A Sunday in the Park

Summary

Up First from NPR: "A Sunday in the Park" – Detailed Summary

Introduction In the "A Sunday in the Park" episode of NPR's Up First, host Aisha Rascoe delves into the vibrant community life of Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, New York. Released on December 29, 2024, this episode explores the park as a microcosm of immigrant life, highlighting personal stories that embody the diverse spirit of Queens. The episode is a part of NPR's Code Switch podcast series and encourages listeners to reflect on their own special places.

Exploring Flushing Meadows Park Flushing Meadows Park serves as the heart of the episode, symbolizing the diverse and dynamic immigrant community of Queens.

• Personal Connections: NPR's immigration reporter Jasmine Garst and producer Xavier Lopez share their deep ties to the park.
  • Jasmine Garst ([00:34]): "It's my park. It's a couple of blocks away from where I grew up in Queens."
  • Xavier Lopez ([00:39]): "I also live in Queens."

Queens is celebrated as the most diverse urban area globally, with nearly half of its residents being immigrants from over 120 countries. The park reflects this diversity, offering a space for relaxation, community gatherings, and cultural expression.

Community and Safety Nets Aisha Rascoe shares a heartfelt narrative about her own neighborhood, emphasizing the significance of community support.

• Aisha Rascoe ([00:42] onwards): Describes her close-knit neighborhood, highlighting her neighbor Ms. Veneta as the "heartbeat" of the community. She recounts how Ms. Veneta's home serves as a safe haven for her family, providing support during challenging times and fostering a strong sense of belonging.

Ecuadorian Community Spotlight The episode spotlights the growing Ecuadorian community within Flushing Meadows Park, illustrating both the cultural richness and the challenges faced by immigrants.

• Jasmine Garst ([06:19]): "There's a lot of Ecuadorian immigrants here, like me."

  • She notes the significant increase in Ecuadorian immigrants in Queens over recent years, coinciding with broader immigration trends in New York.

• Ecuadorian Festival ([06:23] – [07:08]):

  • The park hosts an annual Ecuadorian Festival celebrating Ecuadorian Independence Day. The festival features local vendors, such as Luis and his cousin Primo selling ice cream.
  • Unnamed Speaker 1 ([05:30] onwards): Describes Luis and Primo, capturing their personalities and the dynamic between them as cousins working together.

Luis's Story: Overcoming Shyness and Debt A central narrative follows Luis, an Ecuadorian immigrant navigating life in New York while dealing with significant debt and personal challenges.

• Immigration Journey ([08:16] – [09:24]):

  • Jasmine Garst ([08:16]): Luis used a "coyote" to migrate, incurring a $20,000 debt—a common plight among migrants.
  • Unnamed Speaker 1 ([08:46] – [09:24]): Explains Luis’s situation, including his struggle with unauthorized work and the pressure to repay his debt.

• Personal Growth and Fear ([09:44] – [11:26]):

  • Jasmine Garst ([09:44] – [10:22]): Luis attempts to overcome his shyness by reading Atomic Habits by James Clear, inspiring him to embrace entrepreneurial spirit and take risks.
  • Unnamed Speaker 1 ([10:07] – [11:26]): Details Luis’s effort to sell ice cream at the festival as a step toward personal and professional growth, driven by his memories of his aunt selling flowers in Ecuador and his determination to succeed.

Emotional Reflections and Reporting Impact The episode shifts to a deeply personal reflection from Xavier Lopez about the emotional toll of reporting on immigration.

• Xavier Lopez’s Experience ([12:02] – [16:12]):
  • Lopez shares a traumatic encounter with a mother and her toddler from Ecuador at the US-Mexico border, where the child was injured and left in distress.
  • Xavier Lopez ([15:37] – [16:12]): Discusses his emotional response, highlighting the importance of parks as safe spaces and his desire for his reporting to capture both the struggles and the everyday joys of immigrant life.

Community Invitation and Conclusion Aisha Rascoe extends an invitation to listeners to share their own special places, fostering a sense of community and reflection as the episode wraps up.

• Listener Engagement ([16:12] – [18:17]):

  • Aisha asks listeners to submit audio postcards of places that uplift them, encouraging participation and the sharing of diverse community spaces.

• Credits and Production Notes ([16:12] onwards):

  • Acknowledges the production team, including Justine Yan, Gilly Moon, and others, ensuring proper attribution for their work on the episode.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Jasmine Garst ([00:58]): "This is a place where immigrants from all over the world come to get some fresh air and to relax and to really just have fun."
• Jasmine Garst ([06:23]): "I feel like partially it's because there's a lot of immigrants here. Like, nearly half of the people in Queens are immigrants from more than 120 countries."
• Jasmine Garst ([09:44]): "Luis, he gets a job in construction, but he also decides to do street Vending gigs. The clock is ticking. Every penny and every second counts."
• Jasmine Garst ([10:07]): "He hired a coyote, which is sort of like a guide that brings you up through Central America and Mexico to the U.S. border."
• Xavier Lopez ([12:02]): "It just really made me think about, I don't want my reporting to just be the worst day of immigrants' lives. I also want it to be a normal day or a beautiful day."

Conclusion "A Sunday in the Park" offers a poignant and comprehensive look into the lives of immigrants in Queens, using Flushing Meadows Park as a focal point for storytelling. Through personal anecdotes and reflective narratives, the episode underscores the importance of community, resilience, and the pursuit of a better life amidst challenges. It invites listeners to appreciate their own special places and recognize the shared human experiences that bind diverse communities together.

Transcript

[Aisha Rascoe]

Aisha. I'm Aisha Rascoe, and you're listening to the Sunday STORY from Up First.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

You know that morning City park smell? It's like the smell of dewy earth and fresh cut grass and evaporating beer from the night before. I love that smell.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Earlier this year, NPR's immigration reporter Jasmine Garst and producer Xavier Lopez spent a day in one of their favorite places in the world, a park in Queens, New York. It's called Flushing Meadows Park.

[Jasmine Garst]

It's my park. It's a couple of blocks away from where I grew up in Queens.

[Xavier Lopez]

I also live in Queens.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Queens has been called the most diverse urban place on the planet. Almost half of its population is made up of immigrants from over 120 countries. And Flushing Meadows park is a microcosm of immigrant life.

[Jasmine Garst]

This is a place where immigrants from all over the world come to get some fresh air and to relax and to really just have fun, you know.

[Aisha Rascoe]

It'S also, for Xavier and Jasmine, kind of like their backyard, where they can go anytime they need to recharge and remember what really matters to be in community. For me, that place is actually a house two doors down from my house. It's the home of my dear friend and neighbor, Ms. Veneta. I've lived in my neighborhood for 15 years now. All my kids were born here, and we have gotten to know our neighbors very well between birthday parties and christenings and helping each other when we get stuck in the snow and just keeping an eye on each other's kids. Dogs. Yeah, that's Teddy, who's always in the window of my other next door neighbor. And Ms. Veneta, she's like the heartbeat of this neighborhood for me. Her place is surrounded by this nice little porch, and inside it's always kind of D lit. She got some outlets she got to work on, but it's a second home for my kids. If they want to show her something or just say hey, they'll run down the pavement between our front door and hers. If they lose a tooth, she'll have some money for them. Inside her place, the news is always on and she's always got a snack in the kitchen. Maybe some pumpkin seeds for Annalise or some toast for Gabrielle or hot dogs for Reggie. And if I, I ever need somebody, and boy, have I needed somebody at times. She's been there. Her home has been our safe space. And it's because of that it's so hard to imagine living anywhere else. But I do plan on starting a fresh chapter soon. We're planning on moving in the new year. But wherever I go, I know I don't ever want to be too far from Ms. Veneta. So we can stop by and visit. On today's episode of the Sunday Story. In the spirit of places that feel like home, we're going to play you a part of an episode that originally ran on NPR's Code Switch podcast. It's a portrait of a community, a small slice of everyday life for the people who call Queen's home. And while you listen, maybe go take a walk to one of your places and stay until the end, because I have a little request for you as we go into the new year, an invitation to send in a sort of audio postcard from a place that you call your own. All that after the break.

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[Unnamed Speaker 2]

Okay, so first of all, Queens has the best food in all of New York. And this park is excellent in terms of food. I'd say better than any park in New York.

[Jasmine Garst]

Yeah, I think that's, that's probably an accurate assessment. I feel like that's just Queens generally. There's just like a lot of great food here. And I feel like partially it's because there's like a lot of immigrants here. Like, nearly half of the people in Queens are immigrants from more than 120 countries. And you can see some of that represented here at the park. I see a lot of Latinos and Asian folks who make the park their community and people of all ages, older folks that come here to feed the animals and the young people that come here to just like hang out. They're throughout the park Having barbecues with families or picnics with their friends.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

And also there's a huge Ecuadorian community here, and it's growing.

[Jasmine Garst]

Yeah, there's like, a lot of Ecuadorian immigrants here, like me. You know, I came here back in 2002, and back then there was already a small Ecuadorian population here. But in the last couple of years, New York has seen one of the biggest Ecuadorian populations in the US and it's mostly here in Queens. Right now we're at the Ecuadorian Festival. This is the festival that happens every year or so in August around Ecuadorian Independence Day.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

And there's two guys selling ice cream here.

[Xavier Lopez]

They're cousins.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Luis is short. He's very handsome. He has a baby face, dimples, and some stubble. He's young, but I noticed there's some grays in there, too.

[Jasmine Garst]

Luis's cousin is tall. He wears glasses, and his hair is spiked in a way that makes you feel like he's taller, too. Ah, Luis is shy, but his cousin is such a hype man. And they have this dynamic. Think Richie and Carmi in the bear vibes. But it's about selling elados at the Ecuadorian festival. Exactly. Cousin Primo. And his primo keeps pushing Luis to talk to us while pointing an Elado at him the entire time.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

So primal says, you should do it, man.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Do the interview. Don't be so shy.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

And Luis starts telling us his story.

[Jasmine Garst]

About how the situation in Ecuador, it's gotten pretty violent.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

Yeah, I mean, cartel violence has driven a lot of the recent immigration out of Ecuador, and it's impacted almost every.

[Jasmine Garst]

Ecuadorian I've met here in New York, my family included.

[Unnamed Speaker 2]

So Luis told us he did what so many people do in order to come to the U.S. he hired a coyote, which is sort of like a guide that brings you up through Central America and Mexico to the U.S. border. And he paid this guy about $20,000, which is not an uncommon flight fee to get you all the way from South America to the U.S. coming to.

[Jasmine Garst]

The U.S. is expensive, he says.

[Xavier Lopez]

But he got here.

[Jasmine Garst]

He crossed the US Mexico border and turned himself in. Said he needed asylum.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

He comes to New York. He has this $20,000 debt to the coyote who brought him here.

[Jasmine Garst]

So many migrants find themselves in that situation owing a lot of money basically to a cartel. And those are not people you want to owe money to.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

And keep this in mind. When migrants like Luis arrive, they don't have permission to work here legally.

[Jasmine Garst]

So Luis, he gets a job in construction, but he also decides to do street Vending gigs. The clock is ticking. Every penny and every second counts.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

But he says there's this one additional hurdle.

[Jasmine Garst]

He's really shy.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

So he starts reading this book.

[Jasmine Garst]

Atomic Habits by James Clear, a motivational speaker from Ohio. Build better habits, eat healthier, and take more risks. Be more open. Be more of a businessman. Grow as a person. Challenge yourself.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

It's very Americana meets Ecuadoriana. So when he heard about this Ecuadorian festival happening at the park today, he thought, be a businessman. Challenge yourself. Go sell some ice cream.

[Jasmine Garst]

Still, he says, when he got here, he kind of froze up. Like, you gotta stand here amidst hundreds of people, really loud music blaring, other vendors yelling over you. And then he thought about his aunt when he was a kid back in Ecuador, Luis used to sell flowers on the street with her. Muchas tipo de rosas. Quesantemos claveles, tulipanes de todo.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Tipo de roses, roses, yellow roses, tulips. All kinds of tulips. And she would tell him, listen, you.

[Xavier Lopez]

Can'T afford to be shy.

[Jasmine Garst]

So he says, he repeated this mantra. I gotta keep going. I gotta fight. I gotta go back home for my dad one day. I gotta keep going.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

And he took a deep breath and he yelled it. All of this ice cream talk is making me hungry.

[Jasmine Garst]

You want to go get some food?

[Xavier Lopez]

Let's go sit down and eat something. Oh, that's really good.

[Jasmine Garst]

You like it?

[Xavier Lopez]

Yeah.

[Jasmine Garst]

It'S so nice out today. I'm just. I'm really glad we. We got to do this today. Thank you.

[Xavier Lopez]

Yeah, it's kind of the perfect day to do this. I'm really glad we got out here. I'm just so glad that we get to spend a day at the park. And I really like. So I'm an immigration reporter, and I work a lot between. I spend time at the US Mexico border, and then I come back to New York. And this last trip to the US Mexico border was really hard. Is it okay if I talk about something kind of heavy? I met a mom who had just crossed, and she had a toddler. They were actually from Ecuador. And he. He was passed out. They had been walking all night, and he was passed out, and he. Something had stung him in the eye. And he just looked like. Like. Like someone had beaten the shit out of him. And, you know, it's. It's just. She was like, please help me. And I flagged down. Eventually a border patrol car came by, and I flagged it down, and I was like, hey, there's. There's a minor There's, I think he's probably like 5 years old. He's passed out. And the guy just drove off. And eventually, like an hour later, they came back. But we were, we were trying to like, get this kid to like stay awake. This kid looked like, like Rocky or something. It was bad. And in the next couple of days, I, like, I couldn't cry. I was like, why the fuck can't I cry? And I got back to New York and I get back to Queens. I take a day off. I go, I grab a coffee, you know, from those little carts. I'm like, I'm gonna go to the park with a coffee. This, this person, the coffee stand person says, do you want cream or sugar? And I just started sobbing. And I realized a couple of things. I realized what an important space a park is for me, like a safe space. And I also realized like that mom and that kid, I don't know, like I'll never. I don't know where they are. I don't know. They were heading to the Carolinas, I think, but you never know. And one day they will get to have a picnic in a park like this one, you know, like they will have a life. I just met them on the worst day of their life and they will get to be somewhere like this. It just really made me think about, I don't want my reporting to just be the worst day of immigrants lives. I also want it to be a normal day or a beautiful day. I'm sorry, did I ruin our day at the park? Oh no, I didn't mean to ruin.

[Unnamed Sponsor 1]

Our day at the park.

[Xavier Lopez]

That's why I wanted to do this so bad and to hang out with you.

[Jasmine Garst]

Yeah, you're cool. Jasmine.

[Unnamed Speaker 1]

Do you want to walk a little more?

[Jasmine Garst]

Yeah, let's go. Come on. FOREIGN.

[Aisha Rascoe]

So, listeners, it's me again. Remember that walk I told you to take? Where did you go? This is our last episode of the year and we wanted to step into the new year with a question for you all. What's a special place in your life, One that you visit weekly or even daily when you feel depleted? It. It fills you up. It can be anywhere. Your community center, your gym, a weekly singing class. It might even be a very special aisle at your local grocery store. What is that place in your community that lifts you up? If you have a place like this, we want to know about it. You can send a 2 to 3 minute voice memo to us at upfirstsundaypr.org you can even include some sounds from that space. Remember this is radio, so we love to hear good sounds. Tell us your name and where you're speaking to us from and we might share it in an episode this coming year. Thank you for spending your Sundays with us till next year. I'm Aisha Roscoe and this is a Sunday Story. This episode of the Sunday Story was produced by Justine Yan. Gilly Moon mastered the episode. The Code Switch episode was produced by Xavier Lopez, Jasmine Gartz, Margaret Serino and Christina Carla. It was edited by Courtney Stein and Leah Donnella. It was mastered by James Willits. The Sunday Story team includes Andrew Mambo, Jenny Schmidt and Liana Simstrom. Irene Noguchi is our Executive producer. Up first is back tomorrow with all the news you need to start your week. Until then, have a great rest of your weekend and happy New Year.

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