Variety in The Bronx
When we were assigned the task to record a second field site observation, it admittedly took me a long time to come up with a satisfactory idea. I knew what I was looking for; I just didn’t know exactly where to go find it. I wanted a field site that would allow me to expand upon the general idea of my first field site observation, but in an entirely different setting comprised of more or less the same demographic.
At my first field site, I aimed to observe the Hispanic community situated on the northern half of Manhattan, Washington Heights. I specifically wanted to focus on the working class of this neighborhood, which I saw both on my way and at my field site. The area is teeming with diverse peoples of varying Hispanic backgrounds, such as Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Mexicans. My point was to observe these hardworking individuals in a setting that saw hundreds upon hundreds of them on a daily basis. I chose the 1 Train station of 181st Street, Washington Height’s busiest sector.
I saw exactly what I wanted to see. I saw middle and high school students getting off the train as they completed their trips back home. I saw mothers, also with their schoolchildren, on their way home, too. Men and women in suits, some in more casual office wear, others in construction attire, were also seen. I connected my experience and what I saw at my field site to the negative comments of our current President concerning people of Spanish-speaking backgrounds. Simply just the lives of these people and their efforts to survive via strife in a hyper-capitalistic society, one where they’re often looked down upon, defy the opinions of our commander-in-chief.
With my second field site report, I wanted to expand upon what I’d already done at my first. I realized that while observing Washington Heights, I paid attention only to the working class of the area. My own personal positive bias towards my fellow Hispanics likely got in the way of a more well-rounded assessment of the area, and I wanted to prove Trump wrong. While the working class here is admittedly a large portion of the population, it is not 100% of it. Washington Heights has its fair share of wealthy Hispanic people, such as actress Dascha Polanco or Congressman Adriano Espaillat. Washington Heights also has its fair share of poor and homeless people. I felt that to achieve a better assessment, I should observe an area that sees individuals with different economic statuses but share a similar sub-culture in the same geographical region. I chose my Dominican-owned barbershop in the Mount Eden area of the Bronx.
When I got to my barbershop, I was immediately greeted by the familiar scent of aftershave and hairspray. Dominican music in varying genres of bachata, merengue, and salsa play boisterously on the speakers connected in the back. Loud chatter in English, Spanish, and a version of both languages combined can be heard. The blue-tiled floor is covered in different types of hair. Black hair, brown hair, smooth and wavy hair, nappy hair. Almost everyone here is Dominican, yet there are a wide range of skin complexions, ranging from as pale as snow to as dark as coffee. A number of people sit in the waiting section waiting for their respective barbers to tend to them. I join in the wait.
While I wait, I take notes on my iPhone on everything I see around me. Beside me is a mother with her toddler. She speaks in Spanish to her son, but her son replies in English. I assume the mother must have been born in the Dominican Republic, and so Spanish is her primary language. Her son, on the other hand, who is lighter than she is, was either born in the United States or raised in the United States, for even as a toddler his English runs smoothly and naturally. She plays with his hair as they speak about what she will ask the barber to do to it, and he replies whilst simultaneously slicing digital fruit on his tablet. She’s wearing average clothing: a black Bebe t-shirt and faded blue jeans with sneakers. Her son wears an orange striped tee, black jeans, and boots. These must be of an average, doing-well-enough family.
A couple minutes in, the bell of the front door dings as someone new walks inside. He’s wearing baggy clothing. His skin is oily. He has a slight limp. He carries with him a large plastic bag and is greeted by some of the barbers who work there. He speaks to them in Spanish for a couple of seconds, exchanging the common how are yous of acquaintance-based relationships. He then turns around, walks towards the waiting area, and performs the ritual of opening up his bag, displaying a few bootlegged films, chanting “movies, movies?” and then leave the barbershop having made no new customers. I wonder if he makes any significant money doing this.
Later on, as I’m getting my hair cut, someone new walks in yet again. Unlike with the bootlegged movie seller, all the barbers, almost as if on cue, pause their trimmers to personally greet the man. He greets them back in a fast-paced Spanglish. He wears a sweater that looks like it may be cashmere. The sun isn’t out – in fact, it’s cloudy – but he wears aviator sunglasses. He flaunts his gold watch, and instead of sitting down in the waiting area, he sits on the chair of abarber who isn’t here today. As he walks to the seat, I manage to catch a whiff of his cologne in the midst of the already strong aftershave and hairspray smell.
That individual was the last thing I took notes on, mentally or physically, before leaving the barbershop. Honestly, I felt that in just the 50 minutes I was here, I got a good chunk of diverse Hispanic life play out in front of me. To tie it back to the topic of my original field site observation, I realized something grander, something I already knew but never stringed together as an idea with words. It’s not just the working class of Hispanics that defy Trump’s comments. The President tends to label things under one stereotype, complete with a set attitude and income and standard of living. However, these things vary, for Hispanics as well as any other demographic. There is the lazy rich and the hardworking poor. There is defiance in diversity.
