Search for Polonia
Kari Levinson and Sally Valentin
Introduction
There are two predominantly Polish
communities residing in New York City. One of these communities is
located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and the other is located in
Greenpoint, Brooklyn. In order to obtain a more in depth understanding of
the Polish community, Kari and I decided to split up our investigation.
She investigated the Lower East Side and I researched the Greenpoint area.
The communities we visited were distinctly different from each other. In
order to explain the differences and conclusions that were drawn, we have
grouped our findings into three categories: Commerce, Newspaper and other
available resources and Governmental and Private Services. Under each of
these headings, there will be two paragraphs: the paragraph in regular
print is the information collected by Kari about the Lower East Side
community and the one in italics is the information I collected about the
Greenpoint community.
Commerce
Initially I decided to tackle restaurants
that offered Polish foods first. Since I am unfamiliar with Polish
culture, my first question was what type of foods do the Polish eat? The
first restaurant I visited was called Neptun. The sign outside the
restaurant read "Polish-American Home Cooking". To get an idea of what
polish cooking entailed, I asked for a menu. Surprisingly, this menu was
very similar to that of an American diner. All the diner staples were
listed: pancakes, omelets, soups, sandwiches, and burgers. The menu of the
second restaurant, "Little Poland Restaurant", also favored that of an
American diner. Both menus were strangely similar. I could only find
small traces of Polish influence. Pork dishes called Kielbasa and Kishka.
Pierogies seemed to be the main staple. Red Borcht was listed under soups.
In my opinion, both of these restaurants are quite Americanized. If the
diner had not been identified as being "Polish", I would have assumed that
it was an ordinary American diner. This may be explained by the fact that
the Polish diet is rich in meats, which is not very popular within the
United States. Therefore, perhaps the restaurant owners felt obligated to
make their menu choices more mainstream in order to keep business growing
and cater to the general public's taste.
Turning onto Nassau Avenue, I encountered
a completely different part of Brooklyn. Having lived in Brooklyn before
(in the Williamsburg area), I thought I had experienced a bilingual ethnic
community in Brooklyn. This Polish community shattered the image I had
previously held. The typical bilingual community is represented by the
translations under the English signs of its delis, restaurants, etc. The
Polish communtiy in Brooklyn was the complete opposite. Every sign I saw,
every poster I read, every word I heard was in Polish. The first place I
stepped into was a Polish-American Pharmacy. The sign outside was the
phrase 'Polish-American Pharmacy' written in huge Polish letters and, in
small English letters, the phrases 'Health Aids, Beauty Supplies,
Prescriptions' were written. As I stepped into the pharmacy, Polish rang
in my ears. The only person they're speaking in English was I. I asked
the man behind the prescription counter what it was like living in that
community. He responded, "Forty percent of the people in Greenpoint are
Polish. I've been living here for about ten years and everyone speaks
Polish first and English second. It's like a little Poland." I began to
agree with him as I continued into a restaurant/bakery that was right up
the block. Again, everything was in Polish. The restaurant hours were
posted first in Polish and then in English. At the bakery portion of the
establishment, all the names of the dishes were written in big Polish
words and small English words. The person behind the counter was
surprised to hear English when I asked for a chocolate croissant.
Newspapers and Other Available Resources
There are many newspapers dedicated to the
"promotion, preservation, and continuance of Polish American Culture", one
of which is the Polish American Journal. After researching the newspaper,
I gathered that the top stories discussed the Pope, scholarships available
to Polish students, and various regional Polish organizations and the
activities they engage in to promote the Polish community. There is an
organization in New York City called the Kosciuszko Foundation, which is
dedicated to promoting educational and cultural exchanges between the
United States and Poland. The organization's main purpose is to increase
the American understanding of Polish culture and history.
While in the same pharmacy mentioned in
the above section, I browsed through some of the literature that was on
sale. Every magazine, newspaper and crossword book I flipped through was
written in Polish. Regular newspapers, soap opera digest type books,
crossword puzzles, TV guide type books and magazines (sports, etc) were
all available to the public. There was even a medical newspaper
(Encyklopedia Medycyny). Out of the three areas we researched within the
Polish community, this was the section in which our investigations
gathered the same results.
Governmental and Private Services
In order for a person who is monolingual, in
this case Polish being their main language, to be well represented, the
scourts are required to provide interpreters. An example of this would be
The United States Court of Appeals vs. Witold Pluta. In this case, Mr.
Pluta was found guilty of producing false documents and smuggling illegal
aliens into the United States. One of the reasons Pluta contends is that
he should have a new trial because the district court failed to administer
oaths or affirmations, as required by the Federal Rules of Evidence, to
the persons who were to serve as interpreters at his trial. Rule 604 of
the Federal Rules of Evidence provides that "an interpreter is subject to
the provisions of these rules relating to . . . the administration of an
oath or affirmation to make a true translation." As to oaths and
affirmations, the Rules provide that before testifying, every witness
shall be required to declare that the witness will testify truthfully, by
oath or affirmation administered in a form calculated to awaken the
witness' conscience and impress the witness' mind with the duty to do so.
However, Mr. Pluta did not successfully make his case and the appeal was
dismissed.
Within the community in Greenpoint, there
were many private law practices, medical offices and other offices that
provide the Polish people with various services that they may need. The
majority of the legal offices that I encountered were realty offices.
There were a couple of medical offices. Both the legal and medical
offices appeared no different than those I have seen on the Upper East
Side and Midtown. The only and main difference I observed was that the
name of the doctor or lawyer was the only thing I could read and
understand; everything else was written in Polish. There was one office
that stood out among the rest. A small immigration office sat in the
middle of the block looking homely. I walked in to find an older woman
sitting alone at the only desk in the room. Krystyna Chacinska, as her
card would later tell me, was very welcoming. I asked her questions
similar to those I asked of the man in the pharmacy. Her answers were the
same. Then I asked her if it was hard being bilingual. She did not
understand me. I explained that both my parents and I are bilingual. We
sometimes feel it becomes burdensome when speaking to monolingual Spanish
speakers because we cannot always find the Spanish word for what we want
to say. She stated that she oftentimes has the same problem and thinks
it's because "most people have a desire to use whatever language comes the
fastest. In some situations the English is the first thing that comes to
my mind. When that happens I just have to stop and think for a minute
(that is if I am speaking to a Polish-speaking only person)." Regarding
governmental services, I found that the same amount and types of services
provided to any other ethnic minority group were also provided to this
Polish community. For example, the state provides translators in the
court system durign a trial in which there is a person who speaks only
Polish. There are ESL programs in the New York City Public Schools that
provide education for Polish-only students. Although ESL programs are
provided, it is hard to find a bilingual education program for Polish
students. The majority of bilingual education programs are geared toward
Spanish speakers. There are also many indepdent organizations that
provide help to children and adults stuggling to learn English. If one
searches the web for "ESL in Polish," many things would come up: websites
for help with learning grammar and vocabulary, books one can buy, etc.
Conclusion
The assignment was to investigate the Polish
community within New York City. Neither Kari nor I ever thought about
what constituted a Polish community. Is the community I investigated in
Greenpoint any more 'Polish' that the one Kari investigated on the Lower
East Side? No. The differences Kari and I encountered in our study are
not actually differences in the Polish communities; rather, they are
differences in the surrounding societies within which the Polish
communities find themselves. Primarily, the community in Greenpoint is
larger than that of the Lower East Side and, for that reason, there may be
a larger variety of literature and restaurants found that not only say
they are Polish but have the language or dinner menu to prove it. Another
reason for the discrepancies found in our conclusions is that the Lower
East Side is more of a melting pot than Greenpoint. There is more of a
need for 'Americanization'on the Lower East Side because of the variety of
different people (culturally) that pass through the area on any given day.
English is as necessary as money is in order to travel through the Lower
East Side. Brooklyn has several different established groups living in
designated sections. There is a large section of Williamsburg where one
can find a large group of Hispanics (a good mixture of Puerto Ricans and
Dominicans) residing. Greenpoint is the established Polish section of
Brooklyn. For that reason, there is no need to 'Americanize,'no need to
divert to a language and culture that does not suit everyone. There is
more of a need to feel tied to one's roots. I think the signs in
Greenpoint say it all 'Polonia' - 'Little Poland.'
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