00:00:00Ana Alameda: More over there (laughs). Believe me. But now with all those row
00:01:00of houses, improving.
Amy Starecheski: Right.
Ana Alameda: And not only there, look at this! All these houses here, 139th a
few houses too.
Amy Starecheski: Yeah.
Ana Alameda: The only one that hasn't changed is Alexander. Oh no! And 139th.
Those brownstones and townhouses or how do you call it? I like that. That's--and
I like--I love small houses. I love it. Because I see myself in Amsterdam
Avenue. St. Nicholas. It has a lot of rowhouses over there too. You know.
Amy Starecheski: Right.
Ana Alameda: And the way I see in the picture is like high ceiling. High ceiling
and those stairways, the wood--very hard.
Amy Starecheski: Mhm. Can I clip this onto you? This is the microphone.
Ana Alameda: I am on TV?
Amy Starecheski: (Laughs) It's like a TV microphone, right?
Ana Alameda: No I know this is the one that they have on TV. Because I was
watching The View.
Amy Starecheski: Yeah. Ok. I'll keep- I'll wear headphones so I can listen to
the sound and see how--see how it sounds. Ok. I'm going to just test the levels.
Can you tell me what you had for breakfast today?
Ana Alameda: My coffee with a piece of bread with butter (laughs) and I put it
in the oven--convection oven. Oh my God. It was delicious.
Amy Starecheski: Tell me--you were just telling me before I turned the recorder
on that you were talking with your son about what the future of Mott Haven will
be. Could you tell me that again?
Ana Alameda: He said that in the future this gonna be all white people because
they coming from downtown. You go 134th and Bruckner Boulevard, that building
that was a factory is a lot of loft. Loft. And they interview a guy on TV. The
00:02:00way he put that loft, beautiful. He likes to see that documentary on TV and he
called me. "Come mami, come mami, look, that's 134 and Bruckner." I say, "Oh."
And you see all the buildings and the business opening? They was not like that
before. Nope. Even though here on Willis it was only Mott Haven, it was an empty
lot. I didn't see no building when I came here. It was an empty lot. Because I
used to take the shortcut to a supermarket by Alexander and Third Avenue. That-
corner like that. It was a supermarket used to one was Fedco [phonetic] the
other one was EMV [phonetic] up by Brook Avenue at the end.
00:03:00
But this is ten years ago. I'll tell you somebody was a killer. A lot of drugs.
It's still the drugs around. But before, here it was empty buildings on St
Ann's. And they--a lot of people used to cook in the summer--those empty lot.
Making barbeque and selling food. That was a place, in St Mary's. Then they
start building those houses. Then they moved to 156th and Bergen Avenue. They
used to do--and they danced and do a lot of this stuff especially today and
tomorrow because it's the Puerto Rican heritage, the parade, tomorrow's going to
be in El Barrio.
Amy Starecheski: Do you have plans for tomorrow?
Ana Alameda: No. Believe me, I don't like that. When I came to this country,
00:04:00yes. I used to go to the parade. But now it's very different, it's very hard.
You can--if you bump somebody, it start a fight. You know, you can do not--and
especially I'm too short. I can't see nothing (laughs). But I used to, oh my
God. I used to do every parade. And all the Puerto Rican people used to come,
the mayors. I think this year is very sad because of what happened. I don't
think it's going to be that--and to see what we used to have. Because we're
still struggling.
Amy Starecheski: Just to start off--
Ana Alameda: Yeah.
Amy Starecheski: I'll say that today's date is June--what is it, the 10th? 9th?
00:05:00
Ana Alameda: What?
Amy Starecheski: Shoot. Today's date.
Ana Alameda: 8th.
Amy Starecheski: 8th. Okay Okay. That's right because 9th and 10th is the
weekend. Today's June 8th, 2018. This is Amy Starecheski and this is for the
Mott Haven Oral History Project, so can you say your full name and where and
when you were born?
Ana Alameda: My name is Ana Alameda. I was born in San Germán [phonetic],
Puerto Rico. December 2nd, 1933. Until maybe 4 years old. When I was 5 years
old, I moved to Ponce. I study all my years and I went to Catholic University of
Ponce. I did my bachelor's degree to work with early childhood, because that's
what I like, small kids.
Amy Starecheski: Can you tell me, before you were 5, tell me about the place
where you lived? What was it like?
Ana Alameda: Oh it was in the campo. The country. Was very bad. I didn't get
00:06:00that much to be in the--in the [unclear] because my mother used to work with a
family and I spent the time with that family. My brother was the one who was
raised in the country with the aunty. So my mother died and I was--I remember--I
was in the balcony and Sililo, that's when they called my father, came to say,
to take me, and I started screaming, "(Spanish) Sililo, he's taking me!" He took
me, well he win because he was--I didn't born with his name. I was born with Ana
Elisa Iglesia. Then he went to court and the papers they put me his name. But it
00:07:00was hard to live in the country (laughs). I didn't have that much. Because my
father. I have a lot of brothers and sisters that I don't know them. He was a
playboy (laughs).
Amy Starecheski: What was your mother like?
Ana Alameda: I think she was tiny like me and the sister too. But she was always
in bed because she died from tuberculosis. That's what they told me. My
stepmother told me that. But the one that raised me was my stepmother and I owe
her what I am today.
Amy Starecheski: Can you tell me about her?
Ana Alameda: She was not that dark, but light brown. And she was--she didn't
00:08:00have no, no kids with my father. She had a sister. And the sister do everything
in the house. That's why I don't know how to cook. I don't know how to do
nothing. She didn't let me do nothing. She was there. The beauty. She didn't let
me do nothing. That's why I don't like to cook and I don't know nothing, only
rice. But she was nice to me. Because of her I am where I am today. Otherwise if
it wasn't for her, maybe I'm living in the system. I owe everything to her.
Amy Starecheski: And how old were you when your mother died?
Ana Alameda: I was two years old.
Amy Starecheski: Two years old. Ok.
Ana Alameda: I live in Porta Coeli, San Germán. And my step mother told me,
"look! Nina, Here is your mother. That's there. They turning that into a
cemetery." I was playing with a balloon. I always remember that. She never
00:09:00denied me that my mother there, but you know at an early age, you don't blame
them. That's it. I remember balloons. I was in the front yard, not in the yard
the front of the house, because the yard is in the back and they was passing the funeral.
Amy Starecheski: Can you tell me--you said you moved to Ponce when you were five.
Ana Alameda: Ponce. Five because I made my kindergarten--no kindergarten years
ago. My first grade in the Lincoln School. Ponce. In I believe Buenos Aires -
closer to Belica. Belica is a barrio that a lot of big ones: [unclear] they give
00:10:00us baseball players, they came here from there. It's a nice--it's like a, how
you call that? No campo. It's something like, only colored people live over
there in Belica. In Ponce. A lot of big, you know, prominent people. Victor
Rueyes [phonetic], he was not a millionaire, but he has a lot of money. Then I
went to the first, second and third and I- they sent me to a [unclear name of
school]. I made my fourth, fifth and sixth grade. I graduated from there. Then I
went to [unclear name of school], another intermediate school, until eighth
grade and ninth grade and then I went to Ponce High School, closer to [unclear].
00:11:00In 1952, I graduated from Ponce High School.
Amy Starecheski: What were you like as a teenager?
Ana Alameda: My mother, she has me like this. You know I don't have the freedom
that they-- that's the way, you know. I said, "Mami, can I go to the movie?"
"Ask your father." "Papi, can I go to the movie?" "Ask your mother." What that
means? "No." No. She Don't let me go to nobody's house. But I didn't mind, you
know that's the way I was raised. It's not like now. But I like to do take a
muneco, a little fluffy--and put it on the floor and teach them, that's what I
like it, yeah.
Amy Starecheski: You like to pretend to teach your dolls? Yeah.
00:12:00
Ana Alameda: Yeah. All my life, yes.
Amy Starecheski: What kind of student were you?
Ana Alameda: I was not a bright student. I was the average. The average. But I
never was left back. Never. Because I was an average student. I know. But
bright? No (laughs). The only thing is the math, the basic one. When I was in
high school, what they teach now in the schools, I did that in college.
Calculus? Oof! I never came to algebra, all that stuff. That's why my
grandson--I said, "I can't help you, Matthew. My math, that level is no good."
00:13:00
Amy Starecheski: When you--
Ana Alameda: I can be good in the spelling. But math? No. High level? No. (Laughs)
Amy Starecheski: (Laughs) When you were graduating from high school, what kinds
of options did you have? What choices were you making?
Ana Alameda: Like what? Because the graduation was not with toga. We did it with
nice dresses, like a rainbow. A very light color--green, yellow. I remember
that. Beautiful graduation from eighth grade. And I always wanted to study. My
father was the one who doesn't want me to go to school. He wanted me to be
cleaning the house. And my stepmother said no, she's going to college. She's
going. And then her brother, it was only nine dollars a credit. Her brother was
00:14:00a soldier and with the money he sent me to college. My step-brother--I call him
my step-brother because we were raised together. And it was only nine dollar a
credit, that they don't have no financial aid, nowhere.
Amy Starecheski: Did you have friends who were also going to college?
Ana Alameda: Yes. I belonged to a sorority, but it's not hard like it is now.
You know, they do hard things now. Before, they make you walk around the street
with a ball in your mouth. All that. You know, very simple things. You know the
way we were raised I was innocent with the kids. Not like now they are oohoo
[unclear]. That's what I told Marky I don't remember. It was nice. I have
00:15:00friends but like I say, when I was a teacher they sent the first--when you first
being a teacher, you don't work in the city. They send you for those--campo,
country. I had to take a car from my house. From there and there to there to the
country. And my mother--you know, not to be from my house. I can't go outside.
No! But I tell you, I didn't need the money either. Uh huh. And that's the way I
am anyway. Still I'm a very quiet person, I don't get in no trouble with nobody.
But it was good. I have friends. With I didn't have my sweet sixteen, my
00:16:00debutante. No. Nothing. But we didn't know all that- only society people do the
ceremony in the bahia and all those fancy stuff.
Amy Starecheski: Why did you come to New York?
Ana Alameda: Well, I came to New York because my step-sister is here and said
they're looking for people to teach here some Spanish to the kids. So I came but
it was hard to find a job when I came, so I stayed with it and I started working
different places, in offices in downtown, all the stuff. Until they call me in
00:17:00the school. But the kid told me--I don't want to say it! So I said this is not
for me. No. F-U-C-K. The first thing he told me. And that wasn't--in the 1960's.
Just imagine now. They hit their teachers now. So I said I wait for the--they
call me from the day care that you need to have the Bachelor's degree to be
assistant teacher. And the group teacher has the Master. But all the teachers
left and they always put me as the group teacher because I like to teach. I like
to teach. Oh no! I don't want the kid to be playing all the time. When they go
to kindergarten, they are already prepared because they think everything is
play, play, play. And the director told me, "Mrs. Medina"--because that was my
00:18:00married name--"you're not supposed to do that, because when assessment comes"- I
said don't worry, when they come, I do what I supposed to do. And then my
co-workers agreed with me. We have the teamwork and when you have the teamwork,
everything works. Even though the parents, said, "Oh, Mrs. Medina"- I said
well---they havetend to other people, you go out, they don't do what they used
to do. I make a lot of trips to the kids. Sesame Place. Hershey Park. Splish and
Splash. Coney Island. I did a lot of trips with the kids, but in one of them,
the parent has to go [unclear]. OK? Tell the parent. They agree? Sesame Place
has a lot of water, so a parent needs to be with the kids. But I never had a
00:19:00problem with the kids. I always counting out. Group teacher is short the other
one was tall. But that's no problem. Problema.
Amy Starecheski: You keep saying that you're short but the people listening to
the tape can't see you.
Ana Alameda: (Laughs).
Amy Starecheski: Can you describe yourself for me?
Ana Alameda: Oh my God. I don't- I'm about 4'8". 4'8". I only weigh 85 pounds.
I'm really tiny. My parents were tiny, too, small. Do you see Mark is not that
big? The father is the same height. Only on the other grandmother's side, tall uncles.
Amy Starecheski: Can you tell me about the trip from Puerto Rico to New York?
Ana Alameda: Eight hours in the airplane. It was the one that had the--how you
00:20:00call that? Not the one now.
Amy Starecheski: The propellers?
Ana Alameda: The propellers. Eight hours. To get here. It was the Idlewild. It
was not Kennedy. Idlewild. That was the airport name. I came and I see a lot of
different--and I say, "Oh my god these are burning buildings!" And my father
said the same thing! It was burning building because it was black. Now it's
different because they put in that kind of bricks. But before it looked like
they were burning buildings. And I kept [unclear] building, no. They don't exist
no more. Now there are houses. On the front, too, they was building. Now they
are agency for foster kids and the college too for those people that they don't
00:21:00know that much English. Ooh! I forgot I had that [touching microphone]!
Amy Starecheski: (Laughs) That's ok. You're like what is this thing clipped onto
me? Did you come by yourself?
Ana Alameda: Yes. I came by myself.
Amy Starecheski: What did you do when you got off the airplane?
Ana Alameda: I was look around. Because something is strange for me. I never,
you know- raising in Puerto Rico, that everything is flat. That it was. But they
was--my sister, my step-sister and her husband was waiting for me. And I, you
know, I came to where they drop me and I saw the building and going up four
floor like this (gestures). Ooh! And then I look at that train apartment
(laughs). But then I get used to it I remember that right away, I get used to it
00:22:00(claps). Even though when I went to work downtown, her--Dona Cecilia? No- Her
husband announced that follow the line in the [unclear] and then you can walk. I
used to go the shorter [way] in 42nd Street because I learn like that (snaps):
fast. Oh no! I learned fast. Even when I was to my lunch hour, went to it, I
want the same thing that she has. [Indiscernible] But I can't. I don't. From my
experience that everybody I think have that. Then to take the train. I didn't
have no boots. My sister lend me her boots. And I was moved, moving down the
Mott Haven section over there in the projects. Walking like that because the
snow, it was very hard in the snow. The building doesn't have the oil. It used
00:23:00to be charcoal and the super was always with the shovel putting the charcoal in
the down stairs for the boilers. That was the way it was before.
Amy Starecheski: Can you describe your first apartment for me?
Ana Alameda: Then, I live with my sister. I moved to Bergen Avenue. It was a
train too. Because before you buy the apartment with a signature. I move over
there with my sister because I married [unclear]. When I'm married then I moved
down- I married with my sister, brother-in-law, the--Marky's grandfather,
Medina. Then I moved to Bergen Avenue. I was there until 1965. I went to Herman
00:24:00Badillo, the Borough President by that time, to help me to get an apartment in
the projects. And that's how I get move in December 10, 1965. I moved to
Millbrook Houses. Before, you have to put the income of you and your husband,
where the kids are in school and all of that. To give you the apartment. I was
there until 1975. Then my husband used to work in Betances and then I moved to
Betances complex and I've been there all these years. The same floor. Third
floor. No matter they don't give good heat. But I feel comfortable because
00:25:00everybody knows me. I feel safe in the neighborhood. Everybody knows me. Even my
son say, "Oh mommy everybody knows you. You said, you say." I said, "That's the
way I am!" I am very outgoing. I call myself presenta. I don't know how you call
that, but I call myself presenta. I said before somebody tell me, I tell myself. Presenta.
Ana Alameda: But it was you know, Millbrook I was living in the twelth floor and
my son attended St. Luke's. That was the school. It was only three-dollar
tuition. Three-dollar tuition and five cents--the subway. I still have the token
in my house. I have all those tokens. Different kinds of them.
00:26:00
Amy Starecheski: How did you know to go to Herman Badillo to get an apartment?
Ana Alameda: You know listening my step-sister, she was very--how you call that?
Very into the [Spanish] because here, years ago they have different club for the
cities in Puerto Rico: [lists Puerto Rican municipalities]. So she was in that
thing with all the people from Puerto Rico. That's how I met and I went to see
him and he helped me. And even to get my--when they called me from the daycare I
went to Jose Serrano too. That's the one that he was born in. He was raised in
Milbrook and he filled all paper for me to work in the daycare because I get my
00:27:00from college, all my documents. And that's it. But now to Betances because
Betances was my home, I used to work in Betances and that's how I moved from
Milbrook to Betances.
Amy Starecheski: What kinds of jobs were there around here when you first came?
Ana Alameda: Lot of factories. Factories all over the place. [Unclear], Brook
Avenue, people go all those--Bruckner Boulevard, they were factories. Purses,
curtains, beds, a glove, handbags, a lot of factories doing small things. But
they had jobs. They had jobs. Know the machine, the metal machines? My sister
00:28:00was one that work in the metal machine factory sewing dresses. Yeah. She was the
one who made me this (laughs).
Amy Starecheski: She made you that dress?
Ana Alameda: Yeah.
Amy Starecheski: It's beautiful.
Ana Alameda: I give a copy of one that I like and I bought a lot of material and
she make it. Because she used to work in those factories too. That's what
happened. It's a lot of work before. Factories all over the place. Anything. You
can do. Even Ana, didn't she work in one of those factories with her
sister-in-law? Yeah. Did she tell you that? Oh really.
Amy Starecheski: I think she might have mentioned it but I only talked with her
a little bit so far.
Ana Alameda: Yeah. That because there was a lot of work. There was no home
attendant by that time. Because a lot of factories a lot of work. Umbrellas.
Then they start moving to New Jersey, Connecticut, the factories start moving.
00:29:00
Amy Starecheski: Did you work in any of the factories?
Ana Alameda: No. I work at offices downtown. By, across from Macy's. That used
to be Woolworths, in front of Macy's over there. Because I like filing. I didn't
know but you know, let me go and try. A lot of filing, a lot of work with those
machines that used to (sound effects). That's the machine that, before I forgot
the name of it. It's like a computer but it was not computer. I don't know, but--
Amy Starecheski: Like an adding machine?
Ana Alameda: Yeah! Adding machine. The stores, the cashier, but it was not like
that one now. You have to find out what you change you're going to get to the
00:30:00person. Now the machine told you what you get. But before no. It was
old-fashioned. Typewriting. Ah! Lot of term paper that I did in typewriting.
Amy Starecheski: How did you meet your husband?
Ana Alameda: That was my sister--step-sister's--husband brother was Jesus. My
husband was Nelson. Now he came in 1962 and he went to live with her brother
in--I don't know. Downtown. By Delancey. But they used to visit Candida that and
then he [unclear] (laughs).
00:31:00
Amy Starecheski: Did you have a wedding.?
Ana Alameda: No. No wedding. Simple. Very simple thing. No wedding. I don't have
no Sweet Sixteen, no nothing. But I feel happy anyway. But he was another one
that liked to drink and playboy. He died last year.
Amy Starecheski: I'm sorry.
Ana Alameda: November 5th. He was like the pic of my son who look on the
computer or whatever, the tablet. He see that picture, he was heavy. I think he
was sick, too. Because he went to Puerto Rico because the woman that he has. I
don't care. I say, "Let [him] go." I don't fight for no man. Nah. Even though
00:32:00when my son died, he didn't come. He asked for him, "Mami, tell papa to come
here before I die." I call him. [Unclear]. Ok, fine. That's it. He's over there
now with him.
Amy Starecheski: How many children did you have?
Ana Alameda: Three. Boys. Joey, that died, Eddy, and the one that live in New
Jersey. Yeah.
Amy Starecheski: And which one was the oldest?
Ana Alameda: The one in New Jersey.
Amy Starecheski: Uh huh. Do you remember when he was born?
Ana Alameda: He was born in Lincoln Hospital. He gave me a hard time. I was one
00:33:00month--because I'm very small. I was weigh a hundred, and eight and a half
pounds. So they cut me so I have to be with Lance in the hospital for one month.
Amy Starecheski: How did you take care of him when you were in the hospital?
Ana Alameda: The hospital I had to stay with him. Even--no matter--years ago
they don't care about--now they send you to the house (sound effect) right away.
No. Years ago you stay in the hospital. Lincoln Hospital was beautiful. Oh my
God. It looked like a hotel, oh yes! That entrance? Oof! That was beautiful.
00:34:00
Amy Starecheski: [Phone ringing]. Sorry. Let me get that. I'll just turn it off.
Ana Alameda: Ok.
Amy Starecheski: I'm going to be so curious to see what you think of that book
[When I Was Puerto Rican] because--
Ana Alameda: To eat a guava, guyava in Spanish, oh I love guava.
00:35:00
Amy Starecheski: (Laughs) Can I get you anything else?
Ana Alameda: Oh no, no. Thank You.
Amy Starecheski: Sorry about that.
Ana Alameda: Do you read Spanish?
Amy Starecheski: No.
Ana Alameda: [Reads in Spanish].
Ana Alameda: That's when I was living in Puerto Rico at that point. It's long
but I always remember that. Cundeamor is a plant. It's a plant. That has a
fruit, its shape as a- it's oval and it's red inside. And the bird used to eat
00:36:00it. I used to eat it too. And my mother made the- take the leaves on the
cundeamor and boil it. And give it to my father for the diabetes. Not to cure,
but to control. That way he doesn't have to put the injection, insulina. But he
controlled the diabetes with the cundeamor. I try- that doesn't grow here, it's
only in Puerto Rico.
Amy Starecheski: You were telling me about Lincoln Hospital.
Ana Alameda: Oh yeah.
Amy Starecheski: What it was like there. Was this the old Lincoln Hospital or
the new Lincoln Hospital?
Ana Alameda: Huh?
Amy Starecheski: The old--
Ana Alameda: No, the old one!
Amy Starecheski: Okay.
Ana Alameda: Oh my God, that entrance! You see those townhouses and the
entrance, that had that long ceiling and the dome? That was the Lincoln
00:37:00Hospital. It was beautiful and the nurses has to have the white dress with their
hats here with their black [unclear]. That's what the nurses--the way they dress
before. All white dresses. No pants. White socks. Knee-high pantyhose and white
shoes. No individual room. It was a big room with a lot of beds. That's the way
you was when you was in the hospital. Now they have separate rooms, but before,
no. Even St. Francis hospital, too. I had my second one in St. Francis. It was a
room with a lot of beds.
00:38:00
Amy Starecheski: And is St. Francis where Betances is now?
Ana Alameda: No. It was Belvis. The clinic. The other side, when I live in
Betances, that was the St. Joseph's Hospital.
Amy Starecheski: Oh!
Ana Alameda: That was the other one. They install the fences--ooh! That was very
hard, you don't break that. That was St. Joseph's Hospital.
Amy Starecheski: When you first came here, what was the neighborhood like? Like
what did it look like? What did it sound like? Who was here? You came to Mott
Haven in 1960.
Ana Alameda: 60.
Amy Starecheski: Right? Yeah.
Ana Alameda: It was bad before me--I don't think it was bad. Because you walk in
the street 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning because I remember that the Puerto Rico
when they leave those shows, that you came out about 3:00 in the morning. It was
a lot of bad drugs, but not that many crime or mugging that the way it was now.
00:39:00It was safe to walk in the street, because I live in Millbrook and it was nice
walk in the elevator. You take the elevator and that's it. The street too.
Because I was always at St Ann's Avenue to take my son for the kindergarten. My
mother came when I was in the hospital, my stepmother, and she take him to the preschool.
Amy Starecheski: Was your stepmother living in New York too?
Ana Alameda: No.
Amy Starecheski: She came from Puerto Rico?
Ana Alameda: She came over--uh-huh, came only for when I had the baby.
Amy Starecheski: Oh.
Ana Alameda: And then I still go to work. Candida--she didn't go to work and she
take care of my son. It gets hard in the winter to take the kids out.
00:40:00
Amy Starecheski: Tell me about it.
Ana Alameda: Yeah. And when I start working and they have--they had the chance
to put him with me. Because I had a problem with my second one. I had a person
that live on the sixteenth floor to take care of him. And they sodomize him and
I didn't know until I made a trip to Puerto Rico. And he told me about it
because they had--they was threatening him if he tell something so when I came
home and I told my husband, oh my God! He was looking for the guy to kill him.
It was a--not a guy--it was an eleven or thirteen-year-old, but he was mad. To
00:41:00Eddy, too, I had to take him to places--how you call? [Unclear]. They do rubbing
in the stomach. Take all that stuff out. So from that time, I put my kids with
me in the day care. I work with them. They went to St. Luke's. They director
give me permission to pick them up, take them to my job and they do their
homework in the back. Yes.
Amy Starecheski: What did you do when you found out about that?
Ana Alameda: I'm telling you I was in Puerto Rico, I came to New York, I told
Nelson. And his dad was mad but I couldn't do nothing because already he was
gone. He talked to the lady (screaming).
Ana Alameda: My first son went to high school at Rice. He went to high school in
00:42:00Rice you know they closed Rice, Catholic school. From there he went to Iona.
Then he moved with his girlfriend and they start working at Food Emporium,
Gristedes in downtown. And UPS too. But UPS, when they move to Puerto Rico, they
don't make transfer. So he start working in restaurant, like waiter, he says he
make more money in the tips than with the salary. In Florida he did the same
thing. Here he didn't find that job he's with a mother in New Jersey, he's
working some place else, like not a waiter. My second one, he was an honor
00:43:00student at St. Luke's. He went to Mount St. Michael Academy. From there, he went
to Pace [University]. But, he mess up his life. With the wrong--crack. I don't
know why because I don't smoke, I don't--. He didn't listen to nobody. He was
working, but he's still messing---. He start--he met Brenda, she is no wife. You
know, they don't get married. He has a son. When he has the son, he was in jail.
I put him in jail. I said you gonna pay for what you did. Mm-mm. I don't care.
You are my son. He was born. He say he was gonna change. He tried to change and
00:44:00he start making legally to take the kids out of there but it was too late. It
was--his stomach was already--the liver was already--he died 2002. No, 2004.
2002 was my accident. Car hit me. I was two months in the Lincoln and three
months in the nursing home for rehabilitation. Thanks God (knocks on wood) that
I'm walking because I was in a wheelchair. But I'm blessed. Thank God--.
And this one, he was working in the housing. When my other son died, he start
drinking, drinking, drinking. Lost his job. Twelve years in the housing. Lost
his job. Now he's at home, he's like my--(laughs) no money, he cook. Nothing
00:45:00else because he's more sicker than me. He's younger but, when they mess their
life, that's it. That's Marky's father. And Matthew, the other son that is in
Cardinal Hayes. Who raised them? Finish raising them? The other grandmother.
Because when they have the problem, the ACD took it away from me. Because the
problem was in my house. No matter, I raise Marky, they didn't give it to me,
they give it to the other Ana. And the other Ana raise him and send him to
00:46:00Syracuse. And he love Ana too, he love both grandmothers. I should bring you
what he wrote. He wrote something, and the mother and the father (gestures).
Amy Starecheski: They were crying.
Ana Alameda: Oh my God. I should bring it to you. I forgot. I have it! They copy
at work. And it said I owe everything to my grandmother Ana Soler and Ana
Medina. What I'm doing is--oof! They put a knife in the chest because the
parents and they didn't do nothing for him, you know. He is grateful what we did
for him. Next time I'm going to bring it to you.
Amy Starecheski: Yeah I'd love to see that.
Ana Alameda: He don't know that I have that. And then he said, I owe, Joey my
mentor, that my son. He always, yeah, he always loved Joey. Even the mother.
00:47:00Because Joey was--an outgoing person like me. This one is more antipatico, I
don't know, his attitude (laughs).
Amy Starecheski: So your kids were growing up in this neighborhood in what the
1980's? Late--like when your kids were teenagers it was the 1970s, 80s?
Ana Alameda: 80? 1971 was when Mark--1980s. In 1980. When there was a blackout!
A big one! They ransack all the store on 138th. There's a lot of shoe stores and
baby stores. The Woolworths, what is the Rite Aid now. And now it's a lot of
00:48:00Chi--uh, Mexican. You know the store. They sell a lot of fruits and everything
outside. Vegetables. Yeah. But still the buildings are there. What changed is
the stores, but the buildings are still there.
Amy Starecheski: You said when you were growing up you weren't--when you were a
teenager you weren't allowed to go out and--
Ana Alameda: Oh no!
Amy Starecheski: How did you handle your sons when they were teenagers?
Ana Alameda: No, no, no. Huh?
Amy Starecheski: How did you handle your sons when they were teenagers growing
up here?
Ana Alameda: List--they liked to be--I'm a person that like to play table games.
And my neighbor has six. And they was always in my house playing Monopoly,
hangman, all the one that teenagers--and by that time there was the Atari.
Remember Atari? That was the first video [game]. They didn't like to go out that
00:49:00much. Nuh uh. Because if they was going outside, I go. They never went- they
were playing in the back, I was there too. Marky knows--mm-mm. Now when they
call my tail, Marky. Because everywhere I go they will go with me. I even end up
playing baseball in the back and they was go meet me over there. Volleyball.
Volleyball. Yes. No. They don't go. They have friends they used to, Eddie,
bike--dirtbike. He was working in [unclear] in the bikeshop with the dirtbike.
Well that's it. He always come home, but the others they didn't go out when they
was teenager. Uh-uh. I'm telling you all of them in the living room playing the
Monopoly. I join them! Monopoly, hangman, Scrabble. That's why I like too much
00:50:00older stuff because I learn from them. Pictionary too (laughs). That's it.
Ana Alameda: And then my husband bought a billiard table. Oh, forget it! They
come in to play billiards. That's why! I always keep them in the house. I tried
to keep things so they don't have to go out. And the neighborhood was not that
bad. Because before it was, you know. They like to play nice game outside. They
played hockey in the back, play football in the front and they say, "one
Mississippi, two Mississippi." Oh yeah. It was nice to be outside these years
00:51:00ago in the '80s. Now it's not that bad. In my neighborhood where I live.
Everybody sit in the house with the kids, playing with their video, and that not
many kids. The building where I live could be a senior center. You don't see, oh
nobody up and down up and down, going up.
Amy Starecheski: When you first moved here, what kind of people were living
here? Was it a lot of people from Puerto Rico, was it is still like Irish and
Italian, Jewish people? White people?
Ana Alameda: Italian, Irish, Jewish. Puerto Rican--few, few, few. Very few right
here in Millbrook. Because that's where most of them. Where I live now, oh it's
a lot. And before that, 8:00 everybody going to work. You see all the people
00:52:00getting to work. Now it's not the way it is before. The Spanish Mass was in the
lower church and the English Mass was in the upper church and it was not that
many Puerto Ricans. Few. Few Puerto Ricans in St Luke's. That live in Millbrook.
Now it's a lot of Hondurian, Guatemaltecan, on Cypress Avenue. Crossing
Bruckner, a lot was Spanish people living over there together with the Irish
coming to St. Luke's. The tuition was three dollars.
00:53:00
Amy Starecheski: How did the Irish people respond to Puerto Rican people coming
into the neighborhood? Like did--
Ana Alameda: Very nice. No problem. Very nice. We get along beautiful. They
treat us like everybody, anybody. And the kids too. They were not that bullying.
No. They treat us very good. And there was a lot of them in the classes of St.
Luke's. Everybody was Irish and Puerto Rican, a few of them. There were sisters
and priests that give the--not the lay teachers at that time. It was coming a
little by little. But there was a nun with the habit and the kids were afraid
00:54:00when they see her (laughs). They spy, you know they see that but the discipline
is so good they need the Catholic school. Then they start coming: Mr. Brown, Mr.
Long, [unclear] de Jesus. But also Spanish teachers start coming. The lay
teachers, now when they start raising their tuition, because before none of them
get paid. They just give them something.
Amy Starecheski: That makes sense. I never thought of that before.
Ana Alameda: I used to go to work. My time to go was 10:30 so I stay in the
school giving late pass to the kids until it was time for me to go to my job
00:55:00because I used to work from 10:30 to 6. Because I can't be doing nothing, I take
the kids and stay there and doing the late pass. Sometimes I help with the
selling chocolate, I do the tie all that. I told you that's what I like to do
things like that. Because I work with the kids.
Amy Starecheski: And your job at that time was working in a daycare?
Ana Alameda: Oh yeah. Everybody loved me (laughs).
Amy Starecheski: Where was the daycare?
Ana Alameda: Right 100--St Ann's and 135th on the 165--building 165 St Ann's
Avenue. Pamela C. Torres. The first daycare that was here in New York. First in
Prospect Avenue. Because it has the name of Pamela because the judge that work
00:56:00in the criminal court, her daughter died of leukemia. And he put the name of the
daycare on behalf of her daughter name. Pamela Torres. He was the judge. A nice
person. He used to take my kids to the coal dump. Put him in the back until he
did like (gestures). He was the owner and his wife open the oven and get burned.
He was a [unclear]. They moved to Florida and I don't know nothing and he used
to come here for the things that happen from Puerto Rico because he is in the
committee. But I haven't heard from him no more. Mr. Torres. They used to live
in Beck Avenue.
Amy Starecheski: Did you get involved in any of the clubs like your sister did?
00:57:00Like the--
Ana Alameda: Nope.
Amy Starecheski: Like the Puerto Rican clubs?
Ana Alameda: No.
Ana Alameda: I didn't go. She used to but not me. Because see she is a person
telling me with all those people. One year they made the [unclear] with the
mayor of Ponce. She was involved in all that stuff and her daughter, too. But
everything, all of that finished. They used to make dances on Saturday. San
Germán, la orquesta, Happy Hills. That was the orchestra of San German.
Amy Starecheski: There's not very many Irish people around here anymore.
Ana Alameda: My neig--Oh no she died. But 560--her whole family is Puerto Rican,
and she was Irish. But she died last year.
00:58:00
Amy Starecheski: When did it--
Ana Alameda: That's the only one that I could say--
Amy Starecheski: When did it start to change?
Ana Alameda: Things start to change in the 90s more or less. That came all these
Dominican people. Hondurian. Mexican. Because I have a lot of Hondurian in the
school. Ooh! They live in Cypress. Guatemaltecan. And the Mexican. Mal de la
panza. They used to tell me that: panza. Because they called the stomach panza.
Ecuadorian too. Ecuadorian. Because I remember the Ecuadorian. It was like a
00:59:00United Nations. All the people. A few English spoken. No. A lot of Afro-American
too. African. Not that many, like now. Now it's a lot. But that time, no. Only a
few. But now there's a lot of African around here. A lot of Musulmán. I don't
know his last name over here. No we don't have that. That changed by the 90s
because I remember Marky, when he was born, he was a premature. He fit in the
hand. He was so tiny, yeah! He was born in Mount Sinai Hospital. His brother, in
01:00:00the new Lincoln. My other grandson in Northern, by upper Bronx, Northern
Hospital. But this changed a lot. But I think the future here is going to be
only--believe you me--a lot of white people are coming from other places to the
Bronx. Especially 134 and Bruckner. That building, it's a lot of--I see them
going to the supermarket, they have big dogs, and walking to the bridge. Yep.
And it's been changing because there's a lot of nice building over there. The
01:01:00business, restaurant, all that. Here in 138th, still the buildings. None of them
have been torn down. The one that used to be McDonald's now is a Dunkin' Donuts.
Ana Alameda: The subway? It's not that bad. It used to be booth. Now they close
one side only. They don't have the other--the other side they don't have the
booth to buy the token. Oh whatever, the metro. 149th the same thing.
Amy Starecheski: Why do you think people want to move to this neighborhood now?
Ana Alameda: Why? Because they see that it's progressing this neighborhood now.
01:02:00It's progressing. Making new houses, big new commercial. 149th. And it's
changed. It's changing a lot. No matter they make those big, beautiful building.
You see all those beautiful building on 138th? They making that, I don't know,
they say it is for people that live in shelter. I don't know it's true. 149th by
the funeral parlor is another beautiful building over there. That's why people
are moving here, the buildings are very beautiful. At the end, Exterior
[Street], a lot of beautiful buildings over there too. I know it [unclear] but I
guess they going to change it. Because they making buildings and doing all that,
01:03:00so people are getting--coming here. The transportation--all that.
Amy Starecheski: When you first moved here, you know, I know a lot of the
buildings that were here have been torn down or they've burned down, was that
happening at all when you first came here or did it happen later?
Ana Alameda: No. When I came none of that. They happen not even in the 80s--no.
This lady that I been helping with that to make the houses. The first one was St
Luke with the Nehemiah houses. The Nehemiah houses. He was the first one who
start making the houses. Father Ryan make all the Nehemiah and then they start
doing on St Ann's the way. Some of them, that one in St Mary's that was Father
01:04:00Ryan who start doing that. And that was--that's what I'm saying it's lately that
has been changing. Because St Mary's was not like the way it is now. It was very
bad. I used to work and the train leave me on 143rd and cross that, ooh! It was
dangerous to cross by that time. Because the job sent me to study here. They pay
for it. Lehman. I took 12 credits at Lehman.
Amy Starecheski: What was St. Mary's like then?
Ana Alameda: It was a lot of drugs. A lot of benches. You know benches are over.
But the drug addict was doing that, burning it. That way they don't have no more
and they don't want to put it again. No. And you find the people die of, ooh,
01:05:00killing. It was bad. It was bad by that time that I came in the '60s. It was not
that many Puerto Rican but there few, there was not that many junkies in the
street either. But the drugs were never finished, the drugs, ooh.
Amy Starecheski: When did the buildings start to be abandoned?
Ana Alameda: When people--I told you, Nehemiah houses--people start giving the
down payment buying the house and then they start abandon the building. People
in 147th, they start abandoning because people was moving out of New York going
to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut. That's when the building get
abandoned. But now that people are coming back and buying houses and living, a
01:06:00few of them that are. Even though my neighb--the first floor--they moved to
Puerto Rico and they came back. They start moving out because they want to, I
don't know. They still say that [unclear] that they was getting nowhere. So they
move out. And they start turning out tall, those building 149th that is AutoZone
and Burger King, it was a row of nice building and people was moving to
Pennsylvania. A lot of people moved to Pennsylvania. And then they start
building the house and the Dominican people are buying all those houses belong
to them. You don't see no Puerto Ricans there. My friend that used to have the
01:07:00house in 145th, she moved to Puerto Rico and other people bought the house. The
other one, all Dominican. A few of them is Puerto Rican now. Everything is from
Santo Domingo. But that's when they move out. The people want to move out. They
don't want their kids grow here, raise here. That's what they said. And they
move away. I said "Eh, I'll stay here." You look at Marky, was born and raised
in the South Bronx, eh? That's why I say, it's up [to] your parents, you
encourage them to finish. And friends that used to be with the team. They said,
"Oh my God. I wish my son--" Now they regret it, not sending their kid--they see
01:08:00Mark and the way he got all the way up. And he was raised, born and raised in
the, and he has all those friends and look at the way he is now.
Amy Starecheski: Your friends regret not sending their kids to Catholic school,
is that what you mean?
Ana Alameda: No, not the the Catholic school. The one, that one in the Little
League. It's the Little League with Mark. You know, it was Marky, all those,
when my son was the manager in the team. And they see Marky, the way he's going,
that he's--none of them finished! They have the girls pregnant! And they regret
it now. One of the fathers said, "Oh I regretted that--" But these kids,
sometimes they don't want to listen. They want to follow their peers. That's why
they say peer pressure.
01:09:00
Amy Starecheski: Did you ever think about leaving?
Ana Alameda: New York?
Amy Starecheski: Mott Haven.
Ana Alameda: No. No. I'd rather stay here. I said, everybody knows me.
Everything is close. I go to Lincoln, I walk. You know, if I go to someplace
else, because I have friends that are moving out of the South Bronx, and they
are afraid to go out. They stay in the house, they are walking with canes. They
don't go nowhere. If they walk, they are afraid, you know. And that's what I'm
thinking that is gonna happen to me if I moved to some place that I'd be walking
and looking back because I don't know the neighborhood. But here? This is my
place. That's why--I was--I was finish raising here. I was born in Puerto Rico
but I was raised in New York. And I have no complaints. Thanks God, so far.
01:10:00
Ana Alameda: I mean like I said, if I see something that is strange, [unclear].
He told me she lived around here, and I don't--I stop by and make believe that
I'm looking for something, I let him go by. Because first, my building is
private. And the time I open they might take me over there. You know. But I'm
very smart I say, "Mm, I don't know, she told me that she lived down here." I
make myself stupid, but that's it. Because my neighbor, years ago, in the '92,
in the same building when she was in they held up her over there. Where I live.
That was years ago and I, like 1992, Nancy. You know they waiting to get, right
away they took her. Because that's a quiet building. It's a little one. Don't
01:11:00worry, next one you gonna do in my house, in my apartment I mean.
Amy Starecheski: (Laughs) You're saying--
Ana Alameda: It's mine. I told myself, you know, you buy a house here, in thirty
years it's yours, right? So I'll be here forty-five years, this is mine. It
should be like that.
Amy Starecheski: Do you feel secure there?
Ana Alameda: Yes.
Amy Starecheski: Do you worry that you could lose the apartment any way? You
feel safe there?
Ana Alameda: I feel safe. I feel safe.
Amy Starecheski: Tell me what your everyday life is like now. What's an average
day for you like?
Ana Alameda: In the morning, I do what I have to do. I go to the bodega, buy my
coffee, because I can't do the coffee at home. I don't know, I'm already used to
the coffee from that flaco. They call him flaco. Take my piece of bread, put it
01:12:00in the oven. Sit down and eat it, then I go out. So I got--I have to go to the
bank, I have to go to pharmacy, get my refill, I do. You know, [unclear] I go to
Aldi. That's what I do. Then by 1:00 or 1:30 I stay home watching, 'Who Wants to
be A Millionaire.' But otherwise that's my life in the morning. I can't be in
the house. Sometimes in the afternoon I go out, but not that much. If I see my
friends across the street, sitting on the bench, I go over there, I chat. Oh, if
I don't go, forget it, "What happen to you?" Marky know. Marcus knows how
everyone--that everybody likes me because I don't have no fight, no yes or no
01:13:00with nobody. No. I'm not that type of person. No way. Maybe they call me--I
don't know because I know they say- like myself- "oh no, I can't be like that."
But that's the way I am. I can't be fighting or arguing with nobody. No. They
talking, whatever they talk, I hear. It's none of my business. I don't put no
mouth on it. No. Fifth floor? Or this is the last floor?
Amy Starecheski: This is the top.
Ana Alameda: Oh.
Amy Starecheski: I want to go back for a minute. You mentioned going to shows at
Teatro Puerto Rico? The Puerto Rican theater? Tell me--I want to know more about
what people did for fun in the neighborhood in the '60s.
01:14:00
Ana Alameda: It's a lot of cookouts. You know, people go to the park. No matter
it was like that. Or to the yard or the building in the back, they do the
cookout. We have a lot of parties in the house. Birthdays, bridal showers, baby
showers. Not like now. That you can't go nowhere. Oh no! And people used- I
used- the one who used to throw a lot of parties in my house. It was fun. But
the Teatro Puerto Rico was the--Puerto Rican people come from all over the
place. You should see the street! When they giving--Libertad Lamarque, El Trio
San Juan, Iris Chacón! Ooh! That's the one that bring a lot of people, Iris
Chacon. She has a big -- It's like J.Lo. You know J.Lo? Oh she was like J.Lo
Now. By that time. Oh! The theater get a lot. Then the restaurant in the side?
01:15:00It was La Rose restaurant. The people over there eating and ready to go to
Teatro Puerto Rico. Because that was Iris Chacon. The J.Lo in the '80s or in the
'60s. Oh my god! Oof! She was dancing and move all that. That was years ago. It
was nice to walk because everybody outside in the street 3:00 in the morning.
They sit in the stool in the buildings, they have the steps, right? But in the
side they have the border. Everybody sit over there. No problem. And like I told
you, the super was always in the building because there was a boiler room.
Charcoal. But they closed Teatro Puerto Rico [unclear]. It was a lot of theaters
01:16:00around here, they closed them too.
Ana Alameda: Why?
Amy Starecheski: Because they come in the--the one that driving--the drive-in
theaters. But they--remember the one in Bergen Avenue? By Boston Market, it was
the National? The other side was the [name of place]. That the five of them
[unclear], five and ten was over there. There's a [unclear] for women. There was
a--they are guilty of that and they [unclear]. When I came to this country, I
saw 5s and 10s, I thought everything was five cents. That they were--I told you
I forgot to tell you. You know I see oh five and ten cents Woolworths--I thought
was everything was five and ten cents.
Amy Starecheski: (laughs) Well that's like even now--the dollar store--
01:17:00
Ana Alameda: Yes!
Amy Starecheski: Like everything's not--now it's like $1.29, but everything's
not even $1.29.
Ana Alameda: No, but the Dollar Tree--the Dollar Tree, everything is a dollar.
In Dollar Tree. But that's what I thought when I came here and I saw a five-
five and ten- Woolworths. Because that was the first one I--I said, "Oh my god
I--". But they have a nice [unclear]. That I to pick up the kids from St. Luke's
and go over there and have lunch. Like in McDonald's inside there they'll give
you hot meals. That was Woolworth's years ago. In 138th. Because the other one
by 161st, no. I don't know about that one. There was another one that has a
clock in the top too. 161st and Southern Boulevard.
Amy Starecheski: Can you tell me about the [New York City] blackout [of 1977]?
01:18:00
Ana Alameda: Oh my God, the blackout! I remember that they ransacked the stores.
They [name of place], the baby store, all the thing. The TV's, not the big TV's,
when there was a lot of repair. Because the TV's used to have a tube that
you--if they messed up, you change it! They used to steal--steal it from the
store 138th. And the blackout? Ooh! No heat, no air conditioning. Because most
of the time was for the summer. For June and July. That was one. I was living in
Millbrook. One of them. The other was when I was living in Betances. That was
the biggest one. It was two or three days that we have the blackout. My son used
to bring me to the car with the air conditioning in the car. The explosion--what
01:19:00I lived through, there was an explosion because of the heat and the snow that
blow out the top of the thing 144th, broke the windows and everything. That was
another thing they sent us to the senior center because they close everything.
We had to be in the senior center for the air and food, whatever and Red Cross
came to give blankets and everything. Because everything happening- but no more,
like they [unclear]. Then the airplane that fell in the- I told you? St Mary's
rock over there, that little plane that fell about 1967, something like that.
That was two years after Kennedy was killed. Killed in 1963.
01:20:00
Amy Starecheski: Do you have any memories of the Young Lords in this neighborhood?
Ana Alameda: They talk about that gang. But no, I was not aware that much of the
gang. No--no interesting to me. Now it seems that the MS-13. But it was, now
they still exist, the Young Lords. They was Puerto Rican kids, too, in the Young
Lords. And they was in the open but I don't know around here. But I hear people
talking about that. But I wasn't around [it] that much. I don't know why. I
didn't feel so scared about that. Because now is more harmer than before. Now
this--and started killing the--if you don't do what they do, they kill you. But
I didn't hear about that, that I know. There was the Young Lords and then there
was the Guardian Angel, remember? Sliwa, remember? With the red beret that they
01:21:00control the South Bronx on the street and the subway. That what happened. They,
when they hear that Curtis Sliwa formed that group, of the young--the Guardian Angels.
Amy Starecheski: What did you think about it?
Ana Alameda: I think it was good because they respected them. They respect those
people that was dressing with the red and the beret. I remember there was a
police when I came here, it was a big, tall ooh! My God. A police officer. He
was O'Hara, Michael O'Hara. And the people was afraid of that man. They don't
want--that's why they see the people now, you see the police, O'Hara! O'Hara is
coming, O'Hara is coming! Because that was the police that was very firm and
01:22:00that was when I came here. They was afraid because the people were selling
drugs. That was--what's the name they used to say in the corner? They said that
the people was afraid. O'Hara's coming! O'Hara's coming! Because that police
was, everybody, now they don't respect the police. No more. They used to sell
those [unclear]. That means that they were selling that. Even Marky my neighbor
daughter heard that [unclear] (laughs) because that what they hear every time we
pass through 138th and Brook Avenue. That was their corner, the hot spot for
them. But it was not that bad like now. You know because now they taking
[unclear] robbing and mugging elderly just because of the cell phone. The cell
01:23:00phone, I told them don't take it out! What? But I remember that--[unclear] (laughs).
Amy Starecheski: For people who are listening to this in the future and don't
know what that means, can you explain what it means?
Ana Alameda: That was a way to say to people that they were selling the drugs.
And that means [unclear] That means that they have that, you know. The people
they do the transaction, give them money, keep walking. Even cars from upstate
New York come in and get the drugs from them.
Amy Starecheski: And so just to make sure I understand, you feel like the
neighborhood is more dangerous now than it was then? You feel less safe here now?
Ana Alameda: For me it's not dangerous. I thought I told, I say, because I hear
everything that is happening in Brooklyn and compared to Brooklyn, this place is
01:24:00safety. Comparing to Brooklyn, the South Bronx is more safe than any other
borough, even Queens. The Bronx, I don't think is that bad. Not [unclear].
Telling you, Brooklyn, everything that happening in the street of Brooklyn:
shooting, killing, you don't hear that here. Especially here in the South Bronx
that they said is the worst, I don't think so. Nope. Not to me. And I was raised
here. But I like it and I don't move so far. They take me from the cemetery (laughs).
Amy Starecheski: There's something else I wanted- oh. You said that your son
Joey, right, that you got--you sent him to jail?
Ana Alameda: Yeah.
Amy Starecheski: Tell me about how that happened.
01:25:00
Ana Alameda: Because I used--I was the one that close the job. Make sure that
the store was closed and I was the one that close, I put everything. And I had
the keys, and he took me the keys. And he opened the [unclear] and I have the
money for the pictures, you know the pictures they take the kids, and he took
it. Victor Torre, he said, "No, don't so that." I said, "no, Mr Torre, you have
to pay for that." I send him to jail.
When the police came to my house, say, he had the picture when he graduate from
Mt St Michael with honor. And he said, "Is that Joey?" Because the police always
live in Mt St Michael. They knew him. I say, "Yes." But that lesson! I love my
son but he has to learn. Robbing from my job? He robbed from me, I don't care.
01:26:00But from the job, the money that I have in the back, in the closet? And Mr.
Torre I said, "No, no no no, Mr Torre." Because he used to take Joey to court
and to see what's going, happening in the--but still I said, "no." And they were
so good with me that they didn't fire me. They keep me the job. It was another
one--bigger one, he didn't for me to be out of a job, no. That's why I'm- I'm
very grateful for that. I was there thirty-five years. He pardoned him. He go to
the dance. We did the banquet and he was there. He, Joey, you know they pardoned
Joey because he know it wasn't him, it was the drugs. He was too much in the
crack. That was--he was using crack. The worker, whose name is Jackson, her
01:27:00daughter was doing that and they fire her. And I said I'm lucky that they kept
me the job.
Amy Starecheski: What was it like around here when the crack epidemic was happening?
Ana Alameda: They used to take those juices, the little juice they have for
kids. They open it, with the- they put aluminum foil in the top, they make a
hole, and they had the drug in there. And it was very bad, whatever you see in
the corner, oh! You see that. Now? It's not that [unclear]. Now is the- they do
that where I live. They put the leg and they inject. But before that epidemic
was that crack, argh. I think that was the worst one. That little dose with the
01:28:00white one (claps hands) ooh! They put him like--he even push me, that's what I
said, they make him do the thing that they never do before. And he was one of
the best- better than that Eddie. And when he died, and he was very sick, that
Ana has to go to the house and talk to him because he was--I don't know. He lost
it. He violent! So he locked in the--sent me to Joey, esto este, and he calmed
down but [unclear]. Brenda was terrible. You know, violent, he can't sleep
because the way he was. Then, one day he woke up on Sunday and he said, "Brenda,
01:29:00don't go to work today. Stay with me." So she stay with him, but he get worst.
So she put him in the hospital. And where they have tubes. Then they call me, he
said, "I give him only 48 hours to live." He didn't last 48. The next day, he
died. He died! And I said to myself, when I was going to his house every day for
this problem, I said, "God, forgive me, but take him, because the whole family
is suffering. Take him." And I think--I always said, "forgive me," that way that
he went to the hospital and that's it. Because you see him, the only one that
01:30:00control him was Ana. I don't know, she had that [unclear] and they can talk and
be with him. But, God forgive me, but he is in peace now, and we are in peace.
Because you know the trip--I have to go every day over there after school
because I was not working here I was in St. Pius. I was retired but I can't be
without doing nothing. I went to St Pius to work. But their school program I
finish I go with Marky and Kenny. Matthew was not born yet because when that
happened Matthew was two months, when the ACD come to my house. They give it to
him because he was sick so he can handle no more [unclear] when they give him to
01:31:00Ana. But it was hard every day trying to talk to him, you know. But he was good.
He was a good father and a stepfather because Brenda with her son, he was taking
care of him. But the drugs kill him.
Amy Starecheski: I'm gonna make sure I understand, so he was living with you,
and ACD came and they took the--
Ana Alameda: Marky? Yeah.
Amy Starecheski: They took the kids away because--
Ana Alameda: Yeah. Marky was living with me. And the mother and the father, but
they always argue but that time she put herself in the window, she want to kill
herself. Then somebody called the police. I went downstairs with Mark. I went
downstairs with Mark and Matthew because I don't want them to see what's going
01:32:00to happen in my apartment. The police came and they press charges. I don't know,
they talk to them. The next day, a school day, I went to school. In the school,
they took him. They went to school and took. They went to ACD and they, Brenda
and Joey because Ana--I don't know what happened--Ana couldn't take him. They,
he wants to go, Marky wants to go with Joey. So they give him to Joey and
Brenda. But, sooner or later he was very sick, so it was too much, so ACD
contact Ana and they gave it to Ana. It's a lot of things that I've been going
through. And I tell you, I'm blessed. Because all this problem that I've been
01:33:00going through, but thanks God, I'm here.
Amy Starecheski: Can you tell me about your about your faith?
Ana Alameda: My faith?
Amy Starecheski: Yeah. Your religion. Like what does it mean to you?
Ana Alameda: Oh a lot because God always with me. Always with me, God. Because
whatever happen, I say God, forgive me if I do something wrong but, I'm
very--he's with me all the time. I'm not alone. He's with me. Because I'm good
with him. I may not confess, I may not have communion, but God is always with
me. My faith is--mmm--too much. Very much. I'm not a--I'm Catholic. I go to
01:34:00church on the day that I have to go, on Sunday. I don't know because I don't
belong to Sagrado Corazon, to Legion de Maria, all that stuff, not me. Because
to have- God tell me, I don't need to belong to all those things. I'm not that
type of person. Ana could do it because Ana had that kind--that she can talk.
Because this is [unclear] people, they go to the houses, you know. And they talk
to people and that's why Ana is like that. And she been there since she was at
St Pius. They go to the houses, and when people have problem, they know how to
talk to them and involve the people in to have faith. I just go to church, but
that wherever I go, God with me. He don't leave me. And if I have problem I'm in
01:35:00the night time I say, "God, please." I pray, I do, for everything. I pray for
this one here in my house, [unclear], because he been sick too, but he don't
want to admit it, you understand? If you admit it, they can solve your problem,
but [unclear] he go to the doctor he don't say the truth: "oh, no I don't drink,
or I do only on-" Oh, no, no, no, say the truth. And then you talk to him, right
away he's (sound effect). That's why I don't want to talk, I say nothing. He's
afraid of Ana, because Ana (sound effect) say the thing the way it is.
Amy Starecheski: Who are your best friends right now?
01:36:00
Ana Alameda: Well, Ana. Because she's in the healthcare she's my proxy too.
Everything, come with Ana, she's with me. I had to go to the doctor and I had to
like last month, they were doing something for me because of my bones and in
case something happen, she has to be with me when I was visiting, when they shot
me. Yeah. That my best friend. Those are people that you know, you know, we call
conocidas, that we talk and--we're best friends, Ana. No matter her daughter and
my son don't get along, that's their problem (laughs).
Amy Starecheski: Is there anything I should have asked you and I didn't?
Ana Alameda: I don't know. You could look on your paper and remember, the agenda
01:37:00(laughs). Because I don't remember.
Amy Starecheski: I think I've asked most of the things that I wanted to ask. Is
there anything that you wanted to say more about that you didn't get a chance?
Ana Alameda: Let me see if I can remember because when I was in the house I said
this and that but (claps hands).
Amy Starecheski: (Laughs) We can do more later too so if you think of something
later we can, but if you think of something now we have all the time you need.
Ana Alameda: I don't know.
Amy Starecheski: I'll think for a minute too if there's anything else I wanted
to make sure to ask about.
Ana Alameda: That on Sunday I go to play Bingo (laughs). Bingo! My son say, "Go
01:38:00[Spanish]." (Laughs) you know the old people gossiping.
Amy Starecheski: Where do you go?
Ana Alameda: Go 143rd in the building--Betances building too. 143rd, the lady
that do bingo, she cook and you know, I do it. She cook good because she used to
cook in restaurant and then years ago she used to cook in Sy Mary's Park and
sell food over there. But that's you know, I take myself, nothing to do on
Saturdays. I go out with Ana, I guess tomorrow we are going to eat at Olive
Garden, she going to take the other friend. It's three Anas. Three Anas. When we
01:39:00travel, they call us the Golden Girls (claps hands). Because we travel together
to Florida, whatever, and we're Ana Soler, Ana Medina and Ana Gaston. And they
call the Golden Girls. So she always take, for Mother's Day, she take us to it,
she took me already. Last, two weeks ago. And now it's the other Ana's turn
because that day she couldn't go. So now she's doing it tomorrow. But I have fun
with Ana because everything--we go always together, travel together. Yeah, Marky
went with us. We always take Mar--yeah. Mark. We went to Las Vegas, no Marky
though, when we went to Las Vegas. Me and Ana. Now we're planning to go to
01:40:00Puerto Rico, I said Ana, I want to go to Puerto Rico. We went to Puerto Rico:
Mark, Matthew, Ana, Marky's friend--Mark's friend Wally. We have a lot of fun
because they--he's Dominican, Marky's friend. And we used to go to restaurant oh
my God that Mofongo ooh! And every night we go to a casino (claps hands). And
the last night Ana hit the jackpot with three thousand. The last night that-
next day we would come home. Yeah. But we always together, we always together.
Amy Starecheski: When did you two first meet?
Ana Alameda: When they--Freddy and Joey was in the Little League team. And
01:41:00because she like sports and I like it too. We always go to the baseball game and
that's how we met. Because oh no, I love--did Marky play? We go to Marky's game.
He used to be in [name of place] go to the track. We used to go to Columbia over
there in Armory, we went over there too! We both, yes.
Amy Starecheski: Where did they play Little League, where were the games?
Ana Alameda: By Cardinal Hayes, that park, St. Mary's, now it's already not
good. But he used to play in different parks and we always be there. Always
there. Because I like baseball, I like- I used to play softball when I was
growing up in Puerto Rico. And I like it. I always like it. They're playing
01:42:00tonight- the Yankees and the Mets (laughs and claps hands)! And I'm a Mets fan!
Oh My God!
Amy Starecheski: I just was talking about- talking about this with Maxi today.
He said he's a Mets fan, too!
Ana Alameda: Yeah! And the sister is a Yankees fan. All her families are Yankees
and he's a Met. I'm a Met! Oh my God. I came here in 1960. They, there it was
the program. It was a project. They called the program Project. They tear it
down to make a--the team that was playing over there, they teared down that park
and then they made the program building. From that they moved to Queens. And I
remember all the baseball players from 1962. Because I'm always a Mets fan it
01:43:00was Elio Chacon Number 7, first base. It was [unclear], 20, in the left field.
21, [unclear], in the center field, [name of person], Number 4 in the right
field. I remember the Mets. When I come to the building, he said, my goodness
you are a Mets fan. Yeah! Because I follow the Mets everywhere (laughs)! I don't
know why because my mother don't like the Yankees and that turned me. She said
the Yankees don't like Puerto Ricans. Don't like colored people. And it was
true. First one was Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige--the Yankees didn't want it (laughs).
Amy Starecheski: When you travel and you tell people you're from the Bronx or
from the South Bronx, what do they think?
Ana Alameda: Oh! They say, "Oh my God, you--." I say, "We've been living for so
01:44:00many years. What's the problem?" "Oh, but they have the bad--" I say, "That was
for you. But you have to live in the place to see if it's true what they talking
to you about that. Because you can't follow what they said. You have to live in
the place." They say, "oh, yes." When we went to Las Vegas: "You coming from the
Bronx?" "Yes." They say, "oh my God, how it is?" I said, "Very good! We still
here!" Because people, you know, even when the St. Luke's made the banquet and
all those people years ago came, they was surprised the way they see the change
in the Bronx. About the buildings. And they was walking around here and nothing.
01:45:00They say, "Oh! I feel safe over there." Of course! They was walking all over the
place here, from Texas, California, Florida. Oh my God! All from the West, most
of them came from the West. Because that's when the people to start moving out
and they start getting those buildings after the Bruckner Express, it's a lot of
people that was in St. Luke's, they move out. But they say the change was the
buildings. But they said, "it seems safe. Like nothing happened here." But
because it was all over the--talking about. Right now, when I heard about
Brooklyn, and then my friend moved to Brooklyn because I'm telling you--in the
South, my mother's family lived in the South Brooklyn, Williamsburg, all
that--yeah. But it was not like that either. It was nice.
01:46:00
Amy Starecheski: I thought of one more thing I wanted to ask you. You were
talking about the Nehemiah houses?
Ana Alameda: Nehemiah houses.
Amy Starecheski: Nehemiah houses?
Ana Alameda: Yes.
Amy Starecheski: When they were building those, what did people think? Was there
anyone who--like yeah. What did people think when they started building them?
Ana Alameda: They was happy because they are think they going to have the house.
But when they start building in St. Mary's they get a little, you know, doubted
about it because
Ana Alameda: But when they start building in St. Mary's, they get a little
doubted about it because the fame that St. Mary's has. But when they start
living and coming they see the difference. Yeah. Even though St Anns all the way
to 163rd, St Anns that behind the church or St Peter and St Paul, those are
Nehemiah houses. And that was a bad, you know, the neighborhood. And now it's
beautiful. People, you know, they change. But the people when they first--St.
Mary's was--People was-- You know, because, St. Mary ooh! Ooh Cypress, Jackson
Avenue, and look at the way they now. Behind that is a buidling for
homeless--St. Luke's, the side. And, I don't know you remember Father Ryan used
to have the homeless sleeping the in the gym. Nothing happened. All the homeless
was sleeping in the gym of St. Luke's because Father Ryan used to let them--and
they was coming out and no- nothing happened over there. Not even for the kids.
Nothing. The parents didn't complain. Because now they complain: "Oh! Because--"
Nope. Parents didn't complain that they have the shelter, the people, homeless
sleeping in the back. Father Ryan was very nice guy. That's why they put the
street the name of him. Everybody's missing him.
Amy Starecheski: What kind of people moved into those houses?
Ana Alameda: What?
Amy Starecheski: The Nehemiah Houses. What kind of people moved into them?
Ana Alameda: Puerto Rican. Puerto Rican. The Nehemiah Houses are Puerto Rican.
Here they have Dominican but Nehemiah Houses were Puerto Rican. They called
that--what did they? The funding that he got that for making the houses. Because
my friend, she didn't buy it. Not my friend, my co-worker. Her husband was in
the--in the--thing of the St. Luke's, for the Mass and. And he didn't buy one
and he regret it. He regret it.
Amy Starecheski: What did you have to do to get to buy one?
Ana Alameda: Oof. Well with Father Ryan because he knew you, he would do it, but
then you have to go through a lot of processes: the credit, the down payment.
Most of these people were parishioners from St. Pius--from St. Luke's. That's
what happened. The Nehemiah Houses, all of them are parishioners from St.
Luke's. And with the help of Father Ryan they did it. That's why my co-worker's
husband regretted not buying one of those houses. That what I said because when
they said about St. Mary's, they don't want to buy it, now he regret it. The way
it turned out to be. He bought one in Intervale.
Amy Starecheski: And the people who moved into those houses, did they get
involved in the neighborhood?
Ana Alameda: Yeah. They get along because I see, I walk over there. Because I
know a lot of them. The kid went to school, one of my co-worker do their
secretary. They are get along very well and everybody has neat houses. If you
see them, you are walking over there, you see how neat they are and how clean
and everything. Yeah. They [unclear] and everybody cooperate well with the
other. Marky's roommate--classmate, he went to Harvard. He bought one of those
Nehemiah Houses. One of the first one- one second- Christopher. I remember when
he made the debate in St. Pius. Christopher's--Marky--believe you me, he going
to Harvard. And even though in the debate that Marky--what he talked about, he
won the debate (laughs). You know, they thought that he was going--that he was
going to win that debate--no Marky won. They went together to our house and
everybody vote for Mark to be the president of the class. And he went to a
[unclear] but everybody- he was the president- he was involved in the Channel
12--the challenge that was in Channel 12. Marky was doing [unclear]. He was very
out- even though when he graduate they call him to jump in [unclear]. He now
is--he regret not taking that job. Because everyone always tell [unclear] And
Marky was not an easy guy. Oh no! He got a lot of trouble. And all with me and
Ana always in [unclear]. And he was president, he made that Channel 12 when he
wrote that letter that the father--he did it on Channel 12. Because he said
everything! He--I recall that when you have something inside you, you want to-
that bothering you, you want to take that out, that's what he did. Only when he
was very- like something bothering him, you know like the problem from the past,
but when he put all this stuff out, and wrote that paper that the teacher put a
very good mark on, you know, that made him more outgoing because he put all that
out. In Spanish it's [Spanish] (sigh of relief). Next time I will show you the
paper. I know you'll want to read it.
Amy Starecheski: Yeah I want to see it. I think that was the last thing I wanted
to ask, was there anything more that you want to say?
Ana Alameda: I don't know. I don't remember now Maybe later on.
Amy Starecheski: Ok. We can do it later. Thank you so much for taking the time to--
Ana Alameda: Thank you for you. Thank you for the book.
Amy Starecheski: --speak with me. Oh, you're welcome. I hope you like it.
Ana Alameda: Because oh my God! Oof! Let's see what Ana--"Ooh lend it it me lend
it to me!"
Amy Starecheski: Now you guys can read it and discuss (laughs).
Ana Alameda: Oh my God.
Amy Starecheski: Alright I'm gonna turn this off. Thank you again so much.
Ana Alameda: Ok. That's when I bought this--when we went to Olive Garden.
Amy Starecheski: Oh (laughs).
