Portfolio at NYU

Posted 10.04.05
An eye on the homeland

By Jason Boog

Newsday
May 11, 2005

A crowd of 50 Ecuadoran immigrants gathered inside the offices of Delgado Travel in Jackson Heights one recent day, watching the political situation in their homeland unravel on jumbo television screens.

The crowds had gathered last month at the travel agency, a nerve center for the local Ecuadoran community, to watch the minute-by-minute developments as then-President Lucio Gutierrez fled the country.

"We played Ecuador news all day," said Linda Delgado, 30, whose parents emigrated from Ecuador and started the travel agency three decades ago.

The people "were glued to the television," Delgado said.

Earlier, Gutierrez had disbanded the country's Supreme Court, a move some considered to be an attempt to consolidate power. The move generated a throng of angry protesters outside the presidential palace in the capital city of Quito and led to Gutierrez's ouster from office. He is the third leader of the country to be ousted since 1997.

Political instability in Ecuador, such as that experienced in recent weeks, has contributed to the rapid growth of Ecuadoran immigrants in New York City, according to city officials.

"Anything that upsets the balance will increase the flow of immigrants," said Frank Vardy, a demographer with the city's Department of City Planning.

The Ecuadoran population in New York City has increased 90 percent during the 1990s, according to Vardy, a surge that coincides with the string of troubled presidencies in the homeland.

With more than 115,000 people of Ecuadoran descent living in the five boroughs, the community is one of the largest in the city, according to city planning officials.

Despite the thousands of miles that separate them from their native country, many Ecuadorans in the city still closely follow political developments back home.

"Ecuadorans are very fond of their news," said Delgado, whose family started a sub-carrier radio station eight years ago.

Instead of buying a spot on the crowded radio dial, the station transmits a signal that can be picked up only by special radios sold exclusively through Delgado Travel. So far, some 500,000 radios have been sold, according to Delgado.

Within the travel agency, the Delgado family also built a radio studio, where DJs provide 24 hours of programming, including salsa music, an Ecuadoran news feed and broadcasts of South American soccer games.

On weekends and whenever major developments occur in Ecuador, members of the local Ecuadoran community can be found at Delgado Travel, getting up to date on the news back home, as was the case in recent weeks.

"Here, people [the immigrants] think their country will never go forward if the Ecuadoran people think they can kick out the president with every little dissatisfaction," said Delgado, whose sentiments echo the concern of many in the local Ecuadoran community.

The New York City Ecuadoran community does not keep up with the news in their homeland only out of curiosity. They are concerned about how developments in Ecuador affect their families back home, as well as their situation in their new home in the United States.

"Our preoccupation is that this new government will upset relations with the United States," Marcelo Arboleda, 58, the founder and editor-in-chief of Ecuador News, said of the administration currently in control in Ecuador.

Since Gutierrez's ouster, his vice president, Alfred Palacio, has taken over as president.

Over the past nine years it has been in existence, Arboleda's publication, based in Jackson Heights, has grown from a 4,000-circulation monthly into a 60-page, 43,000-circulation weekly.

While this mirrors the rapidly growing population in recent years, Arboleda noted that Ecuadoran immigration to New York has spanned decades.

"Over 30 years ago, the first ones came," he said. "They were poor people, working in factories and restaurants. Their sons and daughters are lawyers, doctors and professionals now."

A week after Gutierrez fled the country, Luis Supliguicha was surfing the Internet at a computer center in Jackson Heights.

"I e-mail my family two times a week," said Supliguicha, 31, who has lived in Elmhurst for five years since leaving Ecuador in search of better job opportunities.

"They are worried now; it's very difficult in our country."