Dear Editor,
The presence of Guyanese all over the U.S amazes me. They are a very enterprising, ambitious and industrious people found all over the country. They go wherever they can find comfort and a decent living and they are hard workers.
Their employers praise their work ethic.
I was in Las Vegas last week and there were Guyanese working on building maintenance in resorts – not dissimilar to their presence in the resorts in Caribbean islands like Aruba, St. Martin, Turks and Caicos, Antigua, and Barbados, among others.
A few were at the McCarran International Airport working for the Transportation Security Agency. Hundreds work for TSA and stores at JFK, La Guardia and Newark airports in the NY area. But I did not expect to see Guyanese in distant states least of all working at other airports. They must be excellent workers; one was in a supervisory position at McCarran.
The bulk of Guyanese Americans, numbering perhaps as many as half a million, are settled in New York and New Jersey with smaller numbers in Florida, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Minnesota.
But they are also found in other states enriching the American economy and adding to the ethnic and cultural diversity of American states.
I know from friends that their Guyanese families and relatives are settled in far away states like Ohio, Iowa, New Hampshire, Arizona, Rhode Island, North Carolina, California, etc.
And I am sure they are elsewhere as I found out from my visit to Nevada. In these distant states, they don’t have access to West Indian stores for their traditional dishes and music.
But when they come to NY, they shop like crazy.
It feels great to see and talk with Guyanese in many American cities. They give me a homely feeling in my distant travels.
I feel proud they are making an important and historic contribution to the American economy.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
