ABSTRACT
Mario Cuomo's father typifies the older immigrant:
He is 77 now and slipping, but at the time of Forest Hills he was fresh as a daisy–illiterate but very smart. He saw in the paper [then] and he heard on the radio, FOREST HILLS, MARIO CUOMO, THE JEWS, THE BLACKS, and he thought, "What's going on?" So, he asked me one day what was happening when it was just about over. And I explained to him as simply as I could.
I said, "Pop, here are all the Jewish people. The black people want to come here."
"How many?" he asked.
"About 840 families," I said.
"And how many do the Jewish people want?" my father responded.
I said, "None."
"Ah, they want 840 and the Jewish people want none."
I said, "That's right."
"And what did you do?"
I said, "I made it [the housing project} three buildings, twelve floors each."
He said, "How many is that?"
I said, "That's about 420."
"That's half."
I said, "That's right."
"Then what took you eight weeks?"
