A Sunday in the Park

0:00I'm Aisha Roscoe and you're listening to the Sunday Story from Up First. You know that morning city park smell? It's like the smell of dewy earth and fresh-cut grass and evaporating beer from the night before. I love that smell. Earlier this year, NPR's immigration reporter Jasmine Garst and producer Xavier Lopez spent a day in one of their favorite places in the world, a park in Queens, New York. It's called Flushing Meadows Park. It's my park. It's a couple of blocks away from where I grew up in Queens. I also live in Queens. Queens has been called the most diverse urban place on the planet.

0:46Almost half of its population is made up of immigrants from over 120 countries. And Flushing Meadows Park is a microcosm of immigrant life. This is a place where immigrants from all over the world come to get some fresh air and to relax and to really just have fun, you know? It's also, for Xavier and Jasmine, kind of like their backyard, where they can go anytime they need to recharge and remember what really matters, to be in community. For me, that place is actually a house, two doors down from my house. It's the home of my dear friend and neighbor, Ms. Veneta. I've lived in my neighborhood for 15 years now.

1:39All my kids were born here. And we have gotten to know our neighbors very well between birthday parties and christenings and, you know, helping each other when we get stuck in the snow and just keeping an eye on each other's kids and dogs. Yeah, that's Teddy, who's always in the window of my other next door neighbor. And Miss Veneta, she's like the heartbeat of this neighborhood for me. Her place is surrounded by this nice little porch. And inside, it's always kind of dintly lit. She got some outlets she got to work on. But it's a second home for my kids. if they want to show her something or just say, hey, they'll run down the pavement between our front door and hers.

2:38If they lose a tooth, she'll have some money for them. Inside her place, the news is always on, and she's always got a snack in the kitchen, maybe some pumpkin seeds for Annalise or some toast for Gabrielle or hot dogs for Reggie. And if I ever need somebody, and boy have I needed somebody at times, she's been there. Her home has been our safe space. And it's because of that, it's so hard to imagine living anywhere else. But I do plan on starting a fresh chapter soon. We're planning on moving in the new year. But wherever I go, I know I don't ever want to be too far from Miss Veneta. So we can stop by and visit.

3:33On today's episode of the Sunday Story, in the spirit of places that feel like home, we're going to play you a part of an episode that originally ran on NPR's Code Switch podcast. it's a portrait of a community a small slice of everyday life for the people who call Queens home and while you listen maybe go take a walk to one of your places and stay until the end because I have a little request for you as we go into the new year an invitation to send in a sort of audio postcard from a place that you call your own All that after the break.

4:46now spent challenging and innovating and pushing your way to greatness. So pick up that Irish flute or those calligraphy pens or the daunting Beef Wellington recipe card and leave the laundry to rinse. Rinse. It's time to be great. Support for NPR and the following message come from GoodRx. Prescriptions keep getting pricier and more of a hassle to fill. It's like the Wild West getting prescription medication these days. Good thing GoodRx wrangles it for you. From telehealth to wellness tips to easy discounts of up to 80%, GoodRx is riding with you at every step. GoodRx is not insurance, but if you have insurance or Medicare, GoodRx may beat your copay.

5:26Save time and money on prescriptions at goodrx.com slash upfirst. This message comes from NPR sponsor Odoo. Some describe Odoo like a magic beanstalk because it scales with you and is magically affordable. Odoo, exactly what a business needs. Sign up at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com. Okay, so first of all, Queens has the best food in all of New York. And this park is excellent in terms of food. I'd say better than any park in New York. Yeah, I think that's probably an accurate assessment. I feel like that's just Queens generally. There's just like a lot of great food here. And I feel like partially it's because there's like a lot of immigrants here.

6:09Like nearly half of the people in Queens are immigrants. for more than 120 countries. And you can see some of that represented here at the park. I see a lot of Latinos and Asian folks who make the park their community and people of all ages, older folks that come here to feed the animals and the young people that come here to just, like, hang out. They're throughout the park, having barbecues with families or picnics with their friends. And also, there's a huge Ecuadorian community here, and it's growing. Yeah, there's like a lot of Ecuadorian immigrants here, like me. You know, I came here back in 2002.

6:45And back then, there was already a small Ecuadorian population here. But in the last couple of years, New York has seen one of the biggest Ecuadorian populations in the U.S. And it's mostly here in Queens.

6:59Right now, we're at the Ecuadorian Festival. This is a festival that happens every year or so in August around Ecuadorian Independence Day. And there's two guys selling ice cream here. They're cousins. Luis is short. He's very handsome. He has a baby face, dimples, and some stubble. He's young, but I noticed there's some greys in there too. Luis's cousin is tall. He wears glasses and his hair is spiked in a way that makes you feel like he's taller too.

7:33Ah. Luis is shy, but his cousin is such a hype man. And they have this dynamic. Think Richie and Carmi in the bear vibes, but it's about selling helados at the Ecuadorian festival. El oso. Exactly. Cousin, primo. And his primo keeps pushing Luis to talk to us while pointing an helado at him the entire time.

8:06So Primo says, you should do it, man. Do the interview. Don't be so shy. And Luis starts telling us his story. About how the situation in Ecuador, it's gotten pretty violent. Yeah, I mean, cartel violence has driven a lot of the recent immigration out of Ecuador. And it's impacted almost every Ecuadorian I've met here in New York. my family included. So Luis told us he did what so many people do in order to come to the U.S. He hired a coyote, which is sort of like a guide that brings you up through Central America and Mexico to the U.S. border. And he paid this guy about$20 ,000.

8:54Which is not an uncommon fee to get you all the way from South America to the U.S. Coming to the U.S. is expensive, he says. But he got here. He crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and turned himself in, said he needed asylum. He comes to New York.

9:16He has this$20 ,000 debt to the Coyote who brought him here. So many migrants find themselves in that situation, Owing a lot of money, basically to a cartel. And those are not people you want to owe money to. And keep this in mind. When migrants like Luis arrive, they don't have permission to work here legally. So Luis, he gets a job in construction. But he also decides to do street vending gigs. The clock is ticking. Every penny and every second counts. But he says there's this one additional hurdle.

10:00He's really shy. So he starts reading this book.

10:07Atomic Habits by James Clear, a motivational speaker from Ohio. Build better habits, eat healthier, and take more risks. Be more open, be more of a businessman, grow as a person, challenge yourself. It's very Americana meets Ecuadoriana. So when he heard about this Ecuadorian festival happening at the park today, he thought, be a businessman, challenge yourself, go sell some ice cream. Still, he says, when he got here, he kind of froze up. Like, you've got to stand here amidst hundreds of people, really loud music blaring, other vendors yelling over you.

10:58And then he thought about his aunt. When he was a kid back in Ecuador, Luis used to sell flowers on the street with her.

11:14Roses, yellow roses, tulips, all kinds of tulips. and she would tell him, listen, you can't afford to be shy. So he says he repeated this mantra.

11:30I got to keep going. I got to fight. I got to go back home for my dad one day. I got to keep going. And he took a deep breath and he yelled it.

11:49Helados. Helados. Pruévese su helado de salsado de sabores. Llévese y no se quede con las ganas.

12:03All of this ice cream talk is making me hungry. You want to go get some food? Let's go sit down and eat something.

12:14Mmm. Oh, it's really good. You like it? Yeah.

12:22It's so nice out today. I'm just, I'm really glad we got to do this today. Yeah. It's kind of the perfect day to do this. I'm really glad we got out here. I'm just so glad that we get to spend a day at the park. And I really, like, so I'm an immigration reporter. and I work a lot between I spend time at the US-Mexico border and then I come back to New York and this last trip to the US-Mexico border was really hard. Is it okay if I talk about something kind of heavy? I met a mom who I just crossed and she had a toddler. They were actually from Ecuador and he

13:13he was passed out they they had been walking all night and he was passed out and something had stung him in the eye and he just looked like like like someone had beaten the shit out of him.

13:34And, you know, it's, it's just, she was like, please help me. And I flagged down, eventually a border patrol car came by and I flagged it down. And I was like, Hey, there's, there's a minor. There's, I think he's probably like five years old. He's passed out. and the guy just drove off and eventually like an hour later they came back but we were we were trying to like get this kid to like stay awake this kid looked like like rocky or something it was bad and in the next couple of days I like I couldn't cry I was like why the fuck can't I cry and I got back to New York and I get back to Queens I take a day off I go I grab a coffee you know from those little cards I'm like I'm gonna go to the park with a coffee this this person the coffee stand person says do you want cream or sugar and I just started sobbing and I realized a couple of things i realized what an important space a park is for me like a safe space and i also realized like that mom and that kid i don't know like i'll never i don't know where they are i don't know they were heading to the carolinas i think but you never know and one day they will get to have a picnic in a park like this one you know like they will have a life I just met them on the worst day of their life and they will get to be somewhere like this it just really made me think about I don't want my reporting to just be the worst day of immigrants lives I also want it to be a normal day or a beautiful day.

15:47I'm sorry, did I ruin our day at the park? No, no. I didn't mean to ruin our day at the park. No, no, no. That's why I wanted to do this so bad. Aw. And to hang out with you. Yeah, you're cool, Jasmine.

16:05Do you want to walk a little more? Yeah, let's go. Come on.

16:27So listeners, it's me again. Remember that walk I told you to take? Where did you go? This is our last episode of the year and we wanted to step into the new year with a question for you all. What's a special place in your life? One that you visit weekly or even daily. When you feel depleted, it fills you up. It can be anywhere. Your community center, your gym, a weekly singing class. It might even be a very special aisle at your local grocery store. What is that place in your community that lifts you up. If you have a place like this, we want to know about it. You can send a two to three minute voice memo to us at upfirstsunday at npr.org.

17:18You can even include some sounds from that space. Remember, this is radio. So we love to hear good sounds. Tell us your name and where you're speaking to us from. And we might share it in an episode this coming year.

17:36Thank you for spending your Sundays with us. Till next year, I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is The Sunday Story. This episode of The Sunday Story was produced by Justine Yan. Gilly Moon mastered the episode. The Code Switch episode was produced by Xavier Lopez, Jasmine Garst, Margaret Serino, and Christina Kala. It was edited by Courtney Stein and Leah Dinella. It was mastered by James Willits. The Sunday Story team includes Andrew Mambo, Jenny Schmidt, and Liana Simstrom. Irene Noguchi is our executive producer. Up First is back tomorrow with all the news you need to start your week. Until then, have a great rest of your weekend.

18:25And Happy New Year!

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