Friday, April 2, 2027 | 6pm to 8pm
25 West 43rd St, 10th Floor, Suite 1000
between 5th & 6th Avenues, Manhattan
New York City is home to the largest Indo-Caribbean diasporic community—a presence highlighted by the 2021 official designation of Richmond Hill and Ozone Park in Queens as “Little Guyana.” Descended from Indian indentured laborers brought to the Caribbean to work on British plantations in the 1800s following the end of enslavement, Indo-Caribbeans possess a distinct history rooted in multiple displacements. Despite being part of large immigrant populations like Guyanese- and Trinidadian-Americans, this group often remains invisible in official data because the U.S. Census lacks a specific category for them, leaving their true demographic footprint even larger than reported.
As an ethnic and political force, Indo-Caribbeans have gained visibility through decades of activism, including spearheading efforts to make Diwali a public school holiday. However, their stories, cultural activities, and political involvement still exist only piecemeal in scattered articles, organizational documents, and the oral memories of elders. With communal histories at risk of erasure as generations disperse and elders pass away, this project aims to combat that loss by documenting this vital history through research and community interviews.
Project funded by the 2026 CUNY Faculty Research Support Program
