Julian Czerewin

In the article “ Where I’m From” Willie Perdomo describes a neighborhood where he use to live and where he was raised up. It is a short story, but full of details about how day-by-day life goes on. Author is trying to show a contrast between good and bed, struggle of good innocent people with crime and uncertainty of tomorrow.

The area of 110^th Street and Lexington Avenue is the center of a Puerto Rican/American neighborhood where residents of that area meet and gather on some street corners. On these street corners they tell the stories from their past and present, drinking Bacardi, where an unforgettable aroma of fresh made coffee is present in the air every morning.

A place where rodents are a part of everybody’s life is used by the author’s mother as an expression for being poor and living in the poor neighborhood. The NYPD actions against innocent bystanders are a representation showing the authors disapproval to these acts. Also gang presence is visible in Willie Perdomo’s story. The author beautifully uses the comparison of Independence Day as a sign of freedom, prosperity and victory on one hand. On the other hand he uses it as disfigure where independent means to be free from law, which causes teenagers to become gang members harming, hurting and terrorizing their own neighborhoods. “I’m the God when I put the gun to your head. I’m the judge and you’re in my courtroom”, the writer tells us about hierarchy in the article. It is a double standard: to be a gang member and to be a first class citizen, having all the rights and privileges or to belong to the rest and have no rights or privileges.

Willie Perdomo is proud to be a Puerto Rican American but the same time he is ashamed to live in that particular neighborhood, as he doesn’t want his girlfriend to visit that area. He is addressing the readers with hope that place in which he grew will be one day very safe neighborhood still with aroma of fresh coffee and people gathering on the streets and Independence Day will be celebrated on July 4^th.

Where I’m from.

I was born in a small village in Southeast Poland. It had a population around 300 people at the time. The village was located high in the mountains, a place so beautiful with two rivers, several lakes, and gorgeous forests with a lot of wild animals. As a small boy I remember those unforgettable night skies full of stars with a visible Milky Way and other constellations. I also remember winters, cold with a lot of snow, icicles hanging from homes, barns and trees, and playing hockey on the frozen lakes with homemade skates and sticks. I remember the summers with beautiful green flora, hard work at the farm, a little bit of free time in which we played soccer, swam, went horseback riding or went fishing.

In 1989 I decided to leave my beautiful homeland behind and start new life.  On July 28, 1989 I came to United States of America. The dreams of so many, came through for so few. In the beginning I lived in Greenpoint Brooklyn, Ridgewood Queens, Fort Lee New Jersey and then in 1993 I moved to Forest Hills Queens where I dwell until today. The history of Forest Hills starts around 1906, when Brooklyn attorney Cord Meyer, bought 600 acres of land where six farms were located and named that area Forest Hills. Part of that land was sold with the intention to build low-income housing to improve living conditions for the working poor. From that time until the present the property value went so much up that that plan didn’t work.

In present time, Forest Hills contains an area of 2.6 sq. ml with population around 84,000 people. Residents are racially diversified with almost 50% foreign born. There are many things I like about this neighborhood: it’s very quiet, safe, clean, has an excellent urban design. On many occasions it reminds me of the place from where I came. It’s such a small world and ironically a small village in Poland and Forest Hills Queens have a lot of similarities. But there are some things which I’m not happy about. For example, Forest Hills is changing rapidly and is loosing its architectural look. Many of old beautiful English style houses are disappearing from the neighborhood, and in their place, new and ugly houses are built with glass, plastic and paper design.

Day by day life in the place where I live goes like the time in the atomic clock. At 5:15 am you could hear the first plane coming to La Guardia Airport. At 6 am Chinese women gather at the playground and do tai chi exercise. At 6:15 am people start coming out to walk the dogs. At 6:30 am the newspapermen comes.  At 6:40 am my neighbor leaves to get coffee and a fresh bagel for breakfast. Then in the evening there is more or less the similar schedule with different activities.

Overall, I’m happy that I live in Forest Hills, Queens and would highly recommend this neighborhood to anyone who is planning to move. It will be a great idea to spent some time in Forest Hills Park, or just enjoy afternoon on Austin Street shopping, buying a coffee, an ice-cream or a cake at Martha Steward bakery or just visit Forest Hills stadium where first US Open tennis tournament was played.