Interview With Mrs. Chincha

The following is an interview with Mrs. Chincha, a current resident of Jackson Heights. 

Q:     interviewer
A:    Mrs. Chincha

Q:    How long have you been here?
A:    I have been here about twenty years.

Q:    Why did you choose to live in Jackson Heights?
A:    I have always liked the neighborhood.  I have always walked around Jackson Heights since I have been in this country.  I liked everything in Jackson Heights – the stores, the post office, the grocery stores, the subway is right here.  Every place where I would go, I would recognize faces.  Many people know each other here in the community.

Q:    Where did you live before, and how does it compare?
A:    They are very similar, but the main difference is that in Corona there are more private houses.  In Jackson Heights are more buildings.

Q:    How is the transportation?
A:    There is a great variety of transportation.  We have buses that take you to the mall.  You have buses that take you to the city.  You have subway station on Roosevelt and 74th Street that connects you with many trains.  You also have buses that take you to the airport.

Q:    What changes have you noticed from the time you lived here?
A:    There has been much renovation to the stores and homes.  The apartments I don’t think have changed because they have been preserved.  If anything, the ethnicities in the neighborhood have changed.

Q:    Has ethnicity changed since the time you have lived here?
A:    There have been many ethnicity changes.  When I came here the white population owned many of the stores, but now there are run mostly the Hispanic population.  By the subway station on 74th Street, it is now made up of the Indian population.  When I came here, that area was also filled with stores run by the white population.

Q:    What are some of the neighborhood’s highlights?
A:    People within the community know each other.  People here are very friendly.  The time from here into the city is convenient.  There are a large variety of restaurants available for the community.

Q:    What are some of the neighborhood’s downfalls?
A:    About ten years ago the neighborhood changed for the worse because of drug dealers and prostitution.  At nighttime you see a little traffic of that, but the police is always there now.  It seemed that the community was going to fall down, but that has been cleaned up.

Q:    Would you recommend others to move here, and why?
A:    If they don’t mind the diversity of ethnicities, this would be a great place to them.  If someone of Hispanic ethnicity asked me, I would tell them that this neighborhood would be great for them.  They would feel right at home because the neighborhood is predominately Hispanic and almost everybody here speaks Spanish.  The Asian population is also growing here, but like I said, there is a wide variety of ethnicities.  The neighborhood has a lot to offer for people of all races.