On June 20, Bronx Library Center hosted a very special author talk with Frederick Binder, a co-author of All the Nations Under Heaven (written with David Reimers). Binder sat comfortably in our cuartito (Puerto Rican Heritage Collection and Gallery), joined by about ten of us. The author, whose book celebrates the contributions of immigrants and migrants to New York City, invited us to tell stories about our forebears who came from other nations or from different parts of the United States. Our families had come from Ireland, Trinidad, Italy, Austria, Puerto Rico, and the southern U.S. states.

"What were some of the most difficult challenges your parents faced?" Binder asked the group. The answers? Hunger. Discrimination (memories of signs saying "Irish Need not Apply"). Dangerous, overcrowded, unsanitary travel and living  conditions. Language barriers.

Yet families helped each other. One participant offered an often-heard example; a new arrival to the city would often sleep on the sofa until he or she could get established. Between anecdotes, Binder read excerpts from his book, which beautifully describes the multicultural fabric of our city.

People seemed to have an unending supply of stories to share, and the program extended long past its planned time. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say we discovered commonalities through our conversation and maybe even diffused some stereotypes. 

Binder, who will become the next official  Manhattan historian (an unpaid honor) wants communities to learn how to contribute to their own historical record. On a personal note, I was thrilled to learn that he had used narratives of the NYPL Oral History Project A People's History of Harlem (which I started and oversaw) with students in Korea; the stories gave them a completely different vision of Harlem than the one they thought they knew. Yet another example of the power of stories shared.