For skeptics who feel that Halloween is a shallow holiday, an excuse for gorging and a boon for dentists, come spend an All Hallow’s Eve with Fair Haven businessman Angelo Reyes. You’ll become a believer.
Reyes was one of the merchants who, for the third straight year, gave costumed kids a safe Halloween night out on Grand Avenue — the kind of night Reyes himself missed out on growing up in the neighborhood.
Skeletons, Martians, princesses, ghouls, godfathers, and spider folks of various sizes from two to four feet, along with several dozen Snow Whites like little Magdalena (and her brother in uncertain costume), flooded Grand Avenue in a festive and safe trick-or-treating parade Wednesday night. The event was sponsored by GAVA, the Grand Avenue Village Association. The kids and their families visited some 20 stores along the avenue and socialize along the way.
Reyes said he and other business owners were committed to encouraging the kids to be proud of their neighborhood and take “ownership of it.”
Reyes distributed endless candies from a 50-gallon laundry basket in front of his store and said “Happy Halloween, mamita” (little darling) or “papita” (little man) to hundreds of kids and their parents, most of whom he seemed to know. He explained to a reporter that when a kid himself, growing up on nearby Market Street, he never was allowed to trick or treat on Grand, his own neighborhood.
“I don’t quite know why,” he said, “but maybe it had to do with whether it was safe enough. I went to other areas. So I have a passion now, it’s hard to explain, to make this event memorable for all these hundreds of kids. A positive thing. And it is. Look, Grand Avenue doesn’t have any drug deals any more. Last year we had about 800 kids, and this year we’re going to have 1,000. Many are going to remember, and want to stay here and live here, not move out to Branford or wherever.”
Reyes owns property along Grand Avenue , in addition to his first business, the laundromat at 183 Lombard). He owns the building in which GAVA and Mutual Housing reside. He said his goal is ultimately to have people “shop New Haven, live in New Haven, love New Haven.”
Halloween largesse is only one way he does it. Reyes, who has overcome a life on the wrong side of the law, now works with a variety of non-profits, mentoring kids, making available to the state court system work at his various businesses for more than 30 New Haven kids with court-mandated community service to perform.
He cleans and delivers laundry free of charge to elderly people who for reasons of frailty, he said, or because of immigration anxieties, don’t want to leave their homes. And he distributes turkeys on Thanksgiving and toys on Christmas.
“Ultimately,” he said, “I want to establish a non-profit that will, for example, provide medical and nursing training right here in the neighborhood. He pointed to the building next to GAVA, at Poplar, which he owns and is rehabbing. Although the mission of his future non-profit is not quite clear to him, he sees it positioned between existing Latino organizations, such as GAVA, which is business-focused, and JUNTA, which focuses on education and immigration.
As Reyes placed handfuls of candy in the bags of visiting Martians and other characters such as Joshua, a godfather who goes to Amistad, and Alex, a monster who attends John Martinez, the joy of his interactions with people was infectious. The exchanges were far more than candy-based. For example, to one boy who thrust out a bag, Reyes said, “Hey, that looks like a stick up bag, not a Halloween bag!” Then he embraced the boy, whom he knew, and wished him well.
To a girl who didn’t seem to have on much of a studied costume but a bulge at her belly, he asked what it was. She said her costume was that she was pregnant. He gave her a look worth an hour of counseling.
And when a little kid showed up dressed like a gremlin but with a hat that was closer to a graduation cap than a gnome’s he gave her an extra large helping of the goodies, knelt, and said, “I want to see you wearing that hat, a real one, when you’re 18 and graduating from high school, and then college.”
Reyes’ goal, he said, is to help create a Latino Corridor, as he put it, along Grand Avenue, a street open and attractive to all, but which sparkles with Latino heritage and culture. Much as Wooster Street does for Italian immigrant culture of an earlier generation, and attracts people of all backgrounds. He was delighted, he said, to see Yale kids jogging and skating all the way from the Quinnipiac River along Grand back to downtown.
He took special delight this Halloween night when this little Chinese-American boy, Anthony, and his mom, stopped by for candy and a hello. (They’re pictured with Reyes at the top of this story.) “Siasiah,” or thank you, in Chinese, the mom asked Anthony to say to Reyes. Reyes was delighted to learn how to say, “You’re welcome,” “pukachi,” in Chinese.
Some kids called him Tati, which is the nickname his grandmother gave him. In addition to the kids, some homeless adults asked him for money. He arranged to buy a few of them dinner later in the evening. Reyes’ own son, Christian, came by halfway through the evening for a hug and a candy handout.
The great question became what to do when the candy ran out, which it finally did. Well, Reyes responded by putting little four-year Alondra in the candy basket and gave her a ride.
For skeptics who feel that Halloween is a shallow holiday, an excuse for gorging and a boon for dentists, GAVA and Reyes’ Halloween is a tonic. New Alliance Bank and Empower New Haven contributed half the funding for the event, which Reyes matched.
What a great guy. It's people like Mr. Reyes that make a difference in the world. Such a heartwarming story.