As we learned from Joe Salvo in the Seminar 2 Common Event, immigration gives life to a neighborhood. In The Tenants of East Harlem, we can clearly see how the different groups of immigrants in East Harlem make the neighborhood more dynamic and diverse. Each group of immigrants comes from different backgrounds, with different interests and intentions. These differences are a big part of what makes the neighborhood dynamic.
In The Tenants of East Harlem, each person represents one ethnic group. The first two people that we read about, Jose and Lucille, represent Puerto Ricans and African Americans respectively. As children of immigrants, they represent the more stable part of the community. Their parents/ grandparents immigrated with the intention of staying and making a better living. And so by growing up in the neighborhood and staying there for such a long time, Jose and Lucille give the community familiarity and stability. Then there are the recent immigrants like Maria and Mohamed, the former from Mexico and the latter from Sierra Leone, who immigrated from further away, and with no intention of staying. Maria only wanted to stay for two years, and Mohamed one month. But both stayed longer, and as they settled in, both found it more difficult to leave, for various reasons. After reading each of their individual stories and background, I start to appreciate more the diversity of the neighborhoods in New York, especially in East Harlem.
In their segments, both Jose and Lucille reminisce about their old neighborhoods, and how it has changed. One of these changes includes the rise of public housing. It is ironic that public housing was supposed to make housing in East Harlem better; instead, it ended up being known as “state-subsidized slums” (pg. 56). What I associated with the ghetto used to be something that was supposed to deviate from the term ghetto. Public housing changed the way the community interacted with each other. As Lucille puts it, each block used to be a village in itself. Now, the community is within one building. The drama happens in the hallways, not the streets anymore. It’s interesting to see how different types of buildings can influence the way people interact with each other.
Another way the neighborhood changes is, of course, the arrival of different people. The Italians have diminished greatly in East Harlem, and “Spanish Harlem”, or El Barrio is now experiencing an increase in Mexicans, while Puerto Ricans are a decreasing majority. Jose and Lucille, the older residents in East Harlem, observe these changes, while Maria and Mohamed, the more recent immigrants, are a part of these changes. But as Maria and Mohamed settles more in New York, they will start to notice more of these changes too. For people like Mohamed, this might not be unsettling, since he does not like to stay in one place long and do the same things. As for me, when I initially think of the changes that have occurred and will occur in my neighborhood, I feel a little apprehensive. As Jose observed, not many of the old buildings are left. But after reading the accounts, change seems less like an impeding force than an inevitable part of a dynamic city.
