Thru New Jersey to Washington DC Area

I left NYC on Wednesday morning. I caught the subway to Newark so as not to have my entire day absorbed weaving my way through the streets. I didn't escape the city without having a flat on the way to the subway so I went to a bike store and picked up some tubes, another rear view mirror and another air pump, which I misplaced somewhere. As Quito has explained to me, my ride through Newark would lead me thru a heavily industrialized area before giving way to the green New Jersey countryside. I'd hoped to make it to Camden, but after a long day I made it to Trenton shortly before dark and decided to stop there for the evening.

Above is a monument to "founders" that I saw as I entered town. The downtown area was bustling with youth. It seemed to be a gathering place for people to hang and talk. I walked around and was intrigued by a Latino American Pizza restaurant I saw so I went in. There I met the proprietor, Cesar from Guatemala. I ordered a couple of slices and talked to him about his business. and life for Latinos in Trenton He told me that he'd been in the states for a little more than 25 years. In my mind I immediately realized that he was a refugee from the civil war there, which he confirmed. I asked him why he hadn't opened a restaurant that sold Guatemalan food and he said that when he first arrived he worked in a pizzeria for 15 years and had learned the trade. So when it came time to open his own place, this seemed the natural choice because he knew the recipes and he knew the business. The menu was straight up Italian food--pizza, calzones, pasta, and spaghetti. I didn't see any Latino variation, other than that it was owned and operated by Latino Americans. He told me that there were lots of Latinos in the area, from seasonal agricultural workers who were now gone (this may have explained signs on several Latino themes stores I saw that were closed until after the new year), to factory workers, to workers in restaurants and owners of small businesses. When asked about any conflicts around immigration or experiences with racism, he said there was very little (an individual exception here and there) and that by and large he felt they were treated very well.

The next day I left early and made my way to Camden. Here, I realized that I would have a very difficult time finding roads to Wilmington, Delaware without going through Pennsylvania so I crossed in Philadelphia from Camden and skirted the downtown area, making it to the far side of Wilmington late that evening. In Wilmington I was struck by the proliferation of Dominican businesses. A huge billboard from delawarehispanic.com, asked: Have You Been Sited?(tm).
I spoke with my friend, Milo in DC and we agreed that I should make my way towards Baltimore the next day and he would come get me at some point in the afternoon an take me to his mom's house in Ashton, MA. The plan was to help him move to his new place in Silver Springs the next morning. (My friends seem to have a knack for deciding to move right when I arrive!) He picked me up mid-afternoon on Friday in a small town and we made our way through a heavily congested I-95. That evening I met his mom and siblings. His mom, a military MD, is originally from San Antonio. Her father had been an active member of the GI Forum.

Saturday was all about moving--but a nice leisurely day nonetheless. On Sunday, after some great home made papas con huevos tacos a la Milo, we decided to go to Adams Morgan to check out the Latino population there and to make a quick trip to the bike shop because I needed to replace the battery in my bike computer. Luck was with us as it turned out that the annual Latino Festival was being held that day. We were treated to a cornucopia of food, music (several stages), and art from one of the most truly Pan American festivals of this sort I've ever seen. The festival has been going on since the early 1970s and has become increasingly more diverse over the years as the countries of origin that shape the demographic makeup of Latinos in the DC area has changed to include many more Central Americans and Caribbeans. Some pics of the festival are below.



Monday was a bus day. I took a train to meet Elaine Chalmers and her mom in Alexandria. Elaine, a former student of mine in San Antonio, works with the USDA. She was the first graduate of a collaborative program we worked on with Texas A&M, entitled The Hispanic Leadership Program in Agriculture and Natural Resources, designed to build a pool of potential employees for the USDA to help build diversity of people and research within the agency. Her mom was visiting during this time and they showed me some of the Latinoization occurring in the area.




Our lunch was fairly quick as I had an appointment with a University of Minnesota alumnus, Ed Landa (PhD in soil science) in 1975) who had read about my trip in the alumni magazine. Ed had made the generous offer of housing and feeding me as well as showing me around the Langley Park, MD region near his home. This was only my second offer of housing from a stranger and I was touched. However, he only lived one metro stop away from Milo's new apartment so we agreed to meet on Monday afternoon for a tour of Langley Park. Ed met me at the Metro stop and was able to identify me from the picture in the magazine. He was a very affable man and we got along quite comfortably. He works as a geologist for the US Dept. of Interior in Reston, VA but elects to live in Langley Park because he and his wife love the diversity there. He informed me that Reston was one of the areas that is trying to gather support for its own version of local anti-immigrant ordinances.


We drove to Langley Park and then spent about 1.5 hours walking around the neighborhood. He treated me to a pastry from a local panaderia and told me a lot about the neighborhood dynamics and the work of organizations like Action Langley Park http://www.langleypark.org/langleypark.html and Casa de Maryland. He told me how some tensions among ethnic groups have arisen as some local neighborhood organizations and churches have directed more of their services to new immigrants to the detriment of other under-served groups. As he showed me around some of the apartment complexes that had a dense population of Latinos and the empty parking lots of closed businesses where a spontaneous flea market has begin forming on weekends, we marvelled at the proliferation of taco trucks in the vicinity. May were parked on the side of the street and, according to Ed, serve many of the residents in the apartments. We did see one or two in motion, but there was a hustle and bustle as many vendors seemed to prepare for the evening rush. These vendors have also been a source of tension because they are unregulated and unlicensed, and some of the local restaurant owners, including Latinos, feel that this places them at an unfair advantage. We must have seen 25 or more trucks in a 4 block area.

We drove to Casa de Maryland, but like to other agency we tried to visit, it was closed for the day. I was impressed with the listing of educational and social services they offered. Likewise, I should say that the abundance of local Latino print media was quite impressive and bespoke an active, informed, and alert community. As Ed gave me a ride to Silver Springs, I couldn't help but ask him what motivated him, a product of NYC streets of Russian Jewish background, to be supportive of recent immigrants when so many others felt threatened. Below is a 4 minute excerpt from our conversation around that. I found his answer refreshingly honest--both simple and profound. As he left me off, I found myself hoping that I would have the chance to meet many more people like him throughout my trip.

That evening, Milo made a fabulous meal of carne guisada to go with some fresh home made tortillas I picked up from a local Mexican restaurant. It was a great way to end my visit. The next morning I waited for rush hour to subside and caught a train with bike and gear to Alexandria and rode south.

Gabcast! Journey Across Our America #5 - Ed Landa