Hunting Season

by Mirta Ojito

  19. Tamara Boch and Angel Canales, unpublished transcript of documentary Running Wild: Hate and Immigration on Long Island, aired on WLIW-TV, November 11, 2009.

  20. Climate of Fear: Latino Immigrants in Suffolk County, N.Y., Southern Poverty Law Center, 2009, http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/climate-of-fear-latino-immigrants-in-suffolk-county-ny.

  21. Ibid.

  22. Interviews with Eddington, May 26, 2010–November 12, 2012.

  23. Climate of Fear.

  24. Interview with Paul Pontieri, February 27, 2012.

  CHAPTER 1: A BLOODY KNIFE

  Unless otherwise specified, the information in this chapter comes from interviews with Angel Loja, May 30, 2011–December 3, 2012.

  1. People of the State of New York v. Jeffrey Conroy, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Suffolk No. 3032A-2008, 236A-2009, excerpt of trial (March 24, 2010).

  2. Señor de Andacocha tourist information pamphlet.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Centro de Estudios Internacionales (Barcelona, Spain) and FLACSO (organization), Emigración y Política Exterior En Ecuador, Agora (Quito: Centro de Estudios Internacionales: FLACSO, Sede Académica de Ecuador: Abya Yala, 2005), 101.

  CHAPTER 2: PAINTED BIRDS IN THE AIR

  Unless otherwise specified, information in this chapter comes from several interviews with Julio Espinoza, January 2010–September 2012.

  1. “History [of Ecuador],” http://www.frommers.com/destinations/ecuador/0811020044.html.

  2. Report of the Visa Office 1981 (US Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, 1981).

  3. Kyle and Goldstein, Migration Industries, 5.

  4. Ibid., 4.

  5. Ibid., 4–5.

  6. Ibid., 5.

  7. Portes and Rumbaut, Immigrant America.

  8. Ibid., 40, 41, 59.

  9. Kyle and Goldstein, Migration Industries, 5.

  10. Ibid., 6.

  11. Frank S. Costanza, “Planting Roots on Long Island: Surging Hispanic Population Hopes to Break Barriers in America,” Long Island Advance, October 10, 2002.

  CHAPTER 3: WELCOME TO PATCHOGUE

  Unless otherwise specified, information in this chapter comes from interviews with Jean Kaleda and Gilda Ramos, 2010–2012.

  1. John N. Berry, “Gilda Ramos,” Library Journal 136, no. 4 (March 1, 2011): 30.

  2. Draft of an unpublished article by Jean Kaleda, “Public Libraries and Spanish Language Outreach: The Importance of Community Partnerships.”

  3. Ibid.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Frank S. Costanza, “Planting Roots on Long Island: Surging Hispanic Population Hopes to Break Barriers in America,” Long Island Advance, October 10, 2002.

  6. Draft of unpublished article by Jean Kaleda.

  7. Julia Preston, “Immigration Cools as Campaign Issue: Largely Absent from Debate, but Candidates Refine Positions,” New York Times, October 29, 2008.

  8. Elisabeth Bumiller and Marc Lacey, “McCain Winds Up Latin Trip in Mexico: Candidate Endorses Immigration Reform,” New York Times, July 4, 2008.

  9. Robert Pear and Carl Hulse, “Immigration Bill Fails to Survive Senate Vote,” New York Times, June 28, 2007.

  10. Ted Hesson, “Five Ways the Immigration System Changed after 9/11,” Univision News, September 11, 2012.

  11. “The Great Immigration Panic,” editorial, New York Times, June 3, 2008.

  12. “Pushing Back on Immigration,” editorial, New York Times, July 21, 2008.

  13. Michael Powell and Michele Garcia, “Pa. City Puts Illegal Immigrants on Notice,” Washington Post, August 22, 2006.

  14. Adam Nossiter, “Nearly 600 Were Arrested in Factory Raid, Officials Say,” New York Times, August 27, 2008.

  15. Susan Saulny, “Hundreds Are Arrested in U.S. Sweep of Meat Plant,” New York Times, May 13, 2008.

  16. Thayer Evans, “160 Arrested in Immigration Raid at a Houston Plant,” New York Times, June 26, 2008.

  17. Janie Lorber, “King, Others Call for More Secure Border Fence,” Newsday, June 11, 2008.

  18. Dave Marcus, “Suffolk County: Speaking Up for Hispanics,” Newsday, September 17, 2008.

  CHAPTER 4: NOT IN MY BACKYARD

  1. Details about Paul Pontieri’s life come from interviews, 2010–2012.

  2. LaGumina, From Steerage to Suburb, 1.

  3. Thomas and Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America.

  4. LaGumina, From Steerage to Suburb, 32–33.

  5. “Patchogue: Breve Historia,” Patchogue-Medford Library, n.d., http://www.pmlib.org/espatchbreve.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Garland, Gangs in Garden City, 34.

  8. Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier, 13.

  9. Garland, Gangs in Garden City, 33–39.

  10. “Patchogue: Breve Historia.”

  11. Information about Farmingville comes from James E. Claffey, “Anti-Immigrant Violence in Suburbia,” Social Text 24, no. 3 (2006): 74–75.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Paul J. Smith, “Anti-Immigrant Xenophobia around the World,” International Herald Tribune, February 14, 1996.

  14. Claffey, “Anti-Immigrant Violence in Suburbia.”

  15. Climate of Fear: Latino Immigrants in Suffolk County, N.Y., Southern Poverty Law Center, 2009, 11–13, http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/climate-of-fear-latino-immigrants-in-suffolk-county-ny.

  16. Claffey, “Anti-Immigrant Violence in Suburbia,” 77, 78.

  17. Charlie LeDuff, “Immigrant Workers Tell of Being Lured and Beaten,” New York Times, September 20, 2000; Slavin: “Queens Man Is Convicted in L.I. Attack on Mexicans,” New York Times, December 13, 2001; Wagner, “Sentence Reduced in Beating Case,” New York Times, March 29, 2006.

  18. LeDuff, “Immigrant Workers Tell of Being Lured and Beaten.”

  19. Claffey, “Anti-Immigrant Violence in Suburbia.”

  20. “Fact-checking Lou Dobbs,” from 60 Minutes, May 6, 2007, uploaded March 11, 2008, by TruthInImmigration, http://www.youtube.com.

  21. Bill O’Reilly and Geraldo Rivera, “Angry Fight Immigration,” from The O’Reilly Factor, Fox News, April 5, 2007, http://www.youtube.com.

  22. “Criminals Shot by Joe Horn Are Illegal Aliens,” from The O’Reilly Factor, Fox News, December 5, 2007, uploaded December 5, 2007, by Dan Amato, http://www.youtube.com.

  23. Buchanan, State of Emergency, 5.

  24. Huntington, Who Are We?, 181.

  25. Ibid., 185.

  26. Kalita, Suburban Sahibs, 3.

  27. Charlie LeDuff, “Tensions Persist after Suffolk Vote on Immigrant Workers,” New York Times, September 2, 2000.

  28. Climate of Fear, 8.

  29. Ibid., 11.

  30. Ibid., 8.

  31. Ibid., 11.

  32. Ibid., 19.

  33. Ibid.

  34. Ibid.

  CHAPTER 5: BEANER JUMPING

  1. Information about Christopher Overton comes from interviews with Denise Overton, April 4, 2012–December 10, 2012.

  2. Interview with Denise Overton.

  3. The narrative of the events that transpired in the evening of November 8, 2008, comes from the confessions of Jeffrey Conroy (Long Island Wins, January 19, 2010, http://www.longislandwins.com/), José Pacheco (Long Island Wins, April 9, 2010), Christopher Overton (Long Island Wins, April 7, 2010), Jordan Dasch (Long Island Wins, February 23, 2010), Nicholas Hausch (Long Island Wins, March 31, 2010), Kevin Shea (Long Island Wins, February 5, 2010), and Anthony Hartford (Long Island Wins, April 7, 2010), as well as the court testimony of Conroy and Hausch. Where possible, their version of events has been corroborated by interviews with Bob Conroy and Denise Overton.

  4. Tamara Boch and Angel Canales, unpublished transcript of documentary Running Wild: Hate and Immigration on Long Island, aired on WLIW-TV, November 11, 2009.

  5. Levin, Hate Crimes Revisited, 17–23.

  6. Ibid., 23.

  7. Ibid., 25.

  8. People of the State o
f New York v. Jeffrey Conroy, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Suffolk Nos. 236A-2009, 252A-2009, 3032A-2009, sentencing hearing (May 26, 2010).

  9. Unless otherwise noted, all the information about Jeffrey Conroy’s childhood and adolescence comes from interviews with Bob Conroy conducted December 6, 2010–January 4, 2013.

  10. Information about Pamela Suárez comes from interviews conducted with her on June 29, 2011, and July 1, 2011.

  11. Anne Barnard, “Admired by Many, but to Police a Killer,” New York Times, November 24, 2008.

  12. Manny Fernandez, “A Hate Crime Killer Denies Being So Hateful,” New York Times, April 30, 2010.

  13. From a May 29, 2012, interview with someone close to the Conroys who didn’t want to be identified for fear of offending the family.

  14. Ibid.

  15. Levin, Hate Crimes Revisited, 27.

  16. Ibid., 47.

  17. Deputized, directed by Susan Hagedorn and Amanda Zinoman (Seedworks Films, 2012).

  18. Robin Finn, “A Principal Struggles with the Killing’s Aftermath,” New York Times, November 23, 2008.

  19. From a 2012 phone interview with Clarissa Espinosa.

  20. Patrick Whittle, “Patchogue ESL Classes to Remain,” Newsday, December 17, 2008.

  21. From an interview with Michael Mostow, May 29, 2012.

  22. “Long Island Nassau Suffolk County New York Political Forum,” The Schwartz Report, July 25, 2005, http://www.theschwartzreport.com/.

  23. Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, “School Wrestles with Issues of Race,” Newsday, November 18, 2008.

  24. Michael M. Grynbaum, “Cheer Fades as Stocks Plunge 9%,” New York Times, December 2, 2008.

  25. Ray Allen Billington, “The Burning of the Charlestown Convent,” New England Quarterly: A Historical Review of New England Life and Letters 10, no. 1 (March 1937): 4–24.

  26. Bennett, The Party of Fear.

  27. Scott Zesch, “Chinese Los Angeles in 1870–1871: The Makings of a Massacre,” Southern California Quarterly 90 (Summer 2008): 109–58.

  28. George E. Cunningham, “The Italian, a Hindrance to White Solidarity in Louisiana, 1890–1898,” Journal of Negro History 50 (January 1965): 25–26.

  29. John G. Bitzes, “The Anti-Greek Riots of 1909—South Omaha,” Nebraska History 51 (1970): 16–17.

  30. Richard Griswold del Castillo, “The Los Angeles ‘Zoot Suit Riots’ Revisited: Mexican and Latin American Perspectives,” Mexican Studies 16, no. 2 (Summer 2000): 367–91.

  31. Gerstenfeld, Hate Crimes, 89–90.

  32. Roger Daniels, Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life, 2nd ed. (New York: Perennial, 2002), xii.

  33. Sucheng Chan, “A People of Exceptional Character: Ethnic Diversity, Nativism, and Racism in the California Gold Rush,” California History 79, no. 2 (Summer 2000): 44–85.

  34. Richard H. Peterson, “The Mexican Gold Rush: Illegal Aliens of the 1850s,” Californians 3 (June 1985): 19.

  35. William R. Kenny, “Mexican-American Conflict on the Mining Frontier, 1848–52,” Journal of the West 6 (October 1967): 587.

  36. Francisco A. Rosales, Pobre Raza! Violence, Justice, and Mobilization among México Lindo Immigrants, 1900–1936 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999), 78–81.

  37. Brentin Mock, “Immigration Backlash: Hate Crimes against Latinos Flourish,” Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report, no. 128 (Winter 2007), http://www.splcenter.org/.

  38. Rosales, Pobre Raza!, 78.

  39. Ibid., 77–78.

  40. Ibid., 107.

  41. Ibid., 102.

  42. Ibid., 105.

  43. Nancy Cervantes, Sasha Khokha, and Sasha Murray, “Hate Unleashed: Los Angeles in the Aftermath of Proposition 187,” Chicano-Latino Law Review 8 (1995): 2.

  44. Carrasco, “Latinos in the United States,” 197.

  45. Cervantes, Khokha, and Murray, “Hate Unleashed,” 8.

  46. Ibid., 14.

  47. Mock, “Immigration Backlash.”

  48. Ibid.

  49. Ibid.

  50. Ibid.

  51. Ibid.

  52. Peter E. Bortner, “Donchak and Piekarsky Face Nine Years in Prison for Mexican’s Beating Death,” Times-Tribune (Wilkes-Barre, PA), February 24, 2011, www.thetimes-tribune.com.

  53. Tamara Boch and Angel Canales, unpublished transcript of documentary Running Wild: Hate and Immigration on Long Island, aired on WLIW-TV, November 11, 2009.

  54. All the details of the attack on Sierra comes from his testimony, New York v. Conroy, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Suffolk No. 3032A-2008, 236A-2009, excerpt of trial (March 23, 2010).

  55. Boch and Canales, Running Wild.

  56. Ibid.

  57. Ted Hesson, “Marcelo Lucero Trial: Jeffrey Conroy’s Written Confession,” Long Island Wins, January 19, 2010, http://www.longislandwins.com/.

  CHAPTER 6: UNWANTED

  1. Details about Angel Loja’s life and about how he spent the day with Marcelo Lucero on November 8, 2008, come from interviews with Loja, May 30, 2011–December 3, 2012.

  2. Tamara Boch and Angel Canales, unpublished transcript of documentary Running Wild: Hate and Immigration on Long Island, aired on WLIW-TV, November 11, 2009.

  3. Jennifer Jo Janish, “Where Two Rivers Separate: Hate Crimes against Hispanics and the Immigration Debate on Long Island,” master’s thesis, Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University, 2009.

  4. Details about Marcelo Lucero’s life in Gualaceo come from interviews with his mother in Ecuador on July 17, 2010.

  5. Janish, “Where Two Rivers Separate.”

  6. Boch and Canales, Running Wild.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Interview with Macedonio Ayala, December 6, 2010.

  9. Marcelo Lucero’s letters were provided by his mother and translated by the author.

  10. Janish, “Where Two Rivers Separate.”

  CHAPTER 7: A MURDER IN THE SUBURBS

  1. The narrative of the events that transpired in Patchogue on the evening of November 8, 2008, comes from the confessions of Jeffrey Conroy (Long Island Wins, January 19, 2010), José Pacheco (Long Island Wins, April 9, 2010), Christopher Overton (Long Island Wins, April 7, 2010), Jordan Dasch (Long Island Wins, February 23, 2010), Nicholas Hausch (Long Island Wins, March 31, 2010), Kevin Shea (Long Island Wins, February 5, 2010), and Anthony Hartford (Long Island Wins, April 7, 2010), as well as the trial testimony of Conroy, Hausch, and Angel Loja.

  2. Details about the train’s schedule on the night of November 8, 2008, come from Salvatore Arena, spokesman, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York City.

  3. Manny Fernandez, “Aid for L.I. Attack Victim Took Time, Court Is Told,” New York Times, March 19, 2010.

  4. Sumathi Reddy and Carl MacGowan, “ ‘Not a Good Idea’: Witness Says Teens Looked to Beat ‘a Mexican’ but His Warning Went Unheeded, He Testifies,” Newsday, March 20, 2010.

  5. Manny Fernandez, “Aid for L.I. Attack Victim Took Time, Court Is Told.”

  6. Ibid.

  7. All of the information about Christopher Schiera comes from his trial testimony: People of the State of New York v. Jeffrey Conroy, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Suffolk No. 3032A-2008, 236A-2009, excerpt of trial (March 18, 2010).

  8. “A Brief History of Patchogue Ambulance Co.,” Patchogue Ambulance Company, http://www.patchogueambulance.com/pachistory.htm.

  9. Quotes come from Michael Richardsen’s testimony: New York v. Conroy, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Suffolk No. 3032A-2008, 236A-2009, excerpt of trial (March 18, 2010).

  10. Details about the emergency crew’s attempt to save Marcelo Lucero’s life come from Christopher Schiera’s trial testimony: New York v. Conroy, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Suffolk No. 3032A-2008, 236A-2009, excerpt of trial (March 18, 2010).

  11. Manny Fernandez, “Ambulance’s Delay May Be Issue in L.I. Hate-Crime Trial,” New York Times,
March 18, 2010.

  12. New York v. Conroy, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Suffolk No. 3032A-2008, 236A-2009, excerpt of trial (April 5, 2010).

  13. Information about Detective McLeer’s interrogation of Jeffrey Conroy comes from the detective’s testimony: New York v. Conroy, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Suffolk No. 3032A-2008, 236A-2009, excerpt of trial (April 5, 2010).

  14. This detail comes from interviews conducted with Bob Conroy, December 6, 2010–January 4, 2013.

  15. Quotes and information in this section come from Angel Loja’s testimony: New York v. Conroy, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Suffolk No. 3032A-2008, 236A-2009, excerpt of trial (March 24, 2010), 33.

  16. Information about Octavio Cordovo comes from his testimony: New York v. Conroy, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Suffolk No. 3032A-2008, 236A-2009, excerpt of trial (March 30, 2010).

  17. Interview with Bob Conroy, July 24, 2012.

  18. This short conversation comes from Ted Hesson, “Marcelo Lucero Case: Jeffrey Conroy’s Mother Testifies in His Defense,” Long Island Wins, April 9, 2010, http://www.longislandwins.com/.

  19. Information about the manslaughter charge comes from Detective McLeer’s testimony: New York v. Conroy, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Suffolk No. 3032A-2008, 236A-2009, excerpt of trial (April 5, 2010).

  20. Interview with Bob Conroy, July 24, 2012.

  CHAPTER 8: A TORN COMMUNITY

  1. Details about Paul Pontieri’s reaction to the murder come from an interview with him on February 27, 2012.

  2. According to Kathleen Bleck, senior research analyst of Command 2000 of the Suffolk County Police Department, there were six murders in Patchogue in the period between January 1, 2002, and July 31, 2012. There were no murders in the years 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2012.

  3. Kirk Semple, “A Killing in a Town Where Latinos Sense Hate,” New York Times, November 14, 2008.

  4. Interviews with Denise Overton, April 4, 2012–December 10, 2012.

  5. Details about the Reverend Dwight Wolter’s activities after learning of Marcelo Lucero’s death come from interviews with Wolter, November 7, 2010–February 19, 2013.