“Unlike the Germans, Italians, and eastern European Jews, Puerto Ricans burned no bridges coming to the mainland and could return without any hindrance to the island for personal or economic reasons.”
~Christopher Mele
Puerto Rico was declared a territory by the United States in 1902,[i] but the largest wave of migration from Puerto Rico to the Lower East Side did not come until the 1950s, with the arrival of nearly 100,000 newcomers.[ii] The majority of this population settled on the Lower East Side seeking employment in pursuit of the golden opportunity of social mobility.[iii]
Interview – Migrating to the Lower East Side
In an interview I conducted with Joaquin Palma, the son of two Puerto Rican migrants, he discusses some of the reasons why his parents left their homeland. His parents migrated in 1970 and settled on the Lower East specifically because they already had family in that area to ease their transition.
Palma’s mother became a waitress, his father a dishwasher, and his grandmother a seamstress. In fact, his grandmother’s profession was not uncommon, as exemplified by the spike in garment industry membership in the mid-20th century.[iv] Varying employment and greater time spent in the United States eventually gives rise to economic discrepancies among the Puerto Rican population on the Lower East Side.
[i] “History of Puerto Rico from 1900-1949,” accessed April 15, 2013, http://www.topuertorico.org/history5.shtml.
[ii] Sam Roberts, “New York’s Puerto Ricans Split in Economic Success,” New York Times, December 28, 1993, B.
[iii] “Puerto Rican Migration Patterns,” accessed May 3, 2013, http://palante.org/History.htm.
[iv] “Union Membership and Shared Prosperity,” Graph accessed on May 3, 2013, http://www.epi.org/m/?src=http://www.epi.org/files/2012/snapshot-unionmembership.png&w=608.
