, Concord and Nassau Streelor and another along Columbia and Hamilton Avenues.
The Koreans form no colony but are scattered throughout the five bop oughs. Like the Filipinos, they are chiefly employed as domestic and rey taurant workers. A few Koreans are importers.
While the Koreans are mainly Protestant in religion, the Filipinos ader generally Catholic. Both groups are highly patriotic. The Koreans publis a fervidly nationalist weekly, New Korea, while the Filipinos continue celebrate as their chief holiday the anniversary of the death of José Riz national hero executed by Spaniards when they ruled the country. Othabe national occasions observed by Filipinos include National Heroes Day ana the anniversary of the founding of the Philippine Commonwealth.
The 500 Hindus and the 100 Persians in New York are for the moo part fairly prosperous merchants and importers.
Hindu immigration followed shortly after the visit of Swami Viv kananda to the World Religious Conference at Chicago in 1893. In t years immediately following the conference more than 2,000 Punj farmers came to settle near Stockton, California, but those that car, farther east were mainly merchants, missionaries or students.
Foremost Hindu religious organization is the Vedanta Society at West Seventy-First Street, founded by Swami Vivekananda and now und the direction of his disciple, Swami Bodhananda. The society publish - a monthly, Vedanta Darpana (Mirror of Vedanta). The World Fello
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hip of Faiths, with headquarters in the Hotel New Yorker, is the only- ther important Hindu organization in the city; it publishes a quarterly, Appreciation, and a semi-annual, Dharma (The Law).
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The only Persian societies in the city are the Association for Persian rt and Archaeology and the Iran Society, both cultural organizations.
panish-Speaking People
Spanish is the mother-tongue of some 200,000 residents of New York. theThe great majority of these have come from the Carribean region, chiefly. latinpuerto Rico, and the rest from Spanish America and Spain.
Of the city's four Spanish-speaking districts or barrios, the largest is, te ben lower Harlem, stretching from Iroth Street to 125th Street between Sixtfirst and Manhattan Avenues, and from IoIst Street to 125th Street for- attwo or three blocks east of Madison Avenue, This barrio, as well as the treebne in the Red Hook district of Brooklyn, is mainly Puerto Rican. In the ast ten years another colony, made up originally of more well-to-do boPuerto Ricans, has been growing up on Washington Heights, between I ret: 35th and 153d Streets along Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. Other Spanish-speaking families have been moving into this district, as they s apemancipated themselves from the slums of Harlem and the lower East blifide; but it is doubtful whether this will develop into a closely-knit ue colony, as its way of life differs little from that of its neighbors, the liztrend being towards at least an outward absorption. Another barrio is to the found in lower Manhattan, close to the Brooklyn Bridge, mainly amaround Cherry and Roosevelt Streets. The people here are largely from the Spanish provinces of Galicia and Catalonia. In conversation with mojother Spanish-speaking people they use Spanish proper (Castilian), but among themselves they speak Gallego (similar to Portuguese) and Cata- ivlonian (a derivation from Provençal ).
The shifting barrios followed the usual social trend, from slums to njaWest Side districts, but the racial factor also came into play in the case amfof the Spanish-speaking people. Before the World War there were few Carribeans in the city, and the old Spanish barrio above Canal Street was made up chiefly of Spaniards proper and South Americans. After the war decame the first large influx of Puerto Ricans, many of whom later shifted shto Harlem. One of the causes of this shift seems to have been the diffi- on culty encountered by many of the darker or colored Puerto Ricans in
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finding homes in the old district. Others followed, as the color line ( And racial prejudice is little known among these islanders, and before long me most of the Puerto Ricans were concentrated in lower Harlem.
While the great majority of Spanish-speaking people came here tuds escape hopeless poverty, a large proportion of the others came as a resu pani of political repression. Each violent overturn of a regime in Latin Americaund brought refugees to New York. Ever since Latin America freed itseigth from Spanish rule, New York has been a center of opposition movementa ot by refugees; and many historical figures, including ex-presidents, dictatorgor and cabinet officials, have spent years of exile here. The movement falouse the independence of Cuba was greatly aided by the revolutionary junt Th in New York, under the leadership of the Cuban patriot, Jose Martian When the exiled adherents of a cause returned to the homeland, followin kew a revolution, their opponents often took their place here as exiles. In thion case of Spain, almost all the refugees who came here were workers forcelally to flee from the homeland following the periodical violent suppressionf of labor movements. Only a small proportion of Spaniards have emigrate 150, here, as most Spanish emigrants leave their country for economic reasonsote settling in Latin America where the mother-tongue is spoken. Per
Although the Spanish-speaking people are often lumped together aout a single group, they represent a rich variety of social and racial elementsbor The few who come from Argentina, Chile and Uruguay are usually Latinmnd with little Indian mixture. Mexicans have a large admixture of Indiathe blood, and can be easily recognized as mestizos. The few Peruvians, Ecuatho dorians and Dominicans have Indian and mulatto admixtures ; while man Mo Puerto Ricans and Cubans have some Negro blood. Intermarriage is comlis mon among the Spanish-speaking people, but generally follows class lines e which in turn run parallel to racial shades. In general, social status form: a stronger line of cleavage than complexion.
As is true of most immigrant groups, the standard of living is lowas among the Spanish-speaking people as a whole. For the majority of theseNe people, coming to New York has meant a shift from a backward agricul an tural to a highly industrialized economy, and many of them have becometh unskilled laborers and domestic servants. Among the women, large num bers have gone into the needle and millinery trades, often doing piece work at home for starvation wages. Families are usually large, living quarters are greatly overcrowded, and undernourishment is widespread. Thew depression brought great suffering, three or four out of five familieso being thrown on relief.
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Another element is made up of those in the skilled trades, particularly mechanics, motor car drivers, electricians, linotype operators, pressmen, c. Most have learned these trades in New York, but many of the Span- ere rds came here as skilled mechanics. In contrast with the rest of the resubanish-speaking people, few workers, skilled or unskilled, are to be neriund among the South Americans here. These few are usually connected itse men ith banks or export and import firms as translators, correspondents, and other capacities. This element avoids the slum barrios, being able to tato ford homes in the Washington Heights section or in the rooming- t f buse district between Central Park West and Amsterdam Avenue.
juni The Puerto Ricans have a special significance. They come here as Ameri- n citizens, and form the great mass of the Spanish-speaking people in winew York. The acute over-population of the island and its desperate th conomic condition with more than three-fourths of the inhabitants chroni- rcemilly unemployed, have caused a continued exodus limited only by the siondifficulty of securing the necessary steamship fare. Virtually all of the 50,000 Puerto Ricans in New York have come here since 1918. It is onoteworthy that nearly all emigrating Puerto Ricans come to this city. erhaps the chief reason is that the steamship lines land most of them here, asut there are other reasons as well. In 1918, the Federal government im- nts orted some 15,000 unemployed workers from Puerto Rico for the war tingdustries in Georgia, the Carolinas, Louisiana and Arkansas. The end of iamme war threw these thousands out of work, and they were given the ua hoice of free transportation back to the island or shifting for themselves. Most of them chose to stay in this country; but chiefly because of racial iscrimination in the South, they drifted northward and finally settled in New York.
Migratory workers comprise the bulk of New York's Mexican popula- ion, and for this reason no particular locality in the city can be designated s Mexican. In 1930 some 3,000 Mexicans were recorded as living in seNew York City. Works by three noted Mexican artists, Orozco, Rivera -nd Siqueiros, are on view in the city. There are four frescoes with social nethemes in the Orozco Room at the New School for Social Research, and :I panels by Rivera at the New Worker's School. Siqueiros conducted an experimental workshop on Fourteenth Street in 1936.
Spanish social organizations and clubs in this city are mainly concerned e with mutual benefits, charity and entertainment. They are usually based son provincial lines; thus, those coming from Spanish Galicia have the Centro Gallego, those from Asturias the Centro Asturiano, etc. The Latin g
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Americans also have their political clubs, including socialist, communi and syndicalist organizations.
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Since the beginning of the present century, many Spanish-languag ar publications have appeared and disappeared in New York, in connectic T with the rise and fall of political activities and revolutionary movemen od in the home countries. Among the more permanent efforts was the Puer Rico Herald, founded in 1908 by Luis Muñoz Rivera, an early Puer! hea Rican patriot; this weekly supported the first movement for Puerto Rica home-rule under the American flag. The first Spanish-language daily i New York was La Prensa, founded in 1916 as a weekly. It was original supported largely by Spaniards, but in recent years it has become th del Da organ of the whole Spanish-speaking community. It provides more new from Latin America and Spain than any other New York newspaper. is politically independent, although it supports the Loyalist cause in thew present Spanish conflict. A new daily with a decided liberal trend, L Voz, founded in 1937, also makes its appeal to all elements in the Spanish speaking community. There are several weeklies, representing variou les social and political trends, but publications of this type are usually short lived. A monthly magazine, La Nueva Democracia, represents the libera and Protestant point of view, and is mainly directed against politica dictatorships in Latin America. I
While most Spanish-speaking persons are born Catholic, few of the me are church-goers. There are five Catholic churches in New York. Nuestr iba Señora de la Esperanza, Nuestra Señora de la Madalla Milagrosa, an Parroquia de la Santa Agonia are uptown, Nuestra Señora de la Guadalupe is downtown, and the Parroquia de San Pedro is in Brooklyn. The Prot estants have sermon halls and one church, the Spanish Evangelical Church on West 115th Street. Many followers of the French spiritualist Kardec are to be found among the Spanish-speaking people.
On Saturday nights, the Puerto Rican section of Harlem is alive with music and merry-making. There are only about 8,000 Cubans in New York but it is Cuban music that accompanies the dancing everywhere among the Spanish-speaking people-and indeed has invaded New York's night life. in general. A number of cafés and cabarets with Cuban atmosphere have appeared during the last few years. In addition to the many inexpensive Spanish restaurants and cabarets catering especially to the Basque, Gallego. Catalan or Asturian compatriots of the proprietors, there are several night clubs frequented not only by the Spanish-speaking population but also by many others in search of slightly exotic entertainment. Such cabarets, with
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anish dancers, Spanish food, and Spanish, Cuban and Argentine music, here New Yorkers try to show the natives how the tango and the rhumba ould be danced, can be found in Greenwich Village, on the outskirts of arlem, and in other parts of the city.
Two regular Spanish radio programs are broadcast from stations WHOM d WBXY, and a weekly musical program is sent out from a Spanish baret in Greenwich Village over WEAF. Harlem is the home of two eaters that specialize in the showing of films produced in Spanish-speak- g countries.
The city's Spanish-speaking population celebrates annually on Columbus ay their Dia de la Raza (Day of the Spanish Race), when a parade is eld which ends at the statue of Columbus in Columbus Circle.
wish People
According to the best available estimates, about 1,750,000 present-day sidents of New York City are designated as Jews. Members of this group ave never been able to agree as to the basis of their cohesion. Are they race, a people, a religious confraternity, a singular cultural constellation, r merely a "remarkable accident of history"? There are, for instance, hose Jewish assimilationists who stand solidly upon the assumption that That makes a man a Jew is his adherence to Judaism. The orthodox Jews, n the other hand, think of themselves as both a religious group and a ation, a conception obviously derived from the theocratic nature of the ewish state in Biblical times. The political Zionists, excepting of course he religionists among them, generally take the view that the Jews are a eople, a national entity possessing an ancient historic and cultural past. Besides these large groups, there is the considerable body of assimila- ionists who for various reasons deny that the Jews are either a race, a ation, or a religious confraternity. First they cite historical evidence in he attempt to invalidate the contention that the Jews are pure and dis- inctive racially. They point to the fact that intermarriage was widespread n ancient times between Jews and non-Jews, even non-Semites, particu- arly with the Canaanites, Philistines, Moabites, Amorites, Assyrians, Bab- lonians, Persians, Medes, Greeks, Romans and Egyptians. They further ring to bear the considerable body of facts testifying to the mingling of nany strains and the fusion of widely diverse stocks in which Jews were nvolved during the centuries after the Dispersion and throughout the en- ire Christian era.
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126 NATIONALITIES
The Jews of New York come from nearly every country under the su
che t talk fluently in nearly every known tongue and dialect, and mentally r veal the imprint of an infinite variety of cultures. Physically, too, they a Hisc New as diverse as there are types in the ethnological museum. Professor Frar. Boas, the eminent anthropologist, once made a careful study of the somat. traits of several thousand New York Jewish immigrants and their progen byna He discovered among them Jews who were blond, brunette and rec headed; Jews with blue, gray, brown and black eyes; Jews with roun skulls and long skulls; Jews with straight, hooked, retroussé, long an but short noses; Jews who looked Nordic, Mediterranean, Mongolian, an tra Negroid; Jews with thin lips and thick lips; in short, Jews who resemble members of all the known types and races of mankind.
But however Jews may differ in their definitions and conceptions c what constitutes a Jew, there can be no doubt that through more than thre centuries a more or less cohesive group of individuals classified as Jew: originally professing various foreign national loyalties and still largel representative of diverse cultures, has played a prominent part in th economic, cultural, professional, and philanthropic life of New York City
The first Jewish settler in New Amsterdam was Jacob Barsimon. H arrived on the Preboom from Holland on July 8, 1654. In the followin month, 23 Jewish refugees from Brazil disembarked from the St. Catherin at the Battery. These men, women and children were descendants of thos Jews who had been expelled from Spain and Portugal by Ferdinand an Isabella in 1492, and who had gone to live under scant sufferance il Holland. When the Dutch secured a foothold in Brazil, these 23 had beer among those who had emigrated in 1624, hoping their lot would be : happier one. Unfortunately, nemesis in the form of the conquering Portuguese and the ubiquitous Holy Office forced them to flee for thei lives from Brazil.
The new arrivals received an openly hostile reception from Governo Peter Stuyvesant ; he petitioned the Dutch West India Company in Amster dam for permission to expel them from New Netherland so that "these blasphemers of the name of Christ .. . be not allowed further to infesi and trouble this new colony." But the company, with a prudent eye on its guilders, replied on April 26, 1655, that "it would be unreasonable anc unfair" to comply with the Governor's request. Despite this ruling, Stuy- vesant denied the Jews the right of citizenship, prohibited them from engaging in retail trade and put obstacles in their way when they asked permission to purchase a burial ground.
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Even after the English had wrested the Colony from the Dutch in 1664 e tiny Jewish community continued to struggle under the burden of many iscriminations and humiliations. It was not until 1686 that the Jews of New York were permitted to hold public religious services. They then roceeded to organize the Shearith Israel Congregation, and erected a ynagogue on Beaver Street a few years later.
Most of these early Jews engaged in commercial pursuits; the rest were mall manufacturers or skilled workers. By 1687, New York had its Jewish utchers, chandlers, hairdressers, saddlemakers, goldsmiths and watch- hakers. Two decades later, New York Jews were carrying on an extensive rade with the West Indies and Portugal. The Jewish community grew lowly but steadily. By 1738 a number of Jews were members of the New York militia; and in 1740, when the Royal Naturalization Act was promulgated, they acquired the rights and privileges of citizenship.
In 1769 a number of New York Jews signed the first historic document oncerning civil rights in America, the Non-Importation Resolution. Although at the outbreak of the War for Independence no more than 2,500 ews were living in the colonies, of whom 400 resided in New York, a number of Jews fought in the Continental Army or gave it material sup- ›ort. Rabbi Gershom Mendes Seixas preached sermons against British fyranny and in defense of human liberty, fleeing for his life when the British invaded New York. Hayim Solomon, a Polish Jew, gave his entire ortune to the Continental Congress when funds were desperately needed.
At the close of the 18th century the Jewish population of New York onsisted principally of descendants of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, lumbering approximately 4,000. There was also a small group of German nd Polish Jews. Later, during the first and second decades of the 19th entury, Jews began to arrive from Germany and Poland, as a result of he period of reaction in Europe after Napoleon's defeat. By 1840 the ewish population had increased to almost 10,000. Most of the German and Polish Jewish immigrants settled on the lower East Side. They were soon oined by other German Jews who emigrated after the debacle of the re- publican revolution of 1848 in the German states. The German element of the Jewish community soon became dominant. Many of them started s peddlers, but before long had become clothing manufacturers, store- keepers, traders and professionals. Among the workers many entered the ur and jewelry trades, and quickly became adjusted to the American scene.
At the outbreak of the Civil War the Jews of New York volunteered by housands. They were pro-Union and abolitionists, many of them having
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brought over their equalitarian idealism from the revolutionary Europe Ouled i 1848.
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Jewish immigrants still continued to arrive in large numbers from the The German states. By 1880 fully 80,000 Jews were residing in the city. Irat o May 1881, Czar Alexander III of Russia promulgated the infamous Mayleges Laws which further restricted the rights of the already persecuted and im mo poverished Jews in the Russian Empire. Mobs attacked the Jewish quarter: ealt in the cities, towns and villages. The Jewish masses thought only o: Jer flight, especially to America. Russian Jews, and later Jews from Galicia gtail Poland, Rumania and other countries, poured into New York. Since theace metropolis contained the largest Jewish community in the country, andcen in addition offered the greatest economic opportunities, a vast number o cute Jews decided to settle there.
By 1914 there were more than a million Jews in New York, most O:tews, them on the lower East Side, where they lived in squalid and overcrowdedacul tenements, suffering like the other immigrant groups from poverty, malishe nutrition and unsanitary conditions. The majority of these immigrant. TI worked in the rapidly developing garment trades. Some became manufacef J turers or contractors, who frequently established workshops in their ownnan tenement homes. Thus arose the sweatshop, with its accompanying evils onom exploitation, disease and child labor. These conditions gave rise to a nolhe table proletarian literature in Yiddish, characterized by morbid speculation cts about the futility of life in the face of overwhelming wretchedness ancimi poverty, and even more markedly by a spirit of outrage and rebellioninst against exploitation and human degradation. pen
By 1888 several small Jewish trade unions were organized in the Unitedent Hebrew Trades. Although the latter started out as a strictly Jewish labor body, its present membership is composed of at least 60 percent Gentiles for Its influence has subsided recently, due to the fact that the international Con bodies of its member unions have taken over all work of organization tion Perhaps the most influential of these internationals is the Ladies Garmentthe Workers Union, founded in 1900. It has at present a membership in Newfor York of 190,000 workers, organized in about 200 locals; virtually two An thirds of the members are women and about half are Jewish.
Two other powerful Jewish labor internationals operate in the city. OndSor is the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. It was organized in 19 1914, and has now a New York City membership of about 20,000, of whom about half are Jews. The International Fur Workers Union, organ. ho
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ropeond in 1904, and with a membership of 10,000 in the city, is about 80 rcent Jewish.
The efforts of these unions did much toward driving the labor-sweater ity. Int of the apparel industry and bettering working conditions. Higher s Manges and shorter hours made it possible for thousands of Jewish workers nd ime move out of wretched tenements into brighter and cleaner homes in the warteng althier neighborhoods of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. aly ofJews now occupy an important place in manufacturing, wholesaling and aliciatailing, as both workers and employers. They have also taken a prominent ce thrace in the professional life of the city. With the economic depression of , anacent years, the overcrowding of the professions has become an even per muter problem than hitherto, particularly for Jewish professionals. Anti- mitism has made its appearance in a number of educational institutions. ws, no matter how talented, find it difficult to get appointments on the culties of some institutions, and certain professional schools have estab- shed quotas for Jewish students.
The multiplicity of community problems raised by the enormous growth ufac E Jewish population in New York has resulted in the establishment of owchany Jewish social welfare agencies, charity organizations, hospitals, Is olomes, centers and asylums. More than 90 of these are now organized in none Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies, which tioncts as a central coordinating agency in raising and allocating funds. A andmilar Federation in Brooklyn performs the same service for its member lionInstitutions within that borough. The city also has a number of inde- endent social welfare organizations and several thousand Jewish benevo- itedent and mutual benefit societies.
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