BengalNews reporters
Domenic Guercio, a lifelong resident of the West Side, has seen the shift from what was once a largely Italian neighborhood to the much more diverse area that it is now.
“It’s a mixed culture now. I call it the ‘League of Nations’, ” Guercio said.
While Italian is no longer a predominant nationality on the West Side, Domenic has lived in the West Side for 84 years now.
Over the past three decades the West Side has seen a vast change in cultural population. The neighborhood is entering into another transition with new immigrants coming from Africa and Eastern Europe.
Charlie Guercio, owner of Guercio and Son’s, a food market on Grant Street, said it took hard work to raise a family, and earning a low income did not help the new Italians to integrate into American culture.“The Italians used to help each other. We were all family back then,” Charlie Guercio said.
In the early 1980s the dynamic of the West Side began to change. The feel of the Old Italian neighborhood was vanishing.
“The old neighborhood was fresh. Fresh fish or chicken every two blocks,” Charlie Guercio said.
Over the years Charlie Guercio said that many of the Italians in the neighborhood began to leave the area to the surrounding suburbs where there were smaller houses. Many Italians have sought homes that can accommodate a smaller number of people. Their children are grown and have families of their own so there is no need for a large home.
“The Italians went north, south and east. They didn’t want to stay in the West Side,” Charlie Guercio said.
Although people were moving out, this did not have a negative effect on his business. He said people still drive from their homes in the suburbs to shop in his store.
The Rev. Monsignor David M. Gallivan, of Holy Cross Church on Seventh Street, said that another change to the area has been the shift of the Italian Festival from Connecticut Street to Hertel Avenue.
Demographically, the area is mostly a Hispanic population. The neighborhood has about two to one Hispanics to Italians.
Europeans are starting to reside in the area along with African immigrants. Gallivan said that he has noticed this change not only in the neighborhood but his congregation is becoming more culturally diverse.
“The neighborhood has changed but not for the worst,” Domenic Guercio said.
Domenic and Claudia Guercio, cousins of Charlie Guercio, have been residents of the West Side since 1946 and have mixed feelings about their plans to stay in their home.
“I was born and raised here, I’m not leaving,” Domenic Guercio said.
While Domenic is comfortable staying right where he is, Claudia Guercio said she no
longer enjoys spending time on her porch. She is constantly aware of her surroundings and she would rather move into a senior center where safety would be less of a concern. “It just seems like no one cares about the West Side anymore,” Claudia Guercio. “All the dilapidated homes just go to waste.”
The diverse culture in the neighborhood is welcomed. Charlie Guercio said that over the past two years the area seems to be getting better. More businesses are coming and he said it seems as though the crime was going down.
“I think the neighborhood is coming back,” Charlie Guercio said.
It’s bizarre that the West Side has such a poor reputation regarding the people that actually live there.
ReplyDeleteThe crime rate that is filtered through the media has completely misled people into having a negative opinion about the neighborhood.
When you take the time to talk to residents and learn a little about their history and experience on the West Side, you learn that it’s not all bad.
Whether they are Italian, Eastern European or Hispanic they each have a different story to tell. So how come we as “outsiders looking in” can be so quick to judge based solely on what we view on our local news stations?
At the Holy Cross Church on Sunday, while conducting an interview, I had a chance to sit back and observe for a moment.
Standing in the back of the church, was a woman, approximately 6 feet 3 inches tall dressed head-to toe in white. Her gown was stunning, her headpiece that looked to me to be a nuisance, didn’t seem to bother her at all. She exerted such beauty and grace that it was hard for me to keep focused on what I was doing.
These are the types of people living on the West Side?
These people are so captivating to the eye and so cultured in their everyday existence. It seems like a waste not to embrace them and their multicultural environment.
--Kori Sciandra
Italy comes to Buffalo every summer in July on Hertel Avenue for the Italian Festival. The celebration includes a variety of entertainment, but most importantly a variety of Italian food. The origins of the festival can be traced back to the early 1900s.
ReplyDeleteThe earliest Italian festivals were hosted by the local Catholic churches, according to the Italian festivals history page, the first being The St. Anthony of Padua Church which was founded in 1891. In 1976 the St. Anthony’s festival found a home on Connecticut Street and remained there until 1988 when it moved to Hertel Avenue and became the Italian Heritage festival. The festival is apparently one of the five largest festivals that takes place in the United States.
Over the years they have tried to make it less about being a “carnival” and more about educating the people who come about aspects of the culture itself. They have done this by adding more Italian exhibits and cultural games.
Giving back is also another theme; in 2009 some of the festival proceeds were donated to an earthquake relief fund after an earthquake took place in Italy in April 2009.
The festival will take place this year from July 15 to July 18.
--Tiffany Monde
The West Side neighborhood has also become a much more unsafe than it used to be, according to some residents.
ReplyDelete“There are more shootings, a lot more drugs, and more unemployment,” said the Rev. Monsignor David Gallivan of Holy Cross Church. “A lot of it I think is due to family disintegration. A lot of the kids don’t have fathers and there is nobody to look after them when they get out of school.”
The increased crime rate in the area has not escaped West Side resident Claudia Guercio’s 81-year-old eyes.
“People are afraid to go out after dark, it’s a shame,” she said.
Claudia believes that increased involvement in the church is one way that could help curb some of the neighborhood’s problems.
“It used to be if you couldn’t go to church, you couldn’t go out and play,” she said.
Holy Cross is doing its part to give kids a safer alternative to the street. The Holy Cross Youth Organization offers activities such as sports, arts and crafts, trips to area attractions, and other social activities.
--Marc Lucarelli