Northeastern Manhattan from 139th Street down to 96th Street, sandwiched between the East River and Fifth Ave, is home to the neighborhood known as East Harlem, or El Barrio. Walking the streets of East Harlem today, it’s difficult to pinpoint the origin of the community; the streets are lined with bodegas and Mexican fruit stands, but in the midst of the dominant Hispanic culture can be found a prevalent black community, as well as the left-over signs of an Italian past; bakeries, streets named after previous Italian activists and celebrated citizens, and the annual Giglio Society festival. Despite such a conglomerate of cultures, the atmosphere is surprisingly welcoming and peaceful. To be fair, the day of my venture into East Harlem was unseasonably warm and the water on the pond in the northeast corner of Central Park was glistening under the bright sunshine. Everyone was out and about, soaking up this taste of summer along with the ices being peddled on the sidewalk. I take a seat on a bench facing the water, next to a black woman in her early seventies, her name Marie. I asked her if it was always this beautiful, to which she replied, “Honey, I’ve been living in Harlem my whole life, and we’ve come a long way, but it didn’t always used to be like this…”
The origin of East Harlem dates all the way back to the 1800s, but its first phase can be summarized as the fulfillment of housing necessity. The area acted as an extension for public housing and offered many community based programs, which appealed to poor German, Irish, and eastern European Jewish immigrants. The beginning of the Italian history can be traced back to the employment of Italian strikebreakers that labored on the first-avenue trolley tracks, many of whom moved in around the seventies. In fact, this was the first official “Little Italy” in Manhattan. The 1900s held tough times of poverty for many in Italy, who decided to seek greater opportunity abroad in America and moved to the designated Italian neighborhood; East Harlem. The neighborhood peaked in the thirties, crowded with 100,000 Italian-Americans with a strong sense of cultural pride. However, after the wave of Spanish and Latin immigrants in the 1940s and 1950s, Italian dominance fizzled out gradually.
The flood of Puerto Ricans to East Harlem can be attributed to wartime diaspora. Italians began to move into the Bronx, Brooklyn, and upstate, and the Hispanic populace branched out to encompass the entirety of east Harlem. By 1950, numbers had reached 63,000. The evidence of their prominence wasn’t just in the population, but with the introduction of bodegas and botanicas, restaurants and street stands.
The neighborhood faced difficult times going into the sixties; large areas in Harlem were leveled for urban renewal projects in the 60s, there were race riots, gang warfare, drug abuse, overcrowded tenements, poverty and crime. The turmoil in the neighborhood affected everyone; different ethnic groups battled for dominance both in the streets and in politics. They had come to New York City for better opportunities and to escape war-torn societies back in Latin America only to be faced yet again with similarly destructive conditions. In attempts to rekindle feelings of independence and power, gangs like the Young Lords began to form to bring change into the communities when it seemed like all outside resources were useless. The Young Lords were a nationalist group that came to New York City in 1969 with the goal of empowering the barrios. They sought to gain independence for Puerto Ricans, as well as democratic rights for all [poor] Latinos. They proved successful because the group saw themselves as the “People’s Struggle,” fighting against and providing solutions to everyday injustices faced by the average subjugated citizen; tenement’s rights, police injustice, health care, day care, education, meals for children. The Young Lords were powerful, and very influential all the way into the early eighties.
The fights for Latino self-determination in the community place was an inspiration to many who felt they now had the passion to make changes themselves in the neighborhood. From this instilled pride grew young professionals, political leaders, activists, and artists. Specifically in New York City in the 1970s, this was known as the Nuyorican Movement and is equated to a renaissance of passionate writers, musicians, and artists. Notable names range from singer Marc Anthony, actor Al Pacino, poet Julia de Burgos, congressman Fiorella La Guardia, and writer Ernesto Quiñonez.
Ernesto Quiñonez is a born-and-raised East Harlem Puerto Rican, and also the author of the “Bodega Dream” and is declared a “New Immigrant Classic.” The novel parallels “Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald in numerous ways; a paradigm of life at the time in New York City; a socially-powerful figure with great dreams who enlists the loyalty of a poor everyday citizen who just wants to make an honest name for himself. “Bodega Dreams” is a bit different; it highlights the various aspects of life in El Barrio, including struggles with the dispassionate education system, the drug business, religious prevalence, and the ethnic pride and brotherhood that often conflicts with morals and legalities. Quiñonez attempted to capture a wide-range of experiences faced by those in El Barrio, as well as the struggles with having fanciful dreams that face constant impediment from restrictions due to the oppressed status of Puerto Ricans in New York City. Oftentimes he is asked if the story is autobiographical since the main character faces such realistic predicaments, but Quiñonez says he created an archetype of El Barrio youth. Quiñonez elaborates; “Growing up in Spanish Harlem, you learn that in order to not take a beating everyday, you have to fight sometimes. ’Should I fight? How do I fight? Is there ever a just cause for violence?’”
A powerful theme in this book is the importance of culture and community in shaping who we are and who we become. The Hispanic community gained that sense of pride and unity after going through such a challenging battle together, and it is one reason many other ethnic groups felt challenged by their power. Marie described the way with which Puerto Ricans entered the neighborhood, “acting like they wanted to run the place, and tried to take it over. But we were here first.” The reality is that everyone living in Harlem faced difficult times, and found resolve in having a culture-based community support system. The bonds they each formed seemed like threats to the other cultures at the time, when everyone essentially just wanted their voices heard and to make impressions and changes. Marie explains that after the sixties, racial tensions were slowly assuaged because “what other choice did they have? We can’t just overpower each other and all try to rule the neighborhood; we have to share and get along.” In no way does Marie believe that we have reached a peaceful status of perfect symbiosis and stresses that Harlem has a long ways to go, but she re-iterates how much better today is than yesterday. “Just look, you and I have been sitting here for an hour and no one has bothered us.” Quiñonez shares this view that the neighborhood is in a far better place than it once was, but stresses the need to not let up. “I think that now the Latin community is more aware of this, but it is still an uphill battle. Though we’ve made some progress, you are basically still talking about a population with very little wealth, one that’s outnumbered and outgunned.”
East Harlem today is simultaneously trying to preserve a past and create a future. The average citizen is low to middle income, first and second generation Puerto Ricans and African American, but with growing Mexican, Dominican, Asian and white populations. The 2000 census reported that just over half claimed Hispanic origin, 35% non-Hispanic black, 7% non-Hispanic white, and 3% Pacific-Islander non-Hispanic. Another interesting statistic: almost a third of the population is eighteen or under, a larger than normal proportion. Walking along any street in East Harlem, evidence of these reports is obvious in the everyday life; crowds of black children in uniform entering after-school facilities, markets with written signs in only Spanish, Mexican bakeries, Dominican frozen ice stands on the side walk. There are five museums with ethnic themes ranging from African Art to Jazz to El Barrio history, seven cultural centers that inspire people to get involved in social justice, art programs, and music, and a broad range centers for cultural workshops to educate and get people involved.
The late seventies was a culturally active time; there was funding for community projects, and many aspiring youth emerging from the renaissance into a very active art scene. In 1978, Hank Prussing and apprentice Manny Vega painted a mural on 104th and Lexington. Entitled, “The Spirit of East Harlem,” is was the first public mural in the neighborhood, and has become accepted as a landmark. Vega was assigned to renovate the mural, which spans an entire building façade, in 2004 after the Puerto Rican flag had been graffitied. The response was unexpectedly angry; the Puerto Rican citizens loved the mural and what it stood for, and the fact that they became so riled up just proved that the community pride was lying dormant, not deceased. Vega suggested a forum for citizens to come and discuss why they were so upset, and how we can gain a collective of opinions that can be channeled into creating new murals. “Change is good. We can’t forget who we are,” Vega says. “Collective memory means the imagery that we live through merges us together and creates us as a community.” Clearly the importance of continuing to fight for change, to create a voice, and to ban together is alive today in East Harlem. One can walk through East Harlem and see the thirteen different murals, all colorful, vast in size, and depicting pride for those that helped mold the community, like Julia de Burgos and Reverend Pedro Pietri (historical figure and founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café).
The past is also continued in the infrastructure of the neighborhood. Just as when it stated, East Harlem remains a primary place for those seeking public housing. During the tumultuous seventies, many buildings were subject to arson and destroyed, then renovated and designated by the city as low-income housing. These complexes dominate the neighborhood, blatantly obvious by the thirty-story buildings that stand in groups like twins or triplets. “The neighborhood contains the highest geographical concentration of low-income public housing projects in the United States.”[1] However, with property values rising everywhere, East Harlem has seen a decline in affordable housing, an increase in luxury condos and co-ops, and with that, gentrification and the growth in young professionals. However, according to locals, this has not yet affected the demography or general atmosphere of the neighborhood just yet. According to 2012 Community District Needs for the borough of Manhattan, “East Harlem has the highest concentration of shelters and facilities in Manhattan, with eight homeless shelters, 36 drug and alcohol treatment facilities and 37 mental health treatment facilities. It also has the highest jobless rate in the entire city, as well as the city’s second highest cumulative AIDS rate. The asthma rate is also 5 times larger than national levels.”
The fights and struggles of past passionate and determined activists have helped paved the way for those today to savor the fruits of revolution. It’s clear to anyone willing to stroll through East Harlem that the neighborhood has a covered a lot of ground, but it still has a heavy battle before it. As I sit on the bench with Marie, listening as she rants about her local senior-citizen group’s recent trip to Atlantic City, I can’t help but notice how peacefully diverse East Harlem is, and how, after all my research, I would never have thought I’d ever think that. Marie isn’t surprised by my revelation. “Honey, I am a born-and-raised New Yorker, and have been living in that apartment across the street for thirty years. This neighborhood is definitely changing, but it’s for the better.”
