101110 . The West Indian Diaspora in Boston

Further research into the West Indian Diaspora group in Boston has revealed a bustling subculture, often overshadowed by the larger characterization of 'Caribbean', or 'African American'. As an English speaking group of Afro-Caribbeans, with colonial ties back to the British empire, this group of people has long struggled to find what their particular cultural identity is in the larger urban fabric. In Boston, the first major influx of immigrants arrived on the boats of the United Fruit Company at Long Wharf in the early 1900s seeking upward social mobility in what they believed to be the center of cultural activity and education in the United States. By the time they arrived, however, Boston was already segregated into distinct cultural neighborhoods and, facing racism, the West Indian group was limited in where they could attain housing, usually in already established 'Black' neighborhoods in the South End and Roxbury. Eventually, they distinguished themselves spatially from the native-born Black community by taking over the Blue Hill Ave. area of Dorchester, as the previous Jewish community was moving elsewhere. The West Indian Diaspora held their cultural identity close, to distinguish themselves from African Americans, and used tools of accent, clothing, song, dance, formation of cricket teams, and celebration of British colonial holidays in addition to starting a newspaper, the Boston Chronicle, and, eventually a Radio Station. Today, the area along Blue Hill Ave is still heavily influenced by the West Indian Diaspora, most noticeably through the restaurants and cultural organizations along the street, and the yearly celebration of Carnival, which parades from Martin Luther King Blvd, down Warren Street, and onto Blue Hill Ave. While this area is the hotbed of cultural activity for this group, their presence extends as far as St. Cyprian's on Tremont St, although it becomes infused with Hispanic Caribbean and African American groups near Dudley Station. As the proposal of this thesis project states, the city is divided and there are edge conditions between cultural groups all over Boston and, in an effort to address the edge between these groups, the site for the West Indian Cultural Media Gallery and New Immigrant Transitional Housing will be located at this intersection of cultures, near Dudley Station in Roxbury. Dudley Station also makes an appropriate site because it is somewhere between the origins of the West Indian settlement and their current location, and is the hub of transportation for each of the cultural groups around Roxbury and Dorchester.