{"id":15783,"date":"2024-09-06T12:33:49","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T16:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/?p=15783"},"modified":"2026-08-21T15:51:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T19:51:36","slug":"when-the-aztec-eagle-began-to-soar-over-bridgeport-part-2-from-puebla-york-oaxakeepsie-and-mexchester-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"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\/","title":{"rendered":"When the Aztec Eagle Began to Soar Over Bridgeport: Part 2 (1950-1990)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Abraham Lima<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is Part 2 of a 5 Part Series at the Bridgeport History Center:<\/span><\/p>\n

For Part 1 click below:<\/span> https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/hispanic-populations-and-culture\/when-the-aztec-eagle-began-her-soar-over-bridgeport-part-1\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

For Part 3 click below: <\/span>https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/business-and-commerce\/when-the-aztec-eagle-began-her-soar-over-bridgeport-part-3-men-of-maplewood\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

How did Bridgeport\u2019s Mexican community arise?<\/span><\/p>\n

It came about with a few separate chance incidents.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Few Early Arrivals: The Carmonas and the Solies<\/b><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

An example is Guillermo Carmona, born 1921 in Tepeaca, Puebla. He and his Dominican bride, Rhina Ligia Carmona, settled in on Iranistan Ave. The son of an indigenous 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 2 sons, and in 1963 had a daughter, Maria Carmona.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maria recalls<\/span> \u201cMy 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 <\/span><\/i>[which later became Carpenter Steel, a major city employer].<\/span> 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The border (where most Mexican-Americans settled) was a question Maria slowly came to understand. Guillermo told her that he didn\u2019t join the bracero program because heard that life for Mexicans in the southwest was hard. He had foundry skills and didn\u2019t want to toil in the fields. \u201c<\/span>He figured that if he went further north, he\u2019d be less likely to be treated as badly.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

His friend\u2019s (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.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reason he left, however, was because he was the head of the steelworkers union, and was receiving threats on his life for refusing bribes. He only left to please his grandmother.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents were very Catholic and were surprised that there was no Spanish-language Catholic mass in Bridgeport when they arrived. So, they got together with a few Spanish-speaking [mostly Puerto Rican]friends that they came to know and after a few years succeeded in getting the Diocese of Bridgeport to establish a \u201cmission church\u201d, Nuestra Se\u00f1ora de la Divina Providencia at St. Peter\u2019s Church on Colorado Ave\u201d, <\/span><\/i>patron saint of Puerto Rico.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The handful of Mexicans in town didn\u2019t grow bigger. <\/span>\u201cA few relatives from Puebla did join for short amounts of time, but they would end up settling in New York City and later New Jersey. Two of my aunts actually lived in New York and Bridgeport for a couple of years in the early days (in the 50s). One helped take care of my brother while my mom worked. She got her green card at that time (it was so easy to get them back then) and then she moved back to Mexico\u201d.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

There were hardly any Mexicans to be found anywhere, only Puerto Ricans and Cubans.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, my dad and his Mexican friends would say they were it.\u00a0 If you can believe them, then there were four other Mexican families in all of Connecticut in the late 60s\/early 70s!\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Maria said there were two Mexican friends in Bridgeport (with their families), another friend in Wallingford, and El Gato, who Maria could not remember much about except his nickname. The two were Jos\u00e9 Solis (married to an American woman) and Heriberto Amaros from Cholula, who had married a Portuguese immigrant, Natalia, and had a son.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jose Solis was from Chihuahua and married a Pennsylvanian tourist in Mexico. They lived in Philadelphia before moving to Bridgeport. He worked for General Dynamics in Groton, CT.<\/span><\/p>\n

Carmona recalls that <\/span>\u201cEvery summer for years all the Mexican families got together for a pig roast.\u00a0 I remember our doing one in Beardsley Park one year!\u00a0 Yes, they allowed that back then.\u00a0 Another memory is of the beautiful Indian Wells State Park.\u00a0 We did a few there.\u00a0 And the men would go to a farm to pick out and slaughter a pig!\u00a0 My dad, El Gato and Heriberto all played the guitar and I have very fond memories of hearing these men sing old-style Mexican trio during the evenings of those all afternoon and into the evening pig roasts.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

There is also the case of Ausencio Yah, his wife Marcuna and their adult son, who came in 1956 to work as the gardener for an employer’s friend in Fairfield. They were from Mani, Yucatan.<\/span><\/p>\n

By the 1970 census, there were still only 24 Mexicans in Bridgeport. 7 were born in Mexico and 17 were American-born with at least 1 Mexican parent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Comparatively, by 1970, there were 9,953 Puerto Ricans in Bridgeport, and still growing fast.<\/span><\/p>\n

From 24 to 300 Mexicans: The 1970s\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

In the 1970s, Mexicans were contracted by the American Fabrics Company, a lace factory on Connecticut Ave near the Stratford border. It was then one of Bridgeport\u2019s largest employers.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Mexico-born Bridgeporter, Lizeth Vibaldo, actually knows a first hand account of this: <\/span>\u201cA family friend from Mexico City was talking about his uncle who came in the 70\u2019s to Bridgeport, brought as a laborer for a factory in Stratford, he said that a lot of Mexicans from Mexico City came with these working visas to work in that company.\u201d <\/span><\/i>Unfortunately, the family friend did not remember the name of the company and did not want to speak further on the subject.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thankfully, local newspaper obituaries shed light on American Fabrics\u2019s Mexican workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

They included names like Carlos Ramirez, born in Guanajuato, who arrived 1969 as a machine operator. His Veracruz-born wife and Mexico City-born children followed him to Stratford Ave. In 1970, Leon Villegas of Mexico City arrived with his family, also on Stratford Ave. He worked the evening shifts as a machine operator to be with children during the day, his obituary states.<\/span><\/p>\n

Others arrived in the mid-1970s, often alongside siblings. Records found include Guillermo Rodriguez Mora with his brother Roberto Mora, or Manuel Reyes Filio and his brother Jose Antonio Rodriguez (all from Mexico City). Guillermo was a knitter and Manuel a machine operator, along with J. Pascacio Saucedo, a machine operator from <\/span>Curucupatzeo, <\/span>Michoacan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the early 80s came Manuel Valentin Ponce from Mexico City, with his brother, Jose Valentin also in Bridgeport. Besides Manuel Reyes on Stratford Ave, they all resided on the East Side. These were likely not all of the Mexican workers, only those found in newspaper obituaries. <\/span>Perhaps the company brought in Mexicans due to a lack of skilled lace workers in New England (as was being done by a Rhode Island lace mill). A 1987 New York Time, \u201cFor Successful Lace Maker, a Threat\u201d on the company\u2019s employment issues lists Mexicans as among the workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have machinery just standing idle,\u201d Mr. Ostrover said. \u201dWe can\u2019t find knitters for these machines.\u201d The company employs 500 to 600 people in its Bridgeport operation and has plants in <\/span><\/i>New Jersey<\/span><\/i>, <\/span><\/i>Rhode Island<\/span><\/i> and Mississippi employing another 250. In Bridgeport, Mr. Ostrover said, \u201cemployees represent a cross section of the city \u2013 black, Cambodian, Greek, Italian, Laotian, <\/span><\/i>Mexican<\/i><\/b>, Portuguese, Puerto Rican, Thai and Vietnamese. The shop is unionized except for office and supervisory staff,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThere were also a few Mexican students in different local colleges. They set up booths such as for the \u201cInternational Folk Festival\u201d in 1975 and the \u201cMexican American Association of Greater Bridgeport for the 1977 festival. There were a few Mexican-born doctors who came to study.<\/em><\/p>\n

Also in 1977 came Raul Zavaleta, his wife Isabel and their children from Veracruz, settling in the South End. His brother Silvino came the year after with his family. The brothers were recruited by Bridgeport Jai Alai (<\/span>click here for info<\/span><\/a>) to be basketweavers for the sport. At first, they didn’t meet any other Mexicans, but a Cuban neighbor introduced them to her co-workers: Inocencio and Martha Jasso with their children, all from Mexico City. They worked at a textile factory near Exit 25 (probably Overland Fabrics on State St) and lived on Stratford Ave, and later Stratford.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maria Carmona fondly recalls the Jasso family moving into Stratford in the late 1970s; her father befriended and guided them through life in the United States. Perhaps the Jassos were also originally brought to work at American Fabrics, but found similar work elsewhere (after all, at least one of their Mexican workers did just that, switching to a job at Rasamny Mills in Bethel).<\/span><\/p>\n

However they all ended up so far away, the fact is by 1980, the census counted 322 Mexican-Americans in Bridgeport, up from just 24 a decade ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

But of those 322 Mexicans in the census, only 125 were actually born in Mexico.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The words of Mia Giunta, a former union organizer for United Electrics Workers, offers an explanation as to why that was. Her union <\/span>\u201crepresented workers in what was then known as the electrical manufacturing industry at places like GE and Westinghouse, in addition to Singer sewing machines in Bridgeport\u2026 Based upon memory and observation, most of the workers of Mexican heritage in the \u201970\u2019s were not recent immigrants (1st and 2nd generation).\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Of the 125 Mexican immigrants in 1980, only 67 of them had registered their address with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). We find at least one documented case of a deportation: that of the Lopez-Argueta brothers in 1982, charged with forging an INS form.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nBridgeport Telegram article, 6\/3\/1982 (The West Side area later filled up with Mexicans).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A decade later, the American Fabrics Company closed its Bridgeport factory and relocated its operations to the south by 1992. By then, Bridgeport had seen most of its factories close. Ironically, this was when the larger Mexican boom began. They didn\u2019t come for factory work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mexicans came to dominate one industry in Greater Bridgeport: restaurant work.<\/span><\/p>\n

From \u201cPuebla York\u201d to Bridgeport:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

In 1987, an 18-year old Guadalupe (Lupe) Lucero and his 16-year old brother Jose Lucero, helped their mother, Gloria Flores, move into their Bridgeport apartment. They had all started in New York six years prior, from a town called Tulcingo del Valle, in the southern state of Puebla.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Poblanos (people from the state of Puebla) are the largest Mexican group in the Tri-State Area. It started in 1943, when three men from rural Chinantla, Puebla hickhiked with a tourist from New York City they met in Mexico City. Then in 1954, a woman from nearby Piaxtla, Puebla was brought to New York as a cook for a retired American diplomat. There were the aforementioned Carmonas from Cholula as well. Family and friends followed, the chain expanding town by town.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maria Carmona recalls that <\/span>\u201cI remember first noticing more Mexicans in Bridgeport\/Stratford after I graduated from college and was living in New York.\u00a0 I\u2019d ride the train to Bridgeport and just notice little things\u2026a face, hear someone speaking Spanish with a Mexican accent. That was in the late 80s\/early 90s, and the Poblanos had already arrived in big numbers in Manhattan. We used to say that we were \u201cspreading out\u201d into Bridgeport.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

There were some Poblanos from New York working across Fairfield County by the 1980s. One of them, Alejandro Lima (from Tehuixtla, Puebla), was landscaping an East Side property for a Stamford-based company when he befriended a fellow Mexican working at Remington Arms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other New York-area Mexicans commuted to or were brought to work at upscale Westport restaurants. Notability, Pancho Villa Restaurant (at 35 Main St) where 12 workers were arrested by immigration authorities between just 1978-83. One such incident is shown below:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nPancho Villa\u2019s was consistently staffed with Mexicans from New York City. Westport News, 1983<\/em><\/p>\n

One such worker was a 15-year old boy from Tulcingo, Puebla named Jose Lucero, who arrived in 1986. The first in their family to come over were <\/span>“me, my sister Guadalupe Lucero, and my cousin Matilde Flores. We came from the Bronx, and the three of us started working as soon as we arrived in Westport, at a restaurant called Pancho Villa\u2019s, here in Westport on Main St.”<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

To quote the Luceros\u2019 sister-in-law, Lizzeth Vivaldo, a representative at the Institute for Refugees and Immigrants: \u201c<\/span>The job at Pancho Villa was a recommendation from acquaintances, Aristeo Garcia and Rafaela Banillas, they lived on Park Avenue.\u201d <\/span><\/i>Rafaela was a family friend from Acaxtlahuacan, Puebla (a town near Tulcingo) who married Aristeo Garcia, by then the main chef at Pancho Villa\u2019s. He was from Indepenencia, Puebla (a town between Tulcingo and Chinantla). They had also arrived from New York City a year prior thanks to Garcia\u2019s relatives.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Their first home was with the Garcia-Banillas couple, sharing a two-bedroom Pequonnock St apartment in The Hollow: <\/span>\u201cWhen we arrived, I was sleeping in a hallway, my sister was sleeping inside in a room, Mr. Aristeo with Rafaela in another room because they were a couple, my cousin with my sister, and I was in the hallway because I had nowhere else to sleep.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Lucero quickly met another Mexican family who worked at Onion Alley, the restaurant across the street from Pancho Villa\u2019s. They were Celia and Cirino Lucero, also from Garcia’s village of Indepenencia, Puebla. They lived on Washington Ave in Bridgeport with their teenage kids.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jose and Lupe Lucero soon brought over their siblings and their mother, Gloria Flores Huerta, to Bridgeport. In Lizzeth Vibaldo\u2019s words: <\/span>\u201cThe rents were cheaper than New York and more spacious, they liked the tranquil life of the suburbs out of the chaos of the Bronx. Their first residence was in Pequannock St, and they lived mainly in the South End of the city<\/span><\/i>.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Aristeo Garcia\u2019s relatives had been working at Pancho Villa years before, while living in Norwalk for brief periods: <\/span>\u201cthey\u2019d lived here for a time, and for a time in New York\u201d. <\/span><\/i>One nephew, Ferrer Garcia, joined his brother in Norwalk in 1982. He and his Guatemalan wife Frine later moved to William St in Bridgeport and had two children, while commuting daily to El Mexicano Restaurant in Norwalk. He died tragically of an unknown disease in 1991 (the subject of the clipping below).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nFront-page Post article on 7\/28\/1991 \u201cThey Wonder if the System Failed\u201d about Garcia\u2019s death.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nSnippets of Connecticut Post article \u201cPain Dulls Memories of Love\u201d by Marisa Orosco 7\/28\/1991<\/em><\/p>\n

Another cluster of Poblanos from New York was also arriving, from Central Puebla. It all started with guys from one village who started coming from Brooklyn. Among them was Rufino Flores.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m from<\/span><\/i> Atlixco, Puebla. Well, rather, we are from a<\/span><\/i> [nearby]<\/span> town- La Trinidad Tepango.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Of La Trinidad Tepango\u2019s 475 households in the Mexican 1980 census, 260 of them had dirt floors, 44 households had cars, 23 had fridges, and only 2 had telephones.<\/span><\/p>\n

Flores\u2019 first impression of Bridgeport?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was good business to get ahead\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

After all, that\u2019s why he and others came to Bridgeport.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo look for work. To get ahead\u201d.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Rufino Flores arrived in Brooklyn in 1980 and worked cleaning vegetables and washing dishes at a deli restaurant. His uncle, Fernando Casiano had settled on Marcy Ave in Brooklyn. In his words: \u201c<\/span>the person who helped us get through<\/span><\/i> [the border]<\/span>was from Atlixco, she already had a relative here in New York\u2026 So she would send them, and that relative here would help them find an apartment, find work, and that\u2019s where it all began\u201d<\/span><\/i>. Antonio says Casiano was the first from their village to settle in the Tri-State Area, and the rest followed.<\/span><\/p>\n

La Trinidad Tepango was <\/span>\u201cpure countryside. They planted jicama <\/span><\/i>[a Mexican turnip]<\/span>, maize, onions, tornachiles, all of that was planted. Even today.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>Antonio, another long-time Bridgeporter from that village, recalls <\/span>\u201cLife was very hard there. It was working all day in the fields, from five in the morning to seven at night.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In the words of Fernando Casiano. <\/span>\u201cEveryone comes because of necessity, certainly not for pleasure. Nobody comes because they want to… We only ate once a day\u201d.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

30% of the town’s people (15 and older) could not read or write. The elderly only spoke Nahuatl, the dying Aztec language.<\/span> Many<\/span>, <\/span><\/i>like Fernando Casiano, only had a third grade education.<\/span><\/p>\n

Flores heard of Bridgeport from a friend from his village. <\/span>\u201cI had a friend here and he said, \u201cDo you want to go to Bridgeport?\u201d and I said nah. There was a lot of work in New York at that time.\u201d <\/span><\/i>He changed his mind. <\/span>\u201cThere were a few from my town\u2026 I came in 1986 and I\u2019ve never left\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Antonio puts that number a bit higher. <\/span>\u201cWell, we didn\u2019t all know each other, like 10 or 15 of us were over here, yes. And then, little by little, after that, the whole town started coming\u201d.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

No one seems to know who was the first person from this small village to settle in Bridgeport.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Antonio recalls <\/span>\u201cWhen I came here there were already quite a few\u2026 because there were already some men <\/span><\/i>[from La Trinidad Tepango]<\/span> here working\u201d<\/span><\/i>. Like everyone else from his village, Antonio had come to Bridgeport from Brooklyn, where he first lived with Casiano.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What brought him to Bridgeport?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201c<\/span>We came here to work. Since a brother of mine was here, he sent for me.\u201d <\/span><\/i>Tony\u2019s brother came to Bridgeport \u201c<\/span>like in 1985. He hadn\u2019t lived here for very long. I also arrived here, not long after, around 87-86\u2026 we came by train\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Flores and others would later join Antonio at the same diner: Frankie\u2019s Diner on Stratford Ave.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nick Roussas, the current owner of the diner, says he can\u2019t recall exactly when Mexicans began to work at what was then his father\u2019s diner.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to tell. The oldest Mexicans I have working for me are 38 years<\/span><\/i> [around 1986]. <\/span>\u00a0Tony (Antonio) is from Puebla\u2026 We were kids with Salvador\u201d. <\/span><\/i>By the time Roussas started working in the diner around age 9, there were already Mexicans working at Frankie\u2019s Diner.<\/span><\/p>\n

The co-owners, Peter Roussas and Victor Hasiotis, were themselves Greek immigrants.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rufino Flores estimates that back then, fellow Mexicans were far and few between. <\/span>\u201cWe\u2019re talking about some 30.. There were like, that I knew, like only 30 in \u201986.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nA map of south-central Puebla. The hometowns of some of the first Poblanos in Bridgeport are marked with a red star. Chinantla, the first town to send immigrants to New York, has a pink star.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tony\u2019s first job in Bridgeport was at Frankie\u2019s Diner, where two men from La Trinidad Tepango were already working.<\/span> The others from his village<\/span> \u201cworked in other diners, restaurants.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Tony’s first home?<\/span> \u201cHere on Central Avenue, 1477, I still remember that <\/span><\/i>[address]<\/span>. There were some buildings there but they\u2019ve already demolished them\u2026 there were some friends there <\/span><\/i>[also from La Trinidad Tepango]<\/span>, and like six of us lived in that apartment.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Two strangers from Mexico City joined them: \u201c<\/span>they didn\u2019t have much time here, like 3 or 4 months\u2026 they arrived and knocked there and since it was apartments they went in and said \u201cwe\u2019re looking for an apartment, would you give us a place to live?\u201d I told them \u201cif you want, sure, for a time\u201d we gave them housing until they get something. Since they were also immigrants like us, one of us.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Nick Roussas, the owner of Frankie\u2019s Diner recalled how \u201c<\/span>Rufino Flores worked here when I was a kid. When I was a kid my family rented the first floor of our house to him and his young family. He was a nice man. He was the nicest man in the world\u2026 the other apartment was rented to other guys\u201d<\/span><\/i>. All of them, Rousass said <\/span>\u201cfrom Puebla\u201d<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That home was 448 Wood Avenue, right on the corner with Maplewood Ave, in the West Side.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Waitress is Greek, But the Kitchen is All Mexican:<\/b><\/p>\n

Somehow, Mexicans found work at every diner in the Bridgeport area by the mid-1980s.<\/span><\/p>\n

In New York City, Mexicans found a niche in the Greek-owned diners. They spread out quickly: in 1984, 5 diner workers (from Xochihuehuetlan, near Tulcingo) were nabbed up in Groton, CT.<\/span><\/p>\n

Frankie\u2019s Diner owner Nick Roussas recalled that before the Mexicans arrived, the diner\u2019s workforce was made up of: \u201c<\/span>Greek, Turks, Egyptians, Puerto Ricans\u2026 70s to 80s mostly Puerto Ricans. Mexicans didn\u2019t come until the mid-80s\u2026 from the dishwasher to the cook to the chef.\u201d<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Perry Koutroulas, a Bridgeport-born son of Greek immigrants, said \u201c<\/span>My dad started working in the diner in 1970. He says there were no Mexicans working there in the 70s. There were some people from El Salvador working there.\u201d <\/span><\/i>at Bridgeport Flyer Diner in the West End. Mexicans began to arrive, he said<\/span> \u201cduring the 80s\u2026 mid 80s. They went there looking for jobs\u201d.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Antonio\u2019s wife, a Portuguese American, recalled she met her first Mexican <\/span>\u201cin 1985, because I used to work at State Diner\u2026 When I started working there wasn\u2019t a Mexican. There were Italians, Portuguese, here and there a Brazilian, and many Puerto Ricans\u2026 the first Mexican I met, it was there.\u201d <\/span><\/i>The diner was on State Street near Iranistan Ave in the West Side.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Zavaleta brothers recalled the same: <\/span>\u201cThey worked as dishwashers, in restaurants. In the 80s they started coming from Puebla, first they came to New York but then came over here\u201d. <\/span><\/i>Around that time, Raul and Silvino Zavaleta opened Zavaleta Upholstery in Stratford in 1987.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There were a few in other jobs. In 1988, the FBI raided various locations of Chuck & Eddie\u2019s, an auto parts seller. They found 7 Mexicans working at the Stratford location without permits. The owners were found guilty of many charges, including<\/span> \u201ctransporting and harboring illegal aliens”<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nLeft:<\/b> from the Connecticut Post, 4\/14\/1989. Right:<\/b> from the Hartford Courant 1\/8\/1988<\/em><\/p>\n

Rufino Flores recalled that<\/span> \u201ceverything was better than now. There was more work, everything was better than now\u2026 Well before we were very solicited. It was better, you were walking down the street and people would say \u201cit\u2019s the Mexicans! Come on over! Put yourselves to work!\u201d.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

But as Rufino Flores said, their main source of work in Bridgeport <\/span>\u201chas always been restaurants\u2026 the Greek diners\u2026 Colony I, Frankie\u2019s Diner\u201d.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nParts of a Connecticut Post\u2019s article on Christmas Eve, 1993. The Flores\u2019 home on Wood Ave (which they rented from Mr. Roussas) was visited by Bridgeport Hospital’s ER staff\u2019s \u201cElf Brigade\u201d program, donating to needy families every Christmas. \u201cPuebla\u201d here is misspelled.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Soon, workers from a different part of Mexico were brought here by another local diner.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nick Roussas recalled that in the mid 1980s, <\/span>\u201cPuebla and <\/span><\/i>Oaxaca<\/i><\/b> were the two main states\u201d.<\/span><\/i> The Oaxacans all came from one town, which even Roussas is familiar with: Villa de Zaachila.<\/span><\/p>\n

From Zaachila and \u201cOaxakeepsie\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Miguel Angel Mendoza, today an artist in New Haven, arrived in Bridgeport in 1988. Economic issues led him to abandon his dream of teaching in his town of <\/span>Villa de Zaachila, Oaxaca<\/b>. Once the capital of the old Zapotec Empire, Zaachila was a city of 9,600 people in 1980.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mendoza retold a story that Zaachila\u2019s diaspora in Bridgeport knows well. It started when the owner of Athena Diner, a Greek-owned diner in Southport, was visiting family in Poughkeepsie.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>The people from Zaachila first came to Poughkeepsie. They say that the owner of the Athena Diner traveled to Poughkeepsie to visit his family who also had or owned a diner. He was surprised by the way the workers did their work, and he asked his relative to get him people to bring to work at his restaurant and he agreed. I don\u2019t know if he gave him some of his workers or looked for workers for him and he brought them himself. Apparently they lived in the restaurant. Then they got them an apartment in Bridgeport and sent them a taxi to pick them up and return them after they had completed their work schedule. The people he brought were like 4, and from there those 4 brought more. In 1988 when I arrived we were only like 15 people from Zaachila. I came because my father was working here too\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The migration chain from Oaxaca to Poughkeepsie started with Santiago Adolfo, from the nearby town of San Agust\u00edn Yatareni, Oaxaca. He worked in a NYC diner in 1980 when the owner decided to sell and open a diner in Poughkeepsie. He brought friends from nearby towns.<\/span><\/p>\n

Soon, the first person from Zaachila arrived.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first person who came to Poughkeepsie from Zaachila, Oaxaca was a deceased man who I knew as Tito Diego, owner of Garibaldi Restaurant on Park Ave in Bridgeport, of whom much of the Zaachile\u00f1a population and those <\/span><\/i>[Zaachile\u00f1os]<\/span> who live in Bridgeport are unaware <\/span><\/i>[of].<\/span> He was the one who made my Zaachile\u00f1a people have a different way of life and opportunities.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The first people who came to Athena Diner were around 1985 or so, I don\u2019t have exact information, and all of us from my town <\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span>knew each other because it was a very small<\/span><\/i> [here]<\/span>population, barely 10 people, and there were people from Puebla, but also in small numbers, very few from Ecuador, Salvadorans, perhaps from some other countries but not so many.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Like many of his countrymen in Bridgeport, Everaldo Garica has also heard this origin story. <\/span>\u201cFrom Poughkeepsie, the one who bought it <\/span><\/i>[the diner]<\/span> brought people, I can tell you and assure you that \u2013 in fact it was a family, it was a family with a last name of Coache-Mendoza.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nClippings from the Poughkeepsie Journal series on Oaxacan immigrants there from 7\/16\/1998\u00a0 Left table: from \u201cSame Continent, Different Worlds\u201d by Dean DiMarro. Villa de Zaachila is listed.<\/span> Right clippings: from “Scraping out a Living on Hands and Knees\u201d by By Mary Beth Pfeiffer<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

They crowded inside 320 Maplewood Ave, the apartment their employers found them. It just so happened to be next door from 448 Wood Ave, where Rufino Flores and other Poblanos rented from Peter Roussas. This fact could be why Mexicans began clustering on the West Side.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rufino Flores himself recalled <\/span>\u201cthey started arriving in <\/span><\/i>Maplewood Avenue<\/i><\/b>. It was one of the first places where many <\/span><\/i>[Mexican]<\/span> people started arriving.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

From San Bernabe to Black Rock:<\/b><\/p>\n

Immigrants bring over more family and friends, and sometimes family is from a few towns away.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As was the case of Don (Mr.) Gregorio, who arrived at a brick tenement in Black Rock in 1990.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my aunts and my mother told me that a cousin of mine had already come over, and if I wanted to go to New York\u2026 When they told me, they talked a lot about New York, but in truth, they were not in New York\u2026 We had to take the train from the airport to Bridgeport\u201d.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Gregorio is from a town called San Bernabe Temoxitla, Puebla (not far from the state capital)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

He had long heard of a relative in the United States. <\/span>\u201cMy cousin was here<\/span><\/i> [in Bridgeport]<\/span>. They already had like 5 years here\u201d.<\/span><\/i> That cousin\u2019s husband was from the next-door village of La Trinidad Tepango called San Diego Acapulco. \u201c<\/span>She worked in a factory that made cold pastas.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I crossed the first of the first month of that year, 1990\u2026I was crossing that day\u2026 in San Diego, in Tijuana. I arrived on New Year\u2019s\u2026 My wife also came around March.<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In Mexico\u2019s 1980 census, San Bernabe Temoxtitla was home to 1,985 people. 200 of the town\u2019s 314 homes had dirt floors, 11 had cars, 6 had refrigerators, 5 had running water, and no one had telephones (233 homes did have electricity though).<\/span><\/p>\n

Like those from La Trinidad Tepango, Don Gregorio unknowingly began a wave from San Bernabe Temoxtitla (and nearby towns) to Bridgeport, a story we see evolve in the next article.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gergorio\u2019s daughter watched the wave begin to unfold before her young eyes. She had arrived in 1991 with her mother and siblings and immediately started 6th grade at Blackham School.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>I don\u2019t know how they started but I know it was only like 3 cousins, and then they brought him <\/span><\/i>[her father]<\/span> in, and then my father brought my mom, my mom brought my aunt and an uncle, and that\u2019s it, and I guess everybody else started hopping the trolley. I have no clue.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Gregorio\u2019s first jobs in the United States were dishwashing in iconic Black Rock restaurants like the Black Rock Castle and Arizona Flats, both on Fairfield Ave.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gregorio\u2019s daughter is glad her family bypassed New York and went straight for Bridgeport.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah a lot of people came from New York. \u201cI came from New York, New York, New York\u201d and I\u2019m like \u201coh oh ok\u201d because I came directly here. A lot of people came directly here too.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Finding Mexicans Products in the Park City:<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cWell, the truth is we hardly ever contacted each other. But some people live on Park Ave, in various parts. Since we came here to work, we worked at night, we slept during the day, we didn\u2019t go out at all. If we did go out, it was only to buy groceries at the market and that was it.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Such were the initial days of Don Gregorio and his kin. Where did they go to buy groceries?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cOoo, the Mexican food was kinda sad. We didn\u2019t have transport, so we had to walk <\/span><\/i>[from Black Rock]<\/span>all the way up to the area of Washington Park, at a store\u2026It was the first store we saw that had tortillas. Since there were a lot of Puerto Ricans, some food products are similar to us <\/span><\/i>[Mexicans]… <\/span>Since they saw that we would buy tortillas, the owner would order more. Before the bus came every hour, and that was all that we had\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Don Gregorio\u2019s daughter recalled the place as well. \u201c<\/span>There was a Puerto Rican bodega and my parents went there to buy chiles, green tomatoes, cilantro, and tortillas\u2026 Yeah. There was a little box of tortillas like that, And that\u2019s it, because that was all there was that was Mexican\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

That store was Casa Grande Spanish-American Supermarket, a Puerto Rican grocery store at 280 Noble Ave on the East Side, just one house away from facing Washington Park.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rufino Flores recalled the same thing. <\/span>\u201cThere was a market called Casa Grande\u2026 tortillas only in Casa Grande.\u201d<\/span><\/i> In terms of Mexican items, Casa Grande had <\/span>\u201cchiles- more more Mexican chiles, jicama, tortillas, green chiles, green tomatoes\u201d.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThere were already quite a few <\/span><\/i>[Mexican products]<\/span>, like tornachiles, there were tortillas too. There were beans, canned, but there were already. Not a lot, but they already had most of the Mexican products there. And only that one place, because there was no other place\u201d.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nCasa Grande Supermarket in October 2008, before it closed. From Google Maps Street View<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

It all started when Silvino and Raul Zavaleta befriended the Cuban owner of Casa Grande. They had been going to 14th St in Manhattan to buy Mexican products (to Casa Moneo: a famous Spaniard grocery known as the only place to get Mexican goods in the Tri-State Area). In the mid-1980s, they convinced their Cuban friend to begin stocking tortillas. He ordered one box, and it sold out quickly. Since then, Casa Grande began selling a few other Mexican products.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tony\u2019s wife explained how, <\/span>\u201cbefore they opened there <\/span><\/i>[La Poblanita, Bridgeport\u2019s first authentic Mexican restaurant], <\/span>there were no Mexican stores at all. The closest thing to <\/span><\/i>[a]<\/span> Mexican<\/span><\/i> [store]<\/span> was Casa Grande because it had Mexican products. But just like now, nothing! Nothing!\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Jose Lucero said that when he arrived, <\/span>“there were no Mexicans around, man. And to buy Mexican items you had to go to New York- New York or Port Chester, New Rochelle”,\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The latter two also had Mexican communities and businesses by the 1980s, unlike Bridgeport.<\/span><\/p>\n

How did they get around? Tony said, <\/span>\u201coh, by taxi\u2026 Some were Hispanic, but most weren\u2019t. And before there were a lot of taxis, not like now.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

For long-distance trips, <\/span>\u201cwhen I arrived, it was all trains. Yes, if we wanted to go to New York on a day off, we would go by train. Then we would come back on the train because there were no cars <\/span><\/i>[among the fellow Mexicans]<\/span>. There were cars, but taxis, and taxis charged more\u2026Sending money was through Western Union on Stratford Avenue. To make calls, it was, well, a public telephone. Like before, you\u2019d have telephones on the street\u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Beyond that, there was a booth where you could call over there in Mexico <\/span><\/i>[in Casa Grande]<\/span>. We call it a booth, well. Where you would leave money<\/span><\/i> [to send to relatives in Mexico]<\/span>they had there so you could call. If you made an appointment, or you called the owner and said I want to talk to so-and-so, to anyone, to my mom or my dad, on such a day, they would let them know and the day would come, you would call.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>House phones were still rare in rural Mexico then.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bringing \u201cLa Patrona\u201d<\/b> to the Parish:<\/b><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Flores-Lucero family found <\/span>\u201cnot many, but some\u201d <\/span><\/i>Mexican families in town via Roman Catholic churches.<\/span> Lizzeth Vibaldo states that Gloria Flores, the mother of the Luceros:<\/span> \u201cremembers in St. George, the only Hispanic community she knew were Puerto Ricans. She thinks that at the beginning she was the only Mexican.\u201d <\/span><\/i>It took a few years for others to arrive.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other parish Mexicans began to concentrate in?<\/span><\/p>\n

Flores said,<\/span>\u201cSan Pedro<\/span><\/i> [St Peter\u2019s Church on Beechwood Ave]. <\/span>Everyone went to San Pedro. The only church where the priest was a Spaniard\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nSnippet from a Bridgeport Post article titled \u201cThugs Shatter Part of History\u201d on 7\/21\/1990. Mentions the sizable number of Mexican parishioners by that time.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

That Spaniard was Aniceto Villamide. He was originally pastor of St Anthony\u2019s Church until it merged with St. Peter\u2019s in 1991. At first, the Spanish-language mass was only at St Anthony\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the merger, the Spanish-language mass moved to St Peter\u2019s, and with it, the Mexicans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gregorio recalled, <\/span>\u201cWhen I started going to Saint Peter\u2019s Church, we saw about 10<\/span><\/i> [Mexicans]. <\/span>Around \u201992-\u201993. But before that, we didn\u2019t know about them. We started getting to know more.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Miguel Angel Mendoza got to witness the rapid rise of an entire community before his very eyes:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>In reality I don\u2019t know about the origins of the <\/span><\/i>[Mexican]<\/span> population in Bridgeport. I only remember in the year 1988 when I arrived in the country and precisely arrived in Bridgeport, the population was very small\u2026I can\u2019t give you a stat, maybe 400 or less, the majority mostly men and in the 1990s the population grew considerably, there started to be <\/span><\/i>[Mexican]<\/span> women and later children <\/span><\/i>[in Bridgeport]<\/span>. The great majority at the time were from Puebla and Oaxaca. Today we find <\/span><\/i>[people]<\/span> from Guerrero, Michoacan, Veracruz, and other states\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The Lucero-Huerta family from Tulcingo said <\/span>\u201ccousins, aunts and uncles slowly started moving to Bridgeport from The Bronx and started building a Mexican community\u201d.<\/span><\/i> Then later came Gloria\u2019s siblings themselves<\/span>. <\/span><\/i>They lived on Pequonnock St, then afterwards on Washington Ave.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her relatives really liked Bridgeport.\u00a0 \u201c<\/span>It was calmer, New York had a lot of violence\u2026 , we\u2019d just get up, go to work and come back from work at night to sleep\u2026 My children would fall asleep on the train, at 3 in the morning\u201d<\/span><\/i> coming back from work in Westport. They <\/span>\u201cwent to the train station waiting until one, two, three o\u2019clock at night because there was no transportation <\/span><\/i>[compared to New York]. <\/span>Because the train didn\u2019t come every so often, they had to wait.. and from there they walked home at 3 in the morning and nothing ever happened to them, thank God.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Bridgeport Mexicans Receive 1986 Amnesty:<\/b><\/p>\n

How you were treated at work varied. Antonio\u2019s wife said,<\/span> \u201cThe immigrants when they came in, they were very good to them. They were loved, it was like here too <\/span><\/i>[at Frankie\u2019s Diner]<\/span>. They weren\u2019t bad, they didn\u2019t treat you bad. They were good. Not just saying that because I work here<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Mr. Pedro, Nicky\u2019s father, but Victor too. He helped a lot of immigrants, Mexicans here, to get their papers. When the President passed the order that if you had been here for more than five years, and you could prove that you worked and that you had a bill with your name on it, he <\/span><\/i>[Victor]<\/span> would help you.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThis 5\/5\/1988 snippet shows the start of a front-page CT Post article on last minute local amnesty applications. The \u201cIndian features\u201d it mentions refers to indigenous (native) peoples. The average Poblano and Oaxacan has mostly indigenous ancestry. More in the next article.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The Immigration and Control Act of 1986 was passed by Congress and signed by President Ronald Reagan. The law, among other things, established an 18-month period for all illegal immigrants in the United States who could prove they lived in the US before January 1, 1982.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Reagan passed the law, the man <\/span><\/i>[Victor Hasiotis]<\/span> told them, \u201cGuys, we\u2019re going to do this and I\u2019ll help you.\u201d He helped those who were <\/span><\/i>[working]<\/span> here find letters.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

A New Decade:<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 1990 census, Bridgeport numbered 402 people of \u201cMexican origin\u201d and 193 people born in Mexico. In total, Bridgeport\u2019s Hispanics numbered 35,840 people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bridgeport was 3rd in Connecticut for people of Mexican origin. The Mexican population was 4th of all Hispanic groups, overshadowed by the Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Colombians.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Stamford had the largest Mexican-origin population in Connecticut, at 912 Mexicans. New Haven\u2019s count was 781 Mexicans, and Norwalk had 182.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the year 1990, there were still 0 Mexican-run restaurants or grocery stores in Bridgeport.<\/span><\/p>\n

New Rochelle\u2019s first Mexican goods store, La Michoacana Grocery, opened in 1975, and Port Chester followed with a Mexican grocery by 1984. Stamford had Tacos Guadalajara in 1980, Norwalk with El Mexicano Restaurant, and New Haven had El Charro Restaurant by 1991.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Bridgeport still lacked a genuine Mexican grocery or restaurant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Miguel Angel Mendoza recalled how the city\u2019s Mexican establishments popped up just a few years after he arrived in Bridgeport:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t remember the year they opened, it was in the 90s. When I arrived <\/span><\/i>[in 1988],<\/span> after a few years, the first Mexican restaurant that opened was La Poblanita and La Flor de Mexico Bakery, then El Mexicanito <\/span><\/i>[Grocery]<\/span>, and then later La Guelaguetza <\/span><\/i>[Grocery]<\/span> and Garibaldi.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Fernando Casiano, remembers that in those days, <\/span>\u201cThe famous street was Maplewood. Those areas were well known to the Mexican.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

PREVIEW OF NEXT ARTICLE:<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Aztec Eagle Began Her Soar Over Bridgeport: Part 3 \u2013 Men of Maplewood\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In the year 1990, there were no Mexican-run businesses in Bridgeport, no restaurants or grocery stores\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Mexican businesses opened in town starting in the early 1990s, clustering on one intersection\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Anderson, Jayla. \u201cIn His Painting, A Bridge From Oaxaca To New Haven.\u201d Arts Council of Greater New Haven. Last modified April 22, 2022.<\/span> https:\/\/www.newhavenarts.org\/arts-paper\/articles\/art-builds-a-bridge-from-oaxaca-to-new-haven<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Mountz, Alison, and Richard A. Wright. \u201cDaily Life in the Transnational Migrant Community of San Agust\u00edn, Oaxaca, and Poughkeepsie, New York.\u201d <\/span>Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies<\/span><\/i> 5, no. 3 (1996): 403-428.<\/span> https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1353\/dsp.1996.0017<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur History.\u201d AmFab Studios. Accessed February 11, 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. Census Bureau (1990). New York General Population Characteristics, <\/span>1990 Census of Population. <\/span><\/i>Retrieved from<\/span> https:\/\/usa.ipums.org\/usa\/resources\/voliii\/pubdocs\/1990\/cp1\/cp-1-34-1.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. Census Bureau (1990). Connecticut General Population Characteristics, <\/span>1990 Census of Populatio. <\/span><\/i>Retrieved from<\/span> https:\/\/usa.ipums.org\/usa\/resources\/voliii\/pubdocs\/1990\/cp1\/cp-1-8.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Martino-Velez, Leslie. Indigenous Mexicans in New York City: Immigrant Integration, Indigenous Mexicans in New York City: Immigrant Integration, Language Use, and Identity Formation. CUNY Academic Works, 2022.\u00a0 <\/span>https:\/\/academicworks.cuny.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=5760&context=gc_etds<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

Bridgeport Post<\/span><\/i> (Bridgeport, CT). \u201cNotice \u2013 Liquor Permit for Casa Grande.\u201d Advertisement. August 14, 1976.<\/span> https:\/\/www.newspapers.com\/image\/60631351\/?match=1&terms=%22280%20Noble%22<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bridgeport Post<\/span><\/i> (Bridgeport, CT). \u201cSpanish Merchants Seek Chamber Ties.\u201d Accessed April 14, 1977.<\/span> https:\/\/www.newspapers.com\/image\/60231321\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAncestry Multimap.\u201d Cinyc Maps. Last modified September 23, 2023.<\/span> https:\/\/cinycmaps.com\/index.php\/ancestry-2013-17\/ancestry-multimap<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Latino Oral History Project of Rhode Island. “Mexicans in Rhode Island.” Nuestras Ra\u00edces.<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/nuestrasraicesri.net\/MexicansinRhodeIsland3.html<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Geller, Herbert F. 1981. “Continued Flow of Immigrants Pour into Area.” Bridgeport Post<\/span><\/p>\n

May 29, 1981, B1. <\/span>https:\/\/www.newspapers.com\/image\/1250392305\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Carlton, John G., and Marisa Osorio. 1991. \u201cThey Wonder if the System Failed.\u201d Bridgeport Post (Bridgeport), July 28, 1991, A1. <\/span>https:\/\/www.newspapers.com\/image\/1252110924\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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DiMarro, Dean. 1998. \u201cSame Continent, Different Worlds.\u201d Poughkeepsie Journal, July 16, 1998, 7E. <\/span>https:\/\/www.newspapers.com\/image\/114354347\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dixon, Ken. 1990. \u201cThugs Shatter Part of History.\u201d Bridgeport Post, July 21, 1990. <\/span>https:\/\/www.newspapers.com\/image\/1252546321\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Guinness, Meredith. 1993. \u201cER Staffers of Hospital Help Hugely.\u201d Connecticut Post (Bridgeport), December 24, 1993, A6. <\/span>https:\/\/www.newspapers.com\/image\/1241638422\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mayko, Michael P. 1989. \u201cChuck & Eddie’s Owner Receives 10-year Term.\u201d Bridgeport Post, April 14, 1989, 19. <\/span>https:\/\/www.newspapers.com\/image\/1252488286\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Osorio, Marisa. 1991. \u201cPain Dulls Memories of Love.\u201d Bridgeport Post, July 28, 1991, C1. <\/span>https:\/\/www.newspapers.com\/image\/1252111244\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Otto, Joanna. 1988. \u201cIllegal Aliens Rushing to Join Amnesty Plan.\u201d Bridgeport Post (Bridgeport), May 5, 1988, A1. <\/span>https:\/\/www.newspapers.com\/image\/1252138593\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Pfeiffer, Mary B. 1998. \u201c”Scraping out a Living on Hands and Knees.\u201d Poughkeepsie Journal, July 16, 1998, 4E. <\/span>https:\/\/www.newspapers.com\/image\/114354262\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Regatao, Gisale. 2001. \u201c\u00a1Viva Poblanos!\u201d Newsday (New York), May 21, 2001, C14. <\/span>https:\/\/www.newspapers.com\/image\/708515661\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tuohy, Lynne. 1988. \u201c13 Arrested in Raid on Auto Parts Chain.\u201d Hartford Courant, January 8, 1988, D1. <\/span>https:\/\/www.newspapers.com\/image\/374083334\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Abraham Lima This is Part 2 of a 5 Part Series at the Bridgeport History Center: For Part 1 click below: https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/hispanic-populations-and-culture\/when-the-aztec-eagle-began-her-soar-over-bridgeport-part-1\/ For Part 3 click below: https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/business-and-commerce\/when-the-aztec-eagle-began-her-soar-over-bridgeport-part-3-men-of-maplewood\/ How did Bridgeport\u2019s Mexican community arise? It came about with a few separate chance incidents.\u00a0 A Few Early Arrivals: The Carmonas and the Solies There were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":15750,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13,19,254,30,31,37,43,46,47,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-and-commerce","category-ethnic-history","category-featured-article","category-hispanic-populations-and-culture","category-historical-accounts","category-labor","category-east-side","category-the-hollow","category-west-end","category-neighborhoods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15783"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16769,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15783\/revisions\/16769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}