Tag: NYC

  • Borinqueneer still serves as a military intelligence volunteer at 92

    Borinqueneer still serves as a military intelligence volunteer at 92

    July 27, 2012, U.S. Army veteran Andres Vergara salutes during the commemoration of the 59th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice in Arlington, Virginia. With four official combat jumps, Vergara received the South Korean medal of honor for rescuing 100 children from an orphanage during the war. (Photo/Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
    July 27, 2012, U.S. Army veteran Andres Vergara salutes during the commemoration of the 59th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice in Arlington, Virginia. With four official combat jumps, Vergara received the South Korean medal of honor for rescuing 100 children from an orphanage during the war. (Photo/Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

    The 65th Infantry Regiment, otherwise known as “Borinqueneers,” was created in 1899 by the U.S. Congress as a segregated unit composed primarily of Puerto Ricans. Thousands of these brave men served in World War I, World War II and the Korean War.

    According to Gilberto Villahermosa’s book, “Honor and Fidelity: The 65th Infantry in Korea, 1950-1953,” 61,000 Puerto Ricans served in the Korean War alone, thousands of them with the 65th. However, the 65th has been the only segregated military infantry unit to have not yet been awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

    But just last month, after more than a year in the making, the House of Representatives and the Senate passed bills that will grant the 65th Infantry Regiment its long-awaited recognition. President Barack Obama will sign the legislation on June 10, 2014, and the living members of the infantry, and their families, will head to Washington to receive the Medal.

    “I am feeling wonderful!,” says Master Sergeant Andres Vergara about the pending honor.

    Vergara, now 92, signed up with the Army at 19 and served in the 65th during World War II. According to “The Borinqueneers” documentary producer, Noemi Figueroa, he is only one of at least 300 Borinqueneers, which could possibly be in the thousands, who are still documented as living. Residing in Clearwater, Florida, Vergara drives 11 hours every weekend to an Army base in Georgia to volunteer – even though he retired from the Army 34 years ago.

    “I do military intelligence,” says Vergara proudly. “I sit at the computer Friday, Saturday and Sunday with no sleep.”

    He says he signed up as a volunteer three years ago, and the Army recruited him.

    “This is my last month,” says Vergara. “I have the rest of the week off, and this weekend I am lucky I can go to New York to take part in the National Puerto Rican Day Parade.”

    This year’s parade, on June 8, will feature a special float dedicated to the Borinqueneers of the 65th Infantry Regiment.

    During service in Korea, Vergara saved the lives of approximately 100 children when a Korean orphanage caught fire. Recently, the Republic of South Korea honored him with a Medal of Honor, and they also named a school in his honor.

    Although the details of that experience are fuzzy in his memory, what he does remember fondly is playing the tuba in the 81st Army Band while serving in Germany, Africa, and Japan.

    What is he going do now that he is retiring from the Army for the second time?

    “I might continue parachute jumping,” says Vergara happily. “I’m a paratrooper. I go every two weeks. I’ve been to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Panama, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Israel. Next year, we’re going to Vietnam!”

  • First female Asian elected official on the East Coast continues to give back and speak up

    First female Asian elected official on the East Coast continues to give back and speak up

    Ellen Young in the Chambers being  introduced by the Speaker as a freshman member, and the first Asian American woman in the legislature in January 2007. (Courtesy Ellen Young)
    Ellen Young in the Chambers being introduced by the Speaker as a freshman member, and the first Asian American woman in the legislature in January 2007. (Courtesy Ellen Young)

    Ellen Young is not one to stay still, or stay quiet.

    The 62-year-old volunteers as the first, and only, Asian member of the Grievance Committee for the Second, Eleventh, and Thirteenth Judicial Districts. As one of 15 committee members, she reviews complaints against attorneys from Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island. She says she spends the rest of her time at the newly founded Golden Age Learning Center, which serves approximately 200 seniors.

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  • Harlem cook realizes dream and opens vegan soul food restaurant

    Harlem cook realizes dream and opens vegan soul food restaurant

    Brenda Beener, owner and chef at Seasoned Vegan in Harlem, NY (Photo/Kori Raishon)
    Brenda Beener, owner and chef at Seasoned Vegan in Harlem, NY (Photo/Kori Raishon)

    Owning her own restaurant is something Brenda Beener has wanted for a very long time.

    “I didn’t even realize it, until I started talking to people,” says Beener, who is known in her Harlem, NY community for her exceptional vegan cooking skills.

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  • How an immigrant built a restaurant empire in NYC

    How an immigrant built a restaurant empire in NYC


    A man in suit and tie standing next to a brick fireplace.
    Jimmy Sanz, owner of six NYC restaurants, in front of Tio Pepe’s wood stove. (Photo/Kristina Puga)

    When one sees Jimmy Sanz walking hastily along West 4th Street in New York City, one wonders where this retired-aged man is running off to in his tweed suit and perfectly combed white hair.

    At 75, Sanz is founder and owner of six NYC restaurants – Tio Pepe, Las Ramblas, The Taco Shop, Burrito Loco, Da Rosina and Casa Pepe – the first four of which are neighbors on West 4th Street. He considers the West Village his home now for the past 55 years. That wasn’t always the case though.

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  • Summer camp owner reveals her secret to youth

    Summer camp owner reveals her secret to youth


    A woman with white hair and wearing a purple shirt.
    Nancy Goldberg, owner and director of Belvoir Terrace (Courtesy Nancy Goldberg)

    Nancy Goldberg is 78, and she says she feels in better shape now than she did at 50.

    What is her secret?

    Working outdoors and teaching kids, says the owner and director of Belvoir Terrace – a sports and performing arts summer camp for girls in Lenox, Massachusetts. She also runs or swims, for 30 minutes, six days a week, and follows a vegan diet.

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