Rhode Tour

Johnson and Wales University

2017-05-10T16:13:21+00:00

A Long Way From One Student and One Typewriter

Johnson & Wales University is a world renowned leader in experiential education, with degree programs in arts and sciences, business, culinary arts, education, hospitality, engineering and design, and more. Fittingly, the Providence campus is located in the heart of the 19th and 20th century retail hub of downtown. Though Johnson & Wales has over 16,000 students and several campuses around the country today, the school had very humble beginnings in Providence.

As professionals, both Gertrude Johnson and Mary Wales had careers in banking and taught those skillsets to students at the Rhode Island Commercial School. Wanting to branch out on their own, Johnson and Wales founded the school bearing their names as a junior business college in 1914. Beginning with one student, and one typewriter, the new school started out of Johnson’s home on Hope Street on Providence’s East Side. It quickly grew. U.S. involvement in the First World War meant women were needed to fill the workplace void left by men fighting overseas, Johnson & Wales prospered as a result, providing women with an education in skillsets desperately needed by employers.

Through two World Wars, the Great Depression, and the Hurricane of 1938 Johnson & Wales continued to grow. Both of the founders remained actively involved until their well-earned retirement in 1947. Though the original leaders had stepped aside, the school continued to grow and has become an internationally recognized university. Beyond business and hospitality programs, today Johnson & Wales is particularly well-known for its culinary arts program; famous alumni include Emeril Lagasse and Tyler Florence.

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El primer sitio del Restaurante Antillas

2016-06-01T16:00:07+00:00

“El primer restaurante hispano real de Rhode Island” -- Roberto González

Hoy dia la calle Broad está llena de restaurantes culturales, pero al final de la década de 1970, los latinos ansiosos por recordar el sabor de casa se les presentaron opciones limitadas. Doña Fefa vendía algunas comidas preparadas en su tienda, pero de otra manera las familias estaban forzadas a cocinar su propia comida. Roberto y José González, puertorriqueños quienes llegaron a Rhode Island de la ciudad de Nueva York en el 1968, abrieron el Restaurante Antillas en la calle Broad en el 1978. Así como los productos puros que necesitaban eran pocos en Rhode Island, entonces cada miércoles José manejaba un camión rentado a la enorme distribución de comida en la ciudad Hunts Point de Nueva York. Allí, él encontraba lo necesario: el cerdo para preparar el chicharrón, o el chicharrón de puerco, menudo para hacer mondongo, o un guiso de menudo, plátanos verdes, melocotones amarillos (durazno), y el cilantro oloroso para dar sabor a las salsas, las ensaladas, y los guisos.

La comida es una parte esencial de la cultura. Por si acaso una nueva raza llega a una comunidad y no encuentra comidas comunes, como dijo Roberto González, “Ellos se sentirían muy aislados.”

Así como la bodega Fefa’s Market, Antillas también se convirtió en un lugar de unidad para la comunidad latina, donde Dominicanos, Cubanos y Puertorriqueños gozaron del merengue y la salsa tocando en la rocola. También se organizaron políticamente. Estudiantes latinos de escuelas locales se unieron con a ellos sobre un plato con sopa de rabo de buey, pez hervido en salsa de tomate con cebolla y pimentón, y cucharadas de arroz con habichuelas, y también se juntaron para los registros de las votaciones.

No hay menor duda que dirigir un restaurante es demandante y por eso los hermanos González vendieron su negocio en el principio de los años 80 y se inscribieron a la escuela. José recibió su su doctorado en educación de Harvard, y Roberto fue juramentado y llegó a ser el primer juez latino en Rhode Island. El edificio de Antillas fue demolido, pero muchos más restaurantes latinoamericanos han seguido los pasos de Antillas desde entonces.

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Antillas Restaurant

2016-05-31T17:15:40+00:00

“The first true Latino restaurant in Rhode Island” -- Roberto González

Broad Street today is full of ethnic restaurants, but in the late 1970s Latinos anxious for a taste of home had very limited choices; Doña Fefa sold a few prepared foods in her store, but otherwise families had to cook their own. Roberto and José González, Puerto Ricans who arrived in Rhode Island via New York City in 1968, opened Antillas Restaurant on Broad Street in 1978. The raw materials they needed were scarce in Rhode Island, so every Wednesday José drove a rented truck to the huge food distribution facility in Hunts Point, New York, where he could find what he needed: pork belly to make chicharron, or pork crackling, tripe to make mondóngo, or tripe stew, green plantains, waxy yellow melocoton (peaches), and fragrant cilantro to flavor sauces and salads and stews. Food is an important part of culture. If a new group arrives in a community and cannot find familiar foods, as Roberto González remarked, "They kind of feel very isolated." Like Fefa's Market, Antillas soon became a meeting place for the Latino community, where Dominicans, Cubans and Puerto Ricans could listen to merengue and salsa on the jukebox. They also started to organize politically. Latino students from local schools joined them over steaming bowls of oxtail soup, fish stewed in tomato sauce with onions and peppers, or heaps of rice and beans, and also joined them in voter registration drives. Running a restaurant is hard work; the ambitious González brothers sold the business in the early eighties and went to school. José received his doctorate in education from Harvard, and Roberto became the first Latino judge in Rhode Island. The building itself was demolished, but dozens of Latino restaurants have followed in Antillas’ footsteps.

For more (including 4 images & 1 audio file) view the original article