The lighter side of immigration: A day at the park in Queens
B A PARKER, HOST:
Heads up - there's going to be some salty language. Hey, everyone. You're listening to CODE SWITCH. I'm B.A. Parker. Now, it's officially summer in New York City, and I'm keeping the feelings about the hundred-degree weather to myself, but it allows for this beautiful time when everyone is just outside, making the most of it. You've got open fire hydrants and shaved ice and loud music. But what I love is going to the park. It's something that also means a lot to one of my producers, Xavier Lopez, and NPR immigration reporter Jasmine Garsd. Last year, they brought us an episode about the joyful side of the immigrant experience, which has been harder to come by lately. As crackdowns on immigrants are ramping up throughout the country, we wanted to revisit a happy immigration story.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
PARKER: Hey, Xavi. Hey, Jasmine.
XAVIER LOPEZ: Hey.
JASMINE GARSD: Hello.
LOPEZ: So we're very excited to take our listeners to one of my favorite places on Earth - Flushing Meadows Park. It's my park. It's a couple of blocks away from where I grew up in Queens.
PARKER: Your park.
LOPEZ: My park. It's my park. I claim. I claim.
GARSD: (Laughter) Well, I also live in Queens. And, you know, I feel like Central Park in Manhattan gets so much attention and so much love. In my opinion, this park is way cooler.
PARKER: As a Brooklyn girl, agree to disagree. But OK.
LOPEZ: All right, all right. We're not going to have any borough fighting today, OK? Back to this park. This is a place where immigrants from all over the world come to get some fresh air and to relax and to really just have fun, you know? So today, put on your sunscreen, (speaking Spanish).
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: All right. Anyway.
GARSD: (Laughter).
PARKER: Oh, boy.
LOPEZ: We're going to go to the park.
PARKER: All right. This is where I leave you. Xavi, Jasmine, go forth.
GARSD: I love that smell - you know, that morning city park smell. It's like the smell of dewy earth and fresh cut grass and evaporating beer from the night before.
LOPEZ: Yeah. It's quite a smell. And you can really take it all in in this park right here - this, like, huge park, by the way. There is, like, a lot going on here. The Met Stadium on one side. It's got a tennis stadium on the other. It's got this giant lake. It's got this - the Unisphere, this, like, 140-foot, like, metal globe structure that is in the middle of the park. It's, like, pretty synonymous with Queens, and I love her. I just - I have really fond feelings for this...
GARSD: (Laughter).
LOPEZ: ...For the structure.
GARSD: You love the structure.
LOPEZ: I love the structure. But we don't talk about that.
GARSD: (Laughter).
LOPEZ: Anyway, as we walk through the park, we see this group leaving, and they look so tired and just sweaty. But they look so happy.
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
JAVIER JUAREZ: OK.
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
JUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: They're decked in medals and holding a trophy the size of a baby.
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
JUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
JUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: The spoils of victory.
GARSD: They've been in the park since 6 a.m. on a Sunday.
LOPEZ: And as we're talking to them, they tell us a story of intrigue, betrayal and revenge.
GARSD: You know, football. Javier Juarez - he's the one holding the cup. Javier is very sinewy. You can tell he plays a lot out here. And their team just won the championship.
JUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: London?
JUAREZ: London.
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
JUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: He says he named the team London after the restaurant where he works at, a seafood spot here in Queens. A lot of the team is from the London kitchen staff.
GARSD: And - OK. So, like, right from the get-go, London is awful - the soccer team, I mean. Like, the restaurant actually looks really good. But the team, on a good day, they lose 0-7.
LOPEZ: London got so bad, people started dropping out. And a few weeks before the final, this one dude, a key player, tells Javier, listen, man...
JUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: ...I'm not going to be able to make it on Sundays anymore.
JUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: And Javier tells him, OK. It's OK. Like, he gets it. Life gets busy. There's not always time for football.
LOPEZ: But today, they get here for the final, and guess who they see playing for the opposite team?
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
JUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: Yeah. The guy who told him he couldn't make it anymore on Sundays.
LOPEZ: Not just that. He poached a bunch of London's players.
GARSD: Javier is upset. He's so angry, he plays harder than ever.
LOPEZ: They go to penalties, and it's Javier's turn to kick. And get this.
GARSD: The traitor, the guy who abandoned London - he goes up to the goalie and he says, let me take this one. Come on. Hit me with your best shot, Javier.
JUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: He looks the traitor right in the eye, like, for a long, hard couple of seconds. They stare each other down, and he says, I'm going to kick this ball so hard right now.
JUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: He missed. My man says he hit a squirrel. Sorry, ASPCA.
(LAUGHTER)
GARSD: But the futbol gods were favoring London.
LOPEZ: Another London player stepped up to make the last penalty kick.
JUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: And boom. London won the championship.
GARSD: So I asked Javier why he stood by London so faithfully. This is supposed to be just some weekend fun. I mean, why didn't he jump ship like some of the other players?
(Speaking Spanish).
JUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: He says that's just not who he is. "I'm not that kind of person. If I start something, I see it through to the end. My dad taught me that."
GARSD: Javier's dad is back in Mexico, in Oaxaca. Javier left 20 years ago.
JUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: Where he's from, he says, everyone knows each other, and for Christmas, the whole town gets together and eats. He says today he remembered his first Christmas in the U.S.
JUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: He spent it alone, washing dishes until 3 a.m. New Year's? Same thing - washing dishes until 3 a.m.
JUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: That first year, he was really depressed. He left his family behind. He would send them money to pay for hospital bills, send his brothers to school.
GARSD: And the reason he says he remembered that today is because back then, there was no time for soccer. In fact, he didn't play soccer for years. He just focused on work, sending money home. He got back into soccer pretty recently, started a little team. You might have heard of them. They're called London. And even as we're talking, people keep interrupting to take selfies with them and their giant trophy.
LOPEZ: And the thing he says he's learned those years not playing soccer is...
JUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish). Keep on going. Keep on going.
JUAREZ: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: "Like we say in Mexico," he says, "I don't back away from anything."
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LOPEZ: OK. So we're walking towards the Unisphere, the love of my life, the giant globe.
GARSD: (Laughter) I love that. Anyway, so we're walking there. There's so many food stands selling different kinds of ceviche and cevichado (ph). And - OK, so first of all, Queens has the best food in all of New York, and this park is excellent in terms of food - I'd say better than any park in New York.
LOPEZ: Yeah. I think that's probably an accurate assessment. I feel like that's just Queens generally. There's just, like, a lot of great food here. And I feel like partially, it's because there's, like, a lot of immigrants here. Like, nearly half of the people in Queens are immigrants from more than a hundred and twenty countries. And you can see some of that represented here at the park. I see a lot of Latinos and Asian folks who make the park their community and people of all ages - older folks that come here to feed the animals and the young people that come here to just, like, hang out. They're throughout the park, having barbecues with families or picnics with their friends.
GARSD: And also, there's a huge Ecuadorian community here, and it's growing.
LOPEZ: Yeah. There's, like, a lot of Ecuadorian immigrants here, like me. You know, I came here back in 2002. And back then, there was already a small Ecuadorian population here. But in the last couple of years, New York has seen one of the biggest Ecuadorian populations in the U.S., and it's mostly here in Queens.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TU HORA YA PASO")
MARIA ROSA PATRON: (Singing in Spanish).
LOPEZ: Right now, we're at the Ecuadorian festival. This is a festival that happens every year or so in August around Ecuadorian Independence Day.
GARSD: And there's two guys selling ice cream here.
LOPEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
They're cousins.
LUIS: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: Luis (ph) is short. He's very handsome. He has a baby face, dimples and some stubble. He's young, but I noticed there's some grays in there, too.
LOPEZ: Luis' cousin is tall. He wears glasses and his hair spiked in a way that makes you feel like he's taller, too.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: Luis is shy, but his cousin is such a hype man. And they have this dynamic. Think Richie and Carmy in "The Bear" vibes, but it's about selling helados at the Ecuadorian festival.
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: Exactly - cousin, primo. And his primo keeps pushing Luis to talk to us while pointing an helado at him the entire time (laughter).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: So primo says, "you should do it, man. Do the interview. Don't be so shy." And Luis starts telling us his story.
LOPEZ: ...About how the situation in Ecuador - it's gotten pretty violent.
GARSD: Yeah. I mean, cartel violence has driven a lot of the recent immigration out of Ecuador, and it's impacted almost every Ecuadorian I've met here in New York.
LOPEZ: My family included.
GARSD: So Luis told us he did what so many people do in order to come to the U.S. He hired a coyote, which is sort of like a guide that brings you up through Central America and Mexico to the U.S. border. And he paid this guy about $20,000.
(Speaking Spanish).
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL RINGING)
LUIS: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: Which is not an uncommon fee to get you all the way from South America to the U.S.
LOPEZ: Coming to the U.S. is expensive, he says.
GARSD: But he got here.
LOPEZ: He crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and turned himself in, said he needed asylum.
GARSD: He comes to New York.
LUIS: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: He has this $20,000 debt to the coyote who brought him here.
LOPEZ: So many migrants find themselves in that situation - owing a lot of money basically to a cartel. And those are not people you want to owe money to.
GARSD: And keep this in mind. When migrants like Luis arrive, they don't have permission to work here legally.
LOPEZ: So Luis - he gets a job in construction, but he also decides to do street vending gigs. The clock is ticking. Every penny and every second counts.
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
But he says there's this one additional hurdle.
LUIS: (Speaking Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).
LUIS: (Speaking Spanish, laughing).
LOPEZ: He's really shy.
GARSD: So he starts reading this book.
LUIS: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: "Atomic Habits" by James Clear, a motivational speaker from Ohio.
LUIS: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: Build better habits. Eat healthier and take more risks. Be more open. Be more of a businessman. Grow as a person. Challenge yourself.
GARSD: It's very Americana meets Ecuadoriana (ph). So when he heard about this Ecuadoran festival happening at the park today, he thought, be a businessman. Challenge yourself. Go sell some ice cream.
LOPEZ: Still, he says, when he got here, he kind of froze up. Like, you got to stand here amidst hundreds of people, really loud music blaring, other vendors yelling over you.
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
LUIS: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: And then he thought about his aunt. When he was a kid back in Ecuador, Luis used to sell flowers on the street with her.
LUIS: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: Roses - yellow roses, tulips - all kinds of tulips. And she would tell him, listen. You can't afford to be shy.
LOPEZ: So he says he repeated this mantra...
LUIS: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: ..."I got to keep going. I got to fight. I got to go back home for my dad one day. I got to keep going."
GARSD: And he took a deep breath, and he yelled it.
LUIS: (Shouting in Spanish).
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: All of this ice cream talk is making me hungry.
LOPEZ: You want to go get some food?
GARSD: Let's go sit down and eat something.
(SOUNDBITE OF PAPER RUSTLING)
GARSD: Oh, it's really good.
LOPEZ: You like it?
GARSD: Yeah.
LOPEZ: It's so nice out today. I'm just - I'm really glad we got to do this today.
GARSD: Yeah. It's kind of the perfect day to do this. I'm really glad we got out here. I'm just so glad that we get to spend a day at the park. And I really - like, so I'm an immigration reporter, and I work a lot between - I spend time at the U.S.-Mexico border, and then I come back to New York. And this last trip to the U.S.-Mexico border was really hard. Is it OK if I talk about something kind of heavy?
I met a mom who had just crossed, and she had a toddler. They were actually from Ecuador. And he was passed out. They had been walking all night, and he was passed out. And something had stung him in the eye. And he just looked like someone had beaten the s*** out of him. And, you know, it's just - she was like, please help me. And I flagged down - eventually, a Border Patrol car came by, and I flagged it down, and I was like, hey, there's a minor. There's - I think he's probably, like, 5 years old. He's passed out. And the guy just drove off. And eventually, like, an hour later, they came back, but we were trying to, like, get this kid to, like, stay awake. This kid looked like Rocky or something. It was bad.
And in the next couple of days, I - like, I couldn't cry. And I was like, why the f*** can't I cry? And I got back to New York, and I got back to Queens. I take a day off. I go - I grab a coffee, you know, from those little carts. I'm like, I'm going to go to the park with a coffee. This person - the coffee stand person says, do you want cream or sugar? And I just started sobbing. And I realized a couple of things. I realized what an important space a park is for me - like, a safe space.
And I also realized, like, that mom and that kid - I don't know. Like, I'll never - I don't know where they are. I don't know. They were heading to the Carolinas, I think, but you never know. And one day, they will get to have a picnic in a park like this one, you know? Like, they will have a life. I just met them on the worst day of their life. And they will get to be somewhere like this. It just really made me think about - I don't want my reporting to just be the worst day of immigrants' lives. I also want it to be a normal day or a beautiful day. I'm sorry. Did I ruin our day at the park?
LOPEZ: No, no.
GARSD: I didn't mean to ruin (laughter) our day at the park.
LOPEZ: No, no.
GARSD: That's why I wanted to do this so bad...
LOPEZ: Aw.
GARSD: ...And to hang out with you.
LOPEZ: Yeah. You're cool, Jasmine.
GARSD: Do you want to walk a little more?
LOPEZ: Yeah. Let's go. Come on.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS CHIRPING)
GARSD: When we come back...
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GARSD: This is a very attractive park, if you know what I mean.
LOPEZ: Yeah. There's a lot of hotties out here.
GARSD: It's like Hotties Park.
LOPEZ: That's coming up. Stay with us.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LOPEZ: Xavier.
GARSD: Jasmine.
LOPEZ: CODE SWITCH. Do we want to do one in Spanish?
GARSD: Yeah.
LOPEZ: Xavier.
GARSD: Jasmine.
LOPEZ: CODE SWITCH. It's afternoon now, and we just got back from this huge Colombian lunch. Jasmine had a nice, piping hot sancocho - this, like, fish stew - on a beautiful summer day, which is odd.
GARSD: I regret nothing.
LOPEZ: OK (laughter). And we're now trying to walk this off a little, so we head in the direction of the cricket fields.
GARSD: OK. And can I just say - this is a very attractive park, and I'm not just talking about the foliage.
LOPEZ: Yeah. This is a very attractive section of the park.
GARSD: It's like, right now, we are looking at some sort of mirage of hotness (laughter). It's like a group of some of the most attractive men I've ever seen in person. It's - and just lounging on the grass. It's like a Calvin Klein ad.
LOPEZ: And not only that - they're, like, incredibly well-dressed.
UNIDENTIFIED CRICKET PLAYERS: (Non-English language spoken).
LOPEZ: Their shirts are, like, red with little bits of blue-and-black stripes throughout. It's got this big lion on the shoulder with the words Lion Champion spread across the abdomen.
GARSD: That's the name of the team - the Lion Champions, not the Hot Boys (laughter).
And are you - you're the captain?
ARJUN: He's the captain.
KERN: I'm the captain...
ARJUN: I'm the vice captain.
KERN: ...And he's the vice captain.
GARSD: Oh.
KERN: It's OK. It's good.
LOPEZ: Captain, what's your name?
KERN: It's Kern (ph).
LOPEZ: Kern?
KERN: Yeah.
LOPEZ: And the vice captain?
ARJUN: Arjun (ph).
LOPEZ: Arjun?
ARJUN: You know that, right?
LOPEZ: Kern and Arjun, both from Punjab, do this a lot - interrupt each other.
ARJUN: Yes.
GARSD: Who started the team?
ARJUN: He. He's the captain.
LOPEZ: What's the name of the team?
GARSD: OK. So they're barbecuing chicken and insisting that we have some.
Are you ready for your interview?
KERN: Yeah. I'm ready. But we eat first.
GARSD: You know, we just had a huge lunch but thank you.
LOPEZ: But literally, I can't say no. I just - I wasn't raised that way.
KERN: Only one.
ARJUN: OK. You can try.
KERN: Each person one piece.
ARJUN: You can try.
LOPEZ: I'll take one piece, OK?
KERN: You're from - where are you from?
LOPEZ: As we were talking and eating chicken, we find out a little bit more about the team. And it turns out everyone on this team knows each other from back home.
KERN: Yeah. I feel like home because all the village is here. All of my area is here. All the friends are here.
GARSD: So what's your name?
RANJEET: It's Ranjeet (ph).
GARSD: Suranjeet (ph)?
RANJEET: Ranjeet. Ranjeet. So you can call me Ruby (ph). That's my nickname.
GARSD: Ruby and these guys are Sikhs, and there's a long history of persecution against Sikhs in India and the world.
RANJEET: We are asylum-seekers here, right?
GARSD: So you can't go back.
RANJEET: We can't go back.
GARSD: Do you miss India?
RANJEET: Honestly, I don't miss India. Yeah. I just miss my family. That's it.
LOPEZ: This is home now, Queens - this park, his friends.
RANJEET: All of us guys here, all are Punjabis, you know? So we work five or six days, and we enjoy every Sunday.
GARSD: So Ruby says, for now, he's driving around New York.
RANJEET: I do Uber. Uber driver - I'm an Uber driver.
LOPEZ: He works out of JFK a lot, picking people up at the airport. And he says it's a good gig, decent money. But one day, he says...
RANJEET: Yeah. Somebody will pick me up.
LOPEZ: Yeah.
RANJEET: But we have lots of friends who...
GARSD: One day, he's going to be the one taking the vacation, and then he'll be getting picked up at the airport. He says he thinks about that day a lot.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
LOPEZ: So we're walking towards the volley courts.
GARSD: And it looks like there's some kind of event happening. There's a rainbow flag, a big trans flag draped across this tent, and people are dancing.
(Speaking Spanish).
BIANEY GARCIA: (Speaking Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVIST: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVIST: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: Turns out, it's a barbecue held by an immigrant rights organization, Make the Road New York.
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
GARCIA: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: Bianey Garcia is originally from southern Mexico, but she left 15 years ago.
GARSD: She's a trans woman, and Mexico can be really difficult for trans people, even more so than here.
LOPEZ: So as a teenager, she came to the U.S. - to Queens.
GARSD: And she built her life here. And then a year ago, she got this surprise. Her sister and niece were coming to live in Queens.
LOPEZ: And her niece didn't know that Bianey is trans.
GARCIA: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: So she started bringing her niece to the park. They walk the dog here. And they have these really long talks in which she explains what it means to be trans.
GARCIA: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: She says something that can seem unremarkable to a lot of people, like walking your dog in a park with your niece, that means a lot.
GARSD: To just be out together in public.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
GARSD: OK. So now we're walking into the volleyball court area, which is packed.
LOPEZ: There are very few things that are certain in life - death, taxes and Ecuadorians playing volley. I guess I never realized that not everyone is into volleyball like us. It was just so baked into, like, all parts of life. There were courts at the park. There were courts at the beach. And I've noticed more of them now here in Queens.
GARSD: Yeah. Well - so, like, 50,000 Ecuadorians have arrived to the U.S. in the last few decades, and most of them have come to Queens. And it's - you can really actually see this throughout New York. You can kind of trace it in the parks because throughout parks in the city, you see volleyball courts popping up and people playing more and more volleyball. And correct me if I'm wrong, but volleyball - the courts seem like a guy space.
LOPEZ: That feels accurate. There's, like, 15 volley courts here, and out of all of them, I feel like I can only see two women playing.
GARSD: ...Like Flor.
FLOR: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: So Flor started playing volley because of her husband. Back in Ecuador, during the pandemic, she got really into it.
FLOR: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: Flor arrived in the U.S. around two months ago.
LOPEZ: Like a lot of people in her situation, she and her family are living in a room at their cousin's house. It's really crowded, she says.
FLOR: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: Her husband has been able to find work, but she can't. She's got to stay in the room they rent with her two kids who are toddlers.
FLOR: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: Back in Ecuador, she says they were always outside with their animals, even at night. Here, she says, there's nothing.
FLOR: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
As we're talking, I noticed that she's digging her hand into the dirt and the grass and looking away from us. You know, Flor is originally from La Sierra - from the mountains - and she says she misses it so much.
FLOR: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
FLOR: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: She had all kinds of animals, but she loved her pigs the most. She even named them...
FLOR: (Speaking Spanish, laughing).
LOPEZ: ...Carlotta (ph), 'cause she's a grandota - a big girl - Elisa (ph), her daughter's pig, Ivana (ph), her husband's, and then Florinda (ph), named after herself.
FLOR: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: "And it's different here," she says. "I can't have a dog or a cat. It's a small space." She says not seeing animals really stresses her out.
GARSD: So she comes out here on weekends to play volley.
LOPEZ: Now the sun's going down, and people at the courts start packing it up.
GARSD: Flor gets a really sad look on her face. She tells us she's got a plan, a dream.
FLOR: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: In five years, she's going to go back to Ecuador, back to the open space, back to her animals. Carlotta is probably wondering where she went.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LOPEZ: Before we leave, we stop by the merry-go-round.
GARSD: La calesita.
LOPEZ: Un carrusel.
GARSD: (Singing) Un carrusel...
(LAUGHTER)
LOPEZ: OK. Sure.
(LAUGHTER)
LOPEZ: This is one of the places I remember from, like, my elementary school field trips to the park. Oh, man, the merry-go-round.
GARSD: Oh, so fun, and so many animals to hop onto.
LOPEZ: Yes. But you don't understand. You have to choose the right one. Like, are you hopping on a cool horse or something that doesn't really move? Like, reputations are made out here.
GARSD: Wow. OK (laughter). In front of us is this kid about to get on the carousel all by himself.
(Speaking Spanish). Are you sure?
LOPEZ: His name is Maykel.
GARSD: So Maykel told us he moved here three years ago, and he says he comes to this park quite a bit. But he's never been on the merry-go-round, and he's had his eye on one of the animals, this big lion, making a roaring face.
(Speaking Spanish).
MAYKEL: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: I ask him where he's from.
(Speaking Spanish).
MAYKEL: (Speaking Spanish) Ecuador.
LOPEZ: Oh, me too, I say.
(Speaking Spanish).
MAYKEL: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: Ah.
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
MAYKEL: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: "Yeah," Maykel says. "But I'm extreme."
GARSD: Yeah. I know. He's like, we're from the same country, but I'm not a nerd, like you, Xavi (laughter). And I asked him, how old are you?
(Speaking Spanish).
MAYKEL: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: "Eight years old," he says, "eight extreme years."
(LAUGHTER)
LOPEZ: OK. So we're getting on this merry-go-round.
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: (Speaking Spanish). We got to find where that line is.
GARSD: I know. (Speaking Spanish).
Maykel makes a beeline for this lion. He's been waiting - not just waiting - Maykel has been training for a year, he says. He's been training with his cousin.
(Speaking Spanish).
MAYKEL: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
MAYKEL: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: He says he's been doing cartwheels and strength training so he can up and ride this line.
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
MAYKEL: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: No, (speaking Spanish).
MAYKEL: No.
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
MAYKEL: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
OK (laughter). So the merry-go-round takes off, and it's not 200 miles an hour. But (laughter) it is actually pretty fast.
Yeah. That is going a little bit fast (laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LOPEZ: Yeah. So Jasmine, you're not doing so well suddenly.
GARSD: Yeah. Like, the ice cream and chicken, combo, and then we did have a fish stew...
LOPEZ: The sancocho. Right.
GARSD: ...The sancocho.
Oh, man, eating soup before this was a big mistake.
(LAUGHTER)
LOPEZ: At this point, Jasmine asks him, how are you feeling? But I think you were more asking for yourself.
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
MAYKEL: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: Maykel is unfazed.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL RINGING)
LOPEZ: It ends, and Maykel emerges victorious. He's doing his little victory walk off the carousel, and we're stumbling behind, still dizzy.
GARSD: And for the record - do you want to tell listeners? For the record, I did not throw up.
LOPEZ: OK. Sure.
GARSD: I didn't (laughter). Outside on a bench, we sit with Maykel's mother, Estefania.
ESTEFANIA: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: Yeah. She tells us he's been asking to come on this merry-go-round for a year, and she just finally gave in.
GARSD: Wow. (Speaking Spanish).
Well, I say, he's been telling us about what a brave boy he is. He is, she answers.
ESTEFANIA: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: She starts to tell us the story of how three years ago, she and Maykel picked up and left Ecuador.
ESTEFANIA: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: The two of them made it to the border. Maykel was 5. They swam across the Rio Grande and asked for asylum.
GARSD: I asked if he got scared.
(Speaking Spanish).
ESTEFANIA: No, (speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: "No," she says. "He acted like it was a walk in the park."
ESTEFANIA: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish).
ESTEFANIA: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: She says since they made the journey to the U.S., they are always together, except when she works or he's in school. She has a job in construction, which, by the way, a lot of migrant women have been doing that. And then Maykel interrupts in pretty much perfect English.
MAYKEL: Like, my teacher speak the both language. But he speak the both language.
GARSD: Oh, wow. Your English is really good.
MAYKEL: Yeah.
GARSD: (Laughter) He's like, yeah, I could've done this whole interview in English.
MAYKEL: The two language, that is hard to control, but I control it really good.
GARSD: Yeah?
MAYKEL: Yeah.
GARSD: Estefania's watching him. She's tearing up as she watches her son talk.
ESTEFANIA: (Speaking Spanish).
LOPEZ: "I'm so proud of him - my son. I tell him I prefer he speak in English. That way, I can learn from him."
MAYKEL: I never have trouble ever.
LOPEZ: He doesn't have trouble ever.
GARSD: Ever?
MAYKEL: Not ever.
LOPEZ: Wow, a very brave man.
GARSD: A brave...
MAYKEL: Yeah.
GARSD: I ask Maykel if he would do it again - the carousel.
(Speaking Spanish).
MAYKEL: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: (Laughter).
"A thousand times," he says.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LOPEZ: As we're walking out the park, it's nighttime. People are going home.
GARSD: Street vendors are selling the last remaining bits of food and cleaning their gear. Volleyball nets are coming down.
LOPEZ: Tomorrow, everyone will go back to the grind, back to the construction job, the kitchen, the Uber, the asylum application.
GARSD: ...Back to dreaming of going back home one day or dreaming of never having to go back home.
LOPEZ: But just for today, everyone got their day in the park.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LOPEZ: And that's our show. You can follow us on Instagram - @nprcodeswitch. If email is more your thing, ours is [email protected]. And subscribe to the podcast on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also subscribe to the CODE SWITCH newsletter by going to npr.org/codeswitchnewsletter.
GARSD: And just a reminder that signing up for CODE SWITCH+ is a great way to support our show and public media, and you'll get to listen to every episode sponsor-free. So please go find out more at plus.npr.org/codeswitch.
LOPEZ: This episode was produced by me, Jasmine Garsd, Margaret Cirino and Christina Cala. It was edited by Courtney Stein and Leah Donnella. Our engineers were James Willetts and Robert Rodriguez.
GARSD: And a big shout-out to the rest of the CODE SWITCH massive - Jess Kung, Jasmine Romero, Dalia Mortada, Veralyn Williams, B.A. Parker and Gene Demby.
LOPEZ: I'm Xavier Lopez.
GARSD: I'm Jasmine Garsd.
LOPEZ: Take care.
GARSD: (Speaking Spanish), chicos.
UNIDENTIFIED BYLINE: Who wrote this?
GARSD: We both did.
UNIDENTIFIED BYLINE: You guys wrote this together?
GARSD: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED BYLINE: I can tell.
(LAUGHTER)
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