By Abraham Lima

This is Part 3 of a 5 Part Series at the Bridgeport History Center:

To read the previous articles, use the guide below to navigate.

1. Part 1 “En El Principio, Los Mojados en USA” and “What are Tortillas?” https://bportlibrary.org/hc/hispanic-populations-and-culture/when-the-aztec-eagle-began-her-soar-over-bridgeport-part-1/
2. Part 2 – “From Puebla York, Oaxakeepsie, and Mexchester”  https://bportlibrary.org/hc/business-and-commerce/when-the-aztec-eagle-began-to-soar-over-bridgeport-part-2-from-puebla-york-oaxakeepsie-and-mexchester-2/

The New Bridgeporters: Men of Maplewood and Growth of a Community (more…)

When the Aztec Eagle Began to Soar Over Bridgeport: Part 2

by Abraham Lima

This is Part 2 of a 5 Part Series at the Bridgeport History Center:

1. Part 1 “En El Principio”
2. Part 2 – “From Puebla York, Oaxakeepsie and Mexchester
3. Part 3 – “Men of Maplewood”
4. Part 4 – “Miles y Miles Mas (Thousands and Thousands More)
5. Part 5 – “The Eagle Soars”

For Part 1 click below: https://bportlibrary.org/hc/hispanic-populations-and-culture/when-the-aztec-eagle-began-her-soar-over-bridgeport-part-1/

How did Bridgeport’s Mexican community arise?

It came about with a few separate chance incidents.

A Few Early Arrivals: The Carmonas and the Solies

There were few Latinos in 1950s Bridgeport as the first wave of Puerto Ricans and Cubans was kickstarting. However, about a dozen or so Mexican individuals ended up in Bridgeport and integrated into that young Puerto Rican community.

One example is Guillermo Carmona, born 1921 in Tepeaca, Puebla, but grew up in Cholula, Puebla. He and his Dominican bride, Rhina Ligia Carmona, settled in Bridgeport on Iranistan Ave.

The son of an indigenous Mexican woman and a white Mexican man, he had an 8th grade education, higher than average for 1950s Mexico. Carmona later moved to Stratford with his wife and two sons, and in 1963 had a daughter, Maria Carmona.

Maria recalls “My dad and mom (a Dominican) moved to Bridgeport in July 1954.  They went to Bridgeport because my dad had finally found the type of work he had wanted to find when he first arrived in the U.S.  The place was Stanley Works, a steel mill [which later became Carpenter Steel].  My father had worked at a foundry in his hometown of Cholula, Puebla and, so, he was a skilled laborer.  It took him about 8 years to find that work after living in New York City and working all kinds of jobs, learning English, figuring out how to make his way.”

The border (where most Mexican-Americans settled) was a question Maria slowly came to understand. Guillermo told her that he didn’t join the bracero program because heard that life for Mexicans in the southwest was hard. He had foundry skills and didn’t want to toil in the fields. “He figured that if he went further north, he’d be less likely to be treated as badly.”

His friend’s (El Gato) uncle was a merchant marine, and told his nephew, Guillermo and a friend (Heriberto Amaros) that there was work in New York. The 3 men set off for New York City, and later on to Bridgeport.

The reason he left, however, was because he was the head of the steelworkers union, and was receiving threats on his life for refusing brides. He only left to please his grandmother.

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