They came as farm workers. Many came from Jamaica, a few from Guyana. They are the foundations for all of us. (Walter Benjamin, Guyana)
June is Caribbean heritage month, and that combined with the exhibition of works by Guyanese-American artist Stanwyck Cromwell at the Connecticut Historical Society provides more reasons to celebrate Caribbean Connecticut. Twelve years ago, the West Indian Social Club of Hartford, the West Indian Foundation, and the Connecticut Historical Society joined forces to document the lives of some of the immigrants from the English-speaking islands in the West Indies. The project grew to include photographs, audio, and videotaped interviews of men and women, elders and young people, longtime residents and more recent arrivals to the Greater Hartford area from the English-speaking countries in the Caribbean.
Common threads emerged in the interviews that linked individual stories and strike a familiar chord with all immigrants, past and present. The most universal is the difficulty and challenge of putting down roots in a new place while maintaining ties with the people, history, and cultural heritage of a far away homeland.
While some of the people have passed away, their words and faces live on in within the research center at the Connecticut Historical Society where all the photographs and transcripts are available. Here are some examples:
I still have this feeling about my country. And even though I’ve been living here and I’m a citizen of the United States, I still consider Barbados as home. (Egan Bovell, Barbados)
When I came here first, the students, when they came from the island, they had a hard time because it was a strange culture. Many things—the foods, the music, et cetera was not accepted. Today, the kids who are of West Indian parentage, it’s really easy to adjust in a place like Hartford, because they turn on the radio, they hear the music. They go to any corner; they see the food. (Leslie Perry, Jamaica)
I absolutely had difficulty coming to Connecticut, just like anybody else. I mean, you’ve got to find a job. You’ve got to balance your life with your children. And it takes years. I think it’s trying to find the balance when you balance out your journey of life, you get to many crossroads. You get to many ups and downs. You get on many journeys. And then you just got to keep on balancing, figure it out.(Carmen Boudier, Jamaica)
For a while, I didn’t really feel that connected here, other than family. I always felt like whatever I did, I wanted to go back there and help the country be better—apply my skills there versus staying here. So I never really viewed here as permanent, you know. But as time went on, you know, the longer you’re here the harder it is to transition back there.(Simone Russell, Jamaica)
When my parents initially came to America it would have been approximately 1908—to New York City. The ship left St. Kitts and the first stop was in New York City, so that’s where they got off. They stayed in New York City for a few years. My aunts and my uncles told me it was rough times for them. They had children. And they, being new to America, like most immigrants, the times were hard and they took the low paying jobs, et cetera, et cetera. And it was difficult. They left New York approximately 1912, 1913 and moved to New London, Connecticut. (Frank Jacobs, St. Kitts)
Echoes from Across the Ocean: From the Caribbean to Connecticut: Works by
Stanwyck Cromwell will be on view at The Connecticut Historical Society through October 15, 2011. The Research Center, housing the oral histories and photographs, is open Tuesday through Friday from 12-5 and Saturdays from 9-5. For more information go to www.chs.org.
