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Roncesvalles
Spanish name, Polish downtown; one avenue, many stories
Bebout, Rick http://www.rbebout.com/queen/parkdale/2pronc.htm
Publisher: Rick Bebout
Date Written: 01/04/2002
Year Published: 2002
Resource Type: Article
A history of the immigrant populations in the Roncesvalles area of Toronto, with observations on the communities who have lived there told through monuments and landmarks.
Abstract:
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Excerpts:
Immigrant narratives, like the tales of any tribe unsure of its social standing, tend to the Great Man (or, if rarely, Great Woman) School of History: "one of us" who -- by dint of true grit, noble character, hard work -- made good.
Poles in Toronto can point to a monument standing by the lake west of Parkdale, marking a park named for Sir Casimir Gzowski. His great grandson Peter is now more famous: journalist, broadcaster, via CBC Radio's Morningside everyone's favourite avuncular smoothie. His (very public) loss to lung cancer in early 2002 led to tributes much fitting "one of our own" -- "we" being Canadians Polish or not, if especially "we" of the nice Canadian media.
...
Ethnologists speak of immigrants' "mental maps," their working plan of "home." Lands far off are finely detailed, local streets too and key sites beyond: church, work, meeting places, safe hangouts. But neighbourhoods just a few blocks away might, on that map, be blank.
We all have such maps. At some time, in some places, each of us is new in town. Even from familiar streets we may spot a looming presence -- an apartment block, a factory, a church steeple marking a place we've never had occasion to go -- and see it as if across the Berlin Wall: another place. A strange place. Not quite here.
"There are no architectural landmarks on Roncesvalles," Andrew Pawlowski wrote, "significant enough to find their way into an international tourist guide." None of its "fine restaurants" is truly famous; it has no hot night clubs; it is rarely noted in Toronto's insistent self promotion. On the mental maps of many in this town, it is a place not here.
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