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 In June 1996, Montréal's Boulevard Saint-Laurent, more commonly known as The Main, was designated by the Government of Canada as a national historic site to commemorate this favoured immigrant gateway.
This fascination, magic and mystery have inspired many writers, poets and filmmakers. Their fascination is also reflected in Canadians' collective psyche. For many Canadians, Boulevard Saint-Laurent is the point of entry for naturalized and recent immigrants, for the Canadian children of immigrants and for their ancestors or family members. It is also the world described and popularized by Mordecai Richler and Michel Tremblay, both well-known throughout Canada, the former for describing everyday Jewish life on Saint-Laurent near Fairmount in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, and the latter for immortalizing the lives of ordinary people and The Main's cabaret district in Sainte-Carmen de la "Main." It is a place that people want to go back to as soon as they leave, as Sass Jordan says in her popular song "Going Back Again." In the collective psyche of Montréal, Boulevard Saint-Laurent is the immigrant corridor, the Jewish and Italian tailors, Chinese and Greek restaurants and a multitude of exotic small retail businesses. It is also a place for entertainment, with everything from variety theatres to nightclubs, from burlesque and vaudeville to repertory and avant-garde theatre. There are also bars, billiard parlours, restaurants, and famous places like Schwartz's Deli, where they sell the best smoked meat in town, or the Montreal Pool Room, where they have the best hot dogs. At various times and places, Boulevard Saint-Laurent has also been the "dangerous" boulevard of secret gambling houses and erotic shows for the most diverse clientele. Immigrants still see Boulevard Saint-Laurent as the place where they find fellow immigrants; their workplace and their community institutions are there. The cosmopolitan aspect of Boulevard Saint-Laurent intrigues and reassures them:
You know, here [on The Main] there are all kinds of people who speak Spanish. You have Jews from Latin America, Filipinos, Indians from Colombia, British from Argentina, Cubans from Chile, all kinds. I have one friend: he is a Chinese man who lived most of his time in Bolivia. He speaks Chinese with a Spanish accent, and Spanish with Oriental rhythm. But he speaks very little English or French.i
Boulevard Saint-Laurent is also a world to be discovered, with new ways of living and doing business, as Israël Medresh, journalist for Keneder Odler, explains:
On Friday nights, the newcomers used to walk past the big stores. They were highly impressed by the merchandise in the windows. As they strolled past a clothing store, they looked with great interest at the suits on display. Even the well-to-do men in the Old World did not ear such elegant suits.ii
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