The Bond in Hartford

     Throughout the world people are moving constantly to different countries to find a better future. They move in the hope to find a better place they can call home. Therefore,  coming from a different country and wanting to go back is quite the metaphor as some reasons are better left behind, in terms of personal problems. The individual reason for this might be the countries actions. Jobs are not available at all and as crime rates worsen, government corruption becomes a bigger matter. What makes this so astonishing is that as people move in into a country, their own culture follows them. In the city of Hartford, we could simply realize that the community is quite diverse and has multiple cultures that are really unique towards particular people. What you mostly see in the community of Hartford is Hispanic/Latino people who become really attached to the city life. Their attachment is the common “goal”  in every place, which is based on finding a job. This is  a community who helps each other out and for this, their culture is celebrated proudly. In fact, wouldn’t someone like to live in the city of Hartford, where people regularly lend a hand to each other? This is an opportunity, something that makes a Hispanic, or any race search for their dreams.

      In the city of Hartford,  Hispanics are working hard every single day to make their future dreams become a reality. Some people have accomplished this reality by establishing a market or a business. For example, “Aquí me Quedo” is a restaurant that has been in Hartford for a long time; as well as “ El Mercado Marketplace”.  We briefly got to know the owner of the restaurant “ Aquí me Quedo” when we were doing the walk on Park Street in Hartford.  The owner gave us a brief history of his restaurant that has been established for a long time and with this, a second restaurant was opened in the North of Hartford. The owner was a polite gentleman who was glad to talk to us before running to his business again. You can tell that the owner is a hardworking man who wanted to accomplish his dreams and like that, giving himself a better future as a Puerto Rican. The community was his job, thankfully his goals are met yearly. You can see this as well if you visit “ El Mercado Marketplace” where people are working hard in their business as employees and managers. Inside the place you could notice the different meanings towards their goals, like mini-restaurants representing their own culture. As Hispanic/Latinos, they sell their unique food to a different community. In addition, in the mercado you find a mini-marketplace which provides many native countries products such as food, drinks, fruits, etc.  Providing these items in the market allow the communities to be closer to their own native nation. This is important for the communities since this product are not found anywhere else.

     This brings me to a valid point towards what other’s view of Hartford. Most people view this city as a place of poverty, where jobs are vacant and the homeless are the common and because of this, the city is viewed as “trash.” However, during my walk I did not see this in the community at all! I saw people helping each other out as many of them worked hard, which changed the whole idea of a trashed city. One of these hard-working individuals was Alberto, who I interviewed during my walk, he is Mexican.  Alberto works at a Barber shop. He moved from Mexico to this country to work, he started working when he was 19 years old. He’s been living in Hartford for 12 years now and currently works as a barber. One question that I had for Alberto was quite intriguing; What do you consider your community as, in terms

of a social class? Alberto responded, “ Medio, porque yo pienso que las personas trabajan para estar en una buena posición.”  It is surprising how Alberto’s view for his community is decided upon the results of hard work, which made him view his community as middle class. Alberto “view is similar to other Latinos this because of Hispanics are people who work really hard and  who achieve their work ethics by helping each other out. This is what I would love to call my community.

     The community of Hartford  has a strong bond. It is extraordinary how the Hispanic community in Hartford is connected through different cultures. My second walk with my course of “ Intro to Hispanic Hartford “ was going to the North End. When we got to the North End we visited “ The Artist Collective” which was a different type of culture, but it had a bond with the Hispanic community. We met a wonderful lady who introduced us to the place. This place was connected to the community of Hartford by music because of the big events that would take place in it. Although one of the things that she mentioned was based on them raising money for the Puerto Rican Parade. The Puerto Rican Parade is a big celebration that takes place in the community of Hartford, but it sadly had to be shut down due to the shortage of money. This is really remarkable as one hand helps the community of Hartford; but it’s not the only place that staggered my point of interest towards how much they have helped the community.  After we finished in “ The Artist Collective” , we went to “Aquí me Quedo” to eat a lot wonderful food! It was really delicious, so I gave my many thanks to my professor for that amazing opportunity. In fact, the person who was serving us the food and drinks was a Puerto Rican who was obviously happy to work there as well! But what amazed me was  how happy he was working at his job, just like that he gave us a talk about Puerto Rico. How the Hurricane Maria made a destruction and the Puerto Rican community over there was at a great struggle for food and water. Due to this, the restaurant was raising money and buying products to ship it over to the island, to land them a hand. Yet again, it is truly a reality in terms of how much this Hispanic community has helped other communities in other countries like Puerto Rico that has gone through hell after the tragedy with the Hurricane. In my interview with Alberto,  I asked him how he felt about Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico? He was really sorrowful about what had happened in Puerto Rico and he explained that no one deserves what those people are going through right now. You can see that even though he is from Mexico he has true feelings about a disaster from another country. Therefore, people would celebrate their culture proudly to show that anything that comes their way won’t prevent them to celebrate it, but also to bring some light to the community and show how strong a bond could be by celebrating it with joy.  

     

Moving to the city of Hartford feels like that of a welcoming hand. I could connect to this because I have lived in this city for almost 9 years now. I am currently  in college, but I coming to the city for the first time, truly made me feel scared. I didn’t know anybody and even then, I couldn’t speak English! For this reason, my parents placed me in a school in Hartford called, M.D.Fox Elementary School. That’s where I learned my new language and I was sure nervous to meet people; I felt that people wouldn’t like me but I was wrong, people were bilingual and they were welcoming me every moment of the way. They were lending a hand by explaining me things that I couldn’t understand in this other language. I started making friends from different cultures that were from Puerto Rico, Cuba, U.S, Peru, El Salvador and many more.This shows how attach I am towards this beautiful community of many different cultures. I have learned a lot and with this knowledge, more things will come to me. I will always work as hard as I can, because that’s what this community did when I came here. This was just like the walk in the community, we were learning how people lived their daily lives in the community, and with this we also learned their perspective of the city and how they are proud to celebrate different cultures and lend a hand to each other.  Don’t ever be frightened to visit and become part of a great community of Hispanics and other cultures.