So, it was these restaurant owners — Connie and Mary — that first brought us to Rhode Island in 1959. We knew no one here, had no family. Back then, the restaurant we worked for was part of The Yankee Inn Motor Hotel and we lived there for a few months while we looked for a house.
Several months later, Connie and Mary filed for bankruptcy and closed down their restaurant. When that happened, they asked me and my family to go back with them to Connecticut, and my husband said: "I don't want to depend on you all the time. I have a family now and I want to stay here."
At the time, I was also pregnant with my youngest daughter, Miriam. Tony and I wanted to stay and settle in Rhode Island to raise our growing family.
Entonces de allí, encontramos una casa en la Dexter Street en Providence, y allí nos quedamos por un mes. We finally found a house on Dexter Street in Providence — at the corner of Dexter Street and Potters Avenue. Pero, era muy pequeña. Despues encontramos una en la Calle Lenox y desupués en la Chester Avenue, 145 Chester Avenue. It was too small, so then we found an apartment on Lenox Avenue and later we moved to 145 Chester Avenue. That's the Torigian house, I remember that. It was right across from St. Joseph Hospital. Next to Kappy's Liquor Store. It's no longer there. I go by there sometimes and see the empty lot. It's almost on the corner of Broad Street and Chester Avenue.
The house had seven rooms, and we paid 45 dollars a month. Imagine that? I helped paint it. Estaba bien limpio. Todos esos judios vivian allá. It was a very nice, clean neighborhood. Beautiful. Jewish people owned many of the stores in that neighborhood at the time. There was a liquor store there, a pizza place. We also lived a block over from the former Jewish Temple on Broad Street.
About a few weeks after Connie and Mary closed the restaurant and left to go back to Connecticut, my husband found a job as a cook at Johnson's Hummocks Sea Food Restaurant on Allens Avenue — on the corner of Allens and Public. And I got a job there, too. My daughters later started working there part-time. We all worked hard to save our money so we could open our own business.
Eventually, my husband left Johnson's Hummocks to work at the Quidnessett Country Club. And then he worked at the Metacomet Country Club, and eventually at Barrington College. After that he quit because he was tired of working for other people. He was ready to open his own business. A good friend of his, Mr. Adelman, the brother-in-law of the owner of Lynch Liquor Store and another market on Broad Street near our house, loaned him some money to help him open his own grocery store, a bodega.
Several months later, Connie and Mary filed for bankruptcy and closed down their restaurant. When that happened, they asked me and my family to go back with them to Connecticut, and my husband said: "I don't want to depend on you all the time. I have a family now and I want to stay here."
At the time, I was also pregnant with my youngest daughter, Miriam. Tony and I wanted to stay and settle in Rhode Island to raise our growing family.
Entonces de allí, encontramos una casa en la Dexter Street en Providence, y allí nos quedamos por un mes. We finally found a house on Dexter Street in Providence — at the corner of Dexter Street and Potters Avenue. Pero, era muy pequeña. Despues encontramos una en la Calle Lenox y desupués en la Chester Avenue, 145 Chester Avenue. It was too small, so then we found an apartment on Lenox Avenue and later we moved to 145 Chester Avenue. That's the Torigian house, I remember that. It was right across from St. Joseph Hospital. Next to Kappy's Liquor Store. It's no longer there. I go by there sometimes and see the empty lot. It's almost on the corner of Broad Street and Chester Avenue.
The house had seven rooms, and we paid 45 dollars a month. Imagine that? I helped paint it. Estaba bien limpio. Todos esos judios vivian allá. It was a very nice, clean neighborhood. Beautiful. Jewish people owned many of the stores in that neighborhood at the time. There was a liquor store there, a pizza place. We also lived a block over from the former Jewish Temple on Broad Street.
About a few weeks after Connie and Mary closed the restaurant and left to go back to Connecticut, my husband found a job as a cook at Johnson's Hummocks Sea Food Restaurant on Allens Avenue — on the corner of Allens and Public. And I got a job there, too. My daughters later started working there part-time. We all worked hard to save our money so we could open our own business.
Eventually, my husband left Johnson's Hummocks to work at the Quidnessett Country Club. And then he worked at the Metacomet Country Club, and eventually at Barrington College. After that he quit because he was tired of working for other people. He was ready to open his own business. A good friend of his, Mr. Adelman, the brother-in-law of the owner of Lynch Liquor Store and another market on Broad Street near our house, loaned him some money to help him open his own grocery store, a bodega.
People knew exactly what time we would be returning, and they would be waiting there to get their things; a long line would be waiting for us when we arrived. Yeah, I remember, we used to have a little scale to measure items,the dried goods. Those who did not order things would come anyway to see what we had.
Doña Fefa
The First Dominican
I strongly believe that my family and I were the first Dominican family to live in Providence, and maybe Rhode Island. I believe that and here's why: Right after the restaurant closed, we first drove on Post Road and then Broad Street, and when we arrived in South Providence, Tony went up to a policeman on the street and asked: "Where do the Hispanic people live over here? ¿Dónde esta la comunidad Hispana? ¿Dónde viven los Hispanos?" The policeman said, "I don't know where the Spanish-speaking people live in Providence, but I think there may be one family in East Providence." My husband then asked him, "Where is East Providence?" And he told him to go East, then over a bridge...
Anyway, we went over there and asked for the Spanish-speaking people, and finally someone there told us about some Hispanics, Puerto Ricans, who lived there. I found a man named Angel “Tato" Cosme and asked him about any Dominican people or more Puerto Rican people, and he said that, as far as they knew, there were no other Puerto Ricans over there, other than him and two others. Tato had already been living here for 3-4 years before we arrived, and that's how we knew.
Fefa's Market
We got the idea of opening a market — our own bodega — soon after we settled in Providence and bought our house, because almost every weekend we would drive to Connecticut and New York in our blue station wagon to buy the Dominican food that we missed, that we could not find in Rhode Island. Things like plátanos, yuca, café, cilantro ...
Ah, yes that station wagon took us to many places ... We would drive it to Connecticut or New York because they didn't have Spanish products here at all.
When people saw us in New Haven or New York, they asked us all about Providence and we told them how nice it was. People began to ask if they could drive back with us, and we always had room as long as they sat in the back of the station wagon with some of the food we were bringing back.
As more and more people came back with us, they also began to fall in love with Providence and many decided to live here.
We continued to drive to New Haven or New York 2-3 times each mont, and we brought more and more Hispanics to Providence. Soon, the demand for Latin products went up, so then we began to bring back food and began to deliver it door-to-door, como de domicilio.
En Chester Avenue me decían, "Oye Fefa, queremos cuatro platanos, cilantro, café Dominicano — Dominican coffee ... Others would see me out on the street and call me over so they could give me their order for Dominican food before I left for Connecticut.
For the first several months, we would deliver the food door-to-door. But, then it got to the point where more and more people started coming to us, placing orders and we felt a little overwhelmed. So, eventually when we returned from buying food in New Haven or New York, we would pull into the big parking lot behind our house on Chester Avenue, open up the back of our car and started selling food from there.
People eventually knew exactly what time we would be returning, and they would be waiting there to get their things; when we arrived, a long line of people would be waiting for us. I remember, we had a little scale to measure items, the dried goods. Those who did not order things would come anyway to see what we had. They would line up and say: "Quiero tres platanos, medio kilo de cilantro, un kilo de habichuelas..."
And that's how they would get their shopping done. We felt like “un ventorrillo" — food truck vendors — that's what they would call it. Like those peddlers or food trucks today on Broad Street that sell Chimis (sandwiches), frutería and pinchos.
Our house on Chester Avenue soon began to fill up with lots of people who my husband and I brought from New York, New Haven or sponsored from Santo Domingo. They stayed in our house with us until they could find their apartment or house.
So that's where the Dominicans first lived — right there, on Chester Avenue. That's where it started, you know. We had a sort-of boarding house for people who we brought from New York or New Haven, and also those who wrote to us from Santo Domingo who wanted to come to the United States. It was first just a few families, and we would sponsor them. And then more and more came, and we still tried to accommodate them and let them live with us for a while. If our house was too full, they would stay in Dr. Emerson Torigian's house. He was a dentist who lived next two us, on Broad Street. He was very kind and helped us a lot.
