Rhode Tour

Kandy’s Of Course Beauty Salon and the Lola

2024-10-16T19:29:58+00:00

Where for your hair? Kandy's, of course!

When it came to getting your hair done on Broad Street, Kandy’s Of Course Beauty Salon was the place to go. The owner, Kandy Rainey, lived above her beauty salon in a building named the Lola Apartments. Together, these two spaces bravely created an important nexus of community and a safe haven for trans and gender-nonconforming people in Providence. Kandy Rainey opened Kandy’s Of Course Beauty Salon in 1968. The salon was first located at 246 Broad Street at the intersection of Wickham Street, where the Upper South Providence and West Side neighborhoods meet. Providence was undergoing a massive shift at that time. The population of the city was decreasing and the city government’s hostile urban renewal policies began to push Black people and families in South Providence to the outskirts of the city. Kandy’s was located near the newly-constructed Interstate Highway 95 (I-95), which split the city of Providence in two. I-95 demarcated communities along the lines of race and class in the city. For most of Kandy’s time there, Broad Street was considered the declining outskirts of the city; but for LGBTQ+ people, the outskirts were safer than the so-called thriving parts of the city. The city itself was not a safe place for LGBTQ+ people in the 1960s, and while things improved slightly with communal events like the city’s first Pride March in 1976, LGBTQ+ people were still being harassed and assaulted by police and average citizens alike. As a sanctuary for trans people and drag performers, the Lola was more than just an apartment building; it was a family. Former resident Brian Belovitch wrote in his book, Trans Figured, “the Lola was an education at best in how to survive a life that was going to be extremely challenging.” This feeling of family and care extended to Kandy’s Of Course Beauty Salon. In its early years, below the Lola Apartments, the salon was known by the neighborhood kids who would, in Belovitch’s words, “watch the drag queens running in and out of the beauty salon.” Eventually, in the 1980s, Kandy’s moved to 802 Broad Street, a mile south of the Lola. As the only beauty salon along Broad Street for a long time, Kandy’s became an important part of the community. As so many beauty salons in Black neighborhoods do, Kandy’s Of Course provided a gathering space, a center of care, and a place of refuge. Kandy’s longstanding dedication to the neighborhood was even noticed by the local government, and Kandy received a commendation from the State of Rhode Island House of Representatives in 2005 for “outstanding and dedicated service to improve the quality of life.” Kandy’s went on for another decade and, after 49 years of serving the community, closed in 2017.

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La Iglesia Bautista Hispana “El Calvario”

2016-06-01T15:56:07+00:00

La Iglesia Bautista el Calvario ha servido en la Ciudad de Providence por más de 150 años. En el año 1902, la iglesia abrió sus puertas a la comunidad en un tiempo severo de insuficiencia de carbón. Pero sus servicios continúan: Una puede entrar a la iglesia cualquier domingo y escuchar voces cantando y rezando, algunas veces en inglés y algunas veces en español; los servicios son alegres y permanecen por más tiempo del horario fijo. El edificio de estilo neogótico de la iglesia da la bienvenida a una congregación extremadamente diverso, con miembros procedentes de Ghana, Haití, Costa de Marfil (Ivory Coast), Jamaica, Laos, Liberia y que asisten a los servicios de idiomas en inglés, mientras que los latinos tienen sus propios servicios en español. A veces todos se combinan en la adoración.

Ya existían dos Congregaciones Pentecostales Hispanas en Providence en el principio de los años 70 y los Bautistas americanos estaban ansiosos por no quedarse atrás. El Reverendo Pedro Ortiz, un Bautista Cubano con mucha energía, exploró el área y encontró un domicilio en la Iglesia Bautista El Calvario, quien abrió sus puertas a los congregantes hispanos en el año 1974. El Reverendo J. Francisco Litardo, de Ecuador, se convirtió en un sacerdote por tiempo complete en marzo del año 1974, aunque la Iglesia Metodista Unida pagaba parte de su salario. Una segunda Iglesia Bautista Hispana abrió en la ciudad de Pawtucket en el 1977. Y ahora hay docenas de iglesias.

El Reverendo Litardo recuerda “Cuando estaba aquí, algunas veces éramos 200, 250, algunas veces 150, 180 porque la gente va y viene, especialmente en Rhode Island porque es muy pequeño…”

La congregación de Litardo abarcaba a guatemaltecos, dominicanos y puertorriqueños, y él trataba de unirlos en una familia por medio de un fuerte sentido de la cultura latina y la organización de servicios dinámicos y emocionantes.

Así como los periódicos y la comida nativa ayudaba a los nuevos inmigrantes de Rhode Island, los servicios religiosos conducidos en español también los ayudaban sentirse en casa, pero en una forma espiritual. El Reverendo Juan Francisco Jr. de la Iglesia Puerta de Refugio, o the Door of Refuge Church, en la calle Valley en Providence, visualiza las iglesias hispanas cumpliendo dos metas; ellos son “el punto de asimilación y el mantenimiento de la identidad”.

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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.

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Calvary Baptist Church: Iglesia Bautista Hispana “El Calvario”

2016-05-31T17:04:22+00:00

Calvary Baptist has served South Providence for over 150 years. In 1902, the church opened its doors to the community at a time of severe coal shortage. Their service continues: walk into the church any Sunday and you will hear voices singing and praying, sometimes in English, sometimes in Spanish; the services are joyful and loud and often go on longer than the scheduled hour. The church’s Late Gothic Revival-style building welcomes an extremely diverse congregation, with members from Ghana, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Laos, and Liberia attending the English language services, while the Latinos have their own. Sometimes they combine in worship. Already in the early 1970s there were two Hispanic Pentecostal congregations in Providence, and the American Baptists were anxious to not be left out. An energetic Cuban Baptist, the Rev. Pedro Ortiz, scouted the area and found a welcoming home at Calvary Baptist Church, which opened its doors to Spanish-speaking congregants in 1974. Rev. J. Francisco Litardo, from Ecuador, became the full-time pastor of Iglesia Hispana “El Calvario” in March 1974, though the United Methodist Church paid part of his salary. A second Latino Baptist church opened in Pawtucket in 1977. Now there are dozens. The Rev. Litardo recalled "When I was here sometimes we were 200, 250, sometimes 150, 180, because people are coming and leaving, especially in Rhode Island because it's small…" Litardo's congregation included Guatemalans, Dominicans and Puerto Ricans, and he tried to bring them all together in one family by instilling a strong sense of Latino culture and organizing dynamic and exciting services. Just as home-town newspapers and familiar food helped the new immigrants feel at home in Rhode Island, so did Spanish language services of worship help them to feel spiritually at home. The Rev. Juan Francisco Jr. of the Iglesia Puerta de Refugio, or Door of Refuge Church, on Valley Street in Providence, sees Hispanic churches as serving two important goals; “they are a point of assimilation and of keeping identity."

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