The Latino Crescent

Latinos make a place for themselves in Muslim America

September, 2009

Ponce de Leon Federal Bank, Pan Con Todo restaurant, and the Made In Colombia boutique line the sidewalk on Bergenline Avenue, which runs through the center of Union City, New Jersey. Flags from Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic hang proudly in storefronts. Miniature Honduran flags dangle from the rear view mirrors of cars parked on the thoroughfare. More than 60 percent of Union City's population is Latino. You don't have to speak English to live here.

Just off Bergenline, there is a stately columned building that used to house the city's Cuban community center, once a popular venue for traditional Hispanic celebrations like quinceañeras, the 15th birthday parties of Latina girls. Late one Sunday afternoon, three young women wearing traditional Muslim hijabs, or headscarves, stand on the steps of what for the past 17 years has been the Islamic Educational Center of North Hudson.

Another woman wearing a hijab rushes up the stairs of the mosque frantically murmuring to herself, "Empanadas, empanadas, empanadas!" as if to remind herself to pick up the savory Latino pastries for the crowd waiting inside. "Empanadas!" Shinoa Matos, one of the three women on the steps, responds excitedly. "I'm very hungry," she says as her attention turns towards the inside of the building. The Sixth Annual Hispanic Muslim Day event is about to begin.

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