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The Bowry Boys episode 391. A walk through Little Caribbean. Hey, it's the Bowry Boys. Hey!

Hi there. Welcome to the Bowry Boys. This is Greg Young.

And this is Tom Myers with part two of our story of Flatbush with a focus on the Caribbean cultures that helped define it today. And especially on the part of the neighborhood today called Little Caribbean.

But we're not going to just sit inside a recording studio talking about this. No, it's it's much too nice outside. It's the start of summer. We are going on a walking tour.

A food tour, in fact, it's the best kind. But first, let us recap. Because in the last episode, we explored the rich history of the Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush from its Dutch days when it was quite rural.

Up through the 20th century with the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Kings Theatre and into present day 21st century Flatbush. And at the end of our story, we spoke with Shelley Warl from the Community Action Group, I am Cara Bean, about how she led an effort to designate part of the neighborhood, Little Caribbean.

Well, in just a few minutes, we are going to walk the streets of Flatbush with Shelley as she takes us on a mini food and culture tour of Little Caribbean. And for that reason, I have not eaten anything yet today.

I know you're hungry. Actually, the microphone is picking up your stomach, growling Greg. Maybe step back. It is. I'm sorry.

But first, to situate us, let's take a step back and look at the bigger story, the larger story of Caribbean immigration to New York City.

And fortunately, we have another expert on the show to help set the scene here. We're joined now by Dr. Taishahmatix, an assistant professor at Fordham University's Department of African and African American Studies.

We talk about how people from the Caribbean first begin immigrating to America and the challenges they faced over the past century.

Hello, and welcome to the show, Taishah.

Thank you so much for having me today.

Dr. Matix, thank you for talking with us before we head out on our Flatbush walking tour. In our last show, we discussed how a Caribbean community developed here in Flatbush in the 20th century.

But if we could just step back for a moment, what did Caribbean immigration to the United States look like in the late 19th century in the early 20th century?

So that's actually a great question.

The group of Caribbean immigrants that came on at the turn of the century were a very different group of people that came later on in the 20th century, especially after 1960.

So this first group of people were definitely a smaller group of immigrants that were coming still in significant numbers.

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