Language among the Peruvian Community of
Jackson Heights, Queens
Nicole Pasulka and Patryce Critz
The residents of Jackson Heights, Queens
live in a diverse, multi-ethnic community. Many of the people who call
Jackson Heights home are of Greek, Middle Eastern, Korean, Chinese,
Philippino and Latin American descent. In 1990 only slightly more than a
third of the residents of Jackson Heights spoke only English at home.
Twenty percent of the residents are Asian, while over forty percent of
residents are Latinos. Spanish speakers come from over twelve different
countries and in 1990 there were more families speaking Spanish at home
than any other language, including English. For residents of this area,
communication with speakers of many different languages affects their use
of language. Though all people living is Jackson Heights must adapt
linguistically, examination of the lifestyle and experience of Peruvians
provides one example of the impact that the neighborhood has on a specific
ethnic community. We interviewed the pastor of a neighborhood church,
people working in an area grade school, local New York police officers,
local business owners and residents of Jackson Heights. What we have
found provides a glimpse into the experience of Peruvians living in this
community.
Church:
Peruvians in Jackson Heights find a
large Spanish speaking community within the local church. From speaking
with members of La Iglesia Universal del Reino we learned that the church
acts as an aid to members of the Latin American community. It provides
them with a place to practice their faith as well as a place to meet with
other Latinos in the community. La Iglesia Universal del Reino de Dios is
a community church and it does offer mass in English, however, the
majority of the congregation attends the Spanish mass offered four times a
day. According to Pastor Emmanuel, most of the adults in the congregation
are immigrants and do not speak fluent English, though the majority of
their children learn English at school. Pastor Emmanuel has observed that
many adult members of the congregation do not have the time to learn
English because their time is spent providing for their families. He
believes that within the Spanish-speaking, immigrant community of Jackson
Heights children often serve as translators for their parents.
Interestingly, at la Iglesia Universal del Renion de Dios children often
attend mass in English. This may be an attempt to improve their ability
in English or it may be the result of the children's assimilation into an
American, English-speaking society.
School:
Pastor Emmanuel believes that most
Peruvian children can speak English, though many of their parents cannot.
These specific bilingual children have probably learned English in school.
The school closest to la Iglesia Universal de Reino de Dios is P.S. 12,
Colgate School. According to the people we spoke with, most of the
students at P.S. 12 speak English, though many of their parents do not.
The school offers translators for non-English speaking parents in all
languages, except Hebrew, because they have yet to find a translator for
that language. There are also multi-lingual administrative forms offered
for those parents who cannot read or write in English.
Police:
The police department in and
around Jackson Heights provides translators for any language spoken in
Queens, and they have many bilingual officers on the force. New York City
offers police officers Spanish classes and most officers agree that having
some command of the language is a great asset.
Business:
People of many different ethnicities own
business in Jackson Heights. On one block there were businesses
representing up to six or seven different ethnicities. There were
Filipino bakeries next door to Mexican groceries stores, across the street
from Korean clothing stores. We observed that most of the people who work
in or own these businesses are not native English speakers. However,
there are non-native speakers of many different ethnicities all living
together in Jackson Heights. We observed that Latin Americans shop in
stores that are not owned by Latin Americans; similarly, non-Spanish
speakers frequent Latino owned businesses. So then, how do people who own
and work in these businesses communicate with their customers?
We asked non-Spanish speakers how they
communicate with their Latino customers. Many non-Spanish speakers said
that though they could not speak Spanish fluently, they had learned enough
Spanish to understand what a Spanish speaker might need. A clerk in an
electronics store who was in his late twenties and of East Asian descent
told us that because he took Spanish in college he was able to communicate
somewhat with Spanish speakers. When he applied for the job, he was asked
if he knew any Spanish and he was told that knowledge of Spanish would
help him because of the high population of Spanish speakers living in the
area. In many businesses owned by non-native speakers the owners or
workers present may not have spoken any Spanish themselves, but there was
almost always someone that workers or business owners could rely upon to
translate if they absolutely could not communicate with a customer.
In businesses owned by Latinos and in
businesses owned by other ethnicities we found that children play an
important role in facilitating communication between customers and their
parents. In a Chinese restaurant that was family owned and operated, a
woman told us that when her daughter was able to communicate with Spanish
speakers because she was studying Spanish in school. In a flag shop we
visited the owner's young daughter translated between her mother and
ourselves. It appears that the children who are learning English in
school and practicing English in church are using English to help their
parents in their businesses.
In Latino owned business, however, it
did not appear that many people spoke languages other than Spanish and
English. Since Spanish speakers are an overwhelming majority in Jackson
Heights Latino business owners probably do not need to learn other
languages in order to operate successful businesses. With knowledge of
Spanish business owners are able to communicate with the majority of their
patrons. When we asked a woman working in an Ecuadorian stereo store if
she was able to communicate with people who do not speak Spanish or
English she replied that the purpose of her store was to allow people to
sample electronics from her country in order to determine if they want to
order the appliances from distributors in Ecuador. A large Ecuadorian
flag hung in the window, and though the presence of flags is not unusual
in a Latin American business, it was implied that her customers were
mainly Spanish speakers.
As English speakers we were able to
communicate at least somewhat with everyone we approached. This suggests
that two people who do not have the same native language could potentially
communicate in English provided that they both have some command of the
language. Though we did not observe first hand any non-native English
speakers using English to communicate with people of other ethnicities, it
is possible that it is used when two people are unable to speak each
other's native language and absolutely need to communicate.
People:
When we discuss the business
relationships in Jackson Heights, Queens it is necessary to group all
Spanish speaking people together in order to study the relationship
between Spanish speakers and non-Spanish speakers. However, there are
Latinos from all across South and Central America living in Jackson
Heights. Since we are specifically examining the Peruvian linguistic
experience in Jackson Heights it was necessary to speak with someone
living in that neighborhood who identifies themselves as Peruvian. Leyla
is a young woman around the age of twenty-five who came to America from
Peru for the first time when she was twenty. Initially, Leyla came to the
United States for a vacation and though she intends to pursue her
education in American she has does not know if she will stay once she has
graduated. She is currently studying business administration in New
Jersey. She works at a Peruvian restaurant in Jackson Heights called
Bajo el Puente. It was unclear why Leyla initially left Peru, but
when she arrived in America she enrolled in Queen's College and began
taking English classes. Leyla told us that she did not have difficulty
learning English, however, she did feel that many times people
discriminated against her because of her strong accent. Often she would
ask for something and though she believed that people knew what she
wanted, they pretended not to understand her.
Leyla told us that in the community of
Jackson Heights Peruvians socialize and interact with people from all
different Latin American countries. Her own friends come from many
different Latin American countries, and many non-Peruvians eat at the
restaurant where she works because as she says, "not only Peruvians like
Peruvian food." Leyla's parents speak some English and if she has children
she will teach them both English and Spanish. We asked if she plans to
learn any other language and she said that she was studying Russian in
school.
Almost two thousand of the thirty-seven
thousand Latinos living in Jackson Heights are Peruvians. In 1990 over
half of the population of Jackson Heights had been born outside of the
United States. This infers that the majority's first language was not
English. Despite the fact that English is the prima facie in America, in
Jackson Heights it is the first language of a minority of people. One
does not even have to know English to run a business in the neighborhood
of Jackson Heights. Many storeowners, when communicating with a language
other than their native tongue, are more likely to speak Spanish than
English. However, Spanish is found not only in business, there are
billboard advertisements in Spanish and Spanish speakers can read "El
diario" New York's Latino newspaper.
As we learned through our study of the
Peruvian community, a dominant language has emerged in Jackson Heights
despite its multi-linguistic character. For Peruvians, Spanish is the
language most used in both America and in Peru. It is clear that a
Peruvian, or other non-English speaker, can move to American and not learn
English. This is, at least in part, because the younger generation speaks
English and facilitates communication among non-English speaking
immigrants. Though many people living and working in Queens have
difficulty communicating with one another the abundance of bilingual young
people not only helps residents communicate, but also helps to unify the
multi-ethnic area.
