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These days, visitors to South Richmond Hill’s ubiquitous roti shops pick up more than just curries and doubles — they’re also bound to hear spirited conversation about Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Uncles gathering in restaurants on Liberty Avenue talk proudly about the campaign of a candidate whose mother was Indian and father was Jamaican. Aunties active on Whatsapp and Facebook groups circulate posts about the woman who could become the country’s first female president. All the while, young Indo-Caribbean organizers are working to mobilize members of the politically divided community ahead of November’s election.
Some know this corner of South Queens as Little Guyana while others call it Little Punjab. Here, descendants of Indian indentured servants brought to the British West Indies to fill post-abolition labor shortages make up one of the largest Indo-Caribbean communities in the United States. They coexist with a large Sikh population along with other South Asians from elsewhere in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.