Life History Interview with Emmanuel Almonte Sanchez:

Working-Food-Community-Opportunity-Family-Connection

March 16th, 2019

Interviewed by Jordan Levin

At the J&J Deli and Grocery

607 East Street, New Haven, Connecticut
480: Oral History Seminar

Emmanuel Almonte Sanchez (Manuel)

Date of Birth: 12-19-1982

Place of Birth: Porto Plata, Dominican Republic

Year of Immigration to the United States: 1-29-2003

[Emmanuel Almonte Sanchez will be signified as “M”]

[Jordan Levin will be signified as “J”]

M: How we gonna start?

J: So, the first thing is…This is just a simple form, it explains a lot of the stuff that we already
went over. So, the purpose of the research is to collect stories from New Haven’s Caribbean born
community. And description of participation, basically we are sitting down here, we talk, and
I’m recording the interview. What will happen is, I will take this recording, the interview, and
transcribe it onto paper and then, the recording itself, that’ll be destroyed. And what we’ll have is
just the pages of our back and forth talking.
M: Ok.
J: And then the last thing it explains is that in New Haven there is a place call the Ethnic
Heritage Center, and that’s where it will be held. And it will also be held at the Digital New
Haven website, which is like an archive, a historical archive, that is on the internet. So, both of
them will be used for research. So, if you’re ok with having your name and info in there…
M: Yes…

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J: The check off this top one…
M: Like that?
J: Yea.
M: So if you want to be….Yea no problem…
J: And then I just need your signature, and write your name next to that.
M: Like that?
J: Awesome.
M: Ok, so now, the second beginning.
[Both laughing]
J: So, I’m, So I’m sitting down here today, my name is Jordan Levin and I will be the
interviewer, um, sitting down talking with Emmanuel Almonte Sanchez, but you go by Manny
right? Or Manuel!
M: Manuel.
J: Ok.
M: Si.
J: And we are sitting down inside his business which is J&J Deli and Grocery, which is at the
end of East Street, at the cross section of East Street and State Street in New Haven, CT.
M: Yea, that’s correct.
J: And it’s March 16th (2019) at about four in the afternoon, three-thirty, four in the afternoon…
M: It is 3:53.
J: 3:53 in the afternoon. So, I just want to start off by saying I really appreciate you taking the
time, and it’s a privilege to be able to sit down and talk with you.
M: You’re very welcome brother, no problem.
J: So, I’m always curious, I work right across the street, what’s J&J, deli, J&J Deli…where’d
you get the name?
M: Well, I got the name from my friend. He had one deli with the same name open before, and
then you see, we wanted to keep it, you know you see like McDonalds, Burger King…
J: Yea.
M: We keep it like that, we keep strength. Well, we lived together. In the same house, he lived
on the second floor. I lived on the first floor.

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 So, he made one store like J&J Deli and Grocery on Chapel Street, close to Yale
Hospital, the business was good, he sell it to another person, and then he opened another J&J
Deli in Bridgeport, and then he made another J&J Restaurant on Grand Avenue. So, he wants to
keep it going up, you know what I mean?
J: Yea, yea.
M: So, then we bought this, and I have this J&J on East Street. Now, he got another one, but no
more J&J, this is the last one.
Jordan: This is it?
M: Yea. The other one he got now, is like a Pueblo Supermarket, it’s in Bridgeport.
So, this is how the name starts. Because, going up, when he makes business, he shows
you how the business builds up faster. We are friendly with the people, you know, like, good
customer service.
J: Right.
M: That’s what we try to do.
J: So, you see the name and you know it gonna be a good place.
M: Yup, we try to keep it like that. We keep it from first day…going up. You know, we try to
keep making this a better business.
J: So, was this a guy that you moved in with when you first moved to…was that in New Haven?
M: Yea.
J: Gotcha.
M: Yea, we lived in New Haven. He’s like my girlfriend’s cousin.
J: Did you know him from the Dominican Republic?
M: No, I know him from here. Around, nine years. We talk together, going out together. You
know like the weekend, we go into Danbury, for dancing, you know like that. Like, my group.
J: Gotcha.
So, when you first came to the United States, did you first move to New Haven?
M: No, when I come from Dominican Republic, that was January 29th, 2003. My first time, when
I come was New York City, Manhattan. My location was 69 East 4th Street. That was my aunt’s
house. She was living there a long time, around twenty years. I lived with her around like eight
years.
J: So that’s in Manhattan?
M: Manhattan, yea.

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J: 69 East 4th Street? Gotcha.
M: Yea, it’s like, it’s close to Second Avenue, and the Bowery.
J: You lived down in Manhattan for eight years?
M: Eleven. Yea, but I lived with her eight years.
J: Gotcha. What did you do when you first moved here, like work-wise, ah…
M: I work all day [laughing] around, around the night time. My first job in the United States was
grocery, in in Brooklyn, the name was Three Brothers grocery in Brooklyn. It was on Maple
Street and Nostrand. Yea, that was my first job. I was there for two months. And then my father
got the opportunity to buy a bakery route. It’s like a stop, like restaurant, grocery, deli’s, he got
like eighty stops…we started with eighty. But, we get the opportunity, somebody from Italian
bakery, gave the money to him to buy the route, can I say that?
J: A route, yea, yea.
M: We worked that for ten years.
J: Delivery, bakery delivery.
M: Ten years I worked that, in the night time.
J: All through the night, right?
M: Yea, like, we start… I wake up, for example I wake up at night, go into work at ten p.m., all
night, make eighty stops, restaurants, delis, pizzeria, schools, we get, he had like three schools on
the route, but the route, we had to get the bread to New Jersey, Patterson, New Jersey. Yes, we
had to take the New Jersey turnpike to get there. We worked until eleven in the morning. Ten to
Eleven.
J: Oy.
M: Yea, around ten years, six days out of the week.
J: Six days a week… So that was you and your father in the truck?
M: And my brother, one brother came with me the same day from the Dominican Republic.
J: Gotcha. So, you both traveled on the same day from the Dominican Republic?
M: Yea, I traveled with my brother.
J: Can you tell me about that experience? Actually, what brought you to make that decision to
travel to New York?
M: To New York…Well, my father, he was living here in New York City for more years, say
fifteen years, and then was working in the bakery, the same bakery, inside, ah, all the time, for
like fifteen years, the same company. So, he made the document, he paid the immigration for the

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green card for us, so that’s why, he brought us to the United States. He brought all, we are five
together.
J: Sibling.
M: So, I have one brother younger, he’s in the Dominican Republic now. My sister she lives in
New York City, but she lives in Port Chester right now, she bought a house. And then, it’s me, I
live in New Haven. My other brother, he lives in New York City, on the lower east side. Lower
east side is a big community from like Latin, like Puerto Rican and Dominican mixed together,
that’s what they call lower east side.
J: The lower east side…
M: Yea, yea, yea, it’s around Tenth Street and Avenue D.
J: Do you ever go down and visit?
M: Sometimes yea, yea.
J: But, you’re hear like most every day.
M: Yea.
[Laughing together about this]
M: Yea every day. Like in December, like that, we go to visit.
Now, my father, ah, his wife. She was having another baby, a girl, so my father take has
another daughter now, and she lives in New York City too with my other brother.
J: So, going back, to before New York. Where in the Dominican Republic did you grow up?
M: I grew up in a small city, the name is Porto Plata city. It’s in the North. It’s very fun, that city.
Yea, for tourists. The commercial in the city is for tourists. People from everywhere. Europe,
United States, France.
J: Did you live inside the city, or just outside?
M: Inside.
J: What did your house look like?
M: My house looked like a small house, like wooden house. The color when I was born, ah, the
house has the same color. It’s blue and white. They renew it overtime, but it’s still the same
color. It is a corner house. It’s very small, but all my family grew up in this house. They are
small they grow up and they leave, you know, like that.
J: So, your father grew up in this house?
M: No, another house. My mother. They was not together.
J: Oh, ok.

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M: Yea, my father has, for example, the first two, my sister and brother younger they are from
one women, and then goes me, just for my mother, and then the other two, is from another lady,
and my little brother is around twenty-one. Right now, we are all in a different place.
J: Growing up there, what did you do? Did you have a lot of friends in the neighborhood?
M: In the Dominican Republic?
J: Yea.
M: Yea, I had a lot of friends.
J: What kind of stuff did you do?
M: Over there? Um, I was in the school full time. Tried to get a better life, you know. The I
started to work in a cafeteria, it’s like a ‘coffee shop’ in the United States. When I finished my
school, I would work like eight to four o’clock, like a regular job.
[Customer comes in and Manuel serves him]
M: So, I was working like that, like six days a week. The coffee shop was close to my house. I
took care like I was the manager. When she was (presumably the owner), she was there like five
o’clock in the morning to open it. I get there at eight, and when I get there she left.
J: So, you’d run the whole shop?
M: Yea.
J: How old were you when you started doing that?
M: Around sixteen.
J: So, how did you do that, and school?
M: I didn’t start to work like that until I finished my high school.
J: Oh, ok. Which is at eighteen?
M: Sixteen.
J: Oh, ok.
M: Well, I started to work like that at sixteen, but two more years I finished my high school. So,
at that age I went in the afternoon when I go out from the school.
J: So, you get out of school then you go in and go to work.
M: Yea, that’s where I started to learn how to work.
J: Right.

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M: I know it late’s but…[laughing] it did it like that. I start to work because my father, always he
took care of me, from here to the Dominican Republic. So, we did like me working when I was
studying.
J: He wanted you to be in school?
M: Yea, in school all the time. Yea.
J: Did you like school?
M: Oh yea. The, the problem, I’m not in school right now because when I started to work like
nighttime, when I get to the school here, that was, um, Columbia University. I’m getting to the
University to get my GED, because my diploma from the Dominican Republic is not working
here. We have to translate, for example. But, I started to make my GED here with Columbia
University…
J: In, that’s in New York?
M: New York, yea. So, the problem was, I was, I have to work all that time, because we have to
pay all that money for the bread, for the rolls, so, when I go out from my work, I gotta go to take
a shower, then take a train to 121st uptown.
J: For Columbia?
M: Yea. That was a long ways. So, when I get to the school I was asleep. So, when I get there, I
would never be right, never on focus. Like all the time I want to sleep. That’s why I think about
it, to leave the school like that. We had the responsibility to pay my fathers friends, the Italians,
the one who gave it to him.
J: Right. So, when you were growing up your father was already in the United States. Did you
know as a child, someday I’m going to move to the United States too?
M: Yea, he always told me about it. At first he brought my sister and my brother. But, my
brother, he never went back to school, he didn’t want go. You know, he wanted to stay in the
outside, the street, with the…like having fun all the time…do bad things…that’s why my father,
he don’t bring me to the United States quickly. Like, I bring those two, let’s see what’s going on,
and then I’ll bring the other ones. So, my father saw my young brother, he don’t want to go to
school, he don’t want to work, he wants to stand there every day on the street with friends, do
bad things. That’s why he stopped with me in the Dominican Republic.
J: He said…Manuel, wait a little bit.
M: Yea…we have to see…but my sister. She went to the school every time, she’s got a good job
in New York City, but he think about it, then he made the, the personal papers for us.
J: So, lets talk about your sister. Did she do the GED at Columbia?
M: No, she was in the high school here. When she came, she was four years old.
J: Four?

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M: Yea.
J: Oh really, oh ok.
M: Yea and my brother was five or six.
J: Oh, oh, ok. So, essentially, they grew up here.
M: Yea, they went to the school when they were younger, but my brother did not want to go
back to school. That was the problem.
J: Ok, ok.
M: Yea, when I came here, I was twenty-one.
J: 2003.
M: 2003.
J: So, back home, you were at the Cafeteria working, finishing high school and you’re working
there, did you work other places? Or, have other work experience?
M: In Dominican Republic?
J: Yea.
M: Yea. I was working in a gift shop. It’s a little place with everything inside for the people
visiting our country. I was there around one year. Cleaning.
J: What kind of stuff did you sell there?
M: Over there, cigars, Cohiba, like, jewelry, larimar, gold, silver, paintings from my country. T-
shirts. I was working for one lady. I was cleaning the store, then she saw how I work and I began
to sell.
J: Where was the store?
M: It’s in my city. I don’t know if it’s there right now, but, that was there in the mercado, you
know the mercado?
J: No, what is that?
M: Mercado is like a market. They sell fruit, vegetables, like all the stuff, and gifts for the people
that come. People from the other countries want to see how the country is going, like how they
live.
J: When you were down there did you travel? Did you go, were you close to, like in the north is
Santiago, a big city, was there a reason to go to bigger cities like this? Or, did you stay in your
city?
M: I stayed in my city. Yea, I was playing baseball. I pitched. Playing with my friends. It’s not
like a team but, in the neighborhood, we call it the barrio.

8
J: In the barrio.
M: In the barrio yea, like neighborhood. Yea we played baseball, raced bicycles, like motocross,
but bicy-cross, like that…
[laughing together]
J: Like you make jumps and everything?
M: Yea, crazy stuff.
J: Your school, did they have a baseball team?
M: In the school, yea but, I never played, because when I tried to play somebody hit my belly
with the, I pitch, and the guy quickly hit it…
J: Hit it…
M: Yea!
But, I played basketball.
J: Gotcha. A little better than getting hit with the baseball.
[laughing together]
M: Yea, that was hard.
J: In the house, who did you live with? In the house, your mother’s house, right?
M: My aunt, my cousin, and my sister from my mother.
J: Does your mother still live in this house now?
M: No, I brought her here.
J: Oh, is that right?
M: Yea.
J: Is she in New Haven?
M: Yea, she is in New Haven. She lives in my house now.
J: Does ah, your family still live in the house? The same house?
M: Right now, in the Dominican Republic?
J: Yea.
M: Yea, my aunt and my cousin.
J: So, you were in New York. What brought you to Connecticut, New Haven?
M: Well, I was working that time too many hours, and I was like, that’s enough.

9
J: U’huh. Eleven years.
M: Yea, that was, that was too much. So I came here like, can I say, day off…
J: Yea, uh’huh.
M: My day off was Saturday, like Friday in the afternoon, because every Friday in the morning I
collect the money from every place. So, I finish like two o’clock and then, that was my night off.
Start to work Sunday night at ten. So, I’m with my girlfriend and she, her family was living here.
Yea, her aunt, her cousin, who we made the business together. Then, another aunt. Like five
family from here. So, we came to visit here. We went to the park, I see how the city is, it was
very quiet. That’s what I like. I like this city…a lot!
J: Right.
M: If I have to move, I don’t go no where, I stay here. So, I saw the city, went to the beach. The
city has beautiful beach.
J: Where’d you go, what beach?
M: Ah, Ocean Beach and Rocky Neck.
J: Yea, Ocean Beach, that’s where I grew up, New London.
M: New London yea [laughing], that’s my favorite beach. We went in the summer every time,
every Saturday.
J: You’ve gotta leave early for that. [Laughing]
M: Yea, but right now we are not going on Saturday, we go on Sunday.
J: Because you’re closed Sunday here right?
M: Closed Sunday yea. We go at like seven o’clock.
J: Yea, you gotta, because man you get stuck in traffic…
M: For hours…but when I came for visits, I still like it, still like it, then ‘why we don’t move to
Connecticut?’ Ah, I talked to my father, finish, I gotta move, he get another person to work for
my side, and then I moved to my girlfriend’s aunts for three weeks I think, yea three weeks.
Then we get a big apartment. Like three floors. I was living in the basement for six months. And
my girlfriend’s aunt she as working at your place [The Pantry Restaurant, across the street from
J&J Deli and Grocery, at 2 Mechanic Street, New Haven. Jordan’s place of work] for a long
time.
J: Oh, ok. That’s what Lenny [Leonard Fritz, owner, chef and manager of The Pantry Restaurant]
told me, ah…
M: Yea, Reyna. And then, she and my girlfriend, we tried to get a house. She get the credit to get
the house, if she didn’t get it, then I would get it. Then we get it, and the city helped her.

10
J: Ah…well, keep going, then we can go back, but I’m curious about how that process works.
M: Then we stayed with her, the same house for five years on the first floor. She’s still living
there, in the same house.
She was the chef, like what Eric, Eric does [Eric Epps, current lead cook of The Pantry
Restaurant].
J: The cook, a cook.
M: She was the cook there.
J: So, she purchased the house. You said the city helped, how did that happen?
M: Like ah, city program to get a house. They help you I think, like if you have good credit you
get like $50,000 and the bank, they give $10,000 I think. Went she bought the house, that is what
the program was. She, because of her good credit, help from the city, New Haven, and the bank,
she got the house.
J: So, you were living on the first floor there, where was the house?
M: The house is on 504 Dixwell Ave, New Haven, Connecticut.
And then, I was working at the cheese factory.
J: On, ah, State Street.
M: Yea, Elm City Cheese, for five year.
J: I was always curious, what do they do there?
[laughing together]
M: Ah, when I came here from New York I didn’t get a job already. I came here like, I’m going!
J: No job, nothing!
M: No job, nothing!
[laughing together]
M: I had my one little car, I get the car for $2000. Because before, in New York City I was on
the train every time.
J: Right.
M: And then I get a car, and I need to get a job. Get a job. So, I worked for one day here in New
Haven, the first, when I came, was in a liquor store. The liquor store is on Clinton Avenue. The
owner is Roberto.
J: Ok.

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M: Yea. So, when I finished my job…from the cheese factory they called me. Oh, you got a job.
You gotta be here. You gotta be here at six o’clock in the morning. Ok, let’s go!
Ah, that was me and another friend I met in this place. Because, this grocery store was
my girlfriend’s cousin, owned this before. The name was Gloria Grocery. I met the guy over
here, we were friends, and then let’s go we can get a job over there. We made the application and
then they called me the next day. That’s why I worked just one day in the liquor store. So, I
starting working, making boxes in the cheese factory.
J: Making what?
M: Like a case…
J: Oh, oh…
M: To put the cheese inside, because they grate it. They grate the cheese. All the work…um, can
I explain it?
J: Yea, absolutely.
M: Like for example, they dry the cheese. They make it first, and then they dry the cheese, like
hard, like rock. [knocks his hand onto the counter by the register].
J: What’s the name of this, the cheese, the kind of cheese?
M: Um, they do, the real cheese from the milk. They get the milk, they do the process. The next
day they cut it and put in a huge tank. From salt and water. They mix it with cheese from other
companies. Like tropical cheese, mozzarella cheese, all the cheese they put in different tanks.
They have like seven tanks, huge.
J: Huge.
M: They do like natural cheese, organic. They mix together, then grate it, but every cheese in a
separate tank. Different kind, different tank. They grate it when it’s hard together.
J: How do they dry it out?
M: Heat it.
J: Ahhh…it takes a long time?
M: Long time, like a week. We have to renew from the basket. Like the bottom has to be on top.
We have to move the baskets, the baskets we have to turn, and then turn. They put it in two
rooms. The first room is warm, its for all the liquids from the tanks, going out, going down. And
then they put it in another room. It’s smaller and hotter, for more drying, and then they grate it in
the machine.
But, when I went, I was working in every place. So, I would load the truck when the
truck would come for the cheese. They come from another place, like Wisconsin, New Jersey.

12
Then the owners were looking at me, like how I work, then she gave me the opportunity to get
the milk in the plant.
J: Ok.
M: Like five o’clock in the morning to get the truck. A truck can come from New Jersey, the
next truck can come from Wisconsin, different place. Like Guida, Lebanon, coming from New
Jersey and the other company Garelli.
J: So, what would you do, the truck comes…
M: Yea, the truck comes, but first I open the place with the boss. I connect the hose with the
plant, with a [indistinct word] open at the top, for the air, because if you don’t open…squish!...on
the truck…
J: Not good.
M: Yea. And then, when I get the milk I heat it up, by myself I heat it up with…
[A brief pause while Manuel serves a customer]
M: So, when you fill the tank, it’s like two tanks to make real cheese with milk. I would work
with my boss, Chris.
J: Chris.
M: We heat it up with a pipe, with steam, to 95, more than that sometimes. To heat the milk,
separate the milk and the water, in the process we use chemic [sic], different chemic to make the
cheese. I was doing that for eight months.
J: So, you were at the cheese factory for eight months?
M: No, I was at work there for five years, but I was going up at the job…
[Manuel stops to serve a customer]
So, the big boss was Al.
J: He was the owner?
M: No, the owners were Chris and Maggie. But, the big boss is Al. Yea.
J: So, how long were you there? You may have told me already…
M: Five years. But, I made the process for the milk, he teach me and I made the process for eight
months.
J: Gotcha.
M: It’s really good cheese when you put it on pizza, it’s parmesan, that what it is, like grated.
J: They sell that around here? Or, where do they sell it?

13
M: You know, a lot of trucks from different companies. Like Italian companies, through like
Shop Rite, Aldi, all with their name. Because, we pack the cheese for fifty-five pounds, every
case. So, they will buy pallets, a lot of pallets, like ten, twelve.
J: They take it, and they put their name on it…
M: They take it and put it in different packages. So, like, a lot of cheese goes to Wisconsin. They
send the milk from there. And the parmesan goes back. A lot of trucks. I was loading to the
trucks. They was paying me good.
J: No? [misunderstanding on the interviewers part]
M: No, they did pay me good. Yea, they are good people.
J: So, your friend worked there too?
M: We got the job together, but he left around two weeks, this guy.
But, my friend, we are talking about the deli. He told me he wants to open a restaurant.
He told me he wants me working with him in the restaurant. So, that why I left the factory. Then
I go to the restaurant. Then he tells me, you gotta buy your store, I’m going to help you.
J: Now…this is the J&J friend?
M: Yea.
J: So, you were in the restaurant with him working?
M: I was, around one year.
J: Where is that?
M: The restaurant is on Grand Avenue. I can’t remember the number, but its on Grand Avenue.
J&J Restaurant on Grand Avenue.
J: What did you do there?
M: I deal with the customer, customer service, and I close the place. For like one year. Like a
manager position. Or, the people say that, but…I just took care of the people and close the place.
I don’t think about it like that—like I’m the boss or the manager. I was friends with the other
person working with me, we are a team. It was not like ‘I’m the boss, and you gotta listen to
what I say.’
J: You guys were working together.
M: Yea, like if someone orders mofungo, you know mofungo?
J: Yea.
M: Like three mofongo, it’s like hey come on make me three monfungo, like that, not like you
order them to do it. I was like personal, like friends.

14
J: Now how many years were you there, one year you said?
M: Yes.
J: And then this [The Deli] came after that?
M: Yes.
J: How did that process work?
M: The process?
J: Of, you say, ok, I’m going to open a business.
M: I was working over there, and over here, like the mornings over here, when my friend bought
it.
[Manuel stops to serve a customer]
M: So, it was like that. I was working the mornings over here, then going over there.
J: Uh huh. And it was still Gloria’s Deli at that time?
M: Yea. Before. Then the guy sold the store to the owner of the liquor store where I was
working. Yea, he bought the store, he was in here, I don’t remember how long. Then my
girlfriend’s cousin talked with him, when he bought the restaurant…’I want this place,’ and the
guy said, ‘yea, why not.’
J: Right.
M: ‘I can sell it to you.’ So, it happened like that.
J: So, then you and you girlfriend took this place together. So, right now we are working for pay.
To pay her cousin, pay the bills…
J: Right.
M: We are only working for pay right now. No money in the pocket.
J: How many years have you been here now?
M: Right now, I have like a year and a half. That was when 2017 was finished.
J: I remember Lenny across the street telling me, when he opened 35 years ago or something,
him and his brother ran it, for three years they never payed themselves nothing…
M: No, it’s like that…
J: Then after three years it…
M: Yea, he gets more customer, yea, I think all the business is like that. If you have the chance to
make a business. Like, if you have $20 extra, don’t take it for you, buy something else for the
store. Like, that is how you can build up, you know.

15
[Manuel stops to help a customer. Yet another customer that he knows, and they are friendly
together, clearly a routine rapport]
M: So, where were we?
J: Well, the way you just, you invest in the business.
M: Yea, all the business is like that.
J: Right.
M: You take longer to get something for your pocket. Because, when you start a business you
gotta pay more tax to the city. If you have a machine to collect money from the people [gestures
to the card reader next to his register], you gotta pay, now like last month, I pay like $400 just for
the machine. So, I pay like that, the taxes, pay electricity, internet…
J: All this stuff…
M: All this stuff. Then you have to pay the person who started you here. Like in my case. Like
you know, I got the money from another person. I gotta pay that person, it’s like that. So, we
keep it doing.
J: It’s doing good! I think we eat the food about half the week man!
M: Yea, a lot of friends, get a place, and they do it the same way. They are working for pay.
J: So, it sounds like it’s kind of a small world around here. Like, you know a lot of the same
people doing the same stuff.
M: M’hum.
J: These are all Dominican people too?
M: Yea, I know.
Right now, we have a group, can I say that? It’s like a team. Different persons who have
businesses, we meet with them. Like on the weekend. Right now, we are going to do by the
month.
J: Once a month?
M: Once a month. But we go, and we share some drinks, talk. We were doing the weekend, like
one day a week, we went to talk, about like what we can do, like that, like a meeting.
J: What do you mean, what you can do?
M: For example, it’s like a team, and all teams have meetings. And so, we talk about the team.
But, not the business. Because, all the people have like grocery stores, managers at supermarkets,
like C-Town, I know all the people, meet all the people. I know, my friend from the liquor store
where I was working…
J: Roberto.

16
M: I know that guy, different, more people who have a store. We are gonna do, one day, right
now, a month. But before it was like, one Saturday, they come to my house, we have fun, like
dancing, drink some beer, it’s like that.
J: Is there a name for the group?
M: Yea, it’s like a um, social club… ‘entre amigo.’
J: Entre amigo.
M: Entre amigo. It’s like a Friends, friendly, social club.
J: Gotcha.
M: Yea, that’s the name of it.
J: Wonderful. Then, ah, how did this get started?
M: Some friends meet together, like you and me for example, we say, can you come to my
house, like that, and then, yea, yea I can go…so, then next time, the next week, I say to you the
same way. Then I have other friends, they say to you, oh, he’s my friend, and we are here if you
need something—I’ll help you out. It’s like that.
J: So, all the friends are Dominican?
M: Yea, Dominican right now. Or, Puerto Rico, girlfriends, it’s like that. It’s all a good thing.
J: Yea, it’s important, like, for resources, right? You say, hey, you know somebody that can help
you with something you don’t know about.
M: Yea like, oh I got a problem with something, and you know it’s like friends, real friends, like
that.
J: So, it’s a positive connection.
M: Yea, like a connection. For example, if I have something broken in my kitchen, oh, for
example, Roberto, do you know the guy, for the…
J: The repair guy…
M: Yea. And he’ll say, I’ll send him to you right now, and he calls him and he comes. Yea, we
share a lot of the time. This thing, it started like six months ago. But, we met first, then we tried,
we said why do we make that. Why don’t we share, like a group, like a team.
J: Yea, yea. So, it’s just starting.
M: Yea, like a team. Before it was just like friends.
J: Now with that, are there records and things like that that you guys keep, or is it just social?
M: Like…?
J: Like documents, like you have a meeting and you say, ‘ok, today we are going to discuss.’

17
M: Yea well like that, we are always talking on WhatsApp. Before we weren’t paying for a
membership, like when you are member for one team. Like, ah, Sam’s Club, or something like
that. So now we pay that and somebody takes care of that money. We have money from that. So,
for example, it’s your birthday next Friday…um, let me take before…he got a place by C-Town
on Kimberly, they get an apartment that was empty. And, we meet there, in there. So, the place is
by C-Town, and you are our friends. Your birthday is coming next week, you don’t have to rent
a place. You can go to that place, bring your family, then we, the other friends, bring some beer,
some food, and then we share all of that, together with your family. That day is for you. You can
invite us, but, if you don’t want that, you can say it’s private, a private party for your family, and
that day is for you. We put it on the schedule. Like ‘I need March 23rd, the place, for a private
party.’ And, that day is for you.
J: So now…go ahead…
M: So, that’s why we pay for it.
J: And, you have this space now?
M: Right now, we gave it back. Because we are going to do like a month, and not a week, like
before. Because, every week we were going there, and we gotta share with our family too. So, it
is too busy. All week we are working and then, oh, Saturday we gotta meet. So, that why we
think about it like a month.
J: And that’s all friends in New Haven, or New Haven area?
M: Yea, New Haven area. Everybody is Dominican. They are working in liquor stores, grocery
stores, they own liquor stores, they own grocery stores, supermarket manager.
J: Now, are there any connections, like you grew up in the same town in the Dominican
Republic?
M: No, no. The other people are from Santiago.
J: Everybody?
M: Almost everybody. Because, my girlfriend, she is from Santiago. Her family is from Santiago
too.
J: One thing I was curious about, is your feeling of connection. Where do you feel connected?
Dominican Republic of course, but do you feel connected to the United States and New Haven
also? Like for your history, the way you define yourself…
M: Right now, I have a long time, I did not go back to the Dominican Republic. My last time
was five years ago. I was there when I lost my father. That was the last time I was there.
J: Did he move back home?
M: No, he was here when he died. Then to rest, he was taken to the Dominican Republic. Our
whole family went there to put him in the…

18
[Manuel pauses to take a customer]
M: So, my friend, it was a long time ago, five years ago. That was the last time I was there.
J: That was when your father passed away.
M: Yea, he passed away, yea.
J: So, this is where you want to stay?
M: Over here?
J: Yea.
M: Yea!
[laughing together]
M: I think now, this is my city.
J: Yea, well, everybody that comes in knows you man.
M: Yea, I made myself, like a citizen from here, two years ago.
J: So, you and Dexis [Manuel’s girlfriend] started a family here right?
M: Yea.
J: And your two daughters are Stacey and Stephanie.
M: Yea.
J: How old are your daughters?
M: My oldest daughter is five, and the other one is four. She’s going to school now. The older,
she is going to the Amistad Academy. I’m going to try for my other daughter to get into the same
school.
J: Gotcha. Is that a good school?
M: Yea, I like it very much. How they work. It’s an academy, like military, can I say that?
J: Yea, yup.
M: Because they have to be in the same shoes, the uniform has to be right. The teacher will call
me all the time, about how she is doing, she’ll send me pictures too, like when she steps up the
grade.
J: Gotcha, the teacher will send the picture.
M: The teacher yea. We have a good connection with her, she is good, good teacher.
J: So next year Stephanie can go to the same school?

19
M: Next year, same school, same teacher. My older daughter, she’ll pass and go on to the next
level.
J: And they are bilingual? They know Spanish and English?
M: Yea, she knows Spanish, but she don’t want to talk. You say ‘dame algo’ like bring me
something or ‘queres comer’ you want something to eat? She knows what you mean. But, for
example if she knows you she’ll talk Spanish with you, but she don’t want to talk it with me…
J: Why?
M: I don’t know!
[laughing together]
M: I don’t understand, I don’t speak English very well.
J: I think you do…
M: Can I say that because, ah, like sometimes I’ll confuse things, like in different situations.
J: How did you learn English? When you moved here, did you know any English from the
Dominican Republic?
M: Yea before, but the English there is not the same. It’s like, sometimes it depends on how the
student is, because, like when you come here, the verb ‘to be’, for example, sometimes they
don’t say you can use it in the way that people say it. It’s different. So that is why some
Dominican people coming here can get confused. Because they don’t translate how it is. How
can I say, they don’t explain to you how it is.
J: How it really is.
M: Yea. They need to learn more I think. They are not…right.
J: Like there is a difference between how it is in a book and how you are actually talking.
M: Like people who speak English, they can get confused when we talk. Because it’s different,
we have the different accent from the Dominican Republic. Sometimes you don’t know…like
what? What? What did he say?
J: Right [laughing]
M: Yea, in my case, that happens. I learned more of what I know on the street, because I had to
speak with the same people. Sometimes they don’t understand me, but I tried to speak the same
words. Because, one word, depending on how you talk, that sounds, means, something different,
and then the other person is confused. You know, that’s the problem.
J: So, where do you live now in New Haven?
M: In New Haven my address is 88 Thompson Street, with me and my girlfriend’s cousin, he
was living in a rental for a long time, but I tried to tell him, he is a good guy, why don’t you get

20
your house? So, with that, I give him the idea. Do it, why not, because you pay the rent, same
you pay for your house, for your mortgage. You can get a good house.
I don’t get a house because sometimes I am short, with my credit card, and that, and
so my credit scores are not too high to get me all the money for the house, I’m working on it. I
started two years ago, but the lady told me you gotta keep it going…
J: You’ve got some time, to put in time…
M: Yea, I’m working on it. To get my house.
J: So, I’m pretty much done here, is there anything you want to say that I didn’t touch on?
M: Well there’s a lot we are missing…but I think we are good.
J: I think it’s pretty amazing what you’ve done here.
M: We are doing great. Something I can say is New Haven is a good city to live in. Now the city
is going up faster. Before, five years ago, less people, now…
J: A lot of new apartments, new buildings…
M: New buildings, new schools, it’s a good thing.
J: Dig it.
M: A lot of people are friendly. Not rushed like New York. It’s very different. I love the city a
lot.
J: Well, Manuel, I appreciate you taking the time to talk.
M: You’re very welcome, if you have any questions you can call me or come, if you see
something you don’t understand, you know what I mean.
J: Yea.
[Tape ends. Jordan and Manuel continue to chat, then a new business owner of a new Puerto
Rican restaurant, Latin Roots, located on State Street, comes in the store to buy snack foods.
Manuel introduces her to Jordan]

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