J’cans quietly thriving in US Midwest

When most Jamaicans think of living in the United States, they often eye locations, such as New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida and Atlanta in Georgia, but rarely is there mention of midwest states such as Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, among others.

A recent trip to Indianapolis, the capital of Indiana, found a thriving Jamaican community where Jamaicans not only own their businesses, but have established deep roots in the community and profess to not wanting to live anywhere else in the US.

They are restaurant owners, hairstylists, members of the US military and various other industries.

What is absent from the Jamaican community in Indiana is any formal Jamaican organisation that brings the community together, despite previous attempts to establish such a body.

A visit to the west side of Indianapolis uncovered Yaso, a Jamaican restaurant owned by Jermaine Dennis and his wife, Ja’Net.

Dennis hails from Bluefields in Westmoreland and is a product of HEART Academy, Savanna-la-Mar High School and Whitehouse Primary School.

He told The Gleaner that, after leaving HEART, he worked as a chef with Couples, Negril and Sandals Whitehouse before moving on to work as a chef for Royal Caribbean Cruises.

Dennis migrated to the US in 2013 after he was filed for by his wife who influenced him to settle in America.

On arrival he settled in Indianapolis where he worked with a couple of Jamaican restaurants before deciding to open his own.

Yaso is a restaurant that offers all the traditional dishes such as jerk chicken, jerk pork, curried goat, oxtail, among other Jamaican favourites. You can also find Jamaican patties and other Jamaican delicacies there. But, apart from food, the restaurant also carries Jamaican items craved for by Jamaicans, abroad as well as other foreign nationals living in the US.

“We have had this restaurant over four years now and there is never a dull moment,” he told The Gleaner on a visit to the restaurant.

He disclosed that the sit down restaurant employs 10 people and accommodates about 35 customers at a time, but there is also a drive-thru window where persons can order and pick up.

“The drive-thru is mostly opened on a Tuesday because the restaurant is closed on that day. We opened the drive-thru because of the demand we experienced,” he said.

More space to raise a family

Dennis said that he loves living in the midwest.

“Life is slower, there is more space to raise a family and the cost of living is cheaper,” he said.

The restaurant operator, who owns his home and is building larger accommodations, said he was able to purchase his house for about US$25,000, a price he would not have found in areas such as New York, Florida and Atlanta.

Quizzed on whether there was a Jamaican organisation where his countrymen gather, Dennis said efforts were made to establish such an organisation, but it did not get off the ground due to the far-flung nature of the Jamaican communities.

“We do try and celebrate Jamaican major holidays such as Independence, but these are more individually organised,” he said.

Dennis said he would not live anywhere else in the US outside the Midwest.

He does visit Jamaica several times a year and is building a family home in Westmoreland, where he is from.

Also extolling the virtues of living in Indianapolis is Nadine Ward, who has been in that part of the US since 1992.

Ward, who is a member of the US military, praises the virtues of Indianapolis and the fact that it is a military city.

“In Indianapolis, because my husband and I are service members, our children are able to attend schools, up to and including college, for free,” she told The Gleaner.

Ward was born in Jamaica, lived in Portmore, St Catherine, and attended Bridgeport Primary School, Dunrobin Preparatory School and Wolmer’s High School for Girls before migrating to the US in 1989.

On arrival, she lived in the Bronx and attended Mount Vernon High School in New York.

Ward admitted that she did not know what she wanted her career path to be, but, with her experience as a member of the cadet corp in Jamaica, she enlisted in the US military, first in the Army and now in the Air Force.

Cheaper cost of living

Living in Indianapolis, she said, is less fast-paced, more family friendly, and provides people with a cheaper cost of living and the ability to afford their own home.

“A majority of people who are born in Indiana have never lived outside the state, so the state is less multi-cultural like New York, but it is family friendly,” she told The Gleaner.

Ward admitted that there are not a lot of Jamaicans living in Indianapolis and those who live in the state are not clustered together. She also said that, unlike New York, there are not a lot of Jamaican businesses, though there are more now than when she first moved to the state.

“We don’t have any Jamaican organisations that bring the community together because the Jamaican population in Indy is so far flung,” Ward said.

Leon Davidson, who has been living in Indianapolis since 2017, was also appreciative of the benefits of living in the midwest.

“Life is slower, cost of living is cheaper, the ability to own your own home is greater and there are a lot of jobs available in the state,” he told The Gleaner.

While he is not a fan of the cold weather during winter, Davidson said Indianapolis offers opportunities that he would not get in Jamaica or in other states in the US.

Davidson, who is currently looking to start his own food truck, said the state offers opportunities to own your own business if you are so inclined.

“Living here is challenging, but I have been able to adjust and make the most of the situation and I am thriving,” he said.

“Jamaicans in midwest states said that such states offer Jamaicans the opportunities for an improved life.”

editorial@gleanerjm.com