El Angelito de los Migrantes Veracruzanos toma la Forma de una Paquetería Neoyorquina

Author

Julia L. Sclafani, C Graduate School of JournalismFollow

Graduation Date

Spring 5-24-2018

Grading Professor

Luis Trelles

Subject Concentration

Spanish Language

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Abstract

Josefina Jiménez says that she’s in the business of “transporting feelings of love”. By that, she means she in the shipping and transport business. Jiménez is a one-woman show; she started her paqueteria business 18 years ago as a way to finance her visits home to Mexico.

Paqueterias, small international shipping businesses, literally bring New York City its vibrant flavor. In any given neighborhood, if you are an immigrant, there is someone who will carry a backpack of school supplies to your kids in Ecuador, carry your old bedroom set to your parents in Colombia, or carefully deliver a little virgencita for your grandmother in time for el Día de La Virgen de Guadalupe in Mexico.

Running the business out of her Queens apartment, Jiménez, a self-proclaimed stay-at-home-mom, splits her weeks between Corona, Queens with her American-born kids and weekends with her parents and family in Mexico, where she hustles to deliver her cargo to her other headquarters in the mountain town of Huayacocotla, Veracruz. She’ll return every Monday with more packages consisting of mostly homemade food for her fellow immigrants and paisanos in New York.

These paqueterias exist all over New York City and for every region in Latin America and the Caribbean. These businesses might fly under the radar but they meet a hyperlocal need to stay connected to communities, traditions, holidays, and loved ones back home. They make delivery routes that no else can or will to and bring a trove of smells, textures and flavors that make home feel a little less far away.

Recommended Citation

Sclafani, Julia L., "El Angelito de los Migrantes Veracruzanos toma la Forma de una Paquetería Neoyorquina" (2018). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gj_etds/664