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Coming to Hartford
Many people left Puerto Rico
for what they had been told was an "Eden" - a land where one could find
money in the streets. They soon realized the difficulty of what they would
have to endure - tedious, grueling work and a cold climate.
That Big Dream
Once the war was over…I applied for a job in a club that was very very
exclusive, in Santurce… They hired me and for some reason I had perhaps
the desire to move up or they saw that I was worth it because…from busboy
they made me a waiter, from a waiter they made me an assistant to the
manager, and so on… I was dealing with the …rich people … Once in a while
they would come to the club and make a big bill and they didn't pay it,
they just went home and later on I went to collect… I got my good tipping
by doing that… So finally I created a mental awareness that if I were
somewhere else I will do better…and encouraged by the people themselves.
They tell me, "Florencio, if you go to New York, you will do wonderful.
Because New York is the place to be, a guy like you should be in New York."…
And in 1948 I came to New York. I came to New York looking for that big
dream.
Florencio Morales
Leaving Homeland
Almost everyone who came here, it was because they needed to, not because
they wanted to leave their homeland.
Haydee Montalvo-Feliciano
It's Gotta be
Good
My uncle had come here to the United States a year before… He came back
home, he couldn't take it… He was saying, "Oh those gringos, it's too
much, it's pick tomatoes and pick potatoes, that's all they can say pick
potato, pick potato, pick potato." And I said, "It's gotta be good, it's
gotta be good. Next year I'll go."
Juan Román
Learning Language
…At the time we used to go to a restaurant with a limited ability to ask
for variations… So you'd eat ham and eggs in the morning, ham and eggs
at noon, ham and eggs in the afternoon, and then you learn how to say
"chicken" or something, then you vary a little…until I learned my menu
pretty good.
Juan Román 
Listen in English (46
KB MP3 - 729 KB WAV)
"Oh, that's rented."
Nobody wanted them, the landlord…say "no." Every time we call they said,
"Are you Puerto Rican?" "Yes, I'm very proud to be a Puerto Rican." "Oh,
that's rented."
Olga Mele
Listen in English (27 KB MP3
- 422 KB WAV)
Setting Roots
The people that came here at first, like my mother and father, they came
with the mentality that they were going to come here to work temporarily
and then they were going to go back. They didn't come in with the idea
to set roots here.
Carmen Malavé
Money in the Streets
The Puerto Rican people began to arrive back from New York. So they would
talk a lot …about how in the United States you would pick up money in
the street… And we dreamed of going to that place where you could pick
up money in the streets… Afterwards, [in the United States] when we were
on the old highway, the Merritt Parkway…we stopped to drink coffee… But
when I got out of the car, I put my foot on the ground and see something
white on the ground. ...I'll tell you the truth. I was looking for the
money in the streets. Nothing, not even a penny… So, when I bent over…it
was cold… And then my brother said to me, "silly, that's snow."
Haydee Montalvo-Feliciano
Living in a Rooming
House
When I came…there was a rooming house… Just a room, without meals, they
charged you weekly, around five dollars or less than ten dollars. Sometimes
we…had a little electric stove, and we made something to eat. And when
we didn't have a place to cook we would go to the restaurants. But you
didn't know English, we had a hard time. Because we didn't know how to
ask for a meal… It was very difficult.
Mariano Cortéz
Listen in Spanish (38
KB MP3 - 1, 197 KB WAV)
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