A Day in East Harlem, From Historic Murals to Puerto Rican Markets
Written by Marisa Guerrero
East Harlem, sitting in the northeastern corner of Manhattan, reflects the deep immigration roots and constant change that characterize New York City.
The longtime Italian and Puerto Rican neighborhood has grown increasingly desirable to newcomers and tourists over the past few years. More expensive real estate — including One Museum Mile, which set a neighborhood record when a unit sold for $3.6 million in 2013 — combined with an influx of whites and Asians over the past two decades, has changed the look and feel of East Harlem to some extent. The number of Chinese immigrants in East Harlem has tripled in the northern part of the neighborhood and doubled in the south, for example.
It’s all propelling the sort of gentrification debates that are happening throughout the city. Recently, East Harlem community members have been pushing back against an affordable housing and rezoning plan proposed by Mayor Bill de Blasio that locals say would displace low-income residents. And the Harlem Art Collective, established in 2015, has painted a mural starting near 2nd Avenue that features the dictionary definition of “gentrification.” Passersby are invited to use chalk to add their thoughts on neighborhood changes to the mural.
But, like the rest of the city, this community has gone through significant changes before. Strolling around the neighborhood on a summer afternoon feels like taking a walk through its history; the sights and sounds of East Harlem still offer clues to the neighborhood’s past as it transformed from Italian Harlem to El Barrio.
Climbing the stairs of the 116th Street subway station, I found myself in the heart of the neighborhood. Here, the nickname El Barrio feels instantly appropriate — East Harlem is also recognized as Spanish Harlem — because the Latin American influence is everywhere. From the English and Spanish storefront signs, to the music drifting from speakers on a street corner, to the Spanglish spoken by the family walking beside me.
But before exploring the Latino immigrant groups that shape East Harlem today, I wanted to discover the populations that came before. I took a quick right, away from the busy corner of 116th Street and 7th Avenue, and headed east toward the ethnic enclave that once gave the neighborhood its name: Italian Harlem.
Most New Yorkers would probably be surprised to learn that the city’s first Little Italy existed not downtown next to Chinatown nor on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, but in East Harlem. Pleasant Avenue, running parallel to and one block west of the East River, specifically attracted Southern Italian immigrants when they first arrived in the neighborhood in the late 19th century. By the early 20th century, the Italian population had expanded north and west, and a new name, Italian Harlem, emerged.
As I approached Pleasant Avenue from 116th Street, I was on the lookout for the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the city’s second-ever Italian church and its first for Southern Italians. I almost missed it; tucked between two buildings, the landmark church peeks out from behind a locked gate. Around the corner are Rao’s and Patsy’s Pizza, two of the neighborhood’s most famous restaurants. Although Italian influence declined in the 1940s and ‘50s, as some moved away while Latino populations moved in, Italian immigrants have left their mark on East Harlem. Every August, the Giglio Feast and Festival is held here to celebrate the neighborhood’s Italian legacy and culture, for example.
Today, while there are fewer Italians, immigrants still comprise just over a quarter of El Barrio, and at least half are from Latin America: one-quarter from Mexico, nearly a fifth from the Dominican Republic, and about six percent from Ecuador, to name a few groups. And, unlike the neighborhood’s somewhat hidden Italian history, its Latin American presence is palpable.
Mexican immigrants, one of the largest immigrant groups in El Barrio, have had an impressive effect on the neighborhood’s cultural landscape since the 1990s. In fact, parts of El Barrio are referred to as New York’s Little Mexico. A walk along 116th Street proves that this new nickname is well deserved, as the green, white, and red colors of the Mexican flag welcome passersby into Mexican groceries, restaurants, and bakeries. For a taste of Little Mexico, check out El Aguila on 116th Street, Cafe Ollin on 108th Street, and the many street vendors in the area.
Unlike Mexican immigrants to the US, most of whom live far from New York, Dominican immigrants often find their homes here: New York has more Dominican residents than any other city in the world, except Santo Domingo. New York’s Little Dominican Republic is located in Washington Heights, on the west side of Harlem, but many Dominicans live in El Barrio as well.
As I continued walking west to the center of East Harlem, a small Puerto Rican flag flying from a row of colorful apartment buildings welcomed me. On the sidewalks I encountered a Mexican tamale vendor and a Dominican ice cream stand.
Next, I peeked inside the Puerto Rican-Caribbean marketplace known as La Marqueta, nestled underneath the raised railway tracks on 115th Street, and filled with vendors selling authentic foods and goods.
Although Puerto Ricans’ East Harlem population has been declining since the early 2000s, they currently make up about a third of neighborhood residents. Unlike the Mexicans and Dominicans in East Harlem, Puerto Ricans are not, properly speaking, immigrants. US citizens by birth, Puerto Ricans are in fact internal migrants due to the fact that Puerto Rico decided to become a commonwealth of the US, rather than a colony, in 1951.
Puerto Rican influence in East Harlem can largely be traced back to the Great Migration of the 1940s and ‘50s, when a huge influx arrived in New York City. The advent of air travel at the time also help New York became the capital of Puerto Rican culture in the mainland US, and the coining of the term “Nuyoricans” epitomized the newfound pride in New York-Puerto Rican culture. From the 1950s through the 1970s, Nuyoricans founded a number of cultural organizations to teach and celebrate their heritage, from museums to the famous annual Puerto Rican Pride Parade. One such landmark sits at the top of 5th Avenue’s Museum Mile: El Museo del Barrio. Founded during this Nuyorican artistic renaissance, known as the Nuyorican Movement, El Museo features artistic, historical, and educational exhibits that celebrate Latino and Caribbean culture.
The Nuyorican legacy is not only artistic, but also political. In the 1960s and ‘70s, second-generation Nuyoricans became involved in the Civil Rights and Nuyorican Movements, stemming from years of poverty, unemployment, and racial discrimination. The Young Lords, a Puerto Rican nationalist group based in El Barrio, became the civil rights party of the Nuyorican Movement. Their legacy carries on in murals decorating facades throughout El Barrio.
You can also view works created in 2013 as part of Los Muros Hablan (The Murals Speak), including abstract and realist images dealing with themes of home, belonging, social justice, and identity. Don’t miss Axel Void’s mural on E 103rd Street, LNY’s on E 100th Street, and Betsy Casañas’ on Park Avenue.
El Barrio also features an enormous musical legacy. Latin music evolved into a pan-Latin mix of salsa, mambo, rumba, and more, and emerged from the neighborhood onto the national stage in various waves and styles (e.g. “New York Salsa” during the Palladium Age of the ‘50s and ‘60s). Spanish Harlem Latin music stars include the Nuyorican “King of Latin Music” Tito Puente, the Cuban-born “Queen of Salsa” Celia Cruz (both of whom are paid homage to in El Barrio street names), and more recently, Latin pop and salsa sensation Marc Anthony and singer/actress Jennifer Lopez. The Casa Latina Music Shop holds years of this music history. Jazz music also has a long history in El Barrio, which is home to the National Jazz Museum.
Although the foreign-born share of El Barrio’s population is slightly lower than the city-wide average, immigrants’ imprint is still fully alive and apparent throughout the neighborhood streets, storefronts, arts, and politics. This past summer, for example, the neighborhood’s annual Loiza Festival, a celebration of Afro-Borica (African-Puerto-Rican culture), turned 50 years old. And the neighborhood’s Puerto Rican ties were further revealed when some residents’ families and friends were affected by Hurricane Maria, which devastated the country. This will likely remain the case in years to come as new immigrants continue to settle in, and less recent immigrants, as well as second and third generations, will continue to uphold their heritage and cultural traditions.
New Women New Yorkers will be offering a LEAD series for young immigrant women in East Harlem in November and December 2017 – Register here for an Info Session on November 6 or 13, or to receive information about later programs.
