PHOTO: I.K. Hoffman/ PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: F. Bruner

By Franziska Bruner and Iwona K. Hoffman

You’re an immigrant in New York, you can’t speak English, and you need to see your sister in Boston.  How do you get there?

Subway signs are in English, you don’t have a credit card to order your Greyhound ticket by phone, and you’re nervous about traveling alone. Then someone in the neighborhood tells you about the local van service where they speak your language, and will even pick you up at home. Problem solved.

All over New York, enterprising immigrants are hatching van services that take new Americans from one ethnic enclave to another, often with lower prices than the big commercial bus lines, and less hassle. 

Fung Wah Transport Van shuttles Chinese from New York’s Chinatown to Boston’s Chinatown, 10 times a day. Gonzalez Bus Line runs between Washington Heights’ Dominican barrio and Providence, Rhode Island’s south side, home to a growing Dominican community. And La Cubana buses take Cubans from all over the city to Little Havana in Miami. 

The services are so popular mainly because they feel safe and familiar to immigrants, said Alberto Pulido, a Latino Studies professor in the American Civilization department at Brown University.

“If I'm an immigrant and I have a choice between Bonanza Bus service and Latino Express, or whatever it’s called, I would probably want to deal with the company that understands my language and the whole thing of paying in cash,” Pulido said. 

“I trust the Dominican bus more,” said Gloria Cruz, 32, who travels about 15 times a year on Gonzalez Bus Line. 

The trip between her family in New York and her job in a ring box factory in Providence costs her only $25 one way, about $10 less than the taxi and Greyhound ticket she used to pay for before she discovered Gonzalez. 

Besides the price, Cruz likes the convenience.  Gonzalez offers door-to-door service, picking up passengers who live between 135th Street and 230th Street in Manhattan and the Bronx.

At times, said Gonzalez driver Alberto Martinez, his 14-passenger van is the site of happy reunions when Dominicans who grew up together in Santiago or Bani meet again on the way to New York.Merengue and bachata music on the van makes passengers feel at home.

Still, you get what you pay for, and the vans can be overcrowded and stuffy during peak travel times. Older men sometimes share cups of Brugal rum in the back of the van, and with the bench seats, there’s no guarantee someone won’t be sitting on your legs for four hours.

Although Martinez’s van has never been stopped and searched by the police, he knows other vans have. One passenger said she remembers delays on a Gonzalez bus about three years ago when the police found drugs on another rider. 

Next: China Bus Bargain

All Aboard
China Bus Bargains
Polonez Hits the Road
Wings and Wheels

How much will it cost to go? (all prices listed are from New York)   Providence, RI Greyhound: $24.95 Gonzalez Bus Line: $25     Washington, DC Peter Pan: $42 Gerardo's Transportation: $30     Boston, MA Bonanza Bus: $35 Fung Wah: $15-$25     Miami, FL Greyhound: $113 La Cubana: $69     Lynn, MA Greyhound: $38.50 Gerardo's Transportation: $30

Links to other transportation companies:

• Greyhound
• Peter Pan
• Bonanza Bus
• Amtrak

Bus Links:

• Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
• U.S. Department of Transportation
• American Bus Association
• Marshall's Bus Page