For the first time in 52 years, Brooklyn\u2019s Haitian community is watching its national team take the World Cup stage. It\u2019s a milestone many say is bringing a renewed sense of pride both in the diaspora and abroad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very happy because the first World Cup, it was in 1974. Yeah, now 2026, we got the second one – I\u2019m very happy!\u201d said resident Hilaire.<\/p>\n
Across Little Haiti and neighborhoods like Flatbush, the celebration is showing up everywhere – from packed restaurants to kitchens serving traditional Haitian dishes that many say help bring people together during the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re going to be doing a lot of the traditional Haitian dishes. We have Creole, we have Haitian fried chicken. Making it, qualifying for the World Cup is a huge deal. It’s just something really good for us to celebrate right now,\u201d said Cayel McGuire, manager at Lakou.<\/p>\n
The celebration comes as Haiti continues to face a deep humanitarian crisis. According to the U.N.\u2019s migration agency, escalating gang violence has forced a record 1.5 million people from their homes. For many, the World Cup has become a rare source of hope and unity.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven a state that Haiti is in right now\u2026I think that it’s really providing a lot of hope to Haitians in the diaspora, as well as in the country,\u201d said resident Michael Cooper.<\/p>\n
For others, the moment is about identity and pride as much as sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy to be Haitian, \u2018Mwen kontan!\u2019\u201d said resident Woodlys.<\/p>\n
As Saturday night\u2019s match approaches, the celebration continues across Brooklyn\u2019s Haitian community – where many say no watch party is complete without a pate or two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time in 52 years, Brooklyn\u2019s Haitian community is watching its national team take the World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-264990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}