Interview with Donald Perez, Being a First Generation American In Washington Heights NYC, Hist 150  Spring 2022, Conducted by Jace Perez, March 19th 2022.

Bio: This interview is of my father Donald Perez. My dad was a first generation American citizen in the 1970s as a black Hispanic American living in Washington Heights NY. He was born into a very poor family living off of food stamps and had to grow up through the hardships of gun and gang violence, the poor education system as well as dealing the mass drug use that was going on in New York during the 1970s. My father graduated from FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) and is now married with 2 kids both who are attending college.

For this Interview I chose to research what Washington Heights were like throughout the Seventies and Eighties. By this I mean what life was like and what growing up was like in the Washington Heights as well and New York City as a whole during this time period. This topic of research helped show where my interviewee (Donald Perez) fell/ranked in social class status in this area during this time period as well as helped the interviewer (me) determine what sort of lifestyle was the “norm” so that it was easier to compare and contrast Donald’s life to the usual normal life of the Washington Heights population during this time.

Drug Problems And Crime Of The 1980’s And 1990’s

This article describes the life of crime in the Washington Heights during the 80s and 90s. It dives into the reasons why many Dominican immigrants moved into Washington Heights. The article also provides feedback into how immigrants needing jobs and money turned to selling drugs, gang violence and crime. This led to a whole separate police precinct for Washington heights alone to be made in 1994.

https://www.rutgers.edu/news/washington-heights-through-decades

This article described the downhill spiral that turned Washington Heights into a drug infested, racial tensioned neighborhood. The article starts by describing what the neighborhood was like when the authors parents lived there and what lead to its downfall. According to Snyder Washington Heights used to be a “great for working people, rich with urban amenities” but describes how due to the infestation of crime and the crack cocaine epidemic “It was hard to see a bright future for the neighborhood.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/immigrant-history-new-york-citys-washington-heights-180977936/

This article describes the immigrant history of Washington Heights and what it led to The article describes the neighborhood as “Little Dominican Republic” The article explains how what was once a rich town full of elegant real estate by the 1980s was the new home for immigrants, especially Dominicans who have there largest population in Washington Heights from New York . The author describes the neighborhood being like a second home for immigrants and many of the traditions followed from home countries into Washington Heights.

This article shows the hardships of living in Washington Heights during this time. It sheds light on the difficulty of finding jobs and making a decent living from first person accounts throughout the 1970s.

Jace Perez 0:09
Hi, my name’s Jace Perez. And today we will be interviewing my dad, Donald Perez about growing up as a first generation American and Washington Heights during the 1970s and 80s. So hows your day Donald?

Donald Perez 0:28
So far, so good.

Jace Perez 0:33
So, jumping right into it, what was your early childhood? Like? Did your neighborhood have a role and what you did as a kid?

Donald Perez 0:43
Yeah, absolutely did. So I was born in 1970. In New York City. My parents initially lived on 109th Street and Amsterdam. And when I was two years old, we moved to 4640 Broadway, which is considered between heights and Inwood. But right across the street from Fort Tryon Park. We were one of the first Latin families to live in that building, predominantly, you know, white, and certainly a lot of the large Jewish community as well. But we saw a transformation over time. Eventually, that building became mostly Dominican descendants, right that came from, from DR. And, yeah, it played an important part in how I gre up. The great thing is that it was a big family, community. Neighbors look out for each other’s kids. So you felt like you were safe, even though it was, you know, tough environment to some extent. So but yeah, it was a great, great influence on my childhood life for sure.

Jace Perez 1:55
Okay did uh, did you live with any siblings? And if so, how many? And how did they impact your life growing up?

Donald Perez 2:02
So I was the youngest of four at older brother who’s five and a half years older and a set of twin sisters. So I was always the the baby, which they felt I was spoiled, looked up to my brother. He was big into exercising, amateur bodybuilder. So for me, he was someone that I kind of wanted to emulate up to a certain point. He did not like hip hop, music and rap. So as I was growing up, we have some differences. He’s heavily into rock and different kind of music based on how he grew up. But at the end of the day, he was still my older brother, who was into Kung-fu and the Boy Scouts. There was a Guardian Angel who roamed the streets of New York City out subways, which is kind of insane during that time. So it kept me out of trouble. They knew that that was my older brother, so they messed with me, they somehow wind up messing with him. So he also kept me safe indirectly and directly.

Jace Perez 2:59
What’s a what’s a guardian angel?

So a guardian angel was a vigilante type of organization of these martial arts, kind of a skilled kids who would wear these Red Berets and each gray shirts that have their emblem on them and would roam the streets, keeping neighborhoods safe, you’ll see them on trains, they will sort of support the police departments although weren’t necessarily endorsed by the police department. And a lot of kids that grew up during that time, but it’s very cool to kind of be in this organization. Obviously, I never did my brother was and to some degree, they did help a great deal.

Did your parents work when you were a kid? And if so, what? What were their jobs and how influential are they?

Donald Perez 3:56
Sure so my dad initially worked for a paper manufacturing company, they made cardboard boxes and paper goods from Brooklyn did very well during that time. And eventually that company moved to Brooklyn.. im sorry not to Brooklyn, to Pennsylvania. He decided to take a package and started to to drive a livery cab for many years. So for most of my life, I remember him being a livery cab driver, but a lot of Dominicans that came from the DR kind of did that into heights for companies like San Juan, which is where he worked for many years. My mom was a beautician, who eventually became a seamstress working in a factory in 178th and Amsterdam. Eventually, my grandmother, my aunt’s will all work there. So I’d go there to get in and watch them assemble a lot of manufactured clothing goods. But yeah, I watched my parents work my entire life that influenced me a great deal and that I always knew that I was at some point going to work and sure enough, you know, when I got to age I started working?

Jace Perez 5:03
What was going to school like at a early age was discrimination prominent?

Donald Perez 5:15
Not necessarily in my neighborhood, because we were all of the same sort of minority descent to you, you’re either Spanish black, I mean, there were some caucasians, but I didn’t feel racism in school. My first language was Spanish, so I was in bilingual language classes early on. So that kind of made me feel a little different. Until I learned to speak English more fluently. But overall, at least through my elementary and middle school days, it was less about racism, more about just enduring a violent time, right in the late 70s, early 80s. That is more about staying out of trouble than it was racism. And again, that was I think, in part because of the neighborhood that you grew up on, around, everyone kind of looked out for each other, you felt like you were in or immersed in this, you know, similar environment where, you know, if you’re racism till you left that environment and went somewhere else, but within the school system? No, not at all.

Jace Perez 6:14
Were you looked at differently due to the color of your skin? And what kind of impact would this have on you later inlife?

Donald Perez 6:22
So again, going back to that last question you just asked, right, where when you’re in your neighborhood amongst your peers, you feel like you’re at home. But once you left that environment and say, you went down to go shopping in the city, whether that was on Park Avenue, or in SoHo in the village, at that point, you did feel different, right? You were you were walking into stores, and you were watched as if you’re going to take something right, so that started to feed a certain level of net insecurity, but just discomfort that you felt like someone was looking at you differently, or like you were going to do something that you weren’t, that you had no intention of doing and it forced me to, to one, ensure that I was dressed properly whenever I went out so that I wasn’t being Miss construed to buy things, but I had no intention to buy things to show that I was there to buy, right. So it just created a certain feeling that a person of color, you had to live up to a different standard to be viewed or or not accepted, but to at least to be judged differently. So, and I got through that, but I understood that that was in part fed from what was going on around me. I mean, you people of color are highlighted on TV as being those that are performing certain acts of violence and crime and that feeds to someone’s perception and, or ignorance, if you will. So you’re forced to deal with that and kind of mitigate that based on how you conduct yourself and you go out

Jace Perez 7:46
Were you ever influenced by the growing Drug and Gang problems during this time in Washington Heights or were your friends?

Donald Perez 7:56
Yes, in a major way, I think when you’re growing up in the heights, you’re either you either have a store, grocery store, you you’re working a blue collar job, or you are selling drugs, and a lot of people around me, were doing just that it was very prevalent in the area. I did have friends that that used to sell drugs, I had many that I’ve lost to violence and drugs. So thankfully, I had enough people around me, including my older brother, and people that looked out for me, that kept me out of harm’s way. And it was something that I never really wanted for myself, but it was normal in my environment that people were selling drugs and you had everyone driving around with fancy cars right all from, you know, that lifestyle, which made you, you know, some degree you know, feel deprived, becuase you didn’t have those things, but I also understood what it took to get it which was something I never wanted to do.

Jace Perez 8:58
what was having to work and supply for your family at a young age like?

Donald Perez 9:04
Um, yeah, so again, I’m the youngest of four, my brother left to the Marines at a young age my sisters kind of got married and left and left me as the youngest with my parents just as we getting divorced and that process put a lot of weight on my family. You know, my mom struggled financially. So once I was able to work, I was excited because I was able to make money I didn’t have to rely on depend on her struggling not to mention I was able to help her financially in ways that I wouldn’t have been able to before so I never looked back I am I love working and I love the impact work has on your home life and I realized that today despite you know money not being everything its extremely important to change your quality of life and change the quality of life of others. So I take that very serious and I take work very serious, serious for that reason. So huge impact on me early. And certainly I was able to help my family and I was happy to do so, at that time.

Jace Perez 10:11
So, you were a first generation college student and in your family and what, uh, what was it like going to school for the first time?

Donald Perez 10:19
You know I was fortunate to have good people around me that all went to school, even though my immediate family had not our brother did go to one semester, in college for one year, and then left to go join the Marines. So never finished. So I was the first within my immediate family to go to college and finish. But for me, it wasn’t a choice. I knew that that was the path I was gonna take. I have people around me that kind of set that standard for me, including my parents. And it felt great knowing that you’re able to evolve right of the first generation, American descended from the Dominicans. In that way. I think that my story to me represents what immigration should look like, and that you come here to establish a foothold, to give your family a chance and to evolve and grow and be part of contributing society. And I think my siblings and myself, have been able to do that. So school was a big part of that. It felt felt good. You know, being able to complete a degree and continue to evolve and learn over that. Or after that, I should say.

Jace Perez 11:37
Well alright, Donald, that’s, that’s all we have for you today. Thanks.

Donald Perez 11:42
That’s it? HAHA Cool.

Jace Perez 11:48
All right. Have a good day.

Donald Perez 11:51
Thank you, Jace.

Overview To Social Change Interview:

Overview: This interview was conducted in person. I didn’t have to edit much of the interview other than errors in the transcription. Most of the content that was recorded was put into the audio portion of the interview. To record the interview I used zoom and was able to download the audio straight to my computer.

Bibliography:

Berger , Joseph. “Drug Problems and Crime of the 1980’s and 1990’s.” Drug Problems And Crime Of The 1980’s And 1990’s, The Peopling of New York 2011, 2011, https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/berger2011/washington-heights/problems-of-washington-heights/drug-problems-of-the-1980s-and-1990s/.

Lerner, Lawrence. “Washington Heights through the Decades.” Rutgers University, Rutgers Today, 27 Feb. 2015, https://www.rutgers.edu/news/washington-heights-through-decades.