by | May 31, 2021 9:14 am | Comments (2)
Emily Hays Photos
Cynthia Howard: My apartment looks like a New York loft.
Seven-plus years of work in childcare offered Cynthia Howard no cushion when divorce and surgery costs pushed her into homelessness.
She now has her own apartment again — thanks to her workplace’s efforts to break cycles of poverty in the childcare industry by providing free housing to employees.
by | May 18, 2021 12:14 pm | Comments (9)
Thomas Breen photo
Camille Kritzman and Lizeth Villalobos.
Two years after first traveling from Guatemala to New Haven with little more than hope for better healthcare for her epileptic son, Lizeth Villalobos now has a work permit, a job, an apartment, and an ongoing asylum case.
She also has the support of a team of attorneys and case managers looking out for many local people in similar situations.
by | May 1, 2021 11:14 pm | Comments (2)
Courtney Luciana photo
Nora Garcia Flores honored with on the banner.
Hundreds of social justice advocates turned out for a march and a rally on the Green Saturday to mark the annual celebration of International Workers Day, aka May Day.
Continue reading ‘Hundreds Rally For Worker Rights, Health Care On May Day’
by | Apr 28, 2021 5:12 pm | Comments (9)
Thomas Breen Photo
Organizer Kica Matos: “Appalling” case threatens immigrant community’s trust in police.
The police have launched an internal investigation into another complaint involving a cop who had sex with a woman in Fair Haven whom he met on the job.
The officer has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
by | Apr 26, 2021 8:50 am | Comments (8)
Madison Hahamy Photo
Attendees participating in a “die-in” in front of City Hall.
With singing, dancing, impassioned testimonies, and the support of multiple lawmakers, New Haven’s immigrant and workers’ rights group Semilla Collective hosted a rally supporting a state’s “HUSKY for Immigrants” bill.
Continue reading ‘March, “Die-In” Back Expanding HUSKY To Undocumented Immigrants’
by | Apr 14, 2021 5:39 pm | Comments (2)
Attorney Elliot Lane, Judge Claudia Baio at hearing.
A tenant’s lack of awareness of rental assistance options, and her husband’s “pending immigration status,” led a housing judge to rule that they were ineligible for the CDC’s nationwide eviction moratorium and that they can now be evicted from their home.
Continue reading ‘Confused, Couple Fails To Meet Bar For Eviction Moratorium’
by | Apr 12, 2021 4:18 pm | Comments (1)
Emily Hays Photos
Al Proto: Grand was the Avenue of the Americas.
A vaudeville theater becomes a church. A church becomes a parole office. An integrated boys’ swim club becomes a swim-focused nonprofit.
A group of dedicated ethnic historians sketched out these transformations and more neighborhood lore in what will eventually become an official Grand Avenue tour.
by | Mar 23, 2021 9:35 am | Comments (4)
Madison Hahamy Photo
Monday’s vigil outside City Hall.
With chants of “cuando peleamos, ganamos” (“when we fight, we win”) and “¿Quién marchó, quién gritó, quién testificó? Nosotros” (“who marched, who yelled, who testified? Us”), activists made a plea not to forget the individuals who have lost their lives due to Covid-19.
by | Mar 4, 2021 10:51 am | Comments (4)
Courtney Luciana Photo
Wednesday’s march seeking answers about the homicide of Jorge “Mapa” Osorio-Caballero (pictured below).
Mapa called Deysi Santizo Bravo to say he was meeting a friend at the Mexican restaurant Mariscos El Pescador. He would come pick her up afterwards.
He never made it back.
by | Mar 3, 2021 10:49 am | Comments (1)
Pages from journals are frozen in midair, as if caught in a photograph of them flying away in a windstorm. A figure emerges from a book, a look of concern on her face. A mirror captures the skyline of a city. They’re all part of a larger show and puppet theater piece called Sueños, by artist Anatar Marmol-Gagné, running in the project room at Artspace through March 20. Together, the elements combine wonder and gritty, emotional realism to tell a story about family chaos and the wrenching effects of immigration that make the political deeply personal.
by | Feb 8, 2021 10:39 am | Comments (0)
From day one as president, Joe Biden steered U.S. immigration policy away from the xenophobic and harsh direction charted by his predecessor, Donald Trump.
“A very important marker is just the shift in tone and rhetoric. We’re no longer talking about people as if they are animals or insects” said Valeria Gomez, the William R. Davis teaching fellow at the University of Connecticut’s Asylum and Human Rights Clinic. “I think we can never go back to that.”
Continue reading ‘No Turning Back After Immigration Executive Orders’
by | Feb 5, 2021 4:12 pm | Comments (54)
Thomas Breen photo
Local landlord Galina Zalman: “We only use food banks.”
After taxes, utilities, repairs, and tens of thousands of dollars lost through unpaid rent amid the Covid-19 pandemic, landlord Galina Zalman said she made a total of $2,552 in 2020 — sending her to a food pantry as she struggles to keep three local rental properties afloat.
by | Feb 4, 2021 10:59 am | Comments (4)
Courtney Luciana Photo
Fifty demonstrators organized by Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA) protested outside Unique Auto Sales at 392 East St. demanding repayment for a couple they claim were scammed out of $4,000 on a downpayment for a 2011 Dodge Ram.
Continue reading ‘ULA Protests Car Dealership Over Alleged Fleecing Of Immigrants’
by | Jan 29, 2021 4:16 pm | Comments (4)
Brian Slattery Photos
Khalid: Never gave up on his vision.
To make the lemon chicken at Ali Baba’s Kitchen, Jamshed Khalid started by cutting boneless chicken breasts into strips. He then marinated it, for at least 12 hours, in a blend of special spices.
I wondered what was in the blend.
“Should I tell you?” Khalid responded with a laugh. “No.”
by | Jan 14, 2021 12:34 pm | Comments (1)
Nora Grace-Flood Photos
Ernesto García at work.
“You never stop moving in the kitchen!” Ernesto García remarked as he sliced avocado, cooked tortillas, and directed employees.
Minutes later, one golden arepa filled with black beans, plantains, avocado, tomato, and crispy mozzarella lay plated on the bar of Rubamba, García’s High Street restaurant.
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Ernesto’s Venezuelan Arepa’
by | Dec 8, 2020 1:24 pm | Comments (1)
Emily Hays Photos
Te Amo Tequila co-owner Sonia Salazar.
As Georgina Iglesia’s chicken soup simmered in the kitchen of Te Amo Tequila, Iglesia herself was 2,096 miles away in Barranquilla, Colombia.
Her granddaughter Sonia Salazar was the one stirring the soup and adding onions, jalapeños, cilantro and avocado on top.
by | Dec 2, 2020 2:19 pm | Comments (3)
Emily Hays Photos
Havenly Treats Head Chef Nieda Abbas.
Nieda Abbas served up a falafel unlike any I’d ever tasted before: one bite electric with acidity and flavor, the next comforting with nutty falafel and warm flatbread.
Part of the secret: mango pickle.
by | Nov 30, 2020 12:19 pm | Comments (4)
Lary Bloom Photo
Shiyam Daghestani and Haitham Dalati atop East Rock: Stymied by Executive Order 13769.
by | Nov 30, 2020 12:18 pm | Comments (3)
IMMIGRANT HISTORY INITIATIVE
A student at an Asian American history exhibit.
In January, Asian and Asian American parents in New Haven will have an opportunity to discuss raising children amidst racism.
Continue reading ‘Asian American Parents, Too, Prepare “The Talk”’
by | Nov 25, 2020 11:11 am | Comments (14)
Ko Lyn Cheang Photo
Mellody Massaquoi at summer demo: SROs make school feel like jail.
New Haven student Jhoaell Ruiz wants police officers out of school buildings. Ruiz’s mother, Sonya-Marie Atkinson, wants them in there.
Both student and parent argued their perspectives not just at home, but at a Tuesday evening forum on the subject held by the New Haven Board of Education’s School Security Taskforce.
by | Nov 18, 2020 4:06 pm | Comments (13)
Thomas Breen photo
Carlos Rodriguez in front of the newly rezoned Greenwich Avenue lot.
His Long Wharf food truck, Tacos La Patrona.
Taco truck owner Carlos Rodriguez is further along the way to converting a vacant city-owned lot into a commercial kitchen with apartments on top after clearing a legislative hurdle.
Continue reading ‘Taco Truck Owner Prevails In Zoning Quest’
by | Nov 11, 2020 10:54 am | Comments (0)
Winter may be coming, but Gorman Bechard and NHDocs have no plans to hibernate. Instead, they are debuting a monthly online series offering a new documentary feature to fans hungry for more after a successful online festival this past summer.
by | Nov 2, 2020 10:27 pm | Comments (4)
Thomas Breen photos
An altar to Lizzbeth Alemán-Popoca at Fair Haven’s Day of the Dead parade.
Dressed in floral crowns, face paint, and brightly patterned woven shawls, two dozen immigrant rights activists marched through the streets of Fair Haven to remember Lizzbeth Alemán-Popoca and other local missing and murdered women.
by | Nov 2, 2020 3:20 pm | Comments (1)
Emily Hays Photo
Luis Rivera: I remember being these kids.
Four months after New Haven Academy Spanish teacher Luis Rivera came down with Covid-19, he feels lingering fatigue from the illness.
Rivera still manages to spend hours after school making sure that his students who speak limited English can finish their homework during the pandemic’s remote learning. He was once an English learner too.
Continue reading ‘Teacher Fights Covid Fatigue To Tutor ELLs’
by | Oct 12, 2020 12:23 pm | Comments (6)
Courtney Luciana photo
Paulina Lopez displays the fashion of her native Guatemala.
Foods, fashions and music from Latin America were on display as were calls for “indigenous resistance” as New Haven celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month on Blatchley Avenue.
Continue reading ‘Bomba, Llapingachos Enliven Hispanic Heritage Celebration’