From The Peopling of New York City

My Trip to Jackson Heights

Jackson Heights, Queens, is a bustling neighborhood filled with immigrants from the South Asian community. From all my years living in New York City. I had never travelled to this region of the city before and had not even heard of it. My first encounter with a South Asian community would be when I travelled to the so called "Little India" in Manhattan near my dorm. Needless to say, travelling to Jackson heights was a completely taken aback at the vast and innumerable difference between the two locales. The community in Queens was significantly more bustling and active than what I had been privy to in the city and felt more authentic.

Despite the vast differences between both of the communities. They both shares at least one thing in common. In both communities I felt a sense of decay. According to my fellow South Asian collegians, the Jackson Heights South Asian community was no longer the center of the South Asian community. Many of the businesses and and people had moved to other communities such as Edison, New Jersey. Despite this fact, the community in Jackson Heights was still as bustling and as active as other cultural communities within New York such as Chinatown. Lining the streets of 73rd and 74th streets, are shops filled with goods of all kinds. Many shops sold traditional Indian clothing for marriage and others sold religious Hindu statues. Though most of the stores in the community are Hindu owned, and as such displayed religious idols. Religious tensions can be felt in the neighborhood because, just outside of these Hindu shops, there are Muslim street vendors selling Muslim religious documents and artifacts on the sidewalk. Despite both religions coexisting in India, a tension was palpable in this small South Asian community.

The abundance of traditional Indian clothing shops poses the question of why and how so many coexist in the same neighborhood. This question is answered by the fact that many Indian families marry off their daughters and sons in arranged marriages. With such a multitude of marriages taking place, families prefer to dress their progeny in traditional Indian garb from India. Although many families would prefer clothing from India, which is both cheaper and more authentic, many of them cannot afford to travel back to India on a whim and as a result, must buy their clothing here. The abundance of clothing stores can also be explained by the fact that many of these stores are not only catering towards fellow South Asian immigrants and families, but also cater to the tourists of the surrounding city. This blending of cultures, tourist and "native", are customary of small immigrant communities in the United States. Clothing isn't the only service that the South Asian residents provide to their fellow immigrants and tourists but also the Jewelry service which plays a vital role in Indian culture. In Indian culture, jewelry, especially those of the gold kind are a sign of importance and prestige in the Indian community.

The experience of being in the South Asian community in Queens was an eye-opening experience into the lives of a vast and unique immigrant culture that pervades the city of New York.