The largest community of South Americans in the United States is in Jackson Heights, a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City.
South Americans first started coming there at the end of World War I. Many Colombians now live there; some call it “Chapinero,” after a suburb of Bogota. The neighborhood is also home to Latinos from other parts of the Americas.
The business district is stocked with Latino restaurants, newsstands, travel and real estate agencies, and grocery stores. The Italian, Irish, and Jewish immigrants who once lived in Jackson Heights have mostly moved elsewhere.
Substantial numbers of South Americans can also be found in Florida and California. But they live everywhere, from Boston to Chicago to Oregon.
Viewing themselves as distinct from more typical Hispanic American groups, such as Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, they may choose to live among Anglos rather than in a Hispanic American barrio.
Often, their children readily assimilate into Anglo society.
