If, from the 16th to the 18th century, many Bretons had to pass through New Amsterdam, which later became New York, the history of this community took on a new dimension at the end of the 19th century. Three Bretons from Roudouallec (56), including a certain Nicolas Le Floch, left for the New World to try their luck there. They work in farms and factories on the east coast and they send money home, which arouses vocations… After a few years, Nicolas Le Grand returns to run an inn in Roudouallec. His stories ignite imaginations. He will eventually leave. Little by little, in the Chtou country, in the Black Mountains, networks are organized and departures multiply.
At the start of the 20th century, then in the 1920s, a second wave was organized around the Michelin factory in Milltowan, near New York. The company easily recruits Bretons attracted by the living conditions and substantial salaries. Others try their luck in other businesses, like a certain Michel Salaün, who left in 1927. Returning to the country after having saved money, he bought a coach and settled in Pont-de-Buis (29)… L he travel company, run by his grandson, Michel Salaün, is today one of the leading companies in the sector in France.
A Breton gangster
But the crisis of 1929 turned the cards around. Michelin is thus closing its factory in Milltown, where the Bretons are looking for new opportunities, particularly in the restaurant business. Like Yves Le Roux, from Langonnet (29), who then bought a building in New York. With his wife, they rent rooms for compatriots and, in the cellar, a bar, “Le Consul breton”, is opened, where their compatriots meet. The case is not without risk, since prohibition is then in force in the United States. To circumvent it, the mafias organize themselves and pour in floods of contraband alcohol, particularly in New York.
Many Bretons, like Yves Le Roux, will take their part in this traffic. Francophones are, indeed, appreciated, since part of the smuggling is organized around the French enclave of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon and Quebec. In the biography that he devotes to Yves Le Roux, Olivier Le Dour reports that “Many Bretons made big bucks with the trade in alcoholic beverages”.
Yves Le Roux, who boasted of having Al Capone as a “buddy”, had to leave New York suddenly at the beginning of 1930. He returned to the country and built a beautiful residence in Langonnet, helping to fuel the American dream in the region.
In the restaurants of New York, we spoke Breton
During the Liberation battles in 1944, American GIs were no doubt surprised at the number of English speakers in central Brittany. Many immigrants had returned to the country before the war. Others have settled in the United States. In certain immigrant families, it was thus common to send the eldest back to Brittany, often to the grandparents, at the age of six or seven, the other children remaining in New York and becoming American.
The 1950s and 1960s saw a third wave of immigration to New York, this time to large restaurants. American soldiers have, in fact, discovered French gastronomy and they love it. The Bretons monopolize the places in the kitchens or in the hotel industry and co-opt each other. In the restaurants of New York, people readily speak Breton.
“Hake”, “Stade Breton” and “Stade Brestois de New York”
The community is organized around festivals, between Bretons and Irish. A football club, sorry soccer, the “Stade Breton” was launched in 1955. It still exists, even if, since the 1980s, it now welcomes players of all origins. More recently, there were “Hakes” and a Stade Brestois de New York”…
To get an idea of the dynamism of the community of Bretons in New York, we also recommend reading “La Grande Tribu”, by singer and sculptor Youenn Gwernig, the story of a crazy party in the “Big Apple”. of the 1970s.
Even today, New York continues to fascinate Bretons who have different associations, bars and restaurants there. You can dance there in festoù-noz and, it seems, the pancake is more and more popular in the fast food of this city-continent. Even if, as confirmed amateurs, the Bretons know that it is not necessarily with the biggest apples that we make the best cider…
