Immigrants of Two Eras Join Together to Celebrate

Italian and Hispanic immigrants are celebrating this feast day, combining their two cultures. This is definitely America. - - Donna Poisl

By PETER APPLEBOME

BRENTWOOD, N.Y.-- It was probably inevitable that the annual Feast of Mother Cabrini run by the Giuseppe A. Nigro Lodge, Order of Sons of Italy in America, Long Island’s answer to Little Italy’s Feast of San Gennaro, would offer attractions like the Sol y Sombra Spanish Dance Company and the taco stand on the midway.

Brentwood, a patch of sprawl in Suffolk County, once largely populated by Italians who migrated there from Brooklyn in the ’50s and ’60s, is now largely Central American. The signs on Fifth Avenue read La Cubanita Hoy, Teresa’s Latin Look Unisex Salon, La Excelencia Bakery and Deli, Centro Evangelistico Pentecostes. The big-screen TV behind the registers at the Compare Market shows soccer; the in-store music is salsa and merengue.
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