NEW YORK: Immigrant Usman Bandukra spent his 12th Fourth of July in America Friday in his own traditional way working behind the counter of his newsstand across the New York Harbor from the Statue of Liberty.
This is a wonderful day people are happy, celebrating and ‘business is great,” said Bandukra, 38, a native of India, “When I came to America, I said. In this country, can succeed, I can make money.”
Bandukra was among the countless immigrants of generations young and old who celebrated Independence Day at the city’s ‘Harbor Festival, part of a four-day ash commemorating the Statue of Liberty’s 100th birthday.
“This is one of the busiest days we have had since the 1976 Bicentennial,” said Bandukra, standing amid stacks of newspapers and souvenirs that included Statue of Liberty hats, shirts and models.
About 40 percent of Americans today can trace their roots to one ‘or more the 17 million immigrants ‘who passed through New York’s Ellis Island, a processing station in the shadow of the statue that closed in 1954 after 62 years of ‘operations.
‘Margaret McNally and her sister, Connie Delwiche, natives of England, went through Ellis Island a half century ago. Their last name was then Nott. Their father was a bricklayer.
It was either 1922 or 1923,” said McNally, a retired teacher who Friday visited Battery Park with her sister, husband and brother-in-law, “I was 16. My sister was two.”
“About all I ‘can remember is that every time the horn on the ship blew, my sister got scared and ran to my mother,” she said, “I do remember that my father said we ‘came because this is the land of opportunity.”
Fifty-seven years after Berit Nestler, 64, arrived in New York Harbor, the native of Denmark sat in the shade of a tree and recalled the day with friends and family.
It was very cold,” she said. “We had had a very rough voyage. My mother and I were seasick. I was 7. My father had come to America a few years earlier. He said life would be better here. He had a job and an apartment. He ‘was waiting on the dock for us.”
“I remember little about the day J arrived, other than my parents were glad we were in America,” said Nestler’s husband, Gunter, 70, a native of Germany. I was 7, t00. It was December, 1923.”
“You almost have to be an immigrant to really appreciate America,” Nestler said. “I came from what is now East Germany. The people there are very nice. But they have no freedom.”
As a naturalized U.S citizen, Reina Baltodano, 46, who immigrated from Honduras in 1959, has freedom as well as a job making Jewelry and a husband, Armanbo, 46, who came to the United States 11 years ago.
“This is a special day for me,” she said, grinning broadly. “This is a very special day for everyone who is an American.”
A pair of twin sisters who are immigrants, Yee-Lian and JeeHoon Yap, 18, of Malaysia, spent the day hawking “official” $2 Statue of Liberty foam hats and scarves to Liberty Weekend celebrants.
“We’re trying to make some money, too,” said Yee-Lian, who, with her sister, will be a freshman this fall at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “We are going to study engineering or computer science. We do everything together.”
The two girls, along with their parents, immigrated in 1978.
“We’re Chinese and in Malaysia the Chinese are discriminated against,” Jee-Hoon said. “Yes, there is discrimination in this country, too. But the law is on your side here. And there are many opportunities.”
The sisters did not see the Statue of Liberty when they first arrived in America they came by plane and landed in New York’s LaGuardia Airport but have viewed it with admiration several times since,
“She stands for a lot of things,” said Yee-Lian, “She is a beautiful lady.”
Article extracted from this publication >> July 11, 1986
