Thread: More immigrants calling South Shore home STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.

More immigrants calling South Shore home
Posted by Staten Island Advance July 29, 2007 9:26AM
Categories: News
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Brenda and Aldo moved to Tottenville for the same reasons that attracted others before them -- it's a clean, safe, family place, the couple said recently.
But the two are also different from many of their neighbors in this South Shore town, the most southern point in New York state and a community of largely white, middle class residents.
Brenda and Aldo are undocumented immigrants. They came to Staten Island from Mexico City, forced from their home by economic conditions that pushed Brenda out of a nursing job there and prevented Aldo, a cook, from finding work in a restaurant. Brenda is so fearful of being deported that she gave a pseudonym instead of her real name to an Advance reporter. Aldo declined to use his last name.
The two met and fell in love while living on Staten Island. Eventually, they moved from the North Shore to Tottenville. Brenda heard about the community from another newly arrived Mexican immigrant.
New immigrants, some documented and many not, have moved to Tottenville in the last few years to be closer to jobs in landscaping, construction, house cleaning and child care. Natives of Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and El Salvador, they often find apartments in older homes or buildings just blocks from newer homes that can cost close to $1 million.


"You really don't think about the South Shore attracting immigrants there. Usually all immigrants who come to the Island are living in the middle of the Island or on the North Shore, so when you saw them down there, it was a surprise," said Gonzalo Mercado of El Centro de Hospitalidad, a day-laborer center in Port Richmond that provides support services for immigrants newly arrived to the United States.
"But then again, when you start thinking about their source of income, especially when you have people with big houses and big lawns that have to be taken care of and are in need of housekeeping, then you start thinking ... you know what, the work is here. It's not that surprising," he added.
Brenda, a 31-year-old with long silky black hair and a smattering of brown freckles across her face, works as a nanny three days a week. She cares for an elderly man two days. Aldo, 28, her companion for nearly two years, works at a restaurant.
The two met for an interview recently in the rectory at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Tottenville, where the Rev. Lloyda Morales acted as interpreter.

CROSSING THE BORDER


Both Brenda and Aldo said they found Tottenville cleaner and friendlier than other places they had lived on the Island, but long work hours and language barriers have prevented them from making new friends or connections in the community. Often the only friends they meet are other new immigrants who attend St. Stephen's Church, which began a Hispanic ministry in 2004.
Still, the couple believes it was a good move to bypass more traditional Spanish enclaves on the Island for the South Shore.
"If you find that everybody speaks your language, you don't feel the obligation to learn more," Brenda said. "Once you feel comfortable, you don't challenge yourself."
The couple hopes to make enough money to return to Mexico City in a few years. Aldo wants to find work as a chef in an upscale restaurant in his native country, but to do so he also needs to learn more English. Brenda hopes to return to nursing, which she described as her "passion."
In that respect, the two are unlike many of their peers who hope to remain here.
Rubi Moran was 13 when she crossed the border from Mexico to the United States with her parents and siblings. She graduated from Tottenville High School and lived in Westerleigh before settling with her husband in an apartment on Main Street in Tottenville.
"It's a good area," said Mrs. Moran, 23, who occasionally worries about her status as an undocumented immigrant.
"You never know," she said, her 3-year-old daughter peeking out from behind her mother's legs.
Victor Rosales, 25, of Mexico City, lives on Main Street with his wife and two children. He moved from Grasmere to Tottenville five months ago and works at a construction job just a few blocks from his apartment.
"It's beautiful and quiet here," said Luis Condor, another Main Street resident.
Condor, a native of Ecuador who works at Angelina's Restaurant in Annadale, lived in Brooklyn before coming to Tottenville.
He has applied through an attorney for Social Security and green cards, but it's unclear if he will ever be able to obtain those all-important papers because of his status as an undocumented immigrant. One day earlier this month, he walked with his wife, a native of Mexico, and two children along Main Street, proudly pointing out to a reporter that his son and daughter were born in the United States. Â

Double Post: http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=75565

The couple hopes to make enough money to return to Mexico City in a few years. Aldo wants to find work as a chef in an upscale restaurant in his native country, but to do so he also needs to learn more English. Brenda hopes to return to nursing, which she described as her "passion."

The only place they should go is straight to jail.