I knew it!!!!

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
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The moment I saw the headlines in the NY Times, I knew it was Dominican related.

"In Queens, redefining "Mechanic" read the headline. Since I only get 20 clicks a month on NY Times news, I said to myself, "What the heck, this is Dominican news". Not like the new ambassador to Uruguay, this is no Catholic schooling ->Harvard->Cambridge->Columbia success story of a studious young woman who has certainly attained fame as an outstanding example of an immigrant's success.

Naw, this is probably a success story on another level. The nitty-gritty level of making a life for yourself, of doing what has to be done and making ends meet.

In Queens, Redefining ?Mechanic?
COREY KILGANNON was the reporter for this note.

IT is a men-only club, these auto-repair hawkers who battle for your business as you bump your way down the pothole-pocked streets of Willets Point in Corona, Queens.

At least until you get to Dacar Auto Radiator, a wedge-shaped repair shop located where ? this is so Queens! ? Willets Point Boulevard, 127th Street and 37th Avenue converge.

Suddenly there is Pasiana Rodriguez, 43, (It was the name that told me this was Dominican related! a woman in a form-fitting jumpsuit. She waves you over and begins bargaining for the repair job before you even stop.

?She?s the only female mechanic in Willets Point,? said Dario Carro, 48, Ms. Rodriguez?s husband and partner in Dacar, part of this seemingly endless maze of auto repair and scrap businesses that make up the Iron Triangle, perhaps the closest thing New York City has to a Wild West town.

?When new customers come in, they can?t believe a woman is working on cars here,? Ms. Rodriguez said on Wednesday between a brake job, a radiator test and a suspension replacement. ?I say, ?May I help you?? and they say, ?No, I need the mechanic.? I say, ?You?re looking at her.? ?

Between repairs, Ms. Rodriguez, who emigrated at age 22 from the Dominican Republic, ventures out into the mud flats that pass for streets here, and tries to wave in customers to the shop, whose walls are covered with greasy tools and pin-up-girl calendars.

?The macho men like their girls,? she said, teasing two staff mechanics and exemplifying the tough playfulness that has enabled her to last for 14 years in this male-dominated culture. She can deflect whistles and comments with humor and even respond with a catcall of her own.

One moment, she was under the hood of one car doing a tune-up, and the next, she was looking up at the chassis and shocks of another car on a lift. Then she was outside waving in a truck for a new fuel filter. As a hawker, she catches men?s attention but is also good with women.

?Female customers can be intimidated by all these men, so they?re happy to see another woman,? she said, as a man in a 2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse drove slowly by.

?Que buscar?[Bad Spanish: She surely said "?Qu? buscas? but without the 's', after all, she is Dominican"] ? she said, asking him in Spanish what he was looking for. He said his engine knocked when he drove in reverse. She waved him in and popped the hood and told him he needed new motor mounts.

Mr. Carro, a native of Colombia, stood watching. He said: ?All the guys say I?m lucky to have a wife who will get her hands dirty.?

Actually, Ms. Rodriguez?s hands stay comparatively clean, since she typically wears work gloves to protect her manicured nails. On Wednesday, she wore purple eye shadow and tucked her long, salon-coddled hair into a hat. Beneath her jumpsuit she wore a pink designer top and tight black pants.

?I fix cars but I?m still a girlie girl,? she said, demonstrating how quickly she can shed the jumpsuit. ?As soon as I walk out of here, I look like a woman again.?

Ms. Rodriguez is like a big sister to the only other women who can be seen regularly working in this neighborhood: Latinas selling food and ices from pushcarts, and Chinese immigrants selling bootlegged DVDs from shopping bags. She is also an outspoken critic of the city?s use of eminent domain to clear out the auto businesses here, to make way for a mammoth development project.

?They?re taking away our business ? I may be driving one of those things soon,? she said, pointing to a man selling meat on a stick from a mobile lunch counter that he pedaled like a bicycle.

Ms. Rodriguez and Mr. Carro live with their son, Anderson, 6, in nearby Kew Gardens Hills.

?He?s always breaking his toy cars,? she said. ?When I go home, he says the same thing I hear all day: ?Mommy, can you fix my car?? ?...................................

You can read the full story at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/n...?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120408


Nice story....


HB
 
Jul 4, 2010
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Great story. Thanks for sharing!


When my daughter Angela (16 yrs) was accepted this school year in the Instituto Polit?cnico de Azua, she was asked to choose a study specialization. I suggested 'mec?nica automotriz y diesel'. She was very amused, but chose 'inform?tica'. Later, Angela told me that school policy disavowed girls from enrolling in 'mec?nica automotriz y diesel'. And I thought it could have made a great professional career for my daughter. : )
ati
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
30,247
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HB, be careful.......... the NYTimes rues are chnging to 10 downloads a month...starting this month.

You can get a new subscription for 99 cents or something like that for 6 months to get started...

Check it out on line...might be worthwhile for you.

OR if any of your family have a subscription, you cab get the online version for FREE by having them authorize your e-mail address.
 

Softail

New member
Nov 15, 2011
128
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Nice story, HB. Bit of a tangent here, is the NY Times sold much throughout the DR?

Which reminds me of a great story from the west of Ireland. I was driving in Co. Clare one Sunday morning several years ago and stopped at a newsagent in some small town to get a copy of the Irish Times. I said to the agent "Do you have The Times?"

"Would you like today's or yesterday's? she answered.

"Today's" I replied.

"Ah, then you must come back tomorrow" she replied.

I love the Irish.