When the Power’s Out, Knowledge is Power:
New York’s Immigrant Communities Respond to Outage
By Gabrielle Banks, ColorLines RaceWire
Thursday’s power outage was no big deal for Ruby Rodriguez. Twenty-five years ago, Rodriguez went into labor during an energy rationing campaign in Armenia, Colombia, and gave birth to her son in the hospital by candlelight.
"In Colombia, the people have taken a beating, so they’re more prepared," she said Saturday. When the power went out at the juice stand where she works in Jackson Heights, Queens, Rodriguez, 46, ministered to a long line of thirsty customers, bought some basic provisions, and headed straight home and directly to bed.
Like Rodriguez, many immigrants from developing countries found they were far more resilient and resourceful when the blackout struck than friends and neighbors who had grown up unaccustomed to disruptions. In Jackson Heights, which is home to immigrants from more than 90 countries, residents offered a global perspective on the stoppage that swept through the northeastern United States and parts of Canada.
The minute-by-minute primetime coverage showcased stranded
commuters and beleaguered shop owners bracing themselves for nightfall. And veterans of the’65 and ’77 New York blackouts held court on their stoops, recalling for the younger set (who’d come of age during 26 years of uninterrupted service) how they’d gotten through the disasters. While they got less airtime, many newcomers
to the land of plenty took Thursday’s events quietly in stride. To those who had lived at the mercy of shaky infrastructure or unpredictable clashes between violent factions, 20-odd hours without refrigeration was nothing to write home about.
Mopping his face at the sidelines between two soccer matches, Wilson Muñoz, 39, said he and his fellow players at the Gorman Playground were veterans of these sorts of events. "In our countries, it always happens. Nature misbehaves, and you get used to it. But someone who was born here is going to be frightened."
Muñoz, a native of Cuenca in the jungle region of Ecuador, said the manager of the jewelry shop where he works in midtown Manhattan was trembling and crying when the power shut off. Muñoz’s walk home to Queens took four and a half hours; his wife walked for six hours from the leather goods factory where she works at 23rd Street and 8th Avenue. But neither of them was particularly rattled by the incident.
Immigrants from opposite sides of the globe discovered they had parallel histories–of unpredictable resources and of civic unrest. Over beef empanadas at the bustling La Nueva 2000 Bakery on 37th Avenue, Guillermo and Catalina Barrientos laughed when they told their Turkish friend, Pinar Aydinoglu, how frequently their lives were interrupted in Colombia. "It’s normal for us," said 22 year-old Guillermo, who left Pereira with his sister and family two and a half years ago. "Between ’91 and ’93 the water level was low, and we had blackouts everyday for three hours."
"We have them all the time in Turkey," Aydinoglu told them. Although news reports reiterated that the Bush Administration had ruled out sabotage as a possible cause for the August 14 incident, Aydinoglu, 16, who moved to Queens from the capitol city of Ankara, doubted the "official story." The rumbling of conspiracy theorists
may not make primetime, but that didn’t stop her from thinking terrorists might be involved in disrupting the power grid. Acts of sabotage happen regularly in the Middle East, she said, but "Americans just started to see terrorism" on September 11, 2001.
The Barrientos siblings said they also did not trust the news. From their experience in Colombia where civilians are threatened by guerillas and paramilitary forces, they believe the U.S. needs to develop a more sophisticated outlook on national security.
Back at the juice stand on Jackson Heights’ main thoroughfare, Ruby Rodriguez leaned her elbows on the counter and flashed a nervous smile. "If you look closely, the United States is very weak. It’s very potent and at the same time very weak."
A quarter century ago, back in the coffee region of Colombia, the local doctors had at least planned ahead and stocked up on candles. "Can you imagine being stuck in an elevator or on a train? When trains stop, they should have a generator ready," she said.
Gabrielle Banks was ColorLines’ senior writer. She is currently studying at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.
© 2006 Applied Research Center
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