Generations of migrants to Brooklyn have come from the town of Chinantla in Puebla.(Photo via economia.gob.mx)
Brooklyn’s Mexican community has significant historical ties to its central region, thanks to a chance encounter over 80 years ago.
GEOFFREY COBB | gcobb91839@Aol.com
Author, “Greenpoint Brooklyn’s Forgotten Past
We are again ready to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, a holiday commemorating the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Ask most Mexicans living in New York City what part of Mexico they come from, and they will answer Puebla, a region located in central Mexico.
One of Mexico’s smaller states in geographic size, Puebla, though ranks fifth in population with over six million inhabitants. More than one million people from Puebla live in the United States, most of them in New York City neighborhoods including heavy concentrations in Sunset Park, Corona and Elmhurst.
According to estimates from the Pew Research Center and the Mexican Migration Project, approximately 70% of Mexicans in New York have roots in Puebla. Estimates claim that at least 200,000 People from Puebla live in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area, making Puebla the main state of origin for Mexicans in the Northeastern United States. The migration has been so extensive that it now represents one-sixth of the population of Puebla.
Like most Mexican immigrants, Poblanos are hard working. Many work in restaurants, construction and retail. Many of the Poblanos working in our city send a large portion of their earnings back home. In 2023 alone, migrants from Puebla sent more than $2.4 billion in remittances to their home state, according to data from the Bank of Mexico, and most of that money came from New York.
Many towns in Puebla have a long and deep connection to New York City, perhaps none more than the small town of Chinantla, whose migration started more than eighty years ago, when Pedro Simón and his brother, Fermín, hitched a ride to New York City with an Italian American tourist they met in Mexico City. The man not only took them all the way to Times Square but even put them up in a hotel and got them jobs mopping floors at a restaurant. The day they decided to stay in the city, they left their hotel feeling celebratory, only to be showered by confetti in Times Square. It was V-E Day.
Decades later, the brothers returned to Chinantla, where they built big houses. Since the Simon brothers first arrived here, generations of migrants from Chinantla have come to New York City. Money from the United States has helped revitalize the town. Funds from migrants built the town’s schools and rebuilt its church, financed and designed its potable water system and illuminated its streets. Second and even third-generation New Yorkers keep their connection to the town. Teen-age girls from Brooklyn compete every year in the annual beauty pageant to be Senorita Chinantla, and often win.
Though the Simon brothers might have been the first Poblano migrants to New York City, they certainly were not the last. In the 1960s there were few economic opportunities in Puebla creating a second wave of Poblanos, many of them from the same small Puebla villages. At the end of the 1960s, when there was a lot of work in manufacturing and in the restaurant industry, the weekly income of the immigrants ranged from U.S.$50 to $80, considerably more than they would earn back home. New York Poblanos encouraged their friends and families in Mexico to migrate and within ten years, there were 6,000 New York Poblanos, and by 1980, 25,000. The 1982 and 1994 economic crises, as well as the 1985 earthquake, sparked a mass migration to New York. Within the United States, tougher anti-immigrant laws in California pushed Poblanos to seek safe haven with friends and family in the northeast.
The Puebla state government has so many of its citizens living in the United States that it created the concept of Casas Puebla in several U.S. cities with large numbers of Poblanos. A Casa Puebla advises Poblanos on immigration policy, consular matters, and customs. In addition, it also tells Poblanos of their rights as residents in the United States and strengthens their bonds with their families in Mexico. The first Casa Puebla in the United States began helping Poblanos New York City in May 1999.
One of the clearest indicators of the size of the Poblano community in New York City are the many restaurants and food trucks owned by Poblanos. Former New York chef and television host Anthony Bourdain worked with so many Poblanos, including his sous chef Eddie Perez, that he filmed one of his episodes entitled “Where the Cooks are from” in Puebla. One of the best Poblano eateries is Tulcingo del Valle, which is located on tenth Avenue in Manhattan and is famous for its tacos. Another great Poblano spot is Aquí en Bella Puebla on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, which serves delicious Mole sauces, for which Puebla is famous.
The Zaragosa Deli across from Manhattan’s Stuyvesant town has created an army of devoted fans with its blue-plate daily specials, which might include egg-filled albondigas in Chile sauce, pork ribs and verdólagas (purslane) in salsa verde, smothered chile relleno, or its signature dish potato and chorizo enchiladas. In Greenpoint, a Poblano family owns Acapulco, which has been serving up tasty Poblano dishes for decades.
Poblanos are a huge presence in New York City and Poblano culture is an integral part of the cultural mosaic that is New York City.
