- When you look at Hispanic culture, when you look at the music or the food or the literature, all these things that, that have been accomplished, if you look under the hood, there's all these cultural influences, - Nando and Vos or a fusion of our cultures into one voice through - Our, our ops and our downs.

It was always music.

It was always music in our home.

My dad always had those, those little 78, 45 records playing.

So it was, we knew what our challenges were and the music would help us.

- Family is the integrity of Latino.

- You know, you have many families that we all struggled together and raised, we're raised here.

It's exciting to be part of this rich history.

- In this episode of Cultural Expressions, an author, a committee, and two families guide us through the history of Rochester, new York's Hispanic community - Started in Africa and then those principles and values just continued to transfer to all.

I mean, the Caribbean, her children were scattered all over the world.

So in the Caribbean we do have that, that influence.

And I think it's something that we should take pride in that, in addition to the Taino Ottawa that where the indigenous people on the island, in addition to the Spanish, European influence, because that's what makes us unique as a people.

And we come in all colors and we need to embrace that and be proud of that.

Not deny or reject.

'cause I remember the first time I went to Puerto Rico, oh my God, in the early seventies, I think it was.

And one of the things that I do recall was the fact that they did not have information that they were willing to share about the Taino Ottawa.

It was like these folks were, they were decimated.

There's, there wasn't much, you know, history.

And I found that to be very strange.

And then within, I would say 20 years later, they began to allow for that kind of information to be part of our history, the, the African influence that became more of a part of our history.

That it's okay.

And then the Spanish influence that it's okay that that's what makes us, again, unique.

- A lot that's been written about what sort of identifies Hispanics because we are from different countries, what sort of unifies people And the first thing is the language.

And that's why people are such adamant defenders of maintaining that connection with the language.

We may be from different countries, but the language is what brings us together.

And it's not that people don't wanna learn English, 'cause that's obviously to economic and personal gain, but the language is what ties us back to so many of the things that we're, we grew up with.

There's just certain words that don't translate.

They really don't.

I mean, and you go to any language and there's certain words that just don't fully translate or resonate in the same way.

- Bapi used to tell me stories.

I remember I interviewed my father when I was trying to complete my thesis on the development of the Latino community in Rochester, New York.

And I do remember him sharing with me that when you don't speak the English language, this is not the kind of place that will embrace or work with you as easy as you would like for them.

Or it, it was more of a barrier and overcoming major challenges.

He was sharing with me that when he first came to Rochester, they all would congregate at the Midtown Plaza because in Puerto Rico, the plaza, that was like the way for people to convene.

Yeah.

And just come together and socialize.

Well, they got arrested because there were too many of them, you know, connecting at the Midtown Plaza.

And just because they didn't speak the English language to say we weren't doing anything, we're just congregating and coming together.

You know?

And when you think about what's happening today, a lot of similar things happen because it could be misinterpreted when you're just really socializing or coming together as a people.

So, you know, I, I wonder sometimes that was like in the early forties where now in the year 2016, what happens when the cultural element is misinterpreted?

Something that's culturally relevant for us, but misinterpreted because of the lack of understanding.

And if you don't speak the, the English language, it makes it even more challenging.

- Facing language and cultural barriers.

Family is an essential support unit for the Hispanic immigrants.

- So language is very important, I would say the sense of family.

And that's sort of something that's always brought up among Hispanics.

But it, but it's, it's very true because if you go to Latin America, you don't see the same social support for, for folks.

And so you depend on your family.

- I was brought to Rochester when I was 40 days old from Puerto Rico.

I was the last one to be born in Puerto Rico.

And I remember big family, a lot of people always at the house started 17 school when I was at kindergarten.

And we just, you know, big beautiful family.

Always together, united, my mom and dad working different shifts to take care of us while my dad would be working evenings, my mom would be working during the day and he would take care of us.

- The 1940s brought more Hispanic laborers into the area and more families.

- There were several families that actually arrived to Rochester before my parents.

But from what I understand, we were probably like the fourth or fifth family to actually arrive.

I believe my MA's mother at the time was diagnosed with cancer.

So they came to United States and, and trying to find a doctor or some type of, you know, hospital pertaining to working with her.

And she ended up staying in Rochester after the death of my grandmother.

And then my dad eventually moved down and brought some of the family members.

And then we ended up residing in Rochester.

- There's a history and it's a very, very rich, beautiful history of not just the networking, but people helping each other.

Families that migrated, that needed to settle.

My grandmother, by the way, is buried in Rochester.

She died in 1949 and she's buried here.

But I have an aunt who, when she first arrived, they lived on Ken Street and they had a house.

They had like three or four apartments.

So there were many families that arrived in the early forties that needed housing that lived in that house.

One would in one of those apartments.

And even back then there were, you know, a Latino migration that lived in the northwest part of the city.

If you read the history, you see 1920s, the Ramos family.

So we hear a lot about the northeast, but also the northwest part of the city.

'cause we were raised in the northwest part of the city.

There was a, a large number of families that settled in that area as well.

And used to work in places like our Pico, which was meat.

Meat, you know, they used to sell hand, you know, steaks and our Picos, Gerber Baby Foods, they used to be a beach nut.

And Ma used to work at Schuler's potato chips.

- We were still in Puerto Rico.

And then my father started working for Gilbert's Baby Food.

And so he sent to get us and in 19 4 56 and join the 61 Joiner Street.

I can remember Joiner Street, you know, right up here near Clinton Avenue or near the RA train station.

We were there for about a year and a half.

Things weren't too good there because we situation with the school and stuff and we didn't know English.

Then we went into a Catholic school, we moved over to Forest Standardship place, John Cliff Avenue, and then we were going to Holy Redeemer.

We got into a Catholic school.

And after that we moved to Grape Street on the other side of the city.

86th Grape Street.

That's where I started going to school at 17th School.

- Growing up, you know, you knew everybody in the neighborhood.

You knew how everybody, if people were related to you, everybody's relatives.

It was one big family.

- Slowly we started noticing a lot of people.

- It was mainly family members that would start moving in the, in the neighborhood.

Like my uncle or family members.

From the family members.

So we pretty much knew everybody that moved around our neighborhood.

- Yeah, yeah.

- We always had people in the house.

My dad, you know, he would bring people from Puerto Rico and they would stay at our house always until they got established.

Even people that were coming from Cuba and, and different places.

They didn't know anybody.

They landed in our house.

And my dad always had his house open.

My mom cooked and people come from Geneva, Geneva just to come over and, and eat my mom's food.

So it was, it was mainly our - Family.

I remember when we used to have so many families when they would come from Puerto Rico stay in the home.

So it became like an extended family of Yeah, the extended family and the extended.

And it was pretty interesting to see how we just came together regardless, just to help a family.

I recall my mother working at the grocery store also being a, what do you call - Cross guard?

- Cross guard - Crossing - Guard in addition to taking care of her family.

So I would say she has three jobs and I have two and a half jobs.

And I tell my husband, what can I tell you?

He says, you take after your mom.

So those work ethics, I think are instilled in us as a family.

We, we realize that that's the only way you're gonna overcome these challenges.

And I think that's where we all have that little feisty way of our, of right.

Nancy, would you say - She also was very, very articulate, very assertive.

And she was only like 4, 4, 10, maybe think about it, you know, 10 children every year bearing a child, and yet she went back to work every year too.

- There's not a, a lot of human service agencies or, or in some cases charities or government organizations that would support you.

It's your family, it's your, it's your your kids that are gonna take care of you when, when you get older and when, when someone's sick.

There's not so much a live-in nurse.

It's the, the, the nieces and the nephews and the family that come and take care of you when you're sick.

- But the traditional family has changed since the migration.

- A family has so many different needs, whether you're talking about mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, son, daughter, especially in a day and age where the idea of the traditional family unit really doesn't exist anymore.

- You know, a lot of the generation that's growing up right now in a single mother run household fathers are not part of their family picture.

So the demographic has changed, the culture is different.

It's, so I think it's lost.

So that's why strengthening relationships is a big deal to me.

But that's bringing back that family unit that has been lost and, and growing up with grandparents who are married for 50, 60 years that has been lost.

- That saying that they say it takes a community to raise a child.

I really believe in that, in our community nowadays.

It's hard.

Like, you know, like Ray mentioned, it's very important that we as a, as a, as a community and as a culture and as a tradition to try to bring those old traditions back.

- Looking at culture from what it used to be to what it is now.

You know, I look at a family dynamic of mom and dad, both at home, your grandparents on both sides at family gatherings, getting along.

And in today's generation we don't see that.

So for me it's, it's a big deal.

- The family is the foundation of a, of a, a community.

Without the family, we have nothing.

As a family, we're proud to say that we've stuck it out.

And even now with my parents, my dad being very ill and my mom is right there with him 24 7.

And we're there, we support her, she's supporting him, we support her, and we get our children, look, you better go see your grandma.

You better go see your grandpa.

Because it's important that they take that with them.

Because without that, without a foundation, we, we are in trouble.

- I think because we rely so much on our family and, and our countries that that attention to keeping the family strong is something that also defines the, the community.

I'd say the third thing would be the culture.

And I, I, I hate to be stereotypical around music, but music is, is incredibly important because it's, it's like with any culture, it tells the stories of the community and it's representative of the cultural influences that make up Hispanic culture.

'cause in the music you can hear the, the, the influence from Spain, the influence from Africa, as well as from the, the Native Americans in, in that part of the world that help shape the music and the food.

So that's why the food and music is important.

- Food, music, dance.

And it probably goes in that order.

- Well, my dad had his business, which was by the year's Market on Brown Street.

And he actually owned a restaurant too.

And, and this restaurant is where he actually started hiring musicians.

And he was one of the people to really expose some of the very first musicians.

And one of them being Pedro Nunez.

- Pedro Nunez was a highly revered local musician, well known for his skill in playing the cuatro.

A four stringed guitar like instrument used in Hispanic folk music.

- Pedro Nunez also in their late seventies or early eighties, develop a folkloric album too, which is very rich and beautiful.

So when you speak to us about music, you're talking about 400 years of traditions, not only in food culture, but also music.

And for Loic music and a lot of the other instruments.

I mean, it's in our blood, it's in our spirit.

It's every day.

And you know, it's exciting.

And I think music makes everybody dance, you know, regardless of who we are, it lifts our spirits.

And I just wanted to share that because a cuatro is one of the most important instruments.

- Our music is music that is gonna make you happy and make you wanna dance.

And it's very festive music.

And we have so many things that come from our music.

And I'm just very fortunate because I get to express this.

'cause I've met so many musicians throughout Rochester and I've, I've been very fortunate to play with a lot of great musicians - In the area.

We were very lucky.

There's, there's a, a long history of, of really great musicians that go back decades.

There's been a ton of musicians, people like the, the Antonette who have been playing in the area since the seventies.

- My mom used to sing Nandos, that's like the old time music that they used to sing in Puerto Rico.

Folk.

Folk and the folk - Music.

Yeah.

- And that's, you know, whenever they would come out with a guitar, she would come out singing and, and then it, you know, as time changed, the music progressed.

You know, they had Guan go, they had, and then it became ssa.

That's when, you know, the guys got involved with, with, you know, playing in their bands.

But it was always a cultural thing.

Music was part of our culture.

- Yeah.

My my mother's sister, she, she passed away a few, a few years ago.

She used to sing.

She - Used to sing.

Yep.

- And my uncles played, and I was with the pots and pans and, and we had a, you know, I mean it was just, and then we brought our grandfather, which he didn't stay too long, but he also joined in, you know, and that's, - He used to, he used to play the accordion.

- Yeah.

Accord.

- So that was his way of showing his love for the music.

And it just stayed with us.

- We had a little, we had a piano in, in our, in our porch.

And Roland, he would come down to the house and he would start playing the piano.

And I would come out with, with with, with my conga drums, my uncles with his guitars and, and my, my other uncle with the bass.

And we had, and my father would be roast there, roasting there always - Music - Roast, roasting, roasting the pig outside in the backyard.

And, and we had just, and, and this, this became to be like once a month, maybe twice a month.

We had the house full all the time because, you know, there wasn't music around here.

Like there was a little groups that, that were playing.

But our house was some something different, something with love, something that, that brought people in.

And like she says, it brought people from, from different part of Puerto Rico family.

And, and, and we, they would come to the house and then they would, you know, get their apartments and, and, and grew up with - Us Dad, dad would even co-sign for some people just to make sure that they had furniture and they had a place to stay.

- There's this gentleman named Johnny Vega, who's a local treasurer.

He actually has been around since the, the seventies as well.

He's still performing and he actually has written songs for a lot of famous people.

His band used to be signed to Fania Records.

Fania Records is sort of the equivalent of Motown for salsa.

They really defined and started salsa in the seventies.

So, and he's still in the area, very local.

And there's just a ton of musicians.

Even to this day.

They, they're Gonzalez brothers who now go under the name of ese.

There's, there's just a ton of great local bands in the area.

And that's something that has helped define the area because it's something that's brought people together.

And interestingly enough, we, we sort of provided that music to the Latin communities, Syracuse and Buffalo, where a lot of our local bands go to play.

- The music for me is like my therapy.

It build, it just, it just fills my spirit.

My sense of, you know, just being, I love my music.

I love to listen to my Latin music.

The food, of course is part of who I am.

You know, even when I transitioned to college, I remember losing so much weight because it was such a cultural shock for me not to be able to see my Puerto Rican rice and beans and eat the food that I like to eat.

So food for me is, is part of who I am.

Of course I've opened my mind to, to eat other food as well.

But it took time for me to be exposed to that.

And I just wanted to share a quick story.

When I was with Garth Fagan, I was the youngest in his group.

I was only 16 years old.

And he took us all to this Chinese restaurant to eat rice.

And I sat there and said, oh, I don't eat that rice.

And he says, what do you mean?

I says, I only eat Puerto Rican rice.

He says, what do you mean?

Have you ever tasted this?

I said, no.

He says, but did you ever at least try?

And I kept saying no.

And then finally I taste it.

And now I love Chinese rice.

So my point is that unless you get exposed, you don't know what you don't know.

And it was just a wonderful experience for me to realize that there's so many other cultures out there.

But I wanna be proud of my culture.

I feel proud of my culture.

And it makes me feel like if I can share my culture with you, whether it's through the food, the music, the dance, or even getting to know me as an individual who's human first, then hey, you know, how can you go wrong?

So for me, it's, it's who I am.

It's part of my spirit, my soul.

- Pride is not unique to any single culture, but Latinos are known for it.

- The music, the dance, the togetherness, the love that we share for our culture and for our family.

- I think what I'm most proud of about my culture and being Latina is, is our roots and our history and being tied to something that affects the entire world.

You know, as we've talked about, not we're, we're not only a culture amongst ourselves, but we are a force in this world that is acknowledged, that is enjoyed.

And, and I love that.

I love that feeling of being connected to something bigger.

Whether it's going back to visit, whether it's that foundation of, of the importance of family.

I love having such a strong component when it comes to my identity.

- 23 Latin American countries.

And, but every, all 23 of them are so proud of what they bring to the table.

And everything is so passionate, colorful, it's enjoyment.

I mean, people pay a lot of money to go to these countries to just go visit.

And some of us are born and bred there and want to learn about our roots.

And for those of us who were not born there, we actually want to go back to learn about our rules.

- There's power in unity.

And when you have a family that is unified and will stick, stick with each other forever through, through thick or thin.

'cause we've had our ups and downs, but we've always managed to let bygones be bygones and continue on.

- I think for me, the identity is, is critical because I find myself constantly trying to, people are always ask me, where are you from?

And if I say I'm an American citizen, well where are you really from?

So I've already acknowledged the fact that even though Puerto Ricans are American citizens, as a result of the 19 what, 1719 s 17 Jones Act, which I had nothing to do with that, we are American citizens.

So the way people will either, depending on their lens, you know, I'm Puerto Rican, born and raised here in Rochester, New York, and I'm proud of them.

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