Latino Immigration in Bensonhurst
By Elizabeth Howard and Katherine Miranda
For decades, the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn was New York’s true Little Italy, a center of Italian life. One sure sign of that was in the Catholic churches, where Italian saints were enshrined and masses celebrated in Italian. But even the churches, which are so closely identified with the neighborhood’s longtime Italian American population, are seeing ethnic change as
Latinos move into Bensonhurst. They are a smaller immigrant group in Bensonhurst than the
Chinese or Russians. But since they are mostly Catholic, their impact is felt strongly in the
Catholic parishes. Just as the Italians began building their community around Catholic parishes early in the 20th century, so, too have the Latinos.
We see that in a visit to St. Athanasius Catholic Church on Bay Parkway near 61st Street.
Established in 1913 and rebuilt in 1961, Saint Athanasius Church reflects this change. Inside the
church, there are many influences of Italian culture. For example, there is a sculpture labeled
“These Halos” donated by the Italian community. The statue depicts Saint Anthony of Padua,
one of the most significant Italian saints.
The lower level of the church, where the Italian masses are celebrated, features many of
the Italians’ most popular saints. In particular, there is a statue of Our Lady of Sorrows clad in
an ebony garment. Candles lit in devotion are found before her. Across the room, Italian
heritage is also found within the small and delicately intricate figurines that depict a beautiful
nighttime Nativity scene in the Neapolitan style. Real water flows through the porcelain statues,
giving to them a sense of life. During Christmas time, it is Italian tradition to gather around and
marvel at the lovely display.
However, right next to the distinctively Italian artwork is a statue of the Virgin of
Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico and a favorite of many other Latino cultures, including
Guatemala’s. Just like Our Lady of Sorrows, the Virgin of Guadalupe also has candles lit in her
honor. Her central position in the room speaks to her centrality in the Hispanic culture and her
integration into the Italian way of life. She is depicted in between Saint Michael, another saint
Hispanics honor, and a large representation of Jesus carrying the cross – an image that conveys
tremendous suffering.
Monsignor David Cassato, the pastor of Saint Athanasius Church, speaks of this
relatively new Latino revolution in the church, one he has witnessed in his own congregation.
According to Cassato, the Hispanic community of Bensonhurst has grown as a result of many
Italians leaving to other areas of New York. In fact, the population has increased so much that
the church began to hold Spanish masses. Today, Saint Athanasius Church holds three Spanish
masses: one held on Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and two held on Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. There
is just one mass in Italian, at 11:30 a.m. A priest at St. Athanasius, Father Ronald D’Antonio
noted that, “[W]e have one Italian mass ... a lot of the older Italians have moved out of the area
so we basically have a remnant now ... it’s a neighborhood that’s gone through the changes.”
This change of the neighborhood doesn’t come without its struggles, however. “There is
tension at times,” Monsignor Cassato said when asked about the relationship between Italians
and Latinos. “The transiting of this neighborhood is an issue -- you know, people trying to
understand each other.” In spite of this, a peaceful blending of cultures is still possible as
“intermarriage solves a lot of those issues and what’s happening now, many Hispanics are
marrying Italians or vice versa … and I think you’ll see the blending as we have more of that.”
Alvaro Chavarriaga, the pastoral associate for the Spanish Apostolate, also commented
on the Latino population of Bensonhurst. He said that he first truly began to notice the
development of this community around eight years ago when Reverend Gabriel Toro-Rivas, of
the diocesan Spanish Apostolate, came to work with the church. Chavarriaga recalls the days
when he participated in religious education programs and counseling for Hispanic families. He
said that he thought these programs were always extremely helpful because they gave him the
opportunity to discover the specific needs of the various families in the community.
Churches are often community centers for immigrants and serve as a way to “combat the
solitude” of their new home.1 The Church of Regina Pacis, like Saint Athanasius, was once a
predominantly Italian church. Monsignor Ronald Marino, pastor at Regina Pacis and
neighboring St. Rosalia Parish and former director of the Diocese of Brooklyn’s immigration
office, has seen the Latino migration firsthand. “We began outreach to them. We had Spanish
mass and other devotions for them to make them feel they’re welcome,” he said. And indeed
they have; located at 65th Street and 12th Avenue, the Church of Regina Pacis now offers its
most popular mass on Sunday mornings in Spanish, at a prime time, 9:15 a.m. The church also
offers a Spanish mass at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday evenings, another popular time for churchgoers.
At one time, the masses at Regina Pacis were offered in English, Italian, and Latin. These days
they are also offered in Chinese and Spanish, an indication of the changing times.2
Margaret and Paul Brucato, who have lived in Bensonhurst for five decades, have also
witnessed the shift. They too have watched their Italian relatives and friends leave the
neighborhood to be replaced by Latino and Chinese neighbors. The Brucatos don’t mind their
new neighbors, who “are very nice and take good care of their property.” After the church
became a basilica in December 2013, there was a weekend-long, community-wide celebration
in which Spanish-speaking members brought their own food and music. All members of the
church mixed and blended together whether or not they shared the same language,a beautiful
melding of the community.3
Maria Ferrera, a long-time resident of Bensonhurst, remembers the days when her Italian
American friends and neighbors sat on their stoops and all the houses smelled of traditional
Italian cooking, when she recognized all the shops and everyone who owned them. In the past
10 years, she’s witnessed many of these shop owners pack up and move on to other parts of
New York and New Jersey.4 They are quickly being replaced with Chinese and Spanish
businesses. Delis and grocery stores are popping up along the streets that previously housed
Italian salami shops and barbershops. Nohemi, a young Guatemalan mother living in
Bensonhurst, confides that it is easy to prepare traditional dishes from her region, Altiplano,
here in Brooklyn because everything she needs is easy to find. Restaurants too, are popping up
and they are a familiar comfort from their homeland. On 18th Avenue, Jireh Restaurant, a
Guatemalan restaurant, is just another example.5
So why is the number of Latinos growing and where do they come from? Although there
is a fair mix of individuals from Mexico, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic,
Cuba and Ecuador, it seems that a huge part of the Latino population in Bensonhurst is
Guatemalan or Mexican. Of the Mexican immigrants, many come from Puebla, Mexico. In
Mexico, the 1980s were considered to be the "lost decade." Mexico's economy had become
stagnant and as a result, many Mexicans from the Mixteca region had immigrated to New York.
The Mixteca region consists of Puebla, Oaxaca, and Guerrero. Between 1992 and 2002,
Mixteca accounted for two-thirds of Mexican migrants to New York and just under half of those
migrants were from Puebla.6
According to the New York City Department of City Planning report “The Newest New
Yorkers” 144,159 people lived in Bensonhurst in the period 2007-2011, 77,682 being foreign- born. Out of the total foreign-born population, there were 3,787 Mexican immigrants, which means that Mexicans were worth 5% of the foreign-born population. From 2000 to 2011 there was an increase of 10,327 Mexican immigrants in the Brooklyn borough. In 2011, Mexicans were the 3rd largest immigrant group in the New York City area. Although Bensonhurst isn’t one of the top ten neighborhoods of settlements for Mexican immigrants, there are other areas of
Brooklyn such as Bushwick and Flatbush that are, Sunset Park, being a very popular choice.7 In addition to a large Chinese population, Sunset Park has a big Latino community, predominantly
Mexican and Puerto Rican. The Puerto Rican population is a result of a mass migration in the
1960s and ’70s from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Although Sunset Park has been one of the biggest
Hispanic neighborhoods in Brooklyn, that is changing. People are slowly starting to spill into neighboring areas, such as Bensonhurst as previous immigrant communities are moving out in mass numbers, like the Italians in Bensonhurst.8
As for the Guatemalan community, many seem to come from the Guatemalan highlands, and even more appear to come from Totonicapán, a region of the Guatemalan highlands.9 For the most part, Guatemalans were considered to be “under the radar.” Up until the past decade or so,
Hispanics were only a very small part of the Bensonhurst community. In 2000, about half of
Bensonhurst’s population was born in a foreign country, but only 8.1% were from Latin
America. Most of these individuals were from either Mexico or Ecuador.10 In recent times, however, the Latino population has grown, and the number of immigrants from Guatemala has
grown with it. In 2005, there were approximately 4,500 Guatemalan residents in Brooklyn. That number grew to 12,000 in 2008.11
So why did these immigrants come to Bensonhurst? There are many factors for this. First
of all, the large population of Italian residents was moving out of this neighborhood for areas
like Long Island, Staten Island and New Jersey.12 This mass exodus of the Italian community
left relatively inexpensive housing for new incoming Latino immigrants.13 Another reason for
the Latino migration to Bensonhurst is its location. An express subway line and several bus
routes allow for cheap transportation. Hispanic immigrants can travel to and from their jobs and
homes without having to worry about maintaining a vehicle.14
Cheap housing and easy transportation allow for Latino immigrants to focus on saving money to send back to their families.15 The majority of Latino immigrants in Brooklyn are men who came to the United States in the hope of finding jobs allowing them to send money home to their families. They want to have and provide a better life for themselves and their loved ones.
Even though many immigrants come here in hope of a better life or to provide a better life for their families, it doesn’t come without its challenges. For the most part they are alone in this country with the exception of the individuals they have come to know or the one relative or friend that they came to stay with. They tend to work in the food industry and are found in places like grocery stores and restaurants. They also work in construction, painting, and gardening.
Generally, the most undesirable jobs fall to immigrants because there are many who are here illegally and fear deportation. As a result, they are not likely to complain about their job, wages, or treatment. That makes illegal immigrants appealing to employers, who may pay them below minimum wage. Many Mexican immigrants in Bensonhurst regularly earn $4 an hour, which makes it extremely hard to survive in New York City, let alone send money home to their
families. To save money, there are usually multiple families crowded into small one- or two- bedroom apartments in run-down buildings where the landlords look the other way as long as the rent is paid every month.
A four-story apartment building on 21st Avenue in Bensonhurst houses many of these
Mexican immigrants, most from the Puebla region. Agustin, a 45-year old Mexican immigrant
referred to in an article in the New York Times, came to the United States in 2006 to find work
and hasn’t seen his family in 10 years. Originally he worked in the construction industry, but
after the recession in 2008 no one was building or buying houses anymore. As a result, he found
a job at a supermarket, working for $4 an hour, twelve hours a day, seven days a week.16 Even
though these jobs don’t pay well and tend to be quite undesirable, most immigrants are eager for
any type of work. According to a New York Times article by Kirk Semple, out of all immigrants
in New York City, Mexicans have proven themselves to be the most adaptive at finding
employment and consistently maintain the highest employment rates out of the 10 largest
immigrant groups in the city.17
Although there has been a recent trend of Latino immigrants, specifically Mexicans, moving back to their country, immigrants still continuously come to New York City. People continue to leave the security of their homelands, fleeing from poverty and political tensions in the hope of establishing new lives for themselves and their families in an unfamiliar country. As these “new” immigrants arrive, they replace the old and the “new” immigrants the cycle begins again. Neighborhoods and business adapt to the changing times. Years pass until households no longer hold children of the first generation and people speak fluent English. Then a new cycle begins again, once again demonstrating the creation and evolution of our country, a country of immigrants.
Endnotes
1 Carmen Molina Tamacas, "A ‘Little Guatemala’ Emerges in Bensonhurst," Voices of NY, April 26, 2012. https://voicesofny.org/2012/04/a-little-guatemala-emerges-in-bensonhurst/.
2 Samantha Grillo, "In Bensonhurst, Immigrants Shape a Church," Brooklyn News Service, May 21, 2013. http://journalism.blog.brooklyn.edu/in-bensonhurst-immigrants-shape-a- church/.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Carmen Molina Tamacas, "A ‘Little Guatemala’ Emerges in Bensonhurst," Voices of NY, April 26, 2012. https://voicesofny.org/2012/04/a-little-guatemala-emerges-in-bensonhurst/.
6Robert C. Smith, Mexican New York: transnational lives of new immigrants (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), Pg. 20-23.
7 Arun P. Lobo, and Joseph J. Salvo. 2013. The Newest New Yorker: Characteristics of the City’s Foreign-born Population [New York, N.Y.]: Dept. of City Planning, Chapter 3: Pg. 17-21; 49.
8 Hum, Tarry. Making A Global Immigrant Neighborhood: Brooklyn's Sunset Park. Philadelphia: TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2014.
9 A. G. Sulzberger and Stacey Solie, "Guatemalans, in Brooklyn for Work, Keep Bonds of Home," New York Times, February 1, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/nyregion/02guatemalan.html.
10 Carmen Molina Tamacas, "A ‘Little Guatemala’ Emerges in Bensonhurst," Voices of NY, April 26, 2012. https://voicesofny.org/2012/04/a-little-guatemala-emerges-in-bensonhurst/.
11 A. G. Sulzberger and Stacey Solie, "Guatemalans, in Brooklyn for Work, Keep Bonds of Home," New York Times, February 1, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/nyregion/02guatemalan.html.
12 Gabriel Thompson, "The United Nations of Brooklyn." The New York Times. October 21, 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/nyregion/thecity/21bens.html?_r=0.
13 Rachel Silberstein and Lore Croghan, "Viva Guatemala: Fast-growing Immigrant Enclave Make a Place for Themselves in Bath Beach," New York Daily News, December 12, 2012. http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/guatemala-bath-beach-central-american- population-grows-dramatically-brooklyn-nabe-article-1.1218690.
14 Carmen Molina Tamacas, "A ‘Little Guatemala’ Emerges in Bensonhurst," Voices of NY, April 26, 2012. https://voicesofny.org/2012/04/a-little-guatemala-emerges-in-bensonhurst/.
15 A. G. Sulzberger and Stacey Solie, "Guatemalans, in Brooklyn for Work, Keep Bonds of Home," New York Times, February 1, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/nyregion/02guatemalan.html.
16 Kirk Semple, "Mexican New Yorkers Are Steady Force in Workplace," New York Times, September 22, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/nyregion/23mexicans.html.
17 Ibid. Bibliography
Gonzalez-Barrera, Ana. "More Mexicans Leaving Than Coming to the U.S." Pew Research Centers Hispanic Trends Project RSS. November 19, 2015. http://www.pewhispanic.org/2015/11/19/more-mexicans-leaving-than-coming-to-the-u-s/.
Grillo, Samantha. "In Bensonhurst, Immigrants Shape a Church." Brooklyn News Service. May 21, 2013. http://journalism.blog.brooklyn.edu/in-bensonhurst-immigrants-shape-a- church/.
Hum, Tarry. Making A Global Immigrant Neighborhood: Brooklyn's Sunset Park. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2014.
Lobo, Arun P., and Joseph J. Salvo. 2013. The Newest New Yorker: Characteristics of the City’s Foreign-born Population [New York, N.Y.]: Dept. of City Planning
Semple, Kirk. "Mexican New Yorkers Are Steady Force in Workplace." New York Times. September 22, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/nyregion/23mexicans.html.
Silberstein, Rachel, and Lore Croghan. "Viva Guatemala: Fast-growing Immigrant Enclave Make a Place for Themselves in Bath Beach." New York Daily News. December 12, 2012. http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/guatemala-bath-beach-central-american- population-grows-dramatically-brooklyn-nabe-article-1.1218690.
Smith, Robert C. Mexican New York: transnational lives of new immigrants. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
Sulzberger, A. G., and Stacey Solie. "Guatemalans, in Brooklyn for Work, Keep Bonds of Home." The New York Times. February 01, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/nyregion/02guatemalan.html.
Tamacas, Carmen Molina. "A ‘Little Guatemala’ Emerges in Bensonhurst." Voices of NY. April 26, 2012..https://voicesofny.org/2012/04/a-little-guatemala-emerges-in-bensonhurst/.
Thompson, Gabriel. "The United Nations of Brooklyn," New York Times. October 21, 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/nyregion/thecity/21bens.html?_r=0.