The day the New York stock market opened with a 108-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial average, it not only meant a terrible decline in the financial market at a state and national level, but a profound crisis for the world in general.
Faced with this situation, we as Latino immigrants and residents of Queens, in one way or another, have been affected by this drastic change. For that reason, El Correo de Queens decided to speak with employees of one of the busiest Latino commercial centers in the borough, Roosevelt Avenue. Some concluded that this financial decline began with the September 11 attacks. Others think the market is the principal cause.
“It’s terrible. In reality, we are being pulled under. What happened a few weeks ago on Wall Street had nothing to do with it. This decline has been happening for some time,” said Leticia Tordoya, a saleswoman with Ecuamex Variedades at 84-18 Roosevelt Avenue.
At the same time, two blocks away, we find another employee who shares the same opinion and who, in addition, laments having lost almost all of his clients in such a short time.
“It is not like it was before. Here, in this business, we have felt the financial fall of the market. Things definitely began to get worse since 2001, but this year has been the worst of all, really. We have lost almost all of our clients,” said Francisco Aguila, employee of OK Gift Center, located at 82-19 Roosevelt Avenue.
Despite these feelings so close to us, which go hand in hand with an expectation of solving the economic crisis, the U.S. House of Representatives ended up rejecting President Bush’s financial rescue plan. After that happened, the problems seemed to magnify, and other small and large businesses seem to be following in the path of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Lehman Brothers, such in the case of Tierras Colombianas at 82-18 Roosevelt Avenue, which closed a couple of weeks ago.
“The problem is that people do not have money to pay the rent. Many establishments in this area are closing and the situation is going to get worse. We do not know how we are going to end up,” said Ernesto Guevara, an employee of Don Juan Jewelry at 81-07 Roosevelt Avenue.
However, for others, the panorama seems favorable, and they think they will earn more money and clients, instead of failing like the others. “Definitely the businesses that will be saved are the smallest ones, like mine. If you aren’t earning the salary you earned before, you are not going to eat at a place where the plate costs more than $10. You are going to eat in a small place where you only spend $5,” said an employee of Los Chuzos, who chose to remain anonymous. The restaurant is located at 79-01 Roosevelt Avenue. “This is how people will begin to save and how business like this one will be saved,” he added.
