Two middle-aged Chinese women squat on the sidewalk in front of the Dalcamo Funeral Home in Bridgeport. One slowly stirs a fire inside a red metal pot that’s slightly larger than a wastebasket, while the other scoops a handful of paper out of a plastic bag and throws it into the flames. The paper is printed with Chinese characters–it’s “hell money,” and it’s being burned so the relative who recently died can take care of himself in the afterlife. Nearly identical with their short-cropped hair, white shirts, and black pantsuits, the women squint as the smoke floats above the pot.
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Dalcamo’s father, Matthew Sr., never handled a Chinese funeral in the 46 years he ran the business. His family had come from Sicily, and he was born in Chicago in 1909. He worked as a landscaper and peddled fruits and vegetables out of his car during the Depression, opening the Dalcamo Funeral Home in 1939, shortly after his father died. It was the second funeral business started by Italians in Bridgeport and was intended to serve Italians, who’d begun settling on the south side in the late 19th century.
The first Chinese community in Chicago had formed in the late 1880s along Clark south of Van Buren. By 1912 the Chinese families had been pushed out by the expanding financial district and had migrated south to the area around Cermak and Wentworth. In the 1960s and ’70s changes in immigration laws brought large numbers of Chinese immigrants to Chinatown, which by then was bordered by 31st Street on the south, Archer and Cermak on the north, the Dan Ryan expressway on the east, and a railroad embankment on the west. By 1980 overcrowding was pushing families into neighboring Bridgeport, which was also more affordable. Still, says Esther Wong, executive director of the Chinese American Service League, “it’s scary to move out of Chinatown.” Asians are now the fastest-growing ethnic group in Bridgeport. According to the census, in 1980 they were 2 percent of its population; in 2000, 26 percent.
One reason may be price. Bowman charges $1,650 to $11,300 for an immediate burial, excluding ceremony, visitation, and cemetery charges. Dalcamo charges $900 to $8,200. The Dalcamos still do Italian, Irish, Polish, and Mexican funerals, but the Chinese community accounts for 40 percent of their business.
During the first few Chinese funerals he did, Bernie left the stands behind, thinking the families could use them to support tomatoes or other plants in their gardens, just as the Italian families did. A friend told him that one family wished he hadn’t left theirs behind. “They understood that we weren’t 100 percent tradition,” he says. “They weren’t upset, as they were trying to teach us stuff.”
The friends of the family then walk up and lay white carnations on the casket. The pallbearers and the family members strip off their white gloves and armbands, and the widow removes her black shroud. All are laid atop the carnations. As the two graveyard workers lower the casket into the ground, everyone except the widow and her children turns their back.
