Born:New York City
Grandmother: Porfidia Romeu; Mother: Margaret Vargas
Born:Santurce, Puerto Rico
This is a photograph of my family -- part of my family that came from
Puerto Rico in 1947. The woman in the back, by the mirror, with
the floral dress on and her hair up in a little Pompidour is my
grandmother Porfidia Romero and to the left of her -- two women to
the left -- is a woman whose my mom, Margaret Vargas -- all you see is
her head, she's right by the mirror. And my aunt Titi Iya is
sitting in the front with a very sourpuss expression on and her
hands folded on her skirt. And the party was on Washington Heights, Uptown on a 100 somewhere in the 140's or 150's, where a
lot of Puerto Ricans migrated to as a group during that period,
right after the war -- World War II. So this party was their first
party, with their first Winter going to be Christmas. It was a
Christmas party and the only requirement was to be Puerto Rican to
be invited to this party. Since there were not that many of them,
that was, you know, pretty cool. If you had a cousin or an aunt,
they were invited to the party. They were here from Puerto Rico
and most of these people had met on the boat. They had literally
just come off the Marine Tiger Boat. And this boat was originally
used in the war. They used to bring stock or some sort of
supplies. But when the war finished, they didn't know what to do
with these boats so they ended up using them for Puerto Ricans.
They brought Puerto Ricans instead of food or--whatever--supplies.
And my mother told me she was sick all the way from Puerto Rico to
New York. And that as soon as they saw the Statue of Liberty,
everybody started crying. And they weren't sick anymore but they
were freezing. She said it was freezing. It was cold as hell and
they got their first winter coats. And there was a big snowfall--she remembers that. She refused to wear a hat, 'cause she never
wore a hat in Puerto Rico, she said, and she wasn't going to mess
up her hair. So here's where they met again. They all made a
promise they would meet again and they all met at this party
Uptown. And that was their introduction to New York City.
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