As with nearly any American city, it was the immigrant population that helped shape the respective economies, architecture, culture and social values.
Beginning in the 1960s as shopping centers began to pop up on the suburban landscape, downtowns began to lose their luster. As architecturally deprived strip malls grew overnight and shopping centers eventually evolved into megamalls, downtowns were drained of foot traffic; the lack of pedestrians spelled the deaths of small businesses as well as national five-and-dime retailers.
It was generally the immigrant population or first-generation Americans who kept the downtowns from becoming ghost towns.?Downtown Danbury too was affected by growth on the outskirts of the city along Federal Road as well as the building of the Danbury Fair Mall. The empty storefronts along Main Street were slowly refilled by immigrant shop owners.?Times were getting better. More Brazilian and Ecuadorian immigrants were joining Portuguese-Americans who have had a long and prosperous community in the city. ?Before the recession took hold, however, it was a crackdown on illegal immigrants that tore a hole in the downtown as well as dividing city residents.?Spurred by rumor, fear and desperation, many new immigrants left the city for Bridgeport, Waterbury, Naugatuck and even Florida.
Emanuela Lima, executive director/editor of the Tribuna newspaper, served as a translator for this story.
”˜Country of many opportunities”™
Nilton Coelho, owner of Banana Brasil, remembers the good times before 2007 rolled around.?Some 17 years ago, Coelho came up to Danbury from Sardoa, Minas Gerais in Brazil to “stay for a little while” to visit his sister and her husband who owned a butcher shop and restaurant and needed his skills to butcher meat in the Brazilian style. The Brazilian cut is considered to be more of a prime cut than the American cut. A year and a half later he wanted to break out on his own. So he and a cousin started a landscaping business. It was not a good move. “I was a fish out of water.”
He wanted back into the restaurant business and bought in as a partner with his sister. Back then Banana Brasil was only half the size it is today. Coelho helped expand the business by buying an adjacent tailor shop and adding a buffet. He also bought out the store adjacent to that to create a Brazilian market. After his sister moved to Philadelphia to open a restaurant, he opened a restaurant in Bridgeport.?Things were going well. Patrons were lining up out the door for food from his restaurant adorned with yellow paint that seems brighter than the sun.?“Then the whole immigration thing exploded.”?Clientele literally disappeared or moved away. He closed the market and sold the restaurant in Bridgeport. He cut back on hours at Banana Brasil. The restaurant served as an economic barometer to anyone who passed by on foot or car on Main Street.?Time passed. The immigrants who stayed on realized that no one was being immediately deported. Coelho changed his menu to attract more Americans as well as Hispanics. He also began offering a hard to beat special that affords someone enough food for an evening meal and enough leftovers to bring to work the next day.?There are still fewer people walking along Main Street. ?“Fifteen years ago there weren”™t that many immigrant businesses. Today it”™s more businesses, but less business.”?Coelho remains optimistic.?“This is a country of many opportunities. If you follow your gut you can make it here. I feel like an American.”
”˜Immigrants have built the city”™?A couple blocks down from the restaurant on the same side of the street is the law firm of Ventura, Ribeiro & Smith.  ?Americo S. Ventura founded the firm in 1957. Ventura was born in Danbury to Portuguese immigrants. He never forgot his roots, said law partner Agostinho ”“ Augie to his clients and friends ”“ Ribeiro.?He said that Ventura supported the Portuguese wave that came during the 1950s to 1970s. He did so much for the Portuguese community, that Ribeiro suggests looking at the firm”™s website, vrslaw.com, for a sampling of his accomplishments.?“He was a member of both the Son”™s of Portugal and Portuguese American Clubs and is a member of the successor of both clubs, the Portuguese Cultural Center, in Danbury and is responsible for the library at the center. He is a founding member of the Son”™s of Portugal Scholarship Fund and is also one of the five original founders of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church.”?“Waves of immigrants have built the city over the years. Supporting immigrant groups should be the city”™s mission statement,” Ribeiro said.?As the immigrant population changed with the Brazilian and Hispanic populations arriving in the late 1980s, the law firm served as an all-purpose firm for the community, said Ribeiro, who has been with the firm for 20 years. ?The firm today has 12 lawyers, many first-generation Americans. Ribeiro feels they are more compassionate with the new immigrants and provide more empathy.?“We recruited lawyers who could speak bilingual or trilingual. It goes back to the language connection with a client. You can”™t bring in a translator and have the same experience,” Ribeiro said.
“By providing compassionate and empathetic service your brand develops with them,” he said.
Forging a new life?The one thread that ties immigrants over the decades is their sense of adventure and entrepreneurial spirit; to leave their countries and forge a new life in another country.?Fran Silveira, owner of DeCastro Salon and Spa on Main Street, is one of those immigrants.?“Six years ago, me and my son came to the United States.”
That simple statement belies the courage it took for Silveira to come to the U.S. and create a new business.
Silveira has done aesthetic work for 20 years. She owned a salon in the town of Paraiso do Tocantins, Brazil.?Once arriving in Danbury, she worked for other salons until saving enough to open her own 18 months ago on Main Street.?Her clientele is about 80 percent Brazilian, with the remaining 20 percent Americans. Her salon includes a weight-loss program that is based on lymphatic massage. Her salon also features Brazilian blowouts, a hair-straightening process.?The answer to why she came to the U.S. with just her son lies in the name of her salon. DeCastro was her husband”™s name. He died nine years ago in Brazil. She named the business to honor him.
”˜Our time to shine”™?Richard Reyes received a business degree from NYU and was working in the finance industry in Manhattan when he decided it was time to help run “the show.”?The “show” consists of Amigo”™s Deli and Market on West Street and Minas Carne Deli and Churrascaria on Osborne Street at Moss Avenue. ?A recent visit to both places at lunchtime proves it is one busy show.
The Reyes family moved from the Dominican Republic to Danbury in 1989.?Two years later, Reyes father, Luis, opened Amigo”™s as a quick-service Latino eatery. Joining Luis in the venture were “my mom, aunt and godfather.” ?It proved to be very successful, attracting not just Latinos for the tasty cuisine, but Americans and African-Americans, as well. In 2000, the deli expanded, adding a meat counter staffed by two Brazilian butchers. Reyes brother Juan, a graduate of Wales and Johnson culinary college, takes care of the menus for both places.
Reyes said the family had been thinking of adding a restaurant and in 2008 bought Minas Carne. He said the family renovated the place and changed everything except the name and the menu, which includes a buffet and barbecued meats. The restaurant draws students from nearby Western Connecticut State College as well as police officers, lawyers and day laborers. Since it is so close to the college, Reyes said it offers 10 percent off meals for students.
“Dad laid the foundation,” Reyes said, adding Amigo”™s now has a website.
The two eateries take part in Taste of Danbury as well as food fairs at the college. And Reyes emphatically points out that they just don”™t deliver the food and leave it to just anyone to give it out. The family is actively involved. “It”™s our time to shine.”
