11372

Jim.henderson, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Back when I was a sophomore at Barnard College in 2015, I had the opportunity to write an article for the now defunct Columbia University publication, Confab Magazine. Confab was a multicultural and multilingual publication that featured articles by student writers across campus. After doing some digging, I found the article in my old Barnard email account.

"11372" does/is a few things:

1. Professes my undying love for Jackson Heights, Queens, New York 11372. I had the honor of growing up in a booming immigrant community across Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and Corona surrounded by cuisine from all around the world, hearing roughly 160 different languages (Sebastian Modak), and meeting folks from different cultural backgrounds.

2. Reminds me that wherever I am and wherever I go, I will never forget where I came from

3. Is written in English and Spanish

   
   

Peter Greenberg, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Reading the article back reminds me why I wrote it in the first place. I felt called to share my love of Jackson Heights with folks who did not know about the neighborhood and with folks who share this great love for this place that sings reggaeton, salsa, cumbia, bachata, merengue, dembow, reggae, Indi-pop and other styles out of tiny speakers (RIP boom boxes) on various street corners.

I spent weekends going with my mom and my younger sister to shop for back-to-school supplies at the Staples on Roosevelt Ave and the Payless on 74th St to get BOGO deals on our way to visit family in Corona. Whenever I'm back, I tap into a rememory (Toni Morrison) and fill in the gaps of places that no longer exist, like the Jackson Heights Cinema on 82nd street where I watched Finding Nemo for the first time in the 3rd grade and that was rumored to have bedbugs but was still THE theater in town).

Represented in shows like Ugly Betty and movies like Coming to America (1988), Jackson Heights colors the screen with a distinct multiculturalism, hopes of achieving the American Dream (which, I will deconstruct in a future post), and the message that no one is "alien."

Kidfly182, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

While thinking about Jackson Heights, it is also important to understand that the neighborhood is rapidly transforming due to factors such as gentrification (PBS) where real estate conglomerates are tearing down family homes and turning them into gaudy condominiums that many locals cannot afford to rent or purchase (Michelle Young).

With all that being said, thinking about the neighborhood that raised me along with Elmhurst, Corona, and Astoria, here's what 20-year-old me had to say about Jackson Heights:

---

As you wander past the crowd of food vendors; carts line the sidewalks, pedestrians push their way through the cracks of a human wall that extends to Roosevelt Ave and past 74th St. Suddenly, the sweet scent of corn and slightly charred carne asada infiltrate your nasal passages. The sound of car horns, the blaring rattle of the 7 train, salsa music blasting through car speakers, and the rustle and bustle of hundreds of voices astound your ears. You close your eyes, and for a split second you are immersed into the hundreds of voices. The man to your right shouts something in English while the women to your left are having a delightful conversation (gossiping) in Spanish. According to Google maps, you are in Jackson Heights, Queens. This is new to you, you’ve never walked past the confines of Morningside Heights, but here you are, standing at the epicenter of one of the most diverse and culturally infused neighborhoods in New York City, in the most diverse county in the United States.

11372, it is not the number of friends you have on Facebook (let’s be honest), or the balance in your bank account (you’re a college student, remember). It is the main zip code of a neighborhood with well over 66,000 inhabitants from all corners of the world. From Asia to the Caribbean, South to Central America. Jackson heights is a salad bowl, where different cultures integrate and coexist to form the rich ethnic neighborhood it is known as today. However, salad is the last thing you’ll be craving here. Where there is culture, there is food. Jackson Heights is known as one of New York City’s popular food communities. You can find a restaurant on most, if not all street blocks in Jackson Heights. Whether you are craving tostones and chicharrones or dumplings, you name it, you’ll find it.

Perhaps it is not food you’re seeking (unlikely), but a rich history. The development of Jackson Heights began in the early 20th century as a Manhattanized community of garden apartments for upscale residential life. With the surge of cultural emigration, migrant populations settled into the neighborhood and each contributed to the ethnic and cultural diversity of Jackson Heights as one of largest foreign- born communities in New York City. If it’s not a rich history you’re seeking, then this is for my pop culture junkies. Jackson Heights is a former stomping ground to stars like Lucy Liu and Don Rickels, it was the setting for the abc TV network show Ugly Betty as the protagonist’s hometown, and it was one of the locations for the 2004 film Maria Full of Grace. While you’re here, might as well visit the birthplace of the beloved board game Scrabble on 81st and 35th avenue.

Jackson Heights is an epicenter of ethnic and cultural diversity, food, history, and pop culture. This New York City neighborhood is a multicultural and multilingual national staple. But some, like myself, just call it home.

"Demographics." Jackson Heights, Macaulay Honors College / CUNY, macauly.cuny.edu/eportfolios/lobel11neighborhoods/jackson-heights/demographics/.

"Jackson Heights." NewYork.com, www.newyork.com/ny/nyc/queens/jackson-heights/.

"Jackson Heights." Time Out New York, www.timeout.com/newyork/things-to-do/jackson-heights-2.

Venugopal, Arun. "Which Neighborhood Has the Most Immigrants? It's Not Chinatown." WNYC, 18 Dec. 2013, www.wnyc.org/story/new-york-citys-immigrant-population-hits-new-high/.

Weber, Andrew. "Jackson Heights." NewYork.com. 30 Apr. 2013. http://www.newyork.com/articles/neighborhoods/jackson-heights-30577/.

Acknowledgements:

A big thank you to Gabriela Aroca, who edited the article all those years ago.

Learn more about Jackson Heights here:

"Gentrification." In Jackson Heights, directed by Frederick Wiseman, PBS SoCal, www.pbssocal.org/shows/jackson-heights/clip/jackson-heights-jackson-heights-gentrification.

Modak, Sebastian. "Jackson Heights: The Neighbourhood That Epitomises New York." BBC Travel, 21 Mar. 2023, www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230321-jackson-heights-the-neighbourhood-that-epitomises-new-york.

Moss, Jeremiah. "Jackson for Rent." Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, 10 Feb. 2010, vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2010/02/jackson-for-rent.html.

Young, Michelle. "Coming to America Filming Locations: Then & Now." Untapped New York, 4 Mar. 2021, www.untappedcities.com/coming-to-america-filming-locations/.