A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

Recent entries:
“Be the tequila, not the lime” (3/28)
“I am the tequila, not the lime” (3/28)
“You are the tequila, not the lime” (3/28)
Crun (croissant + cinnamon bun) (3/28)
“Don’t be a chaser, be the one who gets chased. You are the tequila, not the lime” (3/28)
More new entries...

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z


Entry from October 02, 2004
Little Colombia (Chapinero or Chapinerito)
"Little Colombia" is Jackson Heights, Queens. The restaurant bearing this name probably helped.

"Chapinero" is a desirable area of Bogota, Colombia. "Little Colombia" is also sometimes called "Chapinero" or "Chapinerito."


Wikipedia: Jackson Heights, Queens
Jackson Heights is a neighborhood in north-western portion of the borough of Queens in New York City, USA. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 3.

Jackson Heights is an urban melting pot with many ethnic populations, but mainly consists of Latin Americans, multi-generational European, and Asian Americans. The Hispanic American population consists of a various mix of Latinos from many Latin American countries, mainly Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Mexico, Argentina and Uruguay who followed the Cuban initial immigrants. There is also an older population of Europeans of multi-generational Italian, Jewish, Polish, and Irish descent that have remained in the area. The surging Asian American community includes immigrants from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Korea, and the Philippines. An additional surge is also coming from newly arriving Eastern European nations and the former Soviet Union countries. There is a commercial section of Jackson Heights known as "Little India" that is located between 37th Avenue and Broadway primarily on 73rd and 74th Streets.

13 February 1974, New York Times, "Colombia Looks to Queens For a A Key to Her Election" by John L. Hess, pg. 83:
Chapinerito is known to norteamericanos as Jackson Heights and Woodside, Queens. To perhaps 80,000 Colombians who live there -- not eve Emilia knows how many for sure -- it is fondly named after Chapinero, an affluent suburb of Bogota.

11 May 1980, New York Times, "Hispanic Newcomers in City Cling to Values of Homeland" by David Vidal, pg. 42:
The interviewers went to all corners of the city -- to the Bronx and to East Harlem's El Barrio; to Jackson Heights, Queens, which Colombians have nicknamed "Chapinero" after a middle-class suburb of Bogota; to Richmond Hill, Queens, where many Ecuadorians live; to Washington Heights in Manhattan, where there are many Dominicans and Cubans, to Rosedale, Queens, and many other areas.

3 May 1991, New York Times, "Queens, Doorstep to the Whole Wide World" by Richard F. Shepard, pg. C1:
"When Colombians make a date to meet in Jackson Heights, they say, 'I'll meet you in little Chapinero,' the name of a barrio in Bogota," said Bernardo Duque, director of the Columbian Independence Festival, an annual event in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park organized by the Colombian Civic Center. Last year, the event drew 500,000 spectators and will be repeated on July 20. The center of Colombian Queens, he said, is at 82d Street and Roosevelt Avenue.

28 November 1993, New York Times, pg. CY15:
Many Colombians refer to this section of Roosevelt Avenue as Chapinero, the name of a desirable area in Bogota.

31 January 1990, New York Times, pg. B1:
For Colombians in Queens,
Time of Pain and Questions
(...)
(Photo caption - ed.)
"With everything that has happened to the Colombian, the n the plane, and then on the plane there was a guy with drugs!" lamented Gilberto Garrido, proprietor of a Jackson Heights, Queens, restaurant called La Pequena Colombia, or Little Colombia.
(...)(Pg. B2 - ed.)
The epicenter of the Colombian New York community is not called Little Bogota, perhaps, because the calenos from Cali, the paisas from Medellin and the costenos from coastal cities like Barranquilla and Cartagena would not have it.

9 October 1992, New York Times, pg. B1:
Land of Magic in Heart of Queens
Others See Grit; Colombians Find Bogota on Roosevelt Ave.
(...)
But if you lament the passing of legend, consider a walk with Jaime Manrique beneath the rattling rails of the elevated subway that enclose Roosevelt Avenue like a zipper - into a place called Little Colombia, Queens.
Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityNeighborhoods • Saturday, October 02, 2004 • Permalink


Commenting is not available in this channel entry.