Season 2, Episode 3:  “New York Is the People That Live Here” ft Mafer Bandola 

NARRATION: Dear New York City, Dear Brooklyn. Dear precious place, where I spent so many of my childhood years. The first thing I want to say to you, is thank you, for being a home. 

Thank you for music everywhere, thank you for the lonely saxophonist who carefully placed himself in an acoustically perfect subway arch, thank you to the b-boys that danced on top of flattened cardboard boxes, thank you to the walks down 5th Avenue where salsa blared from all the corner stores. 

Thank you for the friends on our block, and the hot summer nights where everyone from every house would climb up to our connected roofs to watch fireworks together. 

Thank you for the doses of nature inside your concrete stretches; for the botanical gardens, daffodil hill, and endless blocks of yellow forsythia, the first signs of spring after your long winters.

Thank you for the music festivals in Prospect Park, even and maybe especially thank you for that time me and Jill got lost at a concert. And as we waited for our terrified parents underneath the stage, thank you for giving me my first wildly enticing experience behind the scenes of a very big show.

Even now, so many years after you were my home, I never feel lost when I am inside your land. Some might say that’s because the streets are numbers or letters, which does help orient any traveler. But it’s more than that, I know you, I recognize myself in you. 

And I am mad at you. 

ARCHIVAL: The migrant crisis came to Staten Island today as dozens of recent immigrants were bussed to a former Catholic school here for housing, residents are furious

NARRATION: You are a city of many things, but most definitely a city of immigrants. 

Even before this current so-called “migrant crisis” nearly 40 percent of your people were born outside of the United States. Count the folks whose parents were born elsewhere, and you get that powerful, dramatic word. Majority.  This is us. And yet in September of 2023, your mayor,  Eric Adams, said something I could never have imagined. 

ARCHIVAL: And let me tell you something, New Yorkers.  Never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to. I don't see an ending to this. I don't see an end to this. This issue will destroy New York City.

NARRATION: “This issue” is migrants. Mayor Adams is saying immigrants will destroy New York. 

New York was the place where my family finally found our rhythm, where my parents got the jobs that were the key to unlocking our future in the US, ones they had been seeking since the day we arrived in the United States. New York was also the place I had my first ever performance, singing Billie Holiday’s God Bless The Child to an enthusiastic audience at my middle school variety show, and in the  process, falling in love with Jazz, and the stage. 

That was a long time ago now. These days, I've had to wonder, my dear New York, are you still that place? Are you still you? 

My name is Meklit and this is Movement: music and migration, remixed. 

Meklit: What was it like to, like, do the regular life things, like, find an apartment

Mafer: Oh my gosh, that was, that was so rewarding.

NARRATION: Mafer Bandola moved to New York in 2021, and for her, like me, it was a place where she could finally find her footing. 

Mafer: Someone give me the mattress and then someone else give me the bed, like the instructor who sold the mattress. And then someone else told me, okay, you have some, garbage can, little garbage cans here. You have these, you have a table. So I got things from my friends around and that was just like feeling like building a place to live. 

NARRATION: Mafer is short for Maria Fernanda. And Bandola, that’s the instrument she plays, the one you're hearing now. She didn't pick that name. At some point people just started saving her number in their phone as Mafer Bandola, like Mafer who plays the Bandola, and the name stuck. 

Mafer is originally from Venezuela, but she left in 2017 for the same basic reasons that have driven over 7 million people to leave in recent years, that's about a quarter of the country’s population. The economic and political instability was making it hard to continue living there as a performer, or even to get in and out of the country to go on tour. She moved first to Colombia where she slept in her bandmate’s music studio. Then she moved to Canada, where she struggled to learn French and had to do under the table farm work and construction to survive. 

NARRATION: Finally, after five years of drifting, crashing, moving, wondering, she landed in New York. Which is why she lights up at the thought of that first apartment. 

Mafer: That have heater in the inside the room and have this, oh, cozy pillow. Everything was just like, so, oh, it feels so good. And just like to sleep and feel safe and feel like I'm going to stay for longer in here. That was something that I did not experience for at least five years. so it was just like something about staying and just like, being grounded and just like, it's going to be okay. Just relax. It's time to just relax.

Meklit: And I see it in your body as you tell the story. It's like a little light coming out of your body. You're talking about it.

Mafer: You're right. I appreciate my room. I have plants now. I have plants in the window. You can see one little one here and it's still alive. It's green. It's alive.

Meklit: Could you tell me like what is your musical community like in New York?

Mafer: Yes. So at this point, after I moved to New York, I got the chance to meet artists, from different cultures, but at some point I was like, where is the Venezuelan community here? Where is my people? 

I know the Colombian community is really strong because they have these activities called Redas de Tambores, which is like where they meet and they play the drums and they sing and then they start just sharing what they are doing, or where to go to buy the ingredients for their food. The best places to go, the cheese or the thing that you put in the top of blah, blah, blah, who make a special the food. Same with the Brazilian community here. They know where to go at the end of the month, at the beginning of the month to meet.

I was missing the Venezuelan community here. And then at some point, I realized, well, the only thing I could do here good is play music and I know my traditional music. So what I will do is like contact someone in a venue and propose that I have a residency, like same day, same time. I don't know how many times a month, but let's try to do it. 

Meklit: Take me to the first time. Like, what was the very first one like? 

Mafer: February, 2022

Mafer: I was so excited. I invited three other musicians, two Venezuelan musicians and one from the United States.

NARRATION: She wanted to put together a group to play Joropo music, which is the folk music from the plains of Venezuela, los llanos. Mafer describes it as Venezuelan cowboy music. 

Mafer: Let's try it. Let's do it. Just let's do it. And it was like, they were really afraid of like, I'm not the best Joropo player. All of them were just like, I'm not like, I'm not a professional Joropo player. And I was like, I mean, I'm not looking for it. I'm looking for people who wanted to gather around this music. 

So we went to this bar which is like a, old style bar that is like a bit dark And you can see like in the back of the bar after you pass the principal area where all the spiritual drinks are. You go to the back of that place and then you find this little place, like a room, a small room that has red lights.

So we did sound check by ourself. We connect all the cables, we put all the mic stands, we did everything. And we sit, we were ready. 

And then we started the first song and it was like trying to understand what should I talk about or like which kind of language should I use to explain this.

Meklit: Mm hmm.

Mafer: And then I was like, okay. You know, this is like a historical day, like this is starting today for the first time. And there was just like two persons in the show that day.

NARRATION: The next month, when Mafer held the second Joropo night, the venue was absolutely packed. 

Mafer: There was no space for people to sit because it was something that people started like sharing mouth to mouth.

Venezuelans who have not visited the country for so long. People who have 30 years here, but they get to get there. It's like, what? it's so cool to be close to my music or like, you remind me, my grandpa, blah, blah, blah. Like, Oh, thank you because my kids. who are two years old or five years old or 10 years old, they don't know what our music sounds like. 

And that was really significant. It was like, okay, it was needed. Many people felt the same as I felt at the beginning, it's like, where is my people?

Mafer: That's kind of the way that I've been creating community here in New York.

Meklit: You know, in many ways, New York has always been a place of immigrants, you know, but right now there's something different happening with New York. I was wondering, was there a, like have, when did you first hear the idea? Because I think it's an idea and not necessarily reality. But when did you first start hearing that New York was facing a migrant crisis?

Mafer: The end of 2021. 

NARRATION: 2021. 

ARCHIVAL: The fact is, that we have seen a significant uptake in our families with children census over the past couple of months. Driven, in part, by a increasing migrant population seeking services.

NARRATION: By the way, Mafer’s mic dropped out in this part of the conversation, which is why the audio sounds a little different. 

Mafer: And when I heard Venezuelans were getting in here to New York and it was winter to me was really sad because they would arriving from the jungle to the Mexican border and being sent in buses to a place that is so cold. With a language they don't know and right away, they didn't have the clothing to face the winter.

So when I knew that they were getting here, I applied to volunteer.

NARRATION: Mafer got involved. Every week, she and the other volunteers would meet migrants at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan. Almost half of those new migrants were from Venezuela. Tens of thousands of people fleeing the same instability and dangers she had fled. There were different jobs to do, like translating documents, sorting clothing, serving food. And it was all organized by regular citizens and local organizations. 

Mafer: So to me, it was like, wow, New York is so amazing. This is incredible. I'm so happy to be part of this. That was the beginning. That was the beginning.

Meklit: And then what happened?

Mafer: First the news.

ARCHIVAL: This term Migrant Crisis is ever developing. We know that there have been reports of crime increasing in that area 

Mafer: They were really intense about how to talk about the immigrants.

Meklit: Yes.

Mafer: They were like, these people, they are so desperate, they don't know, they fight, they blah, blah, blah.

ARCHIVAL: The Mayor planned to house migrants from the southern border at this former grade school in a fully residential neighborhood

Mafer: And then last, last year was the time where there were police and militaries that were receiving the immigrants. And we were surprised by that. At least I was surprised by that. And then I didn't want it to be involved in that. And then everything changed in terms of like how they were received and how they will be treated. And I didn't like to be connected to that.

NARRATION: Dear New York, I’ve been watching you from far away. Watching you be tested. Watching as buses arrive from Texas and Florida, sent by the right wing Governors of those states. Watching the pressure build on you to live up to your own sense of self, even your own laws, like the right to shelter. I’ve been watching you close up, hunker down, become more conservative. Watching your press lash out at migrants, disingenuously painting folks who are running for their lives as criminals. It makes me feel some kind of way. Like, did I ever know you to begin with? But then I ask myself who do I really mean when I say I am talking to you? Am I talking to the government? The press? Or to the people? 

Meklit: You know, you hear Eric Adams, you know, and that's one narrative, but you don't hear about all the people showing up to help just to do something because they know this isn't right. You know, that's also a story of New York and just being like, I can do, I can sort jackets. 

Mafer: Yea, that was, that's my experience and that's why I like to talk about it because that I did not read this in the news that much. There was like one article in the New York Times and it was not viral. So when it went viral, it was the, there was a crisis in the United, in the, in New York.

That was, that's the news that went viral. Not the way that people receive the people in the airport, well organized, with love, with patience. I mean, that part of, that part of New York, that's the part who make me feel that I'm in the right place.That's the part of New York that made me feel, yes, here you can do something, you take action, if you organize with the people. And go and be in the right place in the right moment.

NARRATION: Mafer told me the story of a young man who helped to restore her own faith. They met while she was volunteering, but strangely, this young man was both a recently arrived migrant, and a volunteer. 

Mafer: So he arrived and he decided to volunteer right away. I already know how is the process. And I'm going to get to meet the people who live in New York, if I can get friend of them too. So he was really smart. He was 19. He was really tall. I think he was about to get like a baseball. Like play your contract or something in Venezuela and he have to migrate so he he couldn't get it. But he was like really tall strong, like so he was able to carry things and help everybody. And I was like just looking at him like wow, he's really passionate about helping the other people. So, my question was like what he went through that is still make him feel useful to help other people?

Like what, how was the process in his mind to get to the city and right away be active helping? So I asked him, Hey, how are you? How's everything going? He was like, Oh all good. No mucho inglés. Like, he was like, and I was like, okay, let's in Spanish. Let's talk in Spanish.

So we're speaking in Spanish and there is something about talking in your language just that feel you relax. It's just like he opened up as book and he explained me the process of going through all these countries. First, he said, oh it was awesome. I did not any of this country.

I didn't know that was so big. I was like, what? I finally get to the map to see all the way that I went through. And I saw so many changes. People looks the same, but the language is the accents are so different. Like, okay. Oh, okay. What else? Tell me more. He's like, well. And then at some point he says, but the hard thing was the jungle. When we have to go to the jungle, that's when you, oh my God, thanks God, he say. I'm a sport person because I have my conditions.

I remember carrying babies, helping the mothers, he said. And I was going through the jungle, carry one day the baby of a woman. And then, for some reason, the woman says, No, no, no, give me the baby back. And they were, like, in the process of going through a river or something. And then he said he saw how the river get the baby and the mom. They disappear in the water. And he was like, I will not forget that. I can't forget that. And then he started crying. He said like, I know I could help her. I could jump again to the water and get her. I know I could do that, but it was so risky. 

NARRATION: And the reason the young man kept coming back to volunteer, was to wait for this woman and her baby. Because he believed in his heart that they were still alive. That they were going to make it. And he would be here waiting for them. 

Mafer: And I was like, thank you for sharing your story. I was like, sure. I'm going to introduce you to her. If she gets here. Sure!

Meklit: Oh my God!

Mafer: I was like, thank you. Thank you. I was like, and that story stayed with me of how you, as an immigrant, you became also someone who helped right away. So you didn't get the chance to get in the sadness or like the emergency of like, I need help. It was just like, I have to help.

NARRATION: One of the questions I'm left with is why? Why can't we focus on stories like this one, rather than the stories of dysfunction and animosity? Mafer has been wondering that too, and the only answer she can see is politics. Cynical politics. Like maybe if we make the city sound harsh and unwelcoming enough, then people will stop coming. As if that kind of message has ever, ever changed the calculus for people who see no future in the places they were born. 

Mafer: So this narrative is really not positive because people think that they are being invasive. So that's why I'm like, I don't know why that should be the thing that you put the mics on instead of like, how you make this a safe space for everybody. 

I don't know why. What is the decision of deciding to say that? Because that makes us be in positions where someone can abuse these people. Because you get in the shadows, you are in the, like, in the margin, in the marginal, so I think if that's positive to someone, that's really sad.

It's like I have my skin, take it off, right? So I like, I don't have a skin and I feel everything. So whenever it happens, something about Venezuela is like, it's like, even if it's so good or even so hard and having them in the news talking about the Venezuelan communities as criminal in general.

But no one is talking about, for example, the community that is gathering to help with arepas. To cook arepas in their home, in their apartment, so they will be able to sell the food and have money at the end of the day.

So those are things that are happening here, and I believe in New York from that experience. And New York is the people that live here. New York is not just the concrete of the buildings and everything. It's the people that is here. And I see people that is really resilient. So, it's going to be okay.

NARRATION: Mafer Bandola is one quarter of the acclaimed all women’s Latinx supergroup LaDama. Their third full length album will be out this year in 2024. And you can also find her at Barbes in Brooklyn playing Joropo music on the fourth Sunday of every month. 

Dear New York, folks always said you were tough. Mean even. But that wasn’t my experience of you. I always felt like I could talk to anyone there. Strike up a chat on a dime. Any time I have ever been on the subway with a suitcase, someone was ready to help me carry it up the stairs. I could count on it. I could count on you.

This one time, I was on a road trip with this cousin of mine, who had recently moved to the US from Ethiopia. We were driving past fields, and mountains, and forrests. And he turned to me and said, you know, back in Addis Ababa, I thought every single inch of the United States was covered in New York City, but nope, look how many cows! There are cows everywhere! We stared out the window at the miles of farmland, contemplating how the narratives you catch from the mainstream, are never really how it is on the ground.  

Mafer showed me it was like that from within New York City too. It’s always harder to do, it always takes extra work, but if you spend a moment sitting inside the narratives of the people, you almost always turn what you think you know all the way upside down.  

Movement is produced by Ian Coss and myself, Meklit Hadero. Our editor is Megan Tan. Our co-creator and podcast godmother is Julie Caine. Our broadcast partner is The World. We are supported by the Mellon Foundation and distributed by PRX.

If you enjoyed this story, consider sending it to a friend, or leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts. Believe me, this stuff really does help people find the show. And if you happen to be curious about my albums, or performances, you can learn more at meklitmusic.com. Movement will be back with new episodes every Tuesday through the summer and fall.