Montserrat immigrants are thriving in Boston
By Brian R. Ballou
Globe Staff / September 29, 2008
On most weekends, a few dozen people from the tiny island nation of Montserrat converge at the Montserrat Aspirer's Community Center in Dorchester to catch a taste of home from a pot of goat water stew.

They play dominoes and discuss politics and dream of the half-destroyed homes they left behind for Boston, where they make up one of the city's smallest and most distinctive immigrant groups.

While other Caribbean countries such as Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti are more widely known and have significantly larger communities in the United States, Montserrat is a relative unknown and has just a few thousand of its native sons and daughters living in Boston, sprinkled anonymously in Roxbury, Mattapan, and Dorchester.

"We're just a little island, and nobody seems to know about us," said Jean Lee, 56.

But they have found a larger, and seemingly unlikely, immigrant group with which they share a historic bond, the Irish.

A group of Irish settled on the island in the early 1600s, and Thomas Keown, spokesman for the Irish Immigration Center of Boston, said the Irish influence is strong.

"There are plenty of folks to this day with Irish last names and a bit of an Irish twang," Keown said.

Montserrat, a British overseas territory, is the only country outside of Ireland that recognizes St. Patrick's Day as a national holiday, he said.

"In Montserrat, the celebration lasts for a week," he said.

The Irish Immigration Center and the Aspirer's Club organize the Black and Green Celebration every St. Patrick's Day, an event recognizing both cultures and their relation. The event features traditional dance and food from both countries.

Three years ago, the center rallied around hundreds of Montserratians who received temporary visas in 1995 after Montserrat's Soufriere Hills volcano erupted, burying the capital in mud and ash and rendering half the 10-mile-long island unin habitable. Nearly half the country's 13,000 residents fled, many to Britain and others to the United States. The volcano has quieted down, but remains active. US authorities called an end to the temporary visas in 2005.

"It was a very difficult time for them because most of the island was still covered in about 3 feet of ash," Keown said. "There was no home to go back to."

Instead of leaving, as they were ordered to do by immigration officials, many of the former visa holders have remained in the United States, illegally.

The Dorchester community center, tucked between a Caribbean shipping company and a Baptist church, is home away from home for many Montserratians. On weekends, dozens of them go for Friday night dances with calypso and reggae music or for dinners of goat water, a spicy national favorite made with papaya and dumplings.


About twice a month, the center has a meeting with members to discuss operational matters and events.

A "Cultural Day Celebration" is scheduled for the community Saturday, at the Glad Tidings Pentecostal Assembly Church on Norfolk Street in Dorchester. The event will kick off at 4 p.m., and will include traditional food and people wearing traditional dress.

Patrick Lee, 53, said he is reminded of home when he stops in to play dominoes or watch sports on the television while discussing politics with fellow Montserratians.

Lee arrived in the Boston area in 1985 to go to college. Most of his family was already here. "I started working a month after I got here, doing survey work on construction sites," said Lee, a construction site safety officer for JF White Contracting for the last 20 years. "It was so cold, sometimes I just wanted to quit and go home."

Lee has visited his homeland several times since leaving. "When I went back in '97 and I saw the area where I grew up, I felt like something had been taken away from me. It was completely covered in thick ashes. In spite of all the destruction, some people still remain, but there is very little left there, very few jobs or opportunities to make a life."

Many Montserratian men work in construction, which comes in handy whenever someone in the community purchases a home. Ernestine Sydney, 52, from Roxbury said, "we help each other find homes, and then all the men pitch in to help fix them up. It's a lot of work, but it's also a chance for everyone to get together."

Jennifer Daley arrived in the United States about 30 years ago after her sister won a beauty pageant with a grand prize of a vacation in Boston. During the trip, Daley's sister fell in love with the city and decided to stay. The rest of the family followed. Daley now works as a receptionist at the Boston Medical Examiner's Office.

"At first, it took a while to get adjusted to the weather in the winter," she said. "It was so cold. I think that is the first thing that a lot of people from my country have difficulty with. But almost everyone I know loves it here. There much more of an opportunity to make a better life, and the city, it's beautiful."

Daley said she would like to open a Montserratian restaurant in the Roslindale area. "It would be the first one," she said. "I already have the name, 'Taste of the Emerald Isle.' "



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